Introducing: The OpenGateway Payment Platform. Host your own billing engine. | Hacker News Reader

Introducing: The OpenGateway Payment Platform. Host your own billing engine.

electricfunction.com

18 pointsbrockf15 comments

Easily manage your recurring billing with an API and control panel without putting another 3rd party middle man in your payment process. Host your own billing engine with the OpenGateway platform.

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Common mistake: just because you don't store credit cards it doesn't mean that this changes anything about your PCI DSS requirements. As long as CCs hit your IPs you are responsible for them. Not storing CCs simplifies certain things but you still have to get certified.

In this case it should be the PA-DSS. From the PCI page: 'Payment applications that are sold, distributed or licensed to third parties are subject to the PA-DSS requirements.'

Yes, you do need to get certified if you are performing 20,000+ transactions or $1million per year in credit card revenue. Otherwise, you can do a self-check as you're a Stage 4 merchant.

Excuse my ignorance, but does that mean I cannot setup this solution without getting certified before?

Could you explain what's required for a startup to use this solution?

That's correct.

It looks cool, but can anyone explain to me what exactly is 'Open' about this?

The open is probably just a part of the branding. The platform supports multiple payment gateways so in that regard it's an "open" gateway. You're not tying yourself to one gateway, just an api.

Exactly. Not tied to a payment gateway's integration code or a 3rd party service provider like Recurly or Spreedly. No transaction fees or external dependencies.

When it comes to marketing to software developers, I think this is a disingenuous use of the term. It's not open source and the provider list is controlled by you.

And how does this solve being effectively tied to a specific provider? If I start with Authorize.net, isn't this using CIM to store all my customer payment profiles? Can I switch at will and take all my profiles with me to Payflow Pro?

I like the host-your-own-Spreedly idea to save on transaction fees. I think that should be your primary selling point.

True. It's not free and open-source. And, until Braintree's Credit Card Data Portability movement takes a foothold, it's impossible for OpenGateway to transfer CIM data to another payment gateway (though we'll be the first on that train when it comes).

However, the "open" part of this solution is, to me, that:

1) You choose which gateway you want to use based on its price, service, etc. - not because there's some free PHP class available for it or the API makes slightly more sense than the others.

2) You can run your own billing engine and open up the API, so to speak.

3) You aren't gaining billing engine power by giving up more transaction % fees or relying on a 3rd party service provider's closed system.

Any plans to support Braintree?

Absolutely. Braintree, NetBilling, FirstData, PayPal Standard, and more gateways are being added soon.

How does this compare to ActiveMerchant ?

ActiveMerchant is a payment/shipping library for Ruby. This is more of an independent billing engine that also gives an API for payment gateways but also handles customer records, automatic customizable emails for billing events (purchases, subscriptions, renewals, cancellations, etc.), handles auto-recurring billing across all gateways, and allows you to distribute API keys with separate API and control panel clients.

Looks very good! As someone already asked, is it PA-DSS certified?

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