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The Big List Of Payment Processors

If you want to sell your indie game creations consider to use one of these payment processors which are specialized in selling digital products.

  • They host your games, send out download links and take care of the payment.
  • They handle collection and payment management for your taxes.
  • They customize the webstore page for you so it matches the look of your website.
  • I have listed many developers who already use them so you can see some real life examples.

I also highly recommend to check out these interesting articles:

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)

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.”

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)

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments
Founded in 1992

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.”

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 have to enter their data, even if they pay by PayPal
- no affiliates

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal
Founded in 2005

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.”

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

Payment options: Credit Card, PayPal
Founded in 2000


Plimus


“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.”

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.

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

Payment options: Credit Card
Founded in 2001


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.”

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

  • 5$ = 50MB
  • 18$ = 500 MB (in case your game is a bit bigger)

Moreover Digital Delivery App and FetchApp offer a similar service.

Drawback?

When you use E-Junkie the collection of VAT is your responsibility as you can read in this discussion on indiegamer forums.
Therefore inform yourself about this subject intensively beforehand or simply use BMT Micro / FastSpring because they are full service payment processors and handle all the VAT collection for you.

Further Info

Indie Devs that use E-Junkie

Other companies/people who use them for their digital products


Alternatives to E-Junkie

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

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$)

Note:
The reason why I haven’t created individual entries for them yet is simply because I have just discovered them recently via the above mentioned article on Smashing Magazine.
However I might feature them in the same fashion as E-Junkie someday (when I find some time to do some additional research for them).

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). Due to the fact that the aforementioned services only charge ~10$ a month consider to use them. They may help you to save you a lot of nerves and time.

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$
Plimus 10% (Less than 9$ = 15%) 0.75$ 1.00$ 1.50$ 2.00$
E-Junkie and Alternatives 2.9% + 0.30$ + monthly fee of 5$-10$ 0.45$ 0.59$ 0.74$ 0.88$
PayPal 2.9% + 0.30$ 0.45$ 0.59$ 0.74$ 0.88$

Discussions About E-Commerce Payment Processors

Further Reading

Selling non digital products?

In case you want to sell tangible goods consider to check out the online shop software Shopify.
It has good reputation and the themes look pretty professional.
Here is a little review about it.

May 17, 2012 3 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

  • 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

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