April 7

PayPal Standard v. Website Payments Pro – What does it all mean!?!

So, you may be slightly familiar with PayPal Standard or maybe you know all there is to know about Website Payments Pro, either way, when mixed with CheddarGetter these services become a different animal … kinda like a liger (ya, it’s that cool). Here’s an attempt to define these services and what happens when you add a dash of CheddarGetter.

PayPal’s Website Payments Standard is PayPal’s standard service. Customers can shop on your website, and when ready to pay, they are directed to a PayPal billing interface where they have the option to pay with their credit card or PayPal account.

So what happens when mixed with CheddarGetter? Remember, CheddarGetter is a recurring billing solution, meaning it allows you to charge your customers on a cyclical or subscription basis – because we are going to be charging your customers more than once over time, we need a pre-approval. But what’s a pre-aprroval, you ask? You never really see it, and your customer never sees it because it takes place behind the scenes, between CheddarGetter and PayPal. Currently, these pre-approvals are only available on PayPal accounts – this means:
PayPal Website Payments Standard + CheddarGetter = You can now charge your customers’ PayPal account with CheddarGetter, on a recurring basis.

What’s good about this? You get the features of CheddarGetter, including metrics, dunning management, hosted payment pages and customer emails, plus the ease and rapidity of using PayPal. It’s safe, quick and easy.

Who is this for? This solution is perfect for the small or start-up merchants who cannot get approved for a merchant account (and there are a lot of you out there). With this integration, you’ll be up and running in a snap.

How do I get started? As a prerequisite for using PayPal with CheddarGetter, you’ll need to get a PayPal Business or Premier Account. You can do so by clicking here.

But what about credit cards?? The customer can “fund” their PayPal account with a credit card so, in a round-about way, a customer can pay you with their credit card with their PayPal account. Is that confusing enough? In order to directly accept credit cards for recurring billing (without requiring the customer to have a PayPal account), you’ll need the traditional merchant account + payment gateway combination.

Website Payments Pro is PayPal’s answer to the traditional merchant account + gateway solution. Users apply for a merchant account through PayPal, and if approved, are set up with Payflow Pro, which is PayPal’s gateway. It’s not much different than getting your own merchant account and using the CheddarGateway, which is why we aren’t integrated with Website Payments Pro just yet. It is in the development queue, but we are focusing our time on more pressing features because we already offer a better solution for this type of billing.

Why CheddarGateway? Again, the differences here lie in features and pricing. CheddarGateway is included with your CheddarGetter subscription. PayPal Pro (Payflow Pro gateway) is an additional $59/mo + $0.10/transaction. That means a lot less money for you, and at CheddarGetter, we are in the business of helping you make the most you can. That’s why we are called CheddarGetter and not CheddarSpender. Plus, with CheddarGetter, you get all of our great features and support.

Who is this for? This is for the merchants with a higher number of transactions. Typically these merchants have a higher sales volume and are able to be approved for a merchant account. With CheddarGetter, it’s easy to switch plans so you can always change plans as you grow.