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The Big List Of Payment Processors

Are you wondering how to sell your indie game?
Well you can either sell it direct or indirect…

Selling Direct:
If you want to sell your game directly you can use one of the payment processors listed below that are specialized in selling digital products. For each payment processor I have listed developers that use them… so you can see live examples.

Selling Indirect:
If you want to sell your game indirectly you can try to get it on a digital distribution service (Consider to check out the big list of online game stores including Steam, Desura etc.)

Many developers use BMT Micro or FastSpring (Both are already around for many years and offer a good amount of features and good customer service). Still in beta and already used by many indie devs is the Humble Store Widget. There is also an article about the Humble Store on Penny Arcade Report. Also interesting and somewhat similar to the Humble Store Widget are E-Junkie and DigitalDeliveryApp.

If you should feel uncertain about any service consider to contact some of the below listed developers who use them and ask them about their experiences.

Features of Payment Processors:

  • They host your games and send out download links
  • They offer various payment methods (credit card, paypal, google checkout, amazon payments etc.)
  • They handle collection and payment management for your taxes
  • They customize the webstore page for you so it matches the look of your website
  • They give you the option to create discount codes and gift codes easily
  • They handle refunds, chargebacks and have fraud detection
  • They offer split pay features (revenue gets split between all team members automatically)
  • They offer live stats of your sales

Rob Fearon and Cliffski about the advantages of selling direct:

A big thanks goes to Tom Grochowiak because he has tested most of the Payment Processors and provided some additional info about the up and downsides for each of them.

Navigation

(Jump to the companies on this page directly)

Full Service Payment Processors

Shopping Carts

BMT Micro


“BMT Micro has been providing turnkey ecommerce solutions since 1992. If you require a reliable, cost-effective payment processing service that is flexible enough to meet your needs now and well into the future, look no further.”

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, Check, Instant Bank Transfer, Wire Transfer, Phone/Fax
Founded in 1992

Further Info

Indie Devs that use BMT Micro

Pros and Cons

+ customizes their webstore to match your website for free
+ good support
+ support “pay-what-you-want model” (on request / 1$ minimum)
+ customers don’t have to enter all their data if they pay by PayPal/Google Checkout
+ non expiring downloads (optional)
+ largest affiliate network
+ they handle refunds
- affiliates and some other features locked for new vendors (until first payment)

Note: In case your game is priced under 6.25$ you can use their “comprehensive” plan which is 20% with a minimum fee of 0.75$. For example that way they would charge you 1$ instead of 1.25$ for a 5$ game.

FastSpring


“FastSpring offers a highly customizable, flexible e-commerce solution focused on adding value and increasing revenue for clients, while providing the best customer service in the industry.”

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal
Founded in 2005

Further Info

Indie Devs that use Fastspring

Pros and Cons

+ customizes their webstore to match your website for free
+ good support
+ support “pay-what-you-want model”
+ direct deposit option for vendors outside of US
+ customers don’t have to enter all their data if they pay by PayPal (this is not by default… you have to ask FastSpring and they will remove the adress fields for you)
- customers have to enter their data, even if they pay by PayPal
- no affiliates

eSellerate


“eSellerate is a part of the Digital River family of companies – a group of e-commerce and e-marketing experts committed to providing companies big and small with everything they need to successfully build, manage and grow profitable online businesses on a worldwide basis.”

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal, Check, Wire Transfer
Founded in 2000

Further Info

Indie Devs that use eSellerate

Pros and Cons

+ cheap
+ allows for customization of their webstore (requires some coding)
+ good support
- slow servers
- customers have to enter their data, even if they pay by PayPal


Plimus

Update: Plimus is now renamed/rebranded into BlueSnap and it seems that they are no longer interested in indie developers as clients due to their new pricing structure. Previous pricing structure was 10-15%. The new pricing structure is 3.5% + 0.35$ and an additional 75$ per month fee (if you sell less than 2500$)

“Founded in 2001, Plimus is headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley. We have close to a decade’s worth of proven experience in the e-commerce and payment fields and have consistently demonstrated high growth. We are proud to be regarded as one of the most innovative and effective business platforms in the world for online sales of digital products and services.”

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal, Wire Transfer, Phone/Fax, Instant Bank Transfer
Founded in 2001

Further Info

Indie Devs that use Plimus

Pros and Cons

+ big affiliate network
- bad support (according to indiegamer forums)
- customers have to enter their data, even if they pay by PayPal
- too easy refund option leads to abuse

Note:
According to a post on IndieGamer Forums they might actually call your customers by phone (WTF?!) when they order a game to verify the order. Moreover they don’t seem to have very good reputation on the IndieGamer Forums.


E-Junkie


“For merchants selling downloads, we automate and secure the digital delivery of files and codes. Our shopping cart has a built in sales tax, VAT, packaging and shipping cost calculator. E-junkie has no transaction limit, no bandwidth limit, no setup fee and no transaction fee.”

Payment Options: PayPal, Google Checkout
Founded in 2004

Further Info

E-Junkie only charges a monthly fee which is determined by the size of your game (5$ for 50 MB or 18$ for 500 MB) plus the standard PayPal fee which costs you (2.9% + 0.30$) per transaction / sold game.

Drawback?

When you use E-Junkie the collection of VAT is your responsibility as you can read in this discussion on indiegamer forums. I don’t really know how complicated that is… maybe someone has experience with it?
Therefore inform yourself about this topic intensively beforehand.

Indie Devs that use E-Junkie

Other companies/people who use them for their digital products


Digital Delivery App

payment-processors-digital-delivery-app
payment-processors-digital-delivery-app-stats

“Sell Digital Goods with Utter Simplicity. Automatically deliver your digital files, subscriptions, tangible goods, services or licenses with the same technology that powers Amazon.Start selling in just two minutes – whether that be on sales websites or Facebook fan pages.”

Payment Options: PayPal, Google Checkout
Founded in 2010

Further Info

Digital Delivery App only charges a monthly fee which is determined by the size of your game (9$ for 1 GB or 15$ for 3 GB) plus the standard PayPal fee which costs you (2.9% + 0.30$) per transaction / sold game. Introversion Software (the developers of Prison Architect, Darwinia, Multiwinia etc.) wrote a few words about their experience with Digital Delivery App over here on the IndieGames Blog.

Indie Devs that use Digital Delivery App

Other companies/people who use them for their digital products

There are also a few other services similar to E-Junkie and DigitalDeliveryApp as you can see from this comprehensive article called Selling Digital Goods Online: E-Commerce Services Compared. For example Pulley and FetchApp.

The mentioned services in this article seem pretty legit and cost all approximately the same: A monthly flat fee of ~10$ for the storage space plus the usual fee for PayPal per transaction/game (2.9% + 0.30$)

PayPal


If you use PayPal alone without any added digital service provider it requires you to do all the work behind the scenes (hosting games, sending out links, handling taxes etc). Since E-Junkie and Digital Delivery App only charge ~10$ a month for doing that it is worth considering to use them. Using them might save you a lot of time and nerves.

Note:
For receiving payments from buyers outside the United States you will be charged 3.9% + 0.30$ instead of the usual fee.

Further Info

Indie Devs that use PayPal

Table for easy comparison of processor fees

Name

Fee

5$

10$

15$

20$

BMT Micro 9.5% (1.25$ Minimum Fee) 1.25$ 1.25$ 1.43$ 1.90$
FastSpring 8.9% (0.75$ Minimum Fee) 0.75$ 0.89$ 1.34$ 1.78$
eSellerate 5.9% (0.50$ Minimum Fee) 0.50$ 0.59$ 0.89$ 1.18$
Humble Store Widget 5% 0.25$ 0.50$ 0.75$ 1.00$
E-Junkie 2.9% + 0.30$ + monthly fee of 5$-10$ 0.45$ 0.59$ 0.74$ 0.88$
Digital Delivery App 2.9% + 0.30$ + monthly fee of 9$-15$ 0.45$ 0.59$ 0.74$ 0.88$
PayPal 2.9% + 0.30$ 0.45$ 0.59$ 0.74$ 0.88$

Further Info

A good amount of developers seem also to use the humble store widget. (not officially released yet)
Solutions for selling music are Bandcamp and CD Baby. (for creating your own CD’s there is also Disc Makers)

Discussions and Articles About E-Commerce Payment Processors

Why Choose a Payment Processor / eCommerce Provider?

Further Reading

June 18, 2013 10 Comments

  • Thanks for this write-up. I was wondering how I would sell a game (not that any of them are particularly near finishing), and I didn’t really know how people set up their accounts or webpages for this. I’m glad that I have this page to tell me – I’ve bookmarked it.

    reply

    SolarLune

    February 26, 2012

  • Good to know that the article is useful to you :)

    reply

    PixelProspector

    February 28, 2012

  • It’s worth noting that BMT Micro offer a “comprehensive” service which takes 20% with a 1$ minimum instead, it also offers free hosting for your game’s demo under that service. This is actually cheaper than their normal plan if your game is under $6.25.

    reply

    Lawrie

    March 3, 2012

  • Thanks Lawrie :)
    Pretty well observed!
    I have just added that info to the BMT Micro section.

    reply

    PixelProspector

    March 3, 2012

  • Hi actually I started using FastSpring to sell my game and they turned off the need to enter personal data when paying by PayPal for me. So it can be disabled by request and it’s worth noting too

    reply

    Paweł Mogiła

    November 30, 2012

  • Thanks for the hint Pawel :)
    I have just updated the list and added that info.

    reply

    PixelProspector

    December 2, 2012

  • Disclaimer, I work at BlueSnap (formerly Plimus)
    I recently found this article and felt even for me working in the industry it provided a clearer map of some of our competitors. The comparison data definitely assists the Seller in their decision for a payment solution.
    To address our supposed ‘Cons’ I thought a description of our decision to have certain protocols may actually appear a benefit to your analysis, knowing that you are interested in providing accurate information (e.g. Fastspring’s req. for personal data when using Paypal)
    - Bad Support- We’re open 24/7 and are available via phone (unlike most providers)
    - Customers entering data if using Paypal – Yes, an additional security precaution due to internet fraud. It assists our sellers by reducing their chargeback and refunds knowing that Paypal does not favor the Seller in most cases when a dispute is opened by the customer.
    - Refund abuse – As a middle man we must listen to both sides and make the decision benefiting the appropriate party. To avoid that, we offer our customers a 30 day money back guarantee. Sellers that sell products that have support and are of quality, customers in any line of work receive fewer refunds.
    -Our fee is not really accurate, we do tailored quotes for our Sellers when they contact our sales team. :)

    reply

    Preciouse @BlueSnap

    December 20, 2012

  • Further clarification to plimus/bluesnap: they now have a $75/month fee.

    reply

    sol_hsa

    June 15, 2013

  • BlueSnap/Plimus now has a $75 fee for vendors who sell less than $2500 in a month. Affiliates are now charged $10 a month.

    Plimus support always gets back to us quicky, BUT, the answer to almost every complaint we’ve had is “this is the way it is, we’re not going to change it.” The control panel for vendors is very buggy and the things we loved about Plimus have been discontinued or broken for years. Try to look up a customer in the reporting tool, try to stay logged in for more than ten minutes, try not to throw something at your computer screen when every attempt to create a new password takes 30 minutes (and you must go through this process every three months), try testing order emails for new products, Paypal… what Paypal? Unless you are willing to juggle twelve pigs to get it set up properly.

    reply

    jess

    June 16, 2013

  • Oh yeah, try finding new affiliate products to sell. Years ago this was easy, but today it sometimes takes minutes to load the database of products. So sad to see such an amazing company fix what wasn’t broken. To BlueSnap: fire your developers and get some better ones.

    reply

    jess

    June 16, 2013

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