SaaS billing for Rails app: Chargify, PayPal or…?

Question

I am in my sophomore year of programming in general and Ruby on Rails more specifically. I have created several apps and finally have one that I would like to start charging for. I have never implemented something like this before and I feel like (from what I have read) most of the docs provided are a bit over my head. I don't mind diving in but before I did I wanted to get some opinion from those more experienced about what is the simplest way to implement a model for charging my User a month fee for use. Two notes:

1. My App contains Users already and I will be introducing a new section of the app which I only want to give access to those who pay.
2. I don't mind sending them to a third party page for payment.

From what I can find, it seems like both PayPal and Chargify do a decent job of providing help for this type of integration. What are your thoughts about which type of solution is best for a newbie to this space.

Answer 1

I've used PayPal's Express Payments with ActiveMerchant before, because there's no buy-in cost; PayPal just takes their slice of each transaction, so I don't have to worry about paying fees to a ton of different providers. The downsides are well-documented, though, as well - specifically, if PayPal decides that you're doing something shady and decides to freeze your money, you're up the creek without a paddle. That's a calculated risk you have to evaluate, though.

You might look at Saasy if you don't want to roll your own full solution, though. It seems to integrate well with existing apps.