I’m doing a new project for a customer, who wants me to write the licensing/billing module in his PHP app. So, the first thing is to decide on the billing software to use. I came up with this table (kind of a braindump thing), trying to evaluate the different solutions I found.
Updated
# | Item | PayPal | Chargify | Zuora | Plimus |
1. | API | ||||
2. | Charge via API | V | V | V | V |
3. | Subscription registration via API | V | V | V | V |
4. | Allow changes in subscription plan/price via API | ? | V | V | V |
5. | Get billing information (invoices) via API | V | V | V | V |
6. | Notifications | V (API) | V- (not API, but can be automatic) | V (API) | ? |
7. | Send invoices to customers | V | V | V | V |
8. | Billing management | ||||
9. | Discounts | V | V | V | |
10. | Chargeback | V | V | V | V |
11. | Custom workflows for issue management | X | X | V | ? |
12. | Prepay discounts | V- Manual | |||
13. | Accept credit cards | V | V | V | V |
14. | Environment | ||||
15. | Free test account | V | V | V | V |
16. | Site stores customer payment information | V | V | V | V |
17. | Integration with SF | X | X | V | X |
18. | Pricing | 2.9% + 0.30c per transaction | 99$/month (depend on number of customers), additions for gateways | Not published | 8% per transaction |
19. | Customer self service portal | V | V | V | V |
What do you think? Any major player I’ve left out? Anything I should add to my criteria?
Update
I’ve started with PayPal – they have terrible documentation and API. Took me a day to actually do something – but it worked. Only then I discovered that subscriptions require a PayPal account. So I’m now evaluating Zuora. I’ll post my experience with them in future posts.