How can I charge a recurring monthly subscription fee for my website?

Question

My business is setting up online billing using PayPal and Google checkout. I'm looking for the best way to charge a recurring monthly service fee for my website. My site is subscription based and I charge X amount of dollars per month. I want to bill the customer's credit card each month for that monthly fee. The subscriber to the site knows that it is an ongoing monthly service charge when they sign up.

I'm looking for the quickest, easiest, best, most reliable way to charge this recurring fee. I'd prefer to have the monthly fee just show up on their monthly credit card statement like it does on mine for many services I use like Slicehost.

Essie

Answer 1

Google Checkout doesn't currently support recurring billing, but it is on their Feature Suggestions page.

PayPal supports Recurring Payments either manually or through their API.

I'd highly recommend using PayPal's API, as it's straightforward, well documented, and you can easily test everything out on your non-production sites by using PayPal's Developer Site.

Rodgers

It looks like this question is still active, so I wanted to post and add that my current favorite payment processor is now Braintree: link – Rodgers

Link update: developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/classic/… – Oxazine

Wanted to add that Google Checkout is, like all things Google, going away on a sailboat. It's no longer a viable solution after November 20th, 2013. – Labia

Answer 2

NOTE: Google checkout now DOES support recurring payments -- they just implemented it!

Geotropism

Answer 3

Goole Checkout now supports "Recurring charges and subscriptions" in beta mode

There's more info at Google's site

Inattentive