So now and then I think about changing PayPal as our main payment tool for our customers.
I am still happy with PayPal but every three months, when I have to do my quarterly bookkeeping - including taking care of all the collected VAT to MOSS, I thinking of using a B2B service like FastSpring and the likes.
So again I put some major time into reviewing FastSpring, Paddle and eSellerate/Digital River. Are there others worthwhile?
FastSpring has plenty of good references. Most are raving about this. And I could set up a business very easy. Including using my PHP script to create license keys.
The dashboard is a bit overwhelming at first use but it is very powerful. There are a lot of ways how to deal with sales, license keys, promo’s, …
The only reason why I do not use them is - you have to set fixed prices in USD. There is no way to only set a fixed price to EUR.
The very helpful desktop says this is because they are an US company and they are obligated to do so. There is no way around this.
eSellerate is very easy to summarise : avoid at all cost. I really have not one good valid point why some-one should use this platform.
Paddle was not my favourite in my past reviews. But I have to confess I didn’t spend time with Paddle for about 2 years now.
A lot changed though. The dashboard is pretty good now. I would almost say it is on par with FastSpring.
They also offer a framework you can use in your apps for in-app buys. But I don’t think there is a Xojo version (yet?).
Coming from PayPal using IPN, Paddle has Webhook. This one is very easy to use and I got it up and running pretty fast.
The helpdesk helped my out very fast and they were very friendly too ! In fact, I was charmed how three guys were helping me out with different questions (technical, financial and contracting).
The price ratings are not bad either : 5%+$0.50 . I am still looking at other costs that could arise when using wire transfers to my bank account etc…
All in all, It does give me a good feeling about Paddle and for sure they are more professional/matured compared to about 2 years ago.
And I am now really considering using Paddle soon.
I know Sam is using Paddle and he is fond about it.
Is anyone else using Paddle? Could you share some thoughts/experience about Paddle?
Don’t use the Paddle framework. There is a drag-and-drop Paddle keygen out there. It’s not even a crack, it generates keys that validate perfectly. It works with anything using the Paddle.framework for keys.
Share-It is Digital River. To be honest I do not hear great things about them.
Payout issues, slow customer services, … I even found stories that they want to posses the licenses of the software you are selling.
If I am not mistaken Sam had really bad experience with them too.
I can only say they were terrible in answering questions and sometimes even rude and trying to push things.
Maybe things changed now though.
I would use the Webhook feature which works like the IPN service of PayPal. Very easy to use.
In fact, I would never include such framework in my apps because my apps would be too attached to a certain company. If things go wrong with your B2B partner, you have a lot of work to straighten things out.
For all these years and after trying several payment processors, I stick with Paypal. Sure, I had to create my own engineering to serve licenses and stuff, but at least I remain in control.
I have considered Stripe as a second option for my customers, but after dealing with snotty technical support, I decided that was not worth the trouble.
atm I am satisfied with PayPal too.
But as said, the quarterly bookkeeping is getting really time consuming. For sure with introducing the VAT/MOSS declarations. Sadly PayPal has no tool yet to deal with MOSS automatically (although they claim working on it). It is a lot of work for me and my bookkeeper. Not to speak of all the problems/errors that could arise with changing VAT for countries.
For example Greese lifted their VAT from 23% to 24% on 1 June 2016 - this was voted on 19 may 2016 and introduced 12 days later.
Although I check the VATs for each country on regular times, I wasn’t aware of this changes fast enough and PayPal collected the wrong VAT and I will get fined for this (According my bookkeeper: 350eur for each sale - I had 2 sales in June for Greece customers).
[quote]Christoph De Vocht 11 hours ago Alpha Testers, Beta Testers, Xojo Pro @Christian Schmitz it avoids converting from Euro to USD to Euro which looses 5%. That’s what I hate on FastSpring.
Thats why I rule out FastSpring.[/quote]
This is why I put up with Fastspring.
The VAT issue is such a stupid stupid mess, but I dont want to wake up and find a large fine , for a problem I had little power to control, enforceable by a law I had no say in , from a country I have no affiliation with, and receive no benefit from.
What is it the Americans say? No taxation without representation?
[quote=279423:@Christoph De Vocht]For example Greese lifted their VAT from 23% to 24% on 1 June 2016 - this was voted on 19 may 2016 and introduced 12 days later.
Although I check the VATs for each country on regular times, I wasn’t aware of this changes fast enough and PayPal collected the wrong VAT and I will get fined for this (According my bookkeeper: 350eur for each sale - I had 2 sales in June for Greece customers).[/quote]
Yikes! That’s scary. So I can understand why you’d want to get rid of that rats nest of terrible self destructive legal responsibility. Fine you 350 euros on a 1% VAT mistake on a $USD 20 sale. Kiss my ass is would what I say, then up roots and leave them earning zero tax from me… Oh wait, I did that.
Yes, dealing with VAT in EU is terrible if you want to do it on your own.
I still find it strange PayPal does not fill in the VAT values for each country. You have to do this manually for each country.
But yes Sam, I really need to make use of a good B2B now. It is a bit more expensive but it would simplify my bookkeeping major times.
FWW: I am again looking into Share-It and see if things changed.
ATM Paddle is at number 1 - it seems to be a good choice.
[quote=279482:@Christian Schmitz]@Christoph De Vocht
Why not simply correct invoice with new VAT rate and keep the total the same.
We had VAT changes before and never got fined.[/quote]
The problem was, it was already forwarded to MOSS. 1 day later MOSS did sent us a mail with the issue. So it was already too late.
There rises an issue when you need EUR to be the main currency. Something I need.
Paddle is a company seated in UK. With the BREXIT, UK will not be in the EU within 1-2 years.
When this happens, will it still be possible to have everything in EUR?
I have yet to receive an answer from Paddle about this.
Update:
First let me correct something: Paddle isn’t an UK based company but seated in Ierland. Which is good.
In the meantime I pulled the final plug for FastSpring. The main reason is that they cannot handle things in EUR and everything is tighten to USD which is not good for EU developers (I will loose with every USD to EUR transaction).
Paddle is a big surprise (in a good way). The dashboard gives me enough tools to do business and keep control of my products.
After setting everything up and running, it is looking good - both technical as commercial.
Looking forward to put PayPal behind and start working with Paddle in the near future.
So my conclusion for B2B:
Both FastSpring and Paddle seems to be very good choices ! Both have very good and responsive help desks. They help you wherever they can.
Pricing are about the same. Dashboards are about the same.
I cannot speak about the promotions both are willing do to, but at first glance Paddle seems to have a platform for this. FastSpring not.
The big difference is that Paddle can work with any valuta. FastSpring is fixed in USD.
Therefore I think Paddle is interesting for everyone, FastSpring only for developers who wants to be payed out in USD.
With Paddle you use Webhook. It can trigger for example a PHP script that returns the license keys. The license key is then automatically added to Paddle mail for delivery or you can send a custom mail with the license keys, download links, instructions, …
Very simple/flexible to use and you can customise a lot to your needs.
Paddle improved this a lot compared to last time I reviewed them. You do not need to use their own framework anymore.
It now works the same as PayPal IPN or FastSpring.
