Ask HN: Payment processing for micro SaaS outside USA? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Payment processing for micro SaaS outside USA?

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I am developing a micro SaaS (not expecting to earn much from it), and I can't find a payment processor for it. I am in a country not supported by Stripe, so the obvious option is not possible.

I don't have business documentations (some of them require that), I just want to get paid via Credit Card (if they can include subscriptions that'd be great, if not I can try to code that myself), and then receive the money in my bank account or Paypal.

Is out there an option to do this without much bureaucracy? My customers wouldn't use crypto so that's not an option either.

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It sounds like you’re describing a Merchant of Record (MoR). This is where customers pay a third-party service, which then handles payments, compliance, and then pays you.

Check out gumroad, lemon squeezy and maybe Paypal.

Lemon Squeezy was acquired by Stripe although I don't know if the geographical regions difer.

Paddle is another popular MOR option.

Also Polar.sh and Creem.io

Also FastSpring.com

I wish a crypto like Nano would already be a solution for this kind of use case. Why is it still so hard in 2024 to accept payments globally, while the internet works everywhere?

Governments.

I'd avoid LemonSqueezy because the payouts fees if you're outside of the USA are too high (check out https://docs.lemonsqueezy.com/help/getting-started/fees ).

Paddle may be an option, depending on what your SaaS will sell, but if they start pretending that your business falls into a high-risk category they will demand 3 months of processing statements before allowing you to use their platform.

I rely on lemonsqueezy.com mainly for payment processing. Easy to setup and it includes other features, but its checkout page delivers a sleek, Stripe-like experience.

I have heard a lot of bad feedback about them lately.

No issues so far with you?

> I don't have business documentations (some of them require that)

There are some exceptions, but registering a business is not difficult in most of the world. It's one of the more common government interactions.

No one is going to let you take credit card payments without some sort of assurance you're a real business. Fraud is common, and it costs them money when it happens.

I just marked myself as a "sole trader" with Stripe and Square and I can take payments without a business

Maybe you could tell us in which country you operate ? Would help to find the right psp

Argentina

Do you plan to get paid from Argentine customers? If not, maybe you can consider opening a US entity through Stripe Atlas, get a quasi-bank US account through Mercury and send the received amount to Argentina via SWIFT.

No, my ucstomers would be in the US and Europe. This is a SaaS for developers. Create a US entity through Atlas is exactly what I want to avoid. I'd prefer something simpler, where I can get paid (even if they get a high cut like 5%), and then send that money to Paypal or a bank account.

Completely off topic, but developing products for developers (especially subscriptions) is difficult.

I say this as someone who has been selling to developers for 30 years as one of my core functions.

It's hard to sell to a group who premise their buying with "I could knock this up in a weekend , and do it better." Not to mention all the developers who have no work to do so code "alternatives" to Show HN.

I survived by finding an incredibly tiny niche - really a tiny niche in a tiny niche - plus doing a lot of other work while building a brand. My advice is - there are easier groups to sell to.

> I survived by finding an incredibly tiny niche - really a tiny niche in a tiny niche - plus doing a lot of other work while building a brand

You and thousands more.

Can't you just use PayPal for accepting one-time or subscription payments?

Paddle and Rebill also seem to support Argentina.

https://www.paddle.com/help/legal/sanctions/which-countries-... https://www.rebill.com/en/payment-and-subscription-solutions...

Curious why you want to avoid Atlas.

I don't want to invest money in a project that I am not sure is going to make any returns. Also, don't want to pay taxes in the US with Atlas, maintain a corporation there, etc.

A couple of my heuristics

1. Running a smaller business takes the same amount of work as running a bigger one.

2. A running a failing business takes more of the owner’s energy than running a successful one.

This thread exemplifies at least one of them because if the plan was a bigger business, you would not be spending time on alternatives to Stripe.

Business ideas can be feasible but not viable. If it does not pencil out, it doe not pencil out.

> Running a smaller business takes the same amount of work as running a bigger one.

It does however, take a lot more capital to run the bigger one. From a personal perspective the opportunity cost of starting the bigger company is all the luxuries and security that cash-in-hand brings, not to mention the possibility of an even better business opportunity arising in the future.

Inadequate capital is a reason a lot of businesses are not viable. Thus a reason to forgo the idea.

But to be more direct, it takes as much effort to run an umdetcapitalized smaller business as iIt does to run an undercapitalized larger one and in both cases you are hoping for luck.

Not only is hope not a plan, the upside of good fortune with a smaller business is smaller than the upside of good fortunes with a larger one.

Finally, adequate capitalization is the high level bit of designing a business. Ideas are so abundant as to be worthless and cash is king.

> I don't want to invest money in a project that I am not sure is going to make any returns.

That's the underlying risk of being an entrepreneur. If it were a sure thing, everyone else would be doing it. This isn't a comment about Stripe Atlas but about the whole thing being a gamble. If you don't have the stomach for that kind of a gamble at large, being entrepreneur isn't for you.

It's easy to buy shares of Uber on the stock exchange after they went public, it's way harder to put down money on Uber in 2008. And you could be Flywheel instead of Uber.

Not OP, but- it seems OP is looking to test an idea and not paying unnecessary costs or setting up unnecessary entities abroad, exploring possible options for paying less does not mean she/he 'does not have the stomach for that kind of a gamble'- why pay more when you can pay less?

Opening and operating a UK ltd co is really cheap you could use that

Is UK-based bank account one of requirements?

Not legally, according to my research (we run a UK Ltd). But it sucks a bit to not have a UK bank account, because for HMRC (tax office) we could not click next in an important dialogue until we entered a bank account to which tax repayments are to be paid out in the UK specific format ("account number and sort code"), which you only get with an UK bank account. This was 9 years ago.

If you open a UK Ltd fully remotely, you can get bank accounts with Wise and Revolut. Don't take only one of them, always have 2 banks. Because e.g. Revolut randomly held a medium sized customer payment (one of many, from the same long term customer) in lock for months for no good reason. We could not talk to a human to resolve it. Never rely on a single bank.

Isn't MercadoPago an option for you?

I am in the same boat. PayPal and Stripe don't work here, even Mercury is not accepting us anymore. So many ideas to execute, so few options to monetize.

I would recommend https://melange.technology/ it suits well for my SaaS

Their website mentions "clear documentation" and provides no link to said documentation. Very weird.

Do they only show you docs when you engage their sales team?

I use lemonsqueezy.com. It has other features also, but I use it mostly as a payment gateway. It has a Stripe-like feel on their checkout page.

80% sure can shoehorn https://gitwallet.co/ into doing this.

Leftfield suggestion: Clickbank.com

This is a good answer, if one isn't bothered by the affiliates running wild in the neighbourhood. Clickbank is simple to set up, accepts individual vendors, and has subscriptions. The downside is you can't create a subscription product without going through approval, which adds delay. And also you'll need a separate CRM if there are many customers, because the backend is very basic.

Not sure if you've answered this - but what country are you in?

Have you checked Paddle.com or 2Checkout?

We use the Paddle Merchant of Record (now "Paddle Billing") with our UK company. It works well; also worked well when we were very small.

If you sell to consumers or non-VAT registered businesses, you will have to VAT-register with at least one EU member state and pay taxes there. Similar for US Sales Tax, which varies across US states (and feels extra unnecessarily complicated from my perspective). You also need to determine and validate from which country your customers are. This is a big pain. Stripe did not help with that. Using Paddle completely eliminates that.

The support and dispute resolution were also good so far.

OP, contact me, also from Argentina.

i think your best option is to save up for stripe atlas

gumroad?

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