I agree with pretty much everything said here. Just for full disclosure - I work for Zuora, one of the companies listed above.
All the above methods have pros and cons. I would echo the sentiment above to look at payment processors and payment methods as separate entities. I would also echo the sentiment about Google Checkout. With its now higher rates, less customer support and higher fraud rates, there are fewer reasons to choose it over others.
When choosing a payment processor, be sure to take into account your business needs, not just who is cheaper. For example, some payment processors work better in different geographic regions (or if not better, have different commission rates). So make sure to look at where your sales are coming from. If the the vast majority of your sales are (or will be) in North America, then you can probably just compare prices. If you sell to Asia or Europe/EMEA, make sure to see if the commissions are different in those areas. If you do a significant amount of transactions in multiple geographic regions, it may be worth the cost to support more than one payment processor (ie, use PayPal in North America, someone else for Asia because they offer a lower rate, etc)
While commission/rate is probably the biggest driver in choosing a payment processor, be sure to take into account a few other things:
* Ease of integration - how much work does it take to integrate with a payment processor. Moreover, if you are using a pre-built shopping cart, see if they have integration with a payment processor (most support Authorize.net, Paypal, and Google Checkout, with some even adding mobile payment processors as well).
* Customer service - this isn't just if you can call someone. Most will rely on self service - be sure to vet their self service portals as well.
* Fraud/chargeback - (especially in gaming and social networks). How much emphasis this is given really depends on your business. If you are selling physical goods, not usually a huge concern. If you are selling digital or virtual goods (usually consumable goods, as opposed to service), it can become a bigger problem.
For handling recurring fees/subscriptions, it also depends on your business needs. If you are looking for a simple recurring flat fee on a monthly basis, and will only have one fee per customer, many providers can help here. I know that Paypal can support this today, and from this thread it seems that Authorize.net and Braintree can handle it well, too. If you are already considering one of them as your payment processor, then that may just suit your needs. Google just released a subscription product as well, but that is brand new, and I have no experience with it (or know of anyone who has used it). So I cannot offer too much commentary there. From what I have seen (and also mentioned elsewhere in this thread), Google Checkout does suffer from higher fraud rate. I've known other companies to drop support for this reason.
Subscriptions can get complex quickly, but if your needs aren't likely to grow beyond a single product with a simple monthly charge, then I would look into Paypal/Authorize.net. However, if you are looking for more complex features like offering multiple rate plans for a single product (ie, offer different payment plans - like $9/month vs $99/year), offer usage based pricing (similar to a pay-as-you-go cell phone plan), offer multiple products/rate plans to a given subscription, offer ability to change from one plan to another, etc, then using a subscription processor is the way to go (e.g., Zuora, Vindicia, Aria, eVapt). I could give the whole spiel on Zuora, but I'll save that for a different forum. Hope that helps.
All the above methods have pros and cons. I would echo the sentiment above to look at payment processors and payment methods as separate entities. I would also echo the sentiment about Google Checkout. With its now higher rates, less customer support and higher fraud rates, there are fewer reasons to choose it over others.
When choosing a payment processor, be sure to take into account your business needs, not just who is cheaper. For example, some payment processors work better in different geographic regions (or if not better, have different commission rates). So make sure to look at where your sales are coming from. If the the vast majority of your sales are (or will be) in North America, then you can probably just compare prices. If you sell to Asia or Europe/EMEA, make sure to see if the commissions are different in those areas. If you do a significant amount of transactions in multiple geographic regions, it may be worth the cost to support more than one payment processor (ie, use PayPal in North America, someone else for Asia because they offer a lower rate, etc)
While commission/rate is probably the biggest driver in choosing a payment processor, be sure to take into account a few other things:
* Ease of integration - how much work does it take to integrate with a payment processor. Moreover, if you are using a pre-built shopping cart, see if they have integration with a payment processor (most support Authorize.net, Paypal, and Google Checkout, with some even adding mobile payment processors as well). * Customer service - this isn't just if you can call someone. Most will rely on self service - be sure to vet their self service portals as well. * Fraud/chargeback - (especially in gaming and social networks). How much emphasis this is given really depends on your business. If you are selling physical goods, not usually a huge concern. If you are selling digital or virtual goods (usually consumable goods, as opposed to service), it can become a bigger problem.
For handling recurring fees/subscriptions, it also depends on your business needs. If you are looking for a simple recurring flat fee on a monthly basis, and will only have one fee per customer, many providers can help here. I know that Paypal can support this today, and from this thread it seems that Authorize.net and Braintree can handle it well, too. If you are already considering one of them as your payment processor, then that may just suit your needs. Google just released a subscription product as well, but that is brand new, and I have no experience with it (or know of anyone who has used it). So I cannot offer too much commentary there. From what I have seen (and also mentioned elsewhere in this thread), Google Checkout does suffer from higher fraud rate. I've known other companies to drop support for this reason.
Subscriptions can get complex quickly, but if your needs aren't likely to grow beyond a single product with a simple monthly charge, then I would look into Paypal/Authorize.net. However, if you are looking for more complex features like offering multiple rate plans for a single product (ie, offer different payment plans - like $9/month vs $99/year), offer usage based pricing (similar to a pay-as-you-go cell phone plan), offer multiple products/rate plans to a given subscription, offer ability to change from one plan to another, etc, then using a subscription processor is the way to go (e.g., Zuora, Vindicia, Aria, eVapt). I could give the whole spiel on Zuora, but I'll save that for a different forum. Hope that helps.