Payment/hosting providers for desktop software?

Hi all, sorry to be joining you at the last minute! We are a New Zealand company wanting to start selling a desktop B2B software product. As this is an old-skool downloaded item and most providers now seem to be expecting SaaS, we would really appreciate any recommendations for providers who can still deal with software downloads. Many thanks!

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Hi Nick. I’m in a similar situation to you. I’m also in New Zealand, selling downloadable software products globally. Happy to have a phone-call - just reach out to me with your number via DM.

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Hi Gareth, that would be great. For the life of me I can’t find a way to DM you on this site, so my business partner Natasha has sent you a LinkedIn request with more info. Many thanks.

We’re using https://www.mycommerce.com/ since 2005 (they were ShareIt then), without much trouble.

We also used Avangate, which was acquired by 2checkout, which is now called Verifone? If we forget about name changes, Avangate was also very good, with better control panel, shopping cart and support, but with occasional glitches as well.

They both do what you need, handle taxes, etc. For a while we used both, but we needed to integrate a bit more with payment processor, to insert new orders into our database automatically, etc. and we settled with MyCommerce.

I have used Paddle (https://paddle.com/) in the past – quite a wonderful solution. Nothing but good things to say about them.

Many thanks - I’ll put them on my list!

Thanks, good to know - 2Checkout was recommended in a MicroISV book which is now out of date in general, and I saw they were still going under a new name and wondered if they were any good. Considering that some of the other payment processors recommended in the book are now long gone, I kind of like the idea of someone who’s been around for a good long while. Where possible I’d rather avoid the disruption of having to switch providers.

They were great when they were Avangate. Unfortunately they get less great with each acquisition. They recently took over a week to give me a substantive answer to a question about a customer refund, which is clearly nowhere near good enough.

Fastspring also used to be well regarded, but now seem famous mainly for their predatory sales practises.

Have heard good things about Paddle, but they aren’t the cheapest.

Thanks. It seems like none of the options are exactly a slam dunk.

A lot of people use Stripe. But they aren’t a ‘merchant of record’. Which means you are responsible for collecting and remitting tax. I want a merchant of record payment processor to do that for me, even if it costs more.

Yes, exactly. That’s what we’re after as well.