Get to know braintree
There are many options for online payments for your web application, android or iOS application, most of them are based on JavaScript or a packet for a mobile application, most of this option are old and not updated, the changes that this install methods have offered are minimal. The most used service for online payment is PayPal having in my opinion one of the easiest methods for incorporating a payment service to a web application, PayPal offers a sandbox environment for developers in order to test if the service is properly installed.
The thing about PayPal is that the client part in not updated, basically it only redirects the user to a PayPal page with the total and who to pay; this method has not changed in years. They way of actually putting money in to PayPal is basically limited to credit cards, bank transfers and receiving money from another PayPal account.
PayPal is a good service used all around the world making easy global payments but is hasn’t changed much.
Braintree is a new “product” PayPal has created, it’s an API used for many web frameworks and mobile applications, this allows the creators to incorporate an API inside the framework environment. In the server side Braintree offers support for ruby, python, PHP, node.js, java and .NET. Also in the client side it gives support for both IOS and android and like the old fashioned PayPal vanilla you have a JavaScript for plain web development.
The payment methods that Braintree allows your customers to is much larger than the most popular payment methods used nowadays. Braintree accepts payment methods such as, PayPal, credit cards, bitcoin, venom, apple pay and android pay. This allows the developer to create a payments environment that allows the customer many options for paying.
In this stage of development Braintree is already used by major companies; one of the major drawbacks I see is the availability and payment options for each country, for example a bitcoin payment is only available in USA, and Braintree can only be used in 44 countries (list in the website)
This kind of companies that allow bitcoin transactions generate a growth in the society; also the fact that you can just download a working demo from braintree’s git allows an easy development, if any developer wants to test a working environment they already give you the tools pre-made, you don’t need to put much effort just to see if this is the proper tool for the job.
In a personal opinion crypto-currency is the way to go for online payments; not many people use this kind of payment method because of the possible difficulties, but this is the way for people to start accepting different payment methods without being afraid or having extra difficulties, i see braintree as an example for a way to look up and go.