John Lai   [RSS Feed]

I recently made a comparison between Beanstream and PayPal. This is my report. I welcome any opinion.

I’ve done extensive research into both products and can conclude that both offer the same services, but at different prices. From my experience, there’s no real pro vs. con between Beanstream and PayPal. It’s a matter of selecting the best price plan for your business. A business’s monthly online sales volume will determine which price plan is right for you, and consequently, help you decide between Beanstream and Paypal.

When talking about costs, the price plans Beanstream and PayPal offers vary. But all plans consist of the following fees:

- Set up fee (between Free - $100)
- Monthly fee (between $20 - $70)
- Transaction fee (between $0.20 - $1.00 per transaction)
- Merchant account fee (between 2% - 4% per transaction)

Beanstream and PayPal collect the setup fee, monthly fee and transaction fee. The bank dealing with credit cards collects the merchant account fee (when you go to a store and pay by credit card swipe, there is a 2% to 4% charge to the store owner…the merchant account fee is this fee)

All other things compared: everything Beanstream does, PayPal does, and vice versa. They both provide easy to use API and documentation for programmers. They both have easy to understand CMS for managing finances.

So that’s the nutshell and everything in it.