Why do developers choose not to use your product?

Introduction 

Adoption of 3rd party tools is a big step for developers. Apart from functionality, our decision is based on many other factors, like estimating how long it will take to integrate or how easy it will be to implement the solution. 

Let's explore why developers might not choose your product. test

Initial Expectations

In 2018, I was given the opportunity to implement a 3rd party Payment gateway into our company web application. I was eager to start because I was given absolute freedom in choosing the provider. Back then the process of choosing a 3rd party could be done only by googling. I found about 30 solutions that promised to solve my problem. Free trials, freemium, or paid subscriptions were the first things I was looking at. Price and user-friendly design were the main deciding factors, though. Later, I realized my mistake. 

Integration Complexity and Documentation Issues

I found a good enough solution. Signed up, logged in, and started the integration process. I was provided with a “.doc” document that served as a guide (documentation). Step by step, I followed the instructions. Even though the instructions were sometimes unclear, I managed to get everything done with the help of my senior colleagues. I was excited to see how the output of many hours of struggle will look. I pressed F5, and there it was, a beautiful payment gateway… But it didn't work. The documentation in the form of a Word document was 9 months old, so I thought maybe some changes in the product were not reflected there. This misalignment led to numerous failed API calls and invalid data parsing, further impeding our integration efforts. What was initially scoped as a couple hours of work took me the whole day.

Poor Developer Support

Let's begin with troubleshooting. Googling, YouTube guides, Reddit. Nothing solved my problem, but I was used to that. I called the support line, spent some time in the queue, and was connected to a “very eager to help” person. He had just started working there, and with the help of his colleagues, he managed to give me the help I needed. Finally, it worked the way it should have. For some time anyway. 

Limited Functionality

After a couple of months, our customer wanted to derive more data. Back to the support line, asking them to provide them in responses. The rigidity of their system did not allow that for us. It would be too expensive. We had no choice but to start again to look for another solution, which we eventually found. It was more expensive but worked relatively better. Although the friction points during integration were almost the same. We stayed with that provider for a year until we bumped into one of their competitors, who had a totally different approach to their API product.