Paypal or Authorize.net for credit card processing on your website

By raheem

Today a client asked about my preference between Paypal and Authorize.net for credit card processing. They are using osCommerce as their shopping cart software. I did a quick Google search and the verdict is – it depends . If your customers are international; do not have/use credit cards – then Paypal is the better solution. But if most of your sales come from credit cards, then Authorize.net is the better solution. These insights were gleaned from a forum debating this issue.

But selecting a merchant account provider is only part of the equation. You also have to decide on what shopping cart software to use for your website. If you prefer open-source free shopping cart software, then you better check if your software works with the credit card processor. Many credit card processors will provide this info (although some like yourpay.com do not disclose what shopping cart software works with their system, citing anti-trust issues – what?!). VirtualMart/Elavon provides a nice list of shopping cart software that works with their online credit card processing system.