[buro9]

I've been getting "soons" since November.

I asked only a few days ago how soon is soon, to which no-one will actually answer. But the Stripe guy did say that he agreed that we shouldn't wait... go implement something else, and then they will help people move to them post-launch.

So don't not launch something in the UK because you're waiting for Stripe. Launch with GoCardless, launch with PayMill, hell... launch with PayPal if you have to.

Getting money through the door should be the only focus, not waiting for other people.

[Silhouette]

Once you've launched with another service, you've already done the integration work, and Stripe's main value proposition seems to be its simple sign-up and integration process.

Once you've launched with another service, you may well be tied to them anyway, if they lock in your subscribers' card data. At best, you're running multiple services in parallel until all your early subscribers quit, or you're asking everyone to resubscribe and surely losing a significant number of people during that process.

And once you've launched with another service, you've permanently accepted their legal terms, which may or may not be a smart thing to do with some of the things these guys hide away in their contracts.

I certainly wouldn't wait for a company that says "soon" forever, but it's also not as simple as just signing up for any alternative you can find and hoping you'll move later. Of course you want to start bringing the money in, but as the saying goes, if you get into bed with the wrong partner for a night, the consequences can still last a lifetime.

[samwillis]

That's exactly what I did, I launched in December with PayPal. Moving to Stripe as soon as they launch, although I am now tempted to keep PayPal as a payment option for people who feel more comfortable using it. I will be an interesting experiment to see if anyone would still use it.

[webignition]

This is what I'm currently planning on doing for handling monthly (possibly annual) subscriptions.

Do you handle subscriptions and if so do you have any plans for handling moving the subscriptions from PayPal to Stripe?

If I were just to be handling one-off payments I'd not particularly care who I chose to go with (within reason). With subscriptions this gets, I believe, a bit trickier.

[samwillis]

Nope, we just have one off payments.

If I were doing subscriptions I would still go with paypal and wait for stripe (unless I have investment and going to be big). You then just prompt your users to move over at some point. Its a little more work to maintain the paypal code for existing user who don't move but with some encouragement like a month free you may be able to get them all over.

[mmahemoff]

I'm thinking of using PayPal, but only for a one-off 1-year (or N-years) subscription payment, so there's no legacy to deal with once Stripe arrives, and a simpler integration. At the cost of losing some of those early subscribers later on.

[jusben1369]

At the risk of being repetitive check out Spreedlycore as another way to work with or switch between gateways as solutions you prefer become available. https://spreedlycore.com/

[mmahemoff]

jusben, they don't seem to handle subscriptions.