Questions about Express Checkout and IPN relating to SSL and whether PayPal account is required

[Kroptokin]

I'm trying to do a PayPal integration. I've asked the technical support department the following questions but not had an answer. Any help from any members of the forum will be really appreciated.

1) If I use Express Checkout does the buyer have to have a PayPal account?  Is this the case for both the client-side only integration and the server-side REST integration? It is a requirment of my project that buyers be able to pay using a credit card without creating a PayPal account.

2) I am looking at doing a Standard Integration. (I'm not sure what this is called these days - it doesn't seem to be being promoted?). I want to handle the IPNs. Is it essential to support SSL on my server? Either way I will probably want to implement it. Is there a simple guide as to how to install and use the correct certificates? Are self-signed certificates going to work?

With thanks

[MTS_Ciaran]

@Kroptokin welcome to the community. 

1 - Yep, the Express Checkout flow allows users to select a card if account optional is enabled on the account profile on your side. 

2- SSL certs are not required on your side for this, however if you wish to use SSL certs you can use self signed certs. Installing these certs on your server would be the same as installing for any webserver.