Most of the bigger providers care more about their own interests than those of their customers.
I've heard nothing but good things about them ... except that their minimum transaction level is high enough many/most/all??? startups can't meet it. So the latter obviously go to Paypal and when/if larger Auth.net.
Braintree is asking those companies to make it easier to "graduate" to Braintree. Since Braintree provides one of the highest quality services in this field, they're obviously not worried about too many customers defecting, or at least not until they get so big they bring it in house.
Which in the current startup capital climate is going to be very rare, I suspect.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
I just looked at their pricing and we cant afford them, so we are stuck with paypal for now.
By the time we grow enough we will be locked into paypal.
I'm investigating payment gateways for a SAAS offering (I'm based in Canada), and despite all the negativity surrounding PayPal, it seems to be the easiest way to go. I can't afford to go with Braintree, and I'm not quite sure they even deal with Canadian companies.
For one customer (a music festival) I set up paypal integration for ticket sales three years ago and haven't had to change anything since.
The only thing with paypal is that if they decide your business is somehow in a legal gray area they will take your paypal balance and you have very little recourse. At least this is what I have always heard in Paypal horror stories.
IIRC, it is possible for a Canadian company to use Braintree and other US based payment processors, but you need: a) A US EIN number b) A US chequing account
The US chequing account is easy -- you can get that through Harris (www.harrisbank.com). They are actually a subsidiary of BMO, and so are used to opening US accounts for Canadian individuals and companies. You can work with them entirely by mail/e-mail (including the account opening process). I know foreign companies can apply for an EIN -- but it's not something we've done, so I can't speak from experience there.
There's a link (it's an ajaxy modal window or I'd give the link) on their pricing page for people outside of the US. If you don't have a legal US presence "you can work with one of their partners for a merchant account" but you have to be "processing at least 3 million in volume or will meet those thresholds within 12-18 months." So even less of an option.
I'm glad to see them trying to make moves like this. It's one of the reasons that our business is with them.
I've heard great things about their service, but I found CDGCommerce to have much better terms.
I will be sure to keep Braintree in mind for my next venture
My customer service rep at Braintree handles regular billing inquiries and has also helped me with some coding issues - that speaks volumes in my book.