If you’re location independent business is located fully online, or even partially online then you are most likely going to need to familiarise yourself with the best tools for online payments and transactions. And while many people are familiar with the ubiquitous PayPal, there are also many other great tools out there should you want the option of changing, or trying something different. Most are either free, or offer free trials, so I would recommend trialling a few out before you commit to a payment plan.
Here are my recommendations:
Online Invoicing
Freshbooks – Probably the most popular invoicing tool as it integrates with PayPal (and other systems), and is very user-friendly. It also offers a free trial period for you to see if it’s for you or not.
Xero – Great if you need to invoice in multiple currencies and is free to sign up and try – after which you can sign up for around $30 per month for unlimited invoicing and support.
LessAccounting – Another one of the common tools – they also offer a free 7 day trial, and plans for around $30 from thereafter.
SimplyBill – This is the most affordable of all the tools, with plans for as little as $5 per month for up to 25 invoices – they also have a free option is you invoice less than this. A great, no fuss site.
Online Payment Processing
PayPal – probably the most widely used of all online payment tools, PayPal is great for ease of use, and most people and companies are set up to use it. It’s free to sign up and use for payments, however if you are accepting payments PayPal will take a small percentage of this (around 1-2%). Some people don’t mind this, some hate it – Personally, it’s the most convenient tool for me, so I don’t mind losing a small fraction of my income to supplement this.
Google Checkout – Good old Google, they have something for everything! This tool was invented to simplify online payments and although isn’t as widespread as PayPal, is another good option on the web.
AlertPay – Another user-friendly interface, however their fees can be higher than PayPal on some occasions as they charge flat fees for some transactions, rather than a percentage. This can make small transactions expensive, so make sure you read the fine print! Alternatively, on larger transactions, these guys may end up cheaper, which is great if this is the nature of your business.
Online Shopping Carts
1shoppingcart – This is regarded as the ‘gold standard’ for most online businesses, but if you are just starting out in the business world, then it may be too over-complicated and expensive for what you need. They do however have some great features, and you can try it out for $3.95, so it might be worth doing this before you commit to your choice.
ejunkie – Another great tool which integrates easily with affiliate programs and is less expensive than other options. They also let you trial the site for a week for free, so you have nothing to lose if you want to try it out!
OScommerce – This tool is available via free software but can only be used on a server that has PHP and MySQL installed. Can be tricky if you want to customise anything.
ZenCart – Personally, I don’t find this site very user-friendly due to it being PHP-based (using a MySQL database and HTML components) but if you’re a programmer then this might be perfect.
Photo Credit – Thanks to Andres Rueda (Attribution License)
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A great resource list, I’m a big fan of Freshbooks, much more professional than the invoices I was making in Excel just last month! One thing worth noting is that Paypal has a built-in invoicing system that (while not as pleasant to work with as Freshbooks) is still pretty robust.
Subernova is a great project management tool I found a couple of weeks back and that builds in invoicing and time tracking as well; this can be handy if you like a tech solution to working out how much your clients owe you.
Hey John, thanks – great tips! I’ll update with this! : )