Paypal Rest API Payment or Braintree Payments

Question

I used the Paypal NVP API (Express checkout) for a long time and it worked fine. I'm now developing a new project and wanted to use the 'new' Rest API that Paypal recommends for new projects. I, however, find the documentation rather imprecise at some points and often contradictory.

I'm using their sandbox to test the payments and I noticed that the payments work fine, except that once I log in to the Paypal Buyer account, I can only select the PayPal balance to pay.

Is this a limitation of the Rest API? I want to clarify that I am based outside the US and I do not want to accept credit card payments on my own website (well, if there is no other solution, I would accept it). I'd rather have the user get redirected to the PayPal page and provide his credit card information over there. I do, however, want to give the option to the user to at least select from PayPal balance or credit card. (As I'm used to from the NVP API)

UPDATE
In the meantime, I've done a lot of additional research. On the PHP SDK page, they've added the following notice:

Important: The PayPal REST API no longer supports new direct credit card integrations. Please instead consider Braintree Direct; which is, PayPal's preferred integration solution for accepting direct credit card payments in your mobile app or website. Braintree, a PayPal service, is the easiest way to accept credit cards, PayPal, and many other payment methods.

How should I understand the direct credit card integration? Is that the credit card payment on the PayPal website after being redirected onto that page or do they mean credit card payments where the card number is provided on ones own website?

I've got the impression, PayPal is entirely shifting to Braintree Payments. Even on the official PayPal Developer website, they propose Express Checkout for quick (client side only) integrations and Braintree Direct for other payments.

This is what I need:

• PHP integration of the API calls
• Payment methods: PayPal balance, Different Credit Cards
• eventually recurring payments

I do not need:

• Third party invoicing
• client management
• shipping address management

So my concrete questions would be:

• What's the difference between Braintree and PayPal payment methods (since they belong to the same organisation)?
• Should I use PayPal Rest API or Braintree solutions in my case?
• What are those PayPal limitations that they list on their website?

Has nobody got any experience in this domain? Even partial answers are welcome!

Answer 1

I have partial answer, as I am also in the process of choosing between BrainTree, PayPal Rest API, and Express checkout.

I'm here to answer "How should I understand the direct credit card integration?"

I'm no expert on the subject, but during my recent work at the area of integration with checkout systems, I've learned this: One of the types of credit-cards is called "direct credit card". It means that it is directly connected with a bank account - when it is billed, the money is instantly transfered from the connected bank-account to the merchant. This is different than how most credit-cards work - most will only charge the bank-acoount at the beginninng of the next month.

I've come accross situations where direct cards behave differently than regular credit-cards. For instance - the checkout-system I integrate with doesn't allow to monthly-bill a direct card. direct card on a monthly payment plan have to be billed manually.

So for me, the PayPal announcement you qouted means a lot - I need to support direct credit cards, hence I'm choosing BrainTree. Thanks!

Note to moderators: I originally wanted to post this as a comment to the question, becuase I thought it would help the OP. I don't have enough reputation to comment, so I posted an Answer.