Why I canceled PayPal Pro and built a terminal app with Stripe was the original title and objective. I thought this was going to be a much longer journey than it was. My plan was to reference this code at git and put together my own Stripe Terminal.
The fact is that I have been using PayPal from the very early days even before there was a PayPal Pro product. PayPal Pro made it easy for me to accept credit card payments using the virtual terminal (a web page that allows me to enter the customer’s credit card information to be charged without hardware). In addition, they released a free credit card swipe device (to counter their competitor Square no doubt) that they sent me in the mail for free. That along with the mobile app, made it even more appealing.
I mean I was now better equipped to process mobile payments while out in the world, conferences, meetings etc. However, there was still the $30 per month charge that I had to pay. Takes money to make money right. So it was an expense that was worth the cost.
Stripe on the other hand charges on a per transaction basis, which is more lean and cost efficient for my needs. The only thing that slowed my migration to Stripe from PayPals Pro service was that using Stripe would require some development time to meet my functional needs.
The issue was not coding, the issue was time. I know what my time is worth , I value it and have no problem leveraging cash to buy as much time as I can when it makes sense. It remained a hurdle for several months after I had heard about Stripe. That is until I heard about a service called SpaceBox.
The way I interpreted what I had heard about SpaceBox was that it bridged the gap between Stripe, the new way to accept credit card payments for developers and those that just need a working solution today. Spacebox has a plan that tack’s on an additional 1% per transaction and no monthly fee. The credit card number can be entered into a mobile phone so although a credit card swipe is nice, it’s not a must have. It seemed that I had found a solution to a pain.
At this point, I’ve setup a SpaceBox account in minutes. A simple user-friendly experience I might add. I placed a reminder on my calendar to end the long-standing subscription that I have had with PayPal Pro. I did not have anything but positive experiences using the virtual terminal but disruption and value appear to have arrived with the SpaceBox + Strip combination. I’ll beat this solution up for a month and update this post with my results. Leave your email in the “Receive Updates” box below or you can just come back to check and I will let you know how it all turns out .