Braintree, a PayPal service vs. Recurly

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Braintree, a PayPal service
Score 5.8 out of 10
N/A
Braintree, a Paypal service and subsidiary, is a billing platform which stores credit card data directly from the merchant’s systems on secure servers, and it allows for cards to be recharged or refunded . Braintree also supports international payments. Pricing is 2.9% plus a 30c transaction fee.N/A
Recurly
Score 7.9 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Recurly is a subscription billing platform and manages customer communications via email, business performance monitoring, and account changes. A merchant bank account is required to work with Recurly. A payment gateway is part of the product but it integrates with other gateways, such as PayPal, to give shoppers a more comprehensive suite of payment options.
$0
per month
Pricing
Braintree, a PayPal serviceRecurly
Editions & Modules
Standard Pricing
2.9% +$0.30
per transaction
Custom Pricing
Contact for quote
Core
$0/month plus first $40k/mo. in revenue included for first 12 months
per month
Professional
Get a custom quote
per month
Elite
Get a custom quote
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Braintree, a PayPal serviceRecurly
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
Braintree, a PayPal serviceRecurly
Small Businesses
Stripe Payments
Stripe Payments
Score 8.6 out of 10
WooCommerce Subscriptions
WooCommerce Subscriptions
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies

No answers on this topic

Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct
Score 8.6 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

Salesforce CPQ
Salesforce CPQ
Score 7.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Braintree, a PayPal serviceRecurly
Likelihood to Recommend
1.1
(15 ratings)
6.0
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Usability
5.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.6
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Braintree, a PayPal serviceRecurly
Likelihood to Recommend
PayPal
Braintree is a lower cost alternative to many of the options business owners have through their bank. However, they will need to be techy or be working with a developer to set up. The setup and backend isn't as user friendly as alternatives. Braintree is a great option if you'll need to manually type in credit card details. Banks will sometimes charge a lot more for that option. The manual option is nice if your clients aren't as tech savvy and prefer to pay over the phone than to pay on your website.
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Recurly
I think it works best for scenarios where it involves recurring billing. A subscription-based business model can benefit on the platform and maximize its features. It has great customization when it comes to billing cadence, pricing, prepayment, discount options, among others. It also works perfectly with one-off charges so either way, it's a win. It has great integration with Stripe too.
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Pros
PayPal
  • Braintree has excellent integration with the BigCommerce platform. The switch of our previous payment processing gateway to Braintree was very easy and only required a few clicks.
  • Tying into Braintree's BigCommerce integration, for company's like ours that are on the BigCommerce enterprise plan, Braintree's rates for BigCommerce enterprise customers are extremely competitive and saved us money.
  • Braintree has a pretty easy to use portal that can be accessed through the same login we use for PayPal which we are using in conjunction with Braintree with ease.
  • I've only had to call Braintree twice and my customer service issues were handled extremely quickly and easily.
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Recurly
  • It is very easy to track MRR, which gives you insights into your overall revenues and health of the subscriptions. Though MRR is pretty easy to calculate Recurly puts it beautifully on the dashboard which is very easy to read.
  • LTV, Recurly calculates lifetime value which is a good insight for adjusting Marketing spends. Even this is available on the dashboard.
  • The other features like Subscriber churn Rate, Average revenue per customer etc are really great and would help the marketing team a lot.
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Cons
PayPal
  • Not a very good subscription management platform for a Saas business, but they make up for it on the API with others that are
  • Doesn't have a lot of additional features, but that's what you'd expect out of a payment processor
  • Very expensive per transaction, but the reality is that any processor who helps early stage companies accept online payments are expensive.
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Recurly
  • The coupons feature is a bit cumbersome. It can become tricky to set up, apply, and un-apply coupons for a particular client. If you have special billing cases where you discount for a few months or give a client service in any irregular fashion, using coupons can become tricky.
  • We have a referral program with our clients where they receive a perpetual monthly discount for each client they refer to use. The client receives this discount as long as their referral remains active with us. We would like to be able to apply a discount to a client account, and have the ability to remove that discount in the event a referral ends service with us. In some cases a client has referred several clients, and we would like to apply a discount for each referral, and still have the ability to remove one or more discounts as referrals begin and end service with us. Currently there is no way to do this in Recurly. There isn't even a very good work-around, which is disappointing.
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Likelihood to Renew
PayPal
There's a huge cost in migrating payment providers, and we're very happy with Braintree so far.
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Recurly
I believe we would continue to use Recurly because they have shown that they are continually improving their software, and they listen to their customers
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Usability
PayPal
As a product, functionality has been fine for us. In our experience, some issues during On Boarding but because we had a dedicated Account Manager assigned to us, these issues were dealt with. Now we are a customer, it feels like they have stopped caring about us or aren't interested in working with us to resolve any issues we have.
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Recurly
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
PayPal
Their support is a joke. There's nothing "supportive" about them. Every time I call in with an issue no one has an answer or even a recommendation. I am put on hold and no one ever comes back. It's time to find another processor.
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Recurly
They have always been quick to respond and help. I love their chat feature at the bottom right-hand corner of the platform.
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Implementation Rating
PayPal
It is simple for a developer to do.
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Recurly
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
PayPal
Braintree is better at handling international payments and supporting a variety of payment methods that can all be configured from the same dashboard. Braintree supports PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc. in addition to simply credit cards like Stripe. Braintree has a vault of existing user payment methods so the user doesn't have to re-enter their information each time.
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Recurly
Fewer codings are needed, however, the simplicity with Recurly is found once all the information needed is there. I have seen where Recurly is integrated with any other product we use; however, Salesforce does have the ability to be integrated with other products. This is done through coding.
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Return on Investment
PayPal
  • Simplified billing so we spend less time on it
  • Saved $20 a month or more when compared to alternatives that have a monthly charge.
  • It gives peace of mind because we know that any service we use in the future will likely integrate with Braintree
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Recurly
  • Providing an interface for our subscribers to manage their own accounts has simplified our business tremendously. This alone has freed up hours of our staff's time each day.
  • Many customers receive new credit cards due to expiration or fraud. The time we spent in updating this information prior to using Recurly's Revenue Recovery feature versus now is significant.
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ScreenShots

Recurly Screenshots

Screenshot of payments with smart routing to improve transaction success rates and conversions by offering a variety of payment methods, such as credit cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH.Screenshot of the flexible ways to configure subscription billings workflows, and automate recurring invoicing based on the subscription parameters.Screenshot of automated dunning communications to increase collection effectiveness. Configurable across period and timing, if the payment is past due or declined, selected and personalized dunning campaign launch.Screenshot of the features to set up and test different products, plans, and pricing options, plus promotional tools like free trials, coupons, and gift subscriptions and cards to attract more customers.Screenshot of Recurly analytics, which provides a 360° view into the health of a subscription business's plan performance, churn trends, campaigns results, financial metrics. These inform decisions for business growth.