PayPal may be feeling the heat from more developer-friendly online payment processors like Braintree and Stripe. The company announced it is updating its bag of tools for developers, releasing a new mobile SDK and easier code for integrating PayPal as a payment method.

"Back in 2009, PayPal was the first financial company to open up its payments APIs for developers around the world. However, our tools haven’t kept up with the bleeding edge of innovation that the industry expects of us," said James Barrese, CTO of PayPal, on the company blog.

The new developer tools were announced as a part of PayPal's participation in SXSW, the Austin, Texas-based music, film and technology festival that runs from March 8-12. The tools include:

• Mobile SDK – a software development kit that lets developers integrate PayPal as a payment method without having to leave the app. Additionally, customers can use card.io, the technology PayPal acquired last year, to simply scan a credit card to pay. 
• PayPal is releasing the SDK for iOS devices immediately but said other platforms will be available soon. JavaScript PayPal Buttons – Adding a pay with PayPal feature is now a matter of adding five lines of code to a website, shopping cart or a QR code, PayPal said. 
• Tokenization – New APIs for developers will tokenize credit cards to handle data more securely as well as limit PCI compliance issues. 
• Developer Website – PayPal also launched a new website dedicated to developers that consolidates tools like a sandbox, documentation and resources all in one place.

"We listened when our developers said they wanted better capabilities from us, and now we’re doubling down on our developer programs to deliver the best tools in the industry," Barrese said.

PayPal promised additional APIs and capabilities would be released through 2013.

Read more about digital/mobile wallets.