I am also looking for a good online API for sending and receiving payments. I've tried everything from Bitpay to Blockchain to Coinify and others. I've managed to get an API key from Blockchain after a loooong email exchange but I need more as I am a web developer and I need one for every customer of mine if he needs to accept bitcoin in his shop. Blocktrail looks good but their API is still in BETA so I won't be using it anytime soon.

If someone could recommend a good online API like Blockchain but without the annoying key request or if someone could show me how to setup a bitcoin daemon and hook it to my web apps I'd be grateful.