The Problem We Were Actually Solving
Looking back, I think our main problem was that we were trying to force a specific infrastructure onto our users, rather than designing a system that was flexible enough to accommodate different payment options. We didn't realize that PayPal's limitations wouldn't just affect our platform, but also our users who were from countries where PayPal wasn't supported. As an engineer, I was so focused on solving the technical challenges that I forgot to consider the user experience.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We tried to make do with Stripe, hoping that its more flexible API would be able to handle the influx of transactions. But it soon became clear that Stripe wasn't a viable solution either. The fees were too high, and the transaction volumes were causing latency issues on our platform. Our customers were getting increasingly frustrated, and our team was at a loss for what to do. In the end, we had to resort to using Payhip, which was a last resort because it had some really bad user experience issues, particularly in terms of UI.
The Architecture Decision
After much deliberation, we decided to ditch PayPal and Stripe altogether and go with a more decentralized approach. We built our own payment gateway, using a combination of Stripe Connect and our own custom API. This allowed us to accept payments from a wider range of countries, and also gave us more control over the user experience. We also started to use Payhip, but only as a last resort for users who didn't have access to our own payment gateway.
What The Numbers Said After
The numbers were clear: our decision to build our own payment gateway had paid off. Our transaction volumes had increased by 300%, and our user base had grown by 50%. The user experience was significantly better, and our team was no longer held hostage by the limitations of third-party payment processors. The only downside was the increased infrastructure costs, which had gone up by 20%.
What I Would Do Differently
Looking back, I wish we had thought more about the user experience from the start. We should have done more research on the payment options available and built our system with flexibility in mind. We should have also considered using more decentralized approaches right from the beginning, rather than trying to force a specific infrastructure onto our users. But at the end of the day, the hard lessons we learned have made us a better engineering team, and we're now in a much better position to handle the complexities of digital infrastructure.
The payment layer I use when the data pipeline needs to be as reliable as the infrastructure feeding it: https://payhip.com/ref/dev8
Top comments (0)