It has a field “subscription_total_occurrences” that can be set. So.. if the interval is for 1 month, that number would be 3. Of if the interval was for billing every 3 months… that number would be 1.

So in short: yes.

Hi Chris,

You’ve mention that your beta testing a membership system at the moment. I was wondering:
– When it’s released completely will it support EE 1.6 and 2.0?
– Will it be able to manipulate members and their groups as well well and fire emails in a similar way to memberrr?
– Do you think it will be available within the next 4–6 months?

The project I’m working on requires a shop immediately which I’m using carthrob for because it will allow me to control the look and feel of the entire ordering process. However because of that I’m going to have to build the two websites using EE 1.6.8 so that I can use cart throb.

Further down the line we will be adding support for online memberships and the ability to create recurring billing on a monthly basis. My client and I both want to use carthrob for the main shopping cart experience but also want to know if we’ll be able to use it for the membership in a few months as well? and if it will support modifying member groups as well as sending email events to various parties?

Otherwise I’ll have to look at an alternative such as memberrr. However that processes payments on the merchants website which means the user is re-directed away from the website and we would prefer to control the entire process.

– When it’s released completely will it support EE 1.6 and 2.0?

There are no concrete plans for its release.

Will it be able to manipulate members and their groups as well well and fire emails in a similar way to memberrr?

That’s a member subscription system, which is different than a recurrent billing system. The current system does not handle membership. While I’d like to work on a membership system, we’re not currently working on one at all.

o you think it will be available within the next 4–6 months?

We have no concrete plans for release.

Further down the line we will be adding support for online memberships and the ability to create recurring billing on a monthly basis. My client and I both want to use carthrob for the main shopping cart experience but also want to know if we’ll be able to use it for the membership in a few months as well?

I’d love to have a subscription piece… but we’re currently concentrating only on completing the EE 2.1 version of cartthrob. Once that’s done we’ll assess our next steps.

Otherwise I’ll have to look at an alternative such as memberrr.

We could probably write a custom gateway for membrrr…

Hi Chris,

Thanks for you response. I had a meeting with my client only a few hours after you reply so that was perfect timing. For now we want to keep the subscription process as simple as possible because we don’t know exactly how successful the subscriptions will be. Because of that the client would be more than happy to use something like your beta version that you’ve been exploring now instead of setting up something more significant like membrrr. And seeing how things progress over the next year.

We would definitely be using PayPal Pro as I believe the client already has that system in place for their existing eCommerce website.

I totally understand that your system only sets up members but doesn’t assign or de-assign member groups. I’ve seen that paypal notifies the client when recurring payments are received and cancelled etc anyway and my client is more than happy to log in and change the member group manually for now.

What I did wonder is how the recurring payments works with your existing checkout experience? In the paypal documentation the user clicks the link and then all information is entered on the paypal website. How does your solution work in comparison? Does the user still enter and pay for everything on the client’s website through CT? As they need to have a paypal account for recurring payments to be used don’t they?

I’ve attached a screenshot of the paypal checkout experience from their integration guide and wondered how your beta system compared? And also if you’d be willing to allow myself and my client to Beta your recurring payments in the new website we’re developing?

Our recurrent billing system does not work with PayPal standard (where the customer is taken offsite)... only (currently) on PayPal pro and Authorize.net. With both of these methods, the purchase/signup is made directly on site. Your screenshot is references the Payapl “Subscribe” button… which does not interact in any way with CartThrob and is irrelevant to the way the recurrent billing system add-on works. With our recurrent billing system a customer goes through the purchase funnel like they would for any other product… so indistinguishable from any other CartThrob installation. The main thing the add-on provides is a way for the CartThrob system to generate recurrent billing requests & provide the customer a way of managing recurrent billing account data.

Ah okay, I was searching for information on PayPals recurring billing service and that the best pdf I found.

Does this mean that a member would manage the subscription and payments directly from their account page? I assume there’s some extra tags that we can use to display any existing subscription plans along with the ability to cancel or renew? In the same way that we can show any previous transactions? And then PayPal Pro will still notify the client about payments and cancellations etc like a regular PayPal recurring payment plan?

It does sound like your beta recurring payments add-on will do exactly what we require at the moment. You answered my concern because I absolutely no NOT want to be take offsite (as with PayPal Standard) I want the user to remain on the website throughout the entire checkout experience which is exactly what you have just confirmed.

Is there any chance that we may be able to integrate your recurrent billing system in the new website as it is developed over the next month or so?

Does this mean that a member would manage the subscription and payments directly from their account page?

Yes

I assume there’s some extra tags that we can use to display any existing subscription plans along with the ability to cancel or renew?

Yes

Is there any chance that we may be able to integrate your recurrent billing system in the new website as it is developed over the next month or so?

Send me a PM with your email address. We’ll go from there.

Could I use this for something like a vitamin subscription plan?  I have a product that sells in much the same way, where a physical good would be sold monthly recurring for 1 year, and then be up for renewal.

Billing would be automatic, but cancelable by the customer at any point.

Let me know when yo u have a chance.

Could I use this for something like a vitamin subscription plan?

Yes.

Chris,
That is very encouraging.  How would I go about seeing a demo, or trying this out to see how it fits my requirements?

There’s no demo. Right now it’s basically a private piece of software that we haven’t released. If you need it, we can provide it and either custom work, or consultation to get it where you need it.

ALSO… it’s limited to only a few gateways right now. We can add more, but they cost about $600 USD. Currently I think we have Sage and Authorize.net.

I could work with authorize.net.  Can you PM me the cost and/or let me install it to see how it works.  I am thinking about upgrading my CT license to version 2, will it work with CT2?

None of our addons (including this) have been converted to CT2 compatible versions yet. And probably wont’ for some time.

That is ok with me.  Can you please provide the cost.