PayPal
Online payment service for sending money, checking out online, and processing merchant payments.
Liked for buyer protection123 and for paying unfamiliar sites without handing over card details456, and as a fallback where Stripe or other options aren't available.789 The most common complaint is its fees1011, and one small-business owner says it held company funds over fraud claims they call baseless.12
Why people recommend it
Card privacy · 3
Lets buyers pay without giving card numbers or bank details to random or one-off sites.
“it's quicker and easier as I can do it without getting my card out of my bag.”
“I'll opt for PayPal instead since I already have my credit/debit cards saved there”
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“these days I use PayPal to send and receive money from strangers”
Fallback availability · 3
Accepted where other methods aren't, including by international sellers and in countries without Stripe.
“I'd love to delete my PayPal account and never log in again, but the use case for me right now is mostly that companies (outside Canada, and outside NA in most cases) usually only accept payment with PayPal.”
“so I used PayPal for this project”
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“it can still be handy now and then”
Buyer protection · 3
Buyers value fast refunds when something goes wrong.
“I love PayPal, some incident and I have my money in no time back.”
“its buyer protection is one of the significant reasons that I keep using Paypal for online payments.”
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“PP lets me accept payments from a completely passive website. No code!”
Convenience · 3
Quicker checkout without fetching a physical card.
“PayPal with immediate bank transfer is usually a little more convenient.”
“it's quicker and easier as I can do it without getting my card out of my bag.”
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“I'll opt for PayPal instead since I already have my credit/debit cards saved there”
No-code selling · 2
A seller accepts payments from a static website with no code and zero IT costs.
“PP lets me accept payments from a completely passive website. No code!”
“Payments are optional and handled through Stripe or Paypal hosted checkout”
Caveats and dissent
Fees · 2
Commenters note that PayPal takes a noticeable cut.
“I love PayPal, some incident and I have my money in no time back.”
“I'll opt for PayPal instead since I already have my credit/debit cards saved there”
Account holds · 1
A business owner says PayPal held company money over alleged fraud with no recourse.
“They held and stole quite a bit of money from my company when it was small 'for fraud'”
Developer integration · 1
A developer disliked PayPal's handling of Braintree and its forced migration to worse webhooks.
Declining need · 2
Some use it less as Apple Pay and local options spread, and keep it only out of necessity.
“it can still be handy now and then”
“I'd love to delete my PayPal account and never log in again, but the use case for me right now is mostly that companies (outside Canada, and outside NA in most cases) usually only accept payment with PayPal.”
CPU usage · 1
One commenter lists PayPal among sites that peg a CPU core.
“Paypal: pegs a core”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Stripe said to abandon $50B pursuit of PayPal 10 mentions
- Stripe, Advent offer to buy PayPal for more than $53B 3 mentions
- Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board? 1 mention
- Show HN: Minvoice – invoicing app that runs on Cloudflare Workers and D1 1 mention
- Anthropic to Require ID Verification for Certain Capabilities Starting July 8 1 mention
- The Marketplace for AI Builders 1 mention
Data: paypal.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 18
“PP lets me accept payments from a completely passive website. No code!”
“I love PayPal, some incident and I have my money in no time back.”
“PayPal with immediate bank transfer is usually a little more convenient.”
“these days I use PayPal to send and receive money from strangers”
“it's quicker and easier as I can do it without getting my card out of my bag.”
“I use it on e-commerce sites for first purchase or if it's unlikely I'm going to buy anything from the same site again.”
“PayPal is the payment method I use for Google Pay”
“it can still be handy now and then”
“They held and stole quite a bit of money from my company when it was small 'for fraud'”
“I'd love to delete my PayPal account and never log in again, but the use case for me right now is mostly that companies (outside Canada, and outside NA in most cases) usually only accept payment with PayPal.”
“its buyer protection is one of the significant reasons that I keep using Paypal for online payments.”
“I hate paypal.”
“I'll opt for PayPal instead since I already have my credit/debit cards saved there”
“Paypal: pegs a core”
“Payments are optional and handled through Stripe or Paypal hosted checkout”
“I use Paypal wherever supported.”
“so I used PayPal for this project”
“Is it really just PayPal left offering a sane online payment service?”