Member Avatar for Dani

I was just thinking about how much the webmaster community relies on PayPal. Do you think we'll see some competitive alternatives in the near future? It's driving me crazy how PayPal is getting greedier and greedier with commissions, etc.

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Dani AI

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, your 2004 pain point is still common: fees and lock‑in. The key choice today is whether you want a payment processor (PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, Square) or true escrow. Processors move money quickly but rely on card/ACH dispute rules. Escrow holds funds with a neutral third party and releases only after the buyer accepts, which is often safer for high‑value or trust‑sensitive deals that worried about. (escrow.com)

Quick 2025 fee snapshot (US): PayPal/Venmo are 3.49% + $0.49, with card rates as low as 2.89% + $0.29 on Expanded Checkout; Braintree’s standard card rate is 2.89% + $0.29 and ACH is 0.75% capped at $5; Stripe is 2.9% + $0.30 for cards and 0.8% ACH capped at $5; Square’s online rate is 2.9% + $0.30 and invoices via ACH are 1% (min $1). If you sell digital goods, note PayPal now extends Seller Protection to some intangible items when extra requirements are met, which directly addresses the e‑goods concerns raised earlier by and . (paypal.com)

Implementation tips you can use today:

  • Prefer webhooks over legacy IPN; verify signatures before fulfillment. (developer.paypal.com)
  • Steer larger or risky, service‑based projects to escrow; it is purpose‑built to prevent chargebacks. (escrow.com)
  • If you are revisiting 2Checkout from this thread, it is now Verifone; product and pricing have changed since 2004. (blog.2checkout.com)

Minimal webhook verification (PayPal) example:

// Node/Express: verify PayPal webhook before fulfilling
app.post('/paypal/webhook', async (req, res) => {
  const r = await fetch('https://api-m.paypal.com/v1/notifications/verify-webhook-signature', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {Authorization: `Bearer ${token}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    body: JSON.stringify({
      auth_algo: req.get('PAYPAL-AUTH-ALGO'),
      cert_url: req.get('PAYPAL-CERT-URL'),
      transmission_id: req.get('PAYPAL-TRANSMISSION-ID'),
      transmission_sig: req.get('PAYPAL-TRANSMISSION-SIG'),
      transmission_time: req.get('PAYPAL-TRANSMISSION-TIME'),
      webhook_id: process.env.PAYPAL_WEBHOOK_ID,
      webhook_event: req.body
    })
  }).then(x => x.json());
  if (r.verification_status === 'SUCCESS') fulfillOrder(req.body);
  res.sendStatus(200);
});

This flow reduces false positives and protects you on disputes without giving up conversion. (developer.paypal.com)

Recommended Answers

All 122 Replies

Member Avatar for rex_b

You might but Paypal has the tap on the market right now. I am not sure if paypal does this or not but they should do a graded commission rather than just a flat one.

Member Avatar for Dani

If you're a personal user, no commission. If you're a business user, commission is about 2% of all money people send you. You're forced to be a business user if you accept payments through your website or else you can't accept the payments at all.

Member Avatar for TheOgre

There are a few alternatives to PayPal, but I can't think of their names at the moment. They don't have the world-wide recognition PP does, nor the built-in interfacing to things like eBay, but they are an alternative to receiving online payments. I'll let you know when I find out what they are.

Member Avatar for TheOgre

I wouldn't recommend them if I got paid to :)

Member Avatar for Dani

I never used them. Why not?

Member Avatar for TheOgre

Because you don't get paid until after they've called the buyer to verify they've received whatever service they bought from you. If the buyer wanted to save money (read: screw you) all they'd have to do is claim they never received the product, and you wouldn't get paid. Period.

I signed up with them for about a week, and then I got curious why the test purchase I made never went through. After reading (again) their FAQ, I found that statement. If you're selling service-type items (i.e.: labor), or non-physical items (i.e.: web hosting) and the customer never "receives" the merchandise, you don't get paid. They also only pay you once per month, instead of x days after they receive payment from the customer, like a regular merchant account.

Member Avatar for Dani

Eww, thanks for the 411.

Member Avatar for TheOgre

n e time :)

Member Avatar for Patrick

Hello,

I use PayPal and 2CheckOut and, for the moment, I have not had the problem that TheOgre mentions. I know that they said that in the beginning they wanted to confirm a few purchases, but it never got beyond that and they assured me that it was a rare thing. I sell domain names through them and have yet to have a payment refused and not get paid, etc.

Also, you get paid twice a month - on the 1st and 16th of every month.

Member Avatar for Dani

I work a lot with PayPal. The only experience I have with 2CheckOut is on a rare occassion I'll purchase something online from a site that uses them.

Member Avatar for floris

My experience with paypal is good as a verified dutch premium member (probably upgrade to business in the near future for some specific reasons)

Either inform your possible clients about an additional fee for paying using paypal, or increase your prices with the % yourself.

Each online payment processor that is quite good, asks money. They have to earn too. I think 2checkout and paypal and the others all have different type of rates and means to have income. Having a few of them as alternative ways for paying things online over a secured connection is a good way to get your income. Users are familiar with them and you have a broader end of income this way.

Member Avatar for ice2003

I think paypol's commision is really high!and the service of paypol has some problems! I can not get paid for one of my deals last month! and i e mailed there surport and have not got answer till now!and lucky part is that the deal is small! but i think i should switch to other company!such as or www.ikobo.com .

Member Avatar for Dani

I have heard much better things about PayPal then about 2Checkout.com ... it's also a lot more popular. Did they always take a commission? I just became a Verified Premier partner recently and that was when they started stealing from me.

Member Avatar for RC_Razor

PayPal has lots of kudos from me once you use there service for more than a year they lower there commission and or remove... and anyway i got my biznez on ebay and its worth them taking commisions out all the stuff they do for me.. notification exepting payments and now shipping.. i havnt found a more trusted and more reliable payment source...

Member Avatar for gul

There are always alternatives to paypal. My experience with ikobo.com gives me pleasure to invite others to ikobo. Ikobo charges low rates on their online store facilities. Their coverage is in more than 170 countries and in 220 regions internationally. They also offer online money transfer service which is fastest in industry so far.

Member Avatar for forgotten

I too use Paypal and haven't had any problems with them execpt for their comission getting a bit greedy. They tried to help me with an insurance claim so they do try I suppose. Try if you want a cheap way to transfer money but beware that they don't except all cards, I think they are biased towards cards that they can verify with their credit checking system, or so I've been told.

Member Avatar for BountyX

use stormpay, their mroe secure

Member Avatar for ice2003

I have switched to use ikobo now. Ikobo is really good. Its price is lower than that of paypal and its coverage is wider than paypal too.

Member Avatar for Zachery

I use paypal, even at the business level i only lose about 3% of the rate, which isnt a big deal IMO, if your doing business your going to pay regarldess.

Member Avatar for ebaker1973

everyone using or plan to use paypal should check out

Member Avatar for Zachery

To be honest with you, they have a right to freeze your account at any time if they suspect fruad, they would do the same at your bank ;)

PayPal is a perfectly legal company :) and that warning site, if it wasl real they could at least do a better job at making it look decent.

Member Avatar for Carlson

Paypal might be alright if you are within they're area of coverage, which is quite small. Maybe I wasn't a lucky case but back when i had an account with them I had some problems with my account being frozen for no particular reason, and when I called customer support I had to wait a lot, and didn't even solve my problems right away. It took many calls and e-mails to customer support to get my account un-frozen. Note: I wasnt doing anything illegal like trading adult material or that type of activities.

Member Avatar for ice2003

carlson

You have the similar experience to me. I think maybe it was really caused by their narrow coverage. I have heared that paypal only runs well in USA,Canada and England. Other than these three countries, their sevices are not satisfactory.

Member Avatar for Carlson

Thats pretty much all of their real coverage. This is why now Im considering iKobo as a possible option. I have heard some good things about them. Has anyone used them yet? Let me know please.

Member Avatar for Drew

DONT EVER USE 2CHECKOUT.COM!!

I used them for a few months and they screwed me out of almost $2000!!!! I sell eGoods so there really is no way for me to prove that the user received the item. So anyone that buys anything from me could say they never received it, and they do a chargeback. I get suck with a $80 bill plus $25 for the chargeback. It only took a few people to realize this from reading the 2checkout.com FAQs and i was almost out of $2000 from my own pocket!!! DO NOT USE 2CHECKOUT.COM!!! They provide ZERO fraud protection!

Member Avatar for Dani

Hey there! Thanks for the 411. From all the feedback I've been reading, 2checkout doesn't sound too great :-/

Member Avatar for Carlson

I don't like 2checkout because sometimes their servers go down and make their service unavailable. I have heard that sometimes they do not calculate the balances correctly so you actually pay them more than what you should. Also they have a $49 setup fee. I'd still like to hear some feedback regarding iKobo. They're supposed to be really competitive. Anyone used them yet?

Member Avatar for oalee

I'm planning on using iKobo too... well, really because where I'm from is not covered by Paypal...

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