Ventrian Product Forums

Hi Scott,

It's been many years since the first release of this module (and when I used it on Smart-thinker.com for non-recurring payments) but now I have a use-case for recurring subscriptions.

On PokerDIY.com, I am introducing different service levels. One of the key selling points in the new "freemium" payment model on the web is no contracts/no obligation etc/cancel at any time.

A lot of web 2.0 online services are billing monthly with a subscription - the monthly payment is recurring but you can cancel at anytime.

Here are some example sites and useeful links:

http://invoicemachine.com/pricing

http://www.icebrrg.com/signup/default.aspx

http://carsonified.com/blog/features/webapps/how-to-price-your-web-application/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/23/free-to-use-pay-to-play/

Unfortunately the current Subscription Tools does not support this as it does not support recurring payments. I still want to use it for the nice reports it has/recipting/ease-of-use etc.

Are there any plans to extend this at some point?

I was going to post a thread, but I think this might be an answer to my question.

If I use subscription tools, and my user chooses a reacurring subscription.  (ie. $5 a month) does paypal know to bill their Credit Card each month, or do they have to repay online each month?

If the latter is the case, I can't use this module because it won't work for me.

I am also looking for something that does setup fees, and this module doesn't do that.

My main question though is how does paypal do reacurring subscriptions. 

Thanks,

mike / gbrown

I'm with you. I'd love for Subscription Tools to do recurring subscription. Its been a on again / off again thing from what I can tell. I've tried some alternatives and I thought I'd briefly detail my reservations and experiences and see if others see any alternatives or misconceptions. I'll not mention other vendors names, since I don't think that would be appropriate here.

I tried another subscription module that uses Paypal and the major issue that I ran into was unexpected. For single purchases, a Paypal account is not needed, or course. For subscriptions, a Paypal account IS needed - the credit card info and billing period needs to be kept somewhere. How the Paypal account setup is handled during the initial purchase proved confusing to every user that I tested it with. They just wanted to use a credit card and have it be seamless. Alternatives that use processors such as Authorize.net are more expensive and, although there are "lite" versions, a full merchant account setup looks somewhat inevitable.

So, I came back to Subscription Tools. I eventually came to look at the renewal as a "contact opportunity" to the customer and a chance to make special offers. But, the user still has to "buy" again. This works fine for yearly and even quarter subscriptions - which is what I use. It probably is somewhat impractical for monthly.

Scott,

So is there any chance of reocurring subscription being put back in the near future?