Christian, founder of Paddle here. There are a few things I’d like to try and clear up possible misunderstandings around.
Paddle has been a long-term supporter of Mac apps for many years (including CleanMyMac, Framer, Tower and more) and we’re excited about the prospect of supporting iOS apps as well – something we’ve not been able to do so far.
We’re heavily invested in keeping customer data safe and secure. We think app developers should be able to support and interact with their customers directly rather than having to go through Apple or another 3rd party to resolve any issues. Our solution will give app creators that opportunity – one that’s already the case for sales made on vendor websites.
Any kind of marketing comms will require customers to have opted in through a checkbox in the checkout process. We’re just looking to give developers the ability to ask, like is commonly done during browser-based purchases.
I’m super keen to keep an open dialogue with any developers interested in an alternative to how you currently sell your apps in iOS so don’t hesitate to reach out to me christian at paddle com
Although that'd appear to be the case, although we had a ~400% spike on ProductHunt day, signups have remained up on average 73% in the month or so since (this is mentioned in the post). :)
Hey, I'm the CEO at Paddle.com (mentioned in your initial post). Wondering what we can be doing to make withdrawing your Paddle earnings easier. We opperate in a very similar way to Fastspring - in that you sell your products wholesale to us and we become the merchant of record (and it seems you're already familiar with us).
Would love to see how we can help you out (we're a little cheaper than FS too if that's a deciding factor for you).
Competition is always great. So here are my problems with Paddle:
1. Too much hidden information. The main page should specify the pricing because that's the first thing we all look at. Yes, I know about the pricing page. But a click away is one too many. And I couldn't find a list of supported countries. If I don't know the cost and if I can get it, I'm not going to waste time asking.
2. You're cheaper than FastSpring now. But when FastSpring started it was a lot cheaper and more dynamic. You're competing with PayPal, not FastSpring. And PayPal is charging 2.9% + $0.30. So start where FastSpring started, not where it is after a couple years of growth. A bonus would be to find cost-effective ways to handle different price points. A 5% fee is ok for a $5 sale, but for a $1000 sale it's a bit too much.
3. Not sure how to say this in a more diplomatic way, but your store forms look spammy. Maybe the cluttered elements, maybe the asymmetrical design. You should talk with a designer and create something cleaner and nicer. The purchase forms are the last step of a sale. If they are not perfect, the client can easily change his mind. At least this is how I feel as a seller.
Good luck. And find ways to do things better. Innovation always attract people.
1. Interesting, we don't usually get that, and maintain a fairly detailed pricing page + FAQ (https://www.paddle.com/pricing) perhaps we should link to this from the homepage.
2. I don't agree that we're trying to compete with PayPal on price. Paddle is intended to be a premium product (and thus we charge a premium over PayPal for example). Paddle handles: VAT/ Tax collection + remittance, digital product delivery and all order-related customer support for you (plus a bunch of other features and tools). We don't aim to compete with PayPal, however there is a crossover in our services. In terms of the pricing aspect, we're flexible/ open to different pricing scenarios. While a $1,000 transaction size is certainly uncommon, I do agree that this requires a little more thought on the pricing front.
3. On the checkout side of things, I find that incredibly surprising! :) We're typically told how beautiful our checkout process is (and it typically converts 2-3x higher than a usual checkout page). Could you ping over a purchase form that you're looking at? (or email me: christian@paddle.com) as I'd love to get a slightly more detailed critique.
Had no idea this had been submitted, we're working on some interesting things right now and had to put up something temporary on the domain. We'll have lots more to show soon.
Looks like someone got a little eager and prematurely shared this.
I sent a note via the website about parsing Amazon delivery notes for shipment tracking numbers, then pulling in delivery dates via FedEx/UPS etc APIs and displaying it inline in the message list (maybe even optionally in a sidebar widget, list my currently in-transit Amazon receipts).
I think that could be really interesting, and similar concepts applied to various services/notification emails.
Thanks for the feedback! We think that'd be an awesome feature as well. We've been looking into parsing automated emails from common senders (ie. amazon, twitter, etc) to display them in a more appropriate and useful manner, similar to what you've described.
Agreed. Even the most basic, low-level customer service employee should have an idea of the available products. Or even a searchable knowledge base, the lack of effort/care for something as serious as handling money (especially on the scale of PayPal's millions of daily transactions) is frightening.
Paddle has been a long-term supporter of Mac apps for many years (including CleanMyMac, Framer, Tower and more) and we’re excited about the prospect of supporting iOS apps as well – something we’ve not been able to do so far.
We’re heavily invested in keeping customer data safe and secure. We think app developers should be able to support and interact with their customers directly rather than having to go through Apple or another 3rd party to resolve any issues. Our solution will give app creators that opportunity – one that’s already the case for sales made on vendor websites.
Any kind of marketing comms will require customers to have opted in through a checkbox in the checkout process. We’re just looking to give developers the ability to ask, like is commonly done during browser-based purchases.
I’m super keen to keep an open dialogue with any developers interested in an alternative to how you currently sell your apps in iOS so don’t hesitate to reach out to me christian at paddle com