[sborsje]

I agree that the site doesn't look great, but their platform works pretty good (well, apart from the abysmal SOAP API) and they offer support for lots of different payment methods (including direct debit, in lots of countries). So I truly don't understand why everybody is suddenly getting so excited about direct debit payments?

[matthewking]

When your customers money and your businesses reputation are at stake trust is a huge issue. The website doesn't look great and gives hardly any information on the services.

I'm sure if they smartened up their website and offered a REST API they'd be in a much better position for web based startups to consider them, otherwise I'm left searching for signs that its a professional and trustworthy company to try and balance my initial impression.

[sborsje]

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with you on the design part.

But what I'm trying to figure out is if design and a REST API are the only 2 things where GoCardless outexecutes competitors. Especially since direct debit clearly isn't something new and there are other players in the field that offer a much broader support for different kinds of payment methods.

[matthewking]

Id guess so yes but also market reach. I have a UK business and currently our customers are manually transferring money to us every quarter because I couldn't find a simple, easy and cost effective way to retrieve payments.

I hadn't come across Adyen until you mentioned them here.