Braintree offers simple pricing and fantastic online payment abilities

10-second breakdown:

An independent subsidiary of processing giant Paypal, Braintree is an excellent choice for businesses and developers looking to take online payments while not breaking the bank. A direct payment processor with straight-forward pricing has something to offer almost anyone.

The good:

Braintree allows your business to grow internationally. You can accept payments in 130 different currencies and six different languages. Going global can be a little scary, fortunately the also offer fraud protection.

It pays to integrate. As a developer you can integrate with Braintree’s payment solutions and get your first $50,000 in transactions for free. No gimmick, no time limit. However this offer is currently limited to U.S. and EU-based businesses.

Braintree has a very simple pricing structure. They offer one flat rate, with no hidden fees or surcharges until you reach a certain dollar amount. This is a pleasant change from the industry standard tiered pricing.

The bad:

There is no interchange plus pricing option that many competitors have, however their flat rate model more than makes up for it.

If you have a large business but don’t have a mobile app to integrate into Braintree, you may find a better service with lower fees for your purposes.

How it works:

Braintree is 100% focused on digital transactions. They offer a solid, highly customizable product for entrepreneurs or businesses looking to take payments through websites, mobile devices and smartphone apps (in-app purchases.) If you’re in app development, e-retail or just looking for a mobile payment processor, BrainTree has you covered.

Literally everything they offer can be heavily customized thanks to the most painless integrations you’ll find in the entire industry. They offer their own merchant accounts as well, Braintree recently became a direct processor.

Right out of the box, Braintree is set up to accept payments in over 130 currencies and 6 different languages. Few other processors even come close.

An in-house payment gateway comes with every account, but you can purchase one separate if you already have a merchant account. One big advantage Braintree has over the competition is the ability to export out your data. If you decide to switch processors, it can be a real headache – many won’t let you have the data so you lose everything. It’s cool to see Braintree play nice with the competition, it means none of your recurring payments need to get interrupted.

Recurring billing is a common feature among gateways, but Braintree sprinkles their magic to make it highly customizable. You can customize how failed transactions are managed, discounts and promos, push notifications and more.

Braintree has a near cult-like following among market-style merchants, and for a good reason. They effortlessly split the payment between you and the product providers, while keeping track of all of your 1099-K tax forms along the way. Their escrow service is flexible as well, you can opt to pay right away, or hold off until fulfillment. Best part of all? The BrainTree Marketplace is completely free, included in your account.

There’s one feature that Braintree offers specifically for app developers that’s worth talking about. If you’re a developer and integrate directly with Braintree Payment Solutions, the first $50,000 in transactions are completely free. Yes, you read that right, and there’s no time limit to boot. It’s no gimmick, but keep in mind it’s only available to the US and Europe.

Have you heard of bitcoin before? It’s a digital currency that’s been gaining popularity in recent years. Braintree has heard of it, and in a recent update can now support bitcoins as well. If your customers are security focused bitcoins are perfect, they’re very close to untraceable.

There’s also support for Apple Pay as well as Android Pay. It’s more focused towards app developers but if you get a lot of tech-savvy customers, no need to sweat it, both are included free.

Another way Braintree stands out from the crowd is with its industry-leading customer support. They offer quite an extensive knowledgebase you can use for self-service if you need to look something up real quick and don’t feel like calling.

If you do want to reach out, ‘Braintreeps’ (Braintree Reps – no we didn’t make this up) can be reached via phone or email. Support keeps normal business hours but Braintree offers an additional emergency line that can be reached 24/7/365. One unique feature they have is a Status page – it’ll tell you if any services are running slow or are having problems.

There is one fatal flaw here we need to discuss. Braintree is entirely digital, you won’t find any storefront POS solutions here. BrainTree chose to focus on making digital sales as delightful as possible but if you need brick-and-mortar solutions you won’t find any love here, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

If you were concerned that a tech-savvy startup-focused payment processor’s fees would be complicated you’re in for a treat. Braintree only has one plan and one pricing tier. It’s 2.9% per transaction + 30¢ – which includes interchange so that’s your final price. That’s it, no monthly charge, no surcharges or fees. It also means there’s no monthly minimum, PCI compliance fee, set up fee, gateway fees or statement fees.

There are a few more details they list on the pricing page, for instance, there’s an additional 1% fee for any transactions that are outside of your country’s currency. They offer a rather low fee of $15 flat rate per chargeback and fees are actually returned for fully-refunded transactions – a nice little perk.

There are discounted rates available for eligible nonprofits and businesses that process over $80,000 monthly. If you fit either of those criteria it’s best to give them a call to discuss what they can do for you.

As long as you don’t plan on expanding to a physical storefront, Braintree is a laser-focused payment processor that checks off all the right boxes – plenty of features and good rates.

For complete rankings of all credit card processors, go here.

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