Portone PG Contract Review

Introduction

While operating the multilingual blog service DLog, I wanted to provide subscription-based paid features. For this, a credit card recurring payment feature was needed, which inevitably required a contract with a PG company. While considering various methods, I learned that by using Portone, the same code could be used even if the PG company changed, which was a huge advantage. Portone was impressive in serving as a stable intermediary between the PG company and developers. In this post, I would like to share the process of contracting with Toss Payments through Portone and setting up a recurring payment system.

Reasons for Choosing Portone

Various PG Companies to Choose From

Various payment services such as general card payments, recurring payments, easy payments, international payments, and identity verification are possible, and Portone provides extensive support for them.

Well-documented

The integration methods are well summarized in the official developer documentation, and I was able to receive quick and friendly responses even when facing difficulties during the integration process.

Documents Required for Actual Contract

📄 Business Registration Certificate

This is a required document for contracting with a PG company. I also registered as a business, and although I registered my home address as I didn't have an office, there was a disadvantage of my home address being public. You can change it later by obtaining an office or a non-residential office.

E-commerce Registration

To sell subscription products through the web/app, an e-commerce registration was required. It can be done on Government 24, and an annual fee of about 40,000 won must be paid in January.

Refund Policy URL

A page specifying refund criteria and procedures must be included in the service, and the URL of this document must be submitted to the PG company. [Example]

Progress of Contracting with Toss Payments

The best part of contracting with Toss Payments through Portone was the clear guidance and quick feedback. In my case, I could receive a response within 1-2 days on average, and by following the guidance of the person in charge, I was able to complete the process quickly without major difficulties.

From application to contract completion, all processes were completed within about a week, and the flow was sufficiently friendly to follow even for me who was conducting a PG company contract for the first time.

Through this experience, I was able to familiarize myself with the PG company contract process, and I also gained confidence that I would be able to proceed much faster and smoother when launching a new service in the future.

Recurring Payment Method

The service I applied for was credit card recurring payments, and the implementation was divided into two main methods. One is the billing key method, and the other is the direct payment method through API.

Billing Key Method

When users enter their card information through Toss Payments' payment widget, the card information is securely stored by Toss Payments, and only a billing key that can be used for payment is provided to us.

Since card information is not stored directly, the security burden is low
The PG company review and contract process is relatively simple and fast

API Direct Payment Method

This method involves directly storing or receiving card information to process payments.

It has the advantage of being able to flexibly configure UI/UX without using a payment widget,
However, it may require strict security requirements, complying with security certifications such as PCI-DSS.

Currently, DLog blog is using the billing key method, which was considered advantageous for its simple and quick initial setup.

However, I would like to experience both methods and plan to test the API method in the future.

Future Questions

Whether I need to pay Portone membership or review fees again when launching a new service
Whether recurring payments can be applied to multiple subdomain services with one PG company contract