Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas?

#21

Post by trafficlight » Tue, Nov 03, 2009, 4:21 PM UTC

paraschopra wrote: post #3

trafficlight wrote: post #2

Have you given Freshbooks a try? http://freshbooks.com

I always thought Freshbooks is for freelancers who want to bill their clients. Will definitely see if it serves my purpose. Thanks

Well, technically it is. But Freshbooks does have options for sending recurring invoices and doing recurring credit card charges (two seperate processes). It also has a really nice API.

Re: Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas?

#22

Post by marcguyer » Tue, Nov 03, 2009, 4:52 PM UTC

pplante wrote: post #7

Check out http://cheddargetter.com Incredibly simple API with libraries for most languages. But it does require an Authorize.net merchant account to tie into.

CheddarGetter does much more than recurring billing: branded fully customizable email communication, transaction error management automation, usage tracking, overage charges, microbilling, analytics. Free to try. No merchant account required during development.

Re: Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas?

#23

Post by marcguyer » Tue, Nov 03, 2009, 4:57 PM UTC

bazookaaa wrote: post #9

I highly recommend http://spreedly.com . Has a great API and recurring billing is built-in so you don't need to pay extra for it on PayPal or Authorize.

Spreedly has a per-transaction percentage charge on top of all the other per-transaction fees you pay to the gateway/bank/etc. Not a great option long-term. http://cheddargetter.com and http://chargify.com are much better options. CheddarGetter is a very robust service with usage tracking, branded email communication and microbilling features. Chargify includes a drop-in generic interface like Spreedly.

Re: Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas?

#24

Post by bjclark » Tue, Nov 03, 2009, 6:31 PM UTC

I'm one of the developers from Chargify. Are you in our private beta? Can I help you with anything?

Re: Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas?

#25

Post by Recurly » Sat, Nov 07, 2009, 10:31 PM UTC

Another option to take a look at is http://recurly.com/ We offer a super simple RESTful api that lets add payment functionality to your sites. We also handle all the complexities of upgrades/downgrades and subscription management. We're here to help :)

Re: Ask HN: A subscription/recurring billing service that just works. Any ideas?

#26

Post by trefn » Tue, Nov 10, 2009, 5:18 AM UTC

karthikm wrote: post #14

Amazon Flexible Payment Service (FPS) is a good option as well. In addition to recurring payments, FPS also supports aggregated payments for micro-transactions. If you want the cheapest solution, you might want to try Noca (www.noca.com) which supports recurring transactions but everything happens through ACH and hence it has its own set of hassles.

We've been using FPS and it's not ideal. The only way to get credit card info is by directing your visitors offsite to a co-branded amazon page.

We've also had quite a few problems getting our transactions to complete - about half of the transactions from this month are still pending.