Braintree's integration options come in layers: client SDKs for web and mobile, a server SDK for the backend call that actually authorizes and settles the charge, a prebuilt Drop-in UI if you want a working payment form fast, Hosted Fields if you want your own styling while card data still stays inside Braintree's PCI scope, and a newer GraphQL API as an alternative to the original REST one. We don't replace any of that. We build what wires a captured transaction and a vaulted payment method into the rest of your business, instead of letting a successful charge just sit in Braintree's own dashboard.
A Braintree integration has two sides that work together: a client-side piece (the SDK running in your app or site, through Drop-in or Hosted Fields) that collects payment details and turns them into a secure, single-use token, and a server-side call that takes that token and actually runs the transaction. Neither side touches raw card data directly once Drop-in or Hosted Fields is doing the work, which is exactly why Braintree built it that way.
Drop-in gets you a working, styled payment form with the least amount of code, including Braintree's own saved-payment-method UI. Hosted Fields trades some of that convenience for full control over how each field looks, while the actual card input still lives inside a Braintree-controlled iframe behind the scenes. The GraphQL API is a newer option sitting alongside the original REST API, useful if your team already prefers GraphQL's single-endpoint, ask-for-what-you-need style.
Every integration gets built and tested against Braintree's sandbox first, a separate environment with its own test credentials and documented test card numbers, before it ever touches a live merchant account.
Getting a charge to authorize successfully is the easy 80% of the work. What happens after that, matching the transaction to the order it paid for, keeping a vaulted payment method's status current wherever else it's referenced, rolling settled transactions into accounting, isn't something the SDK or the API hands you automatically. Braintree tells you a transaction settled. It doesn't know what that should trigger on your side.
That gap gets wider once subscriptions or saved payment methods are involved. A customer's vaulted card getting updated or removed in Braintree doesn't automatically update anywhere else that card is referenced, like a CRM record a support rep is looking at.
A transaction authorized through Drop-in automatically updates order status and reserves stock the moment it clears, instead of someone refreshing the Braintree dashboard to confirm a payment went through before fulfillment starts.
When a customer's stored payment method changes or gets removed in Braintree's vault, that change reflects in the CRM record automatically, so support isn't working from stale card-on-file information during a call.
Tell us what happens after a Braintree transaction authorizes right now, where it gets logged, what it's supposed to trigger, who checks it. That's usually enough to scope what's worth building.
A working SDK integration and a fully automated business aren't the same thing. Tell us what still happens by hand once a Braintree charge clears, and we'll look at building past it. Braintree's just the example here; the same question applies to whatever payment platform you're actually running.
Let's talk →Yes, a separate test environment with its own credentials and a set of documented test card numbers that simulate specific outcomes, like an approval or a particular decline code, so you can build and test an integration without touching real transactions.
Drop-in is Braintree's prebuilt, already-styled payment form, the fastest way to get a working checkout. Hosted Fields lets you build and style your own form fields while the actual card input still runs inside a Braintree-controlled iframe, which keeps raw card data out of your own code.
Yes, as an alternative to its original REST API, covering much of the same functionality through a single GraphQL endpoint rather than separate REST routes.
Yes, native SDKs exist for iOS and Android, alongside the web, server-side, and GraphQL options.
At Braintree's developer portal, which covers the client and server SDKs, Drop-in and Hosted Fields, the GraphQL API, and sandbox setup.