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by qeorge 4454 days ago
I'm not sold on this product yet, for other reasons, but the transaction fees are very compelling to me.

For the typical $5/mo SaaS subscription

This is the problem. Typical Saas subscriptions are significantly more than $5/month, at least if you want to stay in business. $50/month (as a starting tier) is more normal and could actually be sustainable.

If you're charging only $5/month for your SaaS, then you will be unlikely to have enough margins to pay for any external services (and possibly your rent).

For reference, Gumroad charges .30 + 5%. So on a $50/month subscription that's going to be $2.80, whereas with Snappy Checkout its only going to be $1.95. More importantly, as you charge more (e.g., $200/month), the gap would widen even further.

We currently process about $3k/month through Gumroad and e-Junkie, so we're just about at the point where it makes sense to look at other options. If we can move to something like this as opposed to rolling our own, I'm very interested.

2 comments

We could argue about what's a "typical" SaaS monthly fee, but I'm pretty sure your $50/mo is for the SMB/Enterprise space where my $5/mo is for consumer.
As you say, I see SaaS as primarily a B2B product. I have trouble naming successful B2C SaaS products, outside of perhaps Dropbox (although I still think Dropbox is primarily B2B, at least in terms of revenue).

But we probably agree on this: if you charge $5/month, this product is not for you. If you charge $50/month, the fees are negligible.

Also, I'm interested to hear what you "other reasons" are. Please share.
Sure!

I would like to see:

    - hosted downloads (not my Dropbox)
    - hosted checkout pages (not lightbox)
    - what the dunning emails look like, and if I can edit them
    - the docs for the API
    - more information in general (the site is only 1 page, hard to trust)
Those are the big things.
- I have no plans to host downloads. Dropbox, S3, etc. live and breathe that stuff. I think Dropbox is easier for the average person to setup, so I chose to go with them.

- Hosted checkout pages -- like a form directly in your website?

- The dunning emails cannot be edited right now. It's on my to-do list. I'd be happy to email anyone a sample of the format I'm using right now.

- There are no API docs right now. I'm working on it. If anyone is interested, please let me know and I will send you a full list of calls available.

- Snappy Checkout is surely new, but I've been writing software on the Internet for quite some time now. If you want to stalk me, try Googling things like "Singer's Creations", "Weather Watcher", or "Mike Singer".