Member Avatar for veledrom

Hi guys,

I have questions and want to clarify these before creating an e-commerce website. Are statements below correct?

1. I need to buy SSL certificate to provide HTTPS pages in my website.
2. I need to contact my local bank to enable me providing online payment things for users.
3. For the payments with PayPal requires me opening a business PayPal account.

Also, I would be happy to see rough payment figures related to the above information. For example;

SSL: Thawte SSL123 charges $69+VAT for a year.
BANKS: I have no idea about payments.
PAYPAL: I think PayPal takes 10% of every sale I do.

Thanks in advance

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by vincent2085

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Clarifications and a compact launch checklist for , building on points from , and . The primary trade-off is hosted payment providers (offsite checkout) versus an integrated merchant-account + gateway (onsite checkout). Hosted providers move most card-data handling off the site and reduce compliance work; integrated setups give a seamless checkout but require stronger security and operational controls.

Typical fee models today are a percentage plus a per-transaction fixed cent amount for retail card sales; many basic plans use a flat-rate formula for domestic cards. High-volume sellers can often negotiate lower interchange-plus pricing with an acquiring bank but may accept monthly or setup fees in exchange. Check provider pricing pages and dispute policies before committing — for examples see Stripe pricing and PayPal’s merchant fees page, and review dispute/chargeback handling such as .

TLS/SSL choices: free, automated certificates are available (for example, Let’s Encrypt). Certificate types differ (domain-validated vs organization/extended validation) and serve different trust signals. Regardless of whether checkout is hosted, use HTTPS sitewide, disable legacy protocols (SSLv3/TLS 1.0), enable modern TLS, and enforce HSTS. Test server configuration with SSL Labs SSL Test and follow PCI guidance on handling card data (PCI SSC).

Quick practical checklist

  • Decide hosted PSP vs integrated merchant/gateway and open sandbox accounts to test flows.
  • Compare fees, monthly/setup charges, supported countries/currencies, and chargeback policies.
  • Obtain/configure TLS (Let’s Encrypt or paid CA), enable TLS 1.2+/HSTS, and run SSL tests.
  • Run end-to-end sandbox transactions, confirm required PCI self-assessment or assessor steps, and document a refund/chargeback workflow.

Starting with a hosted PSP reduces technical and compliance overhead; migrate to an integrated setup only when volume and margins justify it.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for schizoman

Hi. I'll try to answer this to the best of my abilities.

1) You don't need to purchase a certificate to provide SSL, you just need to install one (which can be done for free). However, purchasing a certificate adds "comfort" for the user, as your site is verified by an independent third party. Thawte is a major player, but shop around. There's other well-known names that offer certificates for less.

2) You only need to do this if you want to process credit cards in-house. Paypal, Google Checkout and many other solutions are out there that will process credit cards for you. We haven't found the rates to be too bad where I work.

3) I don't think so. I use a premiere account, personally. I'm not sure whether we have a business account at work or not.

Not a complete answer, but I hope this helps.

Member Avatar for textbox

If you want to offer very basic ecommerce, then you could get by with just having a Paypal account. Since the transaction takes place on Paypal's site, you would not need an SSL cert.

For the ecommerce sites that we typically do, SSL runs about 250 a year through GeoTust, and Paypal Pro (30/month + trans) which integrates with our cart so the visitors checks out on your site. Integrated checkout is ideal.

Member Avatar for vincent2085

You only need to do this if you want to process credit cards in-house. Paypal, Google Checkout and many other solutions are out there that will process credit cards for you. We haven't found the rates to be too bad where I work.

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