What do you use to accept payments?
I want to accept payments in my product. Of course the first thing I thought was Stripe. But when I tried to integrate it I realize that I can't. I'm not a US citizen and my business is not registered yet. I found out about Stripe Atlas but I don't want to pay that kind of money until I know I can make profit with my product. I didn't even launch it yet.
What do you do in this case? Any recommendations?
Thanks 🙏
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Paddle
Cool! I just started the registration process. Thanks!
What is the pricing for Paddle? They don't say the % on their pricing page.
Also, currently I am using Gumroad, does Paddle provide a way to generate unique licenses for each purchase and an API to check for valid licenses?
Around 5% + 0,5c per transaction
Regarding licenses, they provide an SDK for Mac and Windows and they do licenses generation. I don’t use their SDK in my Mac product as it had problems in the past and keys can be easily generated with a key generator.
I use Gumroad from @sahil and I had a good experience with it so far. I really like that you get the API for license codes and can also send emails to customers.
It's pretty nice that they handle everything, and the user purchase experience is pretty good. I am a bit concered about the legality of some their practices related to invoices (they just give you the money each week and you have to emit your own invoice to them). Also, for non-US they only send you payments through PayPal, which for me is a slight issue due to the conversion fees of PayPal-bank withdrawls.
You can launch on Stripe without incorporating. You can operate as a sole proprietor until you have meaningful volume, then incorporate with Atlas.
but are you sure I can do that if I'm not from the US and by business is not registered yet? 🤔
Yes. When you operate as a sole proprietor you're operating as an individual. The revenue will count as income for you.
I just talked with someone at Stripe and he told me that I need a SSN, ITIN or EIN. Which one do you use? Thanks!
SSN is your personal tax identifier. When you incorporate, the IRS issues your business an EIN. ITIN is a tax ID for individuals who do not have a social security number.
I know but I don't have any of those. I would like to know which one should I try to get. I guess ITIN? Thanks!
We use Stripe, Mollie (for local EU payments) and Braintree for Paypal. We needed billing agreements and it was almost impossible to setup directly with Paypal so we went with braintree instead which was easy to setup and use. Most of our users still prefer to pay by card (Stripe).
I think a good selection for your case (not having a registered company yet) is PayPro Global.
If you want to see other choices, I reviewed many payment platforms for software developers and posted the results on my website: https://www.starmessagesoftware.com/e-commerce-software-publishers together with some selection criteria and recommendations
Flutterwave is what you're looking for! I'm a Dev Expert for it as well so feel free to ask me anything you need
You may want to check Pabbly.com . It has most of what you need, can integrate payment with Paypal and other CC processors and includes affiliate and coupon systems. My SaaS isn't ready yet but is what I've used bc of the affiliate and coupon features, great for the launch. Developers say that setting it up was a nightmare though, despite great support.
Hola compatriota :). I use Paddle for my Mac product. It works great for desktop software. For SaaS they also have a web API and they handle taxes for you. I’m not sure that’s relevant if your business is in Argentina.
Hola 🧉! Perfect, I'll try it out. Thanks!
@matiastucci Can you elaborate what your customer base is and where it is located? B2C, B2B or Gov?
In the beginning we had started with PayPal. But we had added Stripe as an additional gateway: For some U.S. companies and a lot of US government institutions it is much easier to get payments approved with Stripe than PayPal.
It's a video annotation platform: https://annotate.tv
Yeah, almost all the services I checked use Stripe. Btw, I've always have problems with PayPal. I would love to use Stripe but I think I can't because regulations.
I use Stripe. I'm not a US citizen either and have only a dba at this point. You can get started as a sole proprietor.
but you have a business registered?
Now I do; but not when I opened my stripe account.
I just talked with someone at Stripe and he told me that I need a SSN, ITIN or EIN to start as a sole propietor. Which one do you use? Thanks!
@mattbasta explained it well.
I manage to set up Stripe as a sole proprietor. A way to remove the hustle of setting up a company & paying taxes before having revenue (and a validated business ofc) is to offer your earning to a charity. I've read it to another IndieHackers's post and it seems right, but I cannot guarantee it's 100% legally okay since I'm not a legal expert.
A Stripe atlas alternative is https://get.firstbase.io/best-stripe-atlas-alternative-j. I haven't used it yet but I'd highly consider using it.
I just talked with someone at Stripe and he told me that I need a SSN, ITIN or EIN to start as a sole proprietor. Which one do you use? Thanks!
Important to clarify that Stipe Atlas and Firstbase are just for launching your startup. I setup my company Keepsy.app in Estonia and Xolo.io does more than setup your company, it also keeps your accounting in place, files taxes and more. I recommend you visit them.
Thanks for the suggestion/clarification!
I still haven't found something similar for the USA market. i guess its because tax requirements are so complex, but it would be great if a company did everything for you, and gave you access to legal support, tax support, Accounting, etc.. Stripe Atlas kind of leaves you on your own. I’m more interested in the after. If I had found something better in the USA, I would have probably launched there instead.
Doesn't Paddle do this?
I don’t know @keycad. I think its just to do with Billing. Would love if someone could clarify.
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Cool! if I have the E-residency, can I use Stripe? 🤔the cost is €100?
Thanks!
You can't use Stripe with E-Residency if you are not from a country where Stripe is supported.
https://support.stripe.com/questions/supporting-companies-that-registered-in-estonia-through-e-residency
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right, makes sense. Thanks for the info!