Credit Card Processing for Startups

Recently there was a Flashpoint email thread on credit card processing options for web startups. Processing customer payments is both good (get $$$) and bad (payment gateways are usually difficult and frustrating to deal with). At the end of the email thread there was no general consensus but several were offered up that startups in the cohort had used and were happy with.

Here are some credit card processing vendors that were mentioned:

• Payscape
• Authorize.Net (one of the oldest and largest, but not as tech savvy)
• Braintree (noted as having a strong API)
• PayPal Website Payments Pro
• Stripe

There are also add-on services that interface with the payment gateways to provide more functionality, especially around recurring revenue with Recurly and CheddarGetter being two popular ones.

Payment processing is a part of startups and these vendors provide a good starting point to comparison shop.

What else? What are your thought on credit card processing and vendors for startups?