Fontdue. No Paypal?

Supherb
Supherb Posts: 11
in Type Business

I’m really frustrated right now. I genuinely loved the Fontdue platform, but after investing a lot of time and money into building my website, I later discovered that they don’t support PayPal for client payments in the U.S.

That’s a huge setback for me and honestly has killed my motivation to keep working on the site. From my experience, most people I know here primarily use PayPal rather than the other payment options available.

Does anyone know of a simple workaround to integrate PayPal with a Fontdue site? If not, are there any alternative platforms similar to Fontdue that do support it?


Thanks!

Tagged:

Comments

  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 348
    edited April 17
    My impression is that PayPal is really important. Stripe doesn't work in many countries, and many digital nomads (or nomads by the force of circumstances) can't easily open bank accounts, get cards, etc.  Also, there is still some skepticism about paying with cards directly.

    Some people gave up on the type business because PayPal doesn't work in their countries. I didn't explore that argument further.

    I would say that what is described here as the Fontdue options is the western default point of view. (which is a legitimate business strategy, if it is a strategy and not a misconception).
  • Supherb
    Supherb Posts: 11
    edited April 17

    For over six years, I’ve been running a very successful online business (unrelated to type), and the largest portion of our customers—both domestic and international—use PayPal.

    I want to be clear that this isn’t criticism of Fontdue—I really love how easy the platform is to use, how you can customize everything and their customer support is amazing. However, the limited payment options (no PayPal)  are a bottleneck for growing our U.S.-based type business.

    As Igor mentioned, there’s still some hesitation around paying directly with cards. On top of that, most customers aren’t willing to create a new Stripe account just to purchase fonts.

    With that in mind, again, can anyone recommend alternative platforms similar to Fontdue that also support PayPal?

  • Stuart Sandler
    Stuart Sandler Posts: 401
    Ahem . . . https://typedrawers.com/discussion/5527/need-a-foundry-website-font-bros-has-you-covered
  • Thierry Blancpain
    Thierry Blancpain Posts: 223
    I’ve run a successful type foundry for over 16 years, and we haven’t offered Paypal payments in the last 13 years or so. You absolutely do not need Paypal as a payment option to run a successful foundry.
  • Moritz Kleinsorge
    Moritz Kleinsorge Posts: 32
    Supherb said:

    As Igor mentioned, there’s still some hesitation around paying directly with cards. On top of that, most customers aren’t willing to create a new Stripe account just to purchase fonts.

    There is no need for the customer to create a Stripe Account. 
  • Supherb
    Supherb Posts: 11
    Moritz Kleinsorge said:
    Supherb said:

    "still some hesitation around paying directly with cards" <------READ

    There is no need for the customer to create a Stripe Account. 

    I’m really glad to hear some of you are doing well without PayPal. That said, it’s worth seriously considering how many U.S.-based sales might be slipping through the cracks without it as a payment option.

    Does anyone else have suggestions for a solution or an alternative platform that is easy and works well PayPal ?

    TY!

  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,643
    edited April 18
    Stripe’s documentation indicates that there is a way to integrate PayPal payments into a commerce site using Stripe Connect. I’ve not tried this, and I don’t know how Fontdue is set up in this regard, but it doesn’t look intrinsically impossible to accept PayPal via Stripe.

    https://docs.stripe.com/payments/paypal
  • Supherb
    Supherb Posts: 11
    I reviewed the Stripe documentation and reached out to their support team. Ultimately, enabling or incorporating that option is at Fontdue’s discretion
  • Moritz Kleinsorge
    Moritz Kleinsorge Posts: 32
    https://docs.fontdue.com/payments-with-stripe -> there is also a sentence about Paypal

  • Typedesigner
    Typedesigner Posts: 104
    On my website, Typedesigner.de, I don’t use Fontdue or any other third-party platform — everything is developed in-house. I also don’t offer PayPal, as my focus is primarily B2B, where PayPal isn’t typically required.
  • Alex Visi
    Alex Visi Posts: 194
    Igor Petrovic said:
    Stripe doesn't work in many countries, and many digital nomads (or nomads by the force of circumstances) can't easily open bank accounts, get cards, etc.  Also, there is still some skepticism about paying with cards directly.
    Can you give an example, please? It sounds absolutely fictional. For customers, Stripe works nearly worldwide (or at least in the same countries as PayPal) since they simply need a payment card. It’s hard to imagine a person who needs fonts, doesn’t have access to payment cards, but does to PayPal. Do they then buy bread with PayPal, since you can’t get cash out of it without a bank account?
  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 348
    edited April 19
    Alex Visi said:
    Can you give an example, please? 
    In Serbia, PayPal works, and Stripe does not. One can simply search mismatch countries.

    My comment was mainly from the foundry perspective, assuming that the type foundry can't withdraw money to their PayPal. If so, that could be a real problem.

    I might be wrong, and anyone these days can easily assess the situation simply by asking AI, no need for lengthy elaborations here. As the rough indication, here is what I got from ChatGPT:

    Stripe alone can work globally—but not having PayPal can absolutely cost you conversions in certain segments.

    Again, it is legitimate whatever one decide it is the best business strategy, just saying that aside from the Western business zone, things can get pretty far from default.

    For business, local vs abroad payments are two different categories, depending on the legislation. Separate cards are issued, with different currencies... In many countries income from abroad requires specific workarounds, etc.

    For customers, they can use their cards, but if they don't want or can't for whatever reason, PayPal is the most universal service. This is a pretty dynamic world in terms of migrations, to take that just as an example.   


  • Alex Visi
    Alex Visi Posts: 194
    edited April 19
    Igor Petrovic said:

    In Serbia, PayPal works, and Stripe does not. One can simply search mismatch countries.
       
    The (short-ish) list of countries on Stripe’s website is for sellers, but not for customers. Regarding customers, it says “you'll be able to sell to customers anywhere in the world”. In Serbia, customers can pay with regular payment cards. GPT says visa and mastercard are commonly used. Stripe also has a bunch of local cards, including Serbian DinaCard, listed for testing successful payments, so they must work as well.

    Igor Petrovic said:

    My comment was mainly from the foundry perspective, assuming that the type foundry can't withdraw money to their PayPal. If so, that could be a real problem.   
    Well, the topic starter has access to Fontdue, so it probably not the concern. But for sure, if the foundry itself is based in a country not supported by Stripe, that’s tough. They still need an alternative to accept card payments, which are all likely worse.

    Igor Petrovic said:

    For business, local vs abroad payments are two different categories, depending on the legislation. Separate cards are issued, with different currencies... In many countries income from abroad requires specific workarounds, etc.   
    Well, that’s the same regardless of payment methods, isn’t it

    Igor Petrovic said:

    Again, it is legitimate whatever one decide it is the best business strategy, just saying that aside from the Western business zone, things can get pretty far from default. 

    For customers, they can use their cards, but if they don't want or can't for whatever reason, PayPal is the most universal service. This is a pretty dynamic world in terms of migrations, to take that just as an example.   
    This is my main point here—for customers, Stripe isn’t less accessible or more Western-centric than PayPal because its support is at least the same, but maybe better since customer don’t need to register an account with stripe. Immigrants also use regular cards, it’s hard to get away with cash only nowadays.

    I’m not arguing against personal preferences or tough realities for foundries based in “non-included” countries though.

Categories