How to implement eCommerce susbscription service with multiple products

Question

I've been researching eCommerce payment gateways and service offerings, but I'm an eCommerce novice, so please excuse my ignorance.

I wish to set up an eCommerce solution with the following requirements:

1. User "subscribes" to the service on a yearly basis. This service includes a single product subscription for a set amount (let's say $50/yr).
2. User can "subscribe" to additional product services for a lesser rate per year (let's say $25/yr).
3. I will need to store a product service unique Id of some sort for each product subscription the user subscribes to in order to show them product unique information. I also need to prevent duplicates...for example, user can subscribe to product ABC and XYZ, but not 2 of ABC.

Is PayPal the best solution for something like this? Is there a better solution? Any assistance is greatly appreciated, even if just links to specific tutorials or examples.

Update: It looks like Chargify could be the perfect solution.

Answer 1

You can also use Authorize.Net's CIM solution which, based on what I read at the chargify website, does most of what chargify does except your customers never need to leave your website. The Customer Information Manager allows you to create profiles for your members. These profiles store sensitive information like credit card numbers and billing information so you don't have to worry about PCI compliance or hackers stealing your information. You then can schedule a cron job to charge them monthly for whatever amount they owe based on their current subscription. Since you control when the payments happen it also allows you to charge them pro-rated amounts for subscription changes mid-month.

Answer 2

[link text][1] seems to be the best solution for me. I still need a merchant account, but this takes a lot of the headache out of handling the subscriptions.

[1]: http://chargify.com Chargify

Answer 3

check out solutions offered by Recurly.com. They have super simple pricing and easy integration.