Hosted Payment Page vs CC Payment on Zen Page

I am looking to get other people's thoughts on payment processing.

Which do you think is better, using a hosted payment page where CC info. is entered on the merchant account company's page, or having customers enter the CC info. without leaving your website. Doing everything within the website would, of course, be done using a secure server and SSL, and no CC info. would be stored in the database.

With the extra security concerns and the need to obtain PCI compliance, it is more expensive and more work accepting CC info. on your website, but is it all worth it in terms of extra sales?

Has anyone found that customer buying confidence increases when they don't have to leave your site to enter their CC info.? Do conversion rates increase? Do sales increase when they don't have to leave the website?

Does anyone have any data/experience/comments on this matter?

With the extra security concerns and the need to obtain PCI compliance, it is more expensive and more work accepting CC info. on your website, but is it all worth it in terms of extra sales?

Fewer steps equal more sales - keep'em ON your site.

Kim:

Fewer steps equal more sales - keep'em ON your site.

Yes, I am thinking it is probably best to keep customers on my site. I have already talked to my site hoster and they will move my site from a shared server to a VPS server. They said they will make sure it is PCI compliant and will work with my merchant account provider to have that completed.

Thanks Kim