I currently have a merchant account with e-onlinedata (I don't really recommend them btw, their customer support is atrocious) and use Authorize.net as my payment gateway.

I've been in the hosting business for about a year, and host primarily for clients that I work directly with. It's not a big hosting venture by any means and thus I am not sure if I can justify the big fees from these two companies every month. Not to mention that anytime someone pays with AMEX, I get charged an additional (and ridiculous) fee.

Do any of the hosts here use Paypal exclusively as their payment method? I think this might be a viable alternative as I look towards growth; it is my understanding that Paypal has no monthly fees, except, they take a small % of each transaction.

I'm looking for some input as I am definitely leaning in this direction. Are customers thrown off by a company that uses Paypal as their primary/only method for payment?

Yes. me! Never have problem with paypal since Aug 2004 when i started.

No one is thrown off by paypal since you don't need a paypal account to use credit card to pay. i guess i'm lucky so far that i didn't get any trouble from paypal nor customers. i've alway heard some sad story about how paypal screw seller.

I accept PayPal and checks and money orders and I have no customers complaining about it.

If your volume is over $1,000 a month, a merchant account is usually more viable than Paypal only