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I have a website where I'm offering an online course & exam. When the user completes it, if he passes I would like him to enter in his credit card info and then we'll send him the certificate. I'm looking into Paypal and Authorize.net. Can a/o help me out with the pros and cons?
Thank you.
How comfortable are you at desining webpages? The Authorize.net gateway is more complicated to use in that you have to create a webform from scratch which posts to their gateway. They have a free test account you can test this out with. The other con of using Authorize.net is that you will need a SSL cert and dedicated IP address on your webhost, plus a $30/mo fee to Authorize.net. That will add to your costs.
The benefit of using Authroize.net is that you can create shopping carts and payment pages which you have full visual control over as they are located entirely on your website.
Paypal/Google Checkout is much easier to use as you set up a merchant account and simply put a button on your site. The obvious disadvantage is that the user is leaving your website to make the transaction.
You also have to consider customer's perception of your company. Will they feel more comfortable submitting a payment to PayPal instead of directly to your own site? Even with an SSL cert, I personally find that I'm more comfortable giving my CC info to a professionally designed website. If the website is more basic, I would prefer using PayPal to pay the merchant.
"The obvious disadvantage is that the user is leaving your website to make the transaction." << I see that as an advantage... then I don't need to worry about the site storing or tracking my CC info... and as a site developer, I'd prefer it that way to, because then I don't need to worry about liability or storing sensitive info (and I did once have a client that did want to store that info to make it easier for his customers to check out in the future, once we showed him the financial implications should the db ever get compromised....that requrement was removed.)
Also, most people have heard of PayPal and are more likely as not to have one already...
You could offer both means... if they want to pay by CC directly, send them to your page built for Authorize.net... if they want to pay by paypal, send them off to there. I've seen that done before.
--tg
Does Authorize.net have the ability to pay on their site like PayPal? A client that I'm creating this for has an Authorize.net userid, etc. - they want me to use Authorize.net. I'm a bit nervous about security...
There's also the Amazon Checkout that you could look into.
There are no start-up charges, monthly charges, hidden fees, or long-term contracts when using Checkout by Amazon.
Fees are assessed on a per-transaction basis and vary depending on the transaction amount. They are based on a percentage of the transaction amount plus a per transaction fee.
Paypal also provides the ability to pay directly on your website with features like PayFlow Pro. Its not free but probably comprable to Authorize.net.
I like and use PayPal for many transactions. No issues so far, knocks on wood. I like sites that give an option to pay directly or use PayPal as I may have funds/credits in my PayPal account and dont have to add debt to my CC.
There are benefits to having the transaction processed on PayPal as TG noted. This is the best benefit IMO. Second is its virtually free and is free if you add the 3% to the cost of your products and / or services.