Recurring Series vs. Subscription

[RichardNJ]

Hello. I am based in the US and have clients in Italy. I want to bill them a same set amount every month for marketing services. I'm having a hard time understanding the difference between Recurring Series invoicing versus setting up Subscription button/link. The goal is for the client to be automatically billed each month. It seems Subscription will achieve that, but what is Recurring Series invoices then? Do the invoices go out automatically each month, but the buyer has to pay them manually... not automatically charged?

Thank you for clarifying!

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @RichardNJ, that's a great question! Thank you for reaching out on our Community Help Forum. We have a few different options that may meet your needs. The first two are Subscriptions and Recurring Payments. The main differences between a subscription and recurring billing are:

• Recurring Payments integrate with PayPal via APIs. Subscriptions integrate with PayPal via HTML.
• Recurring Payments allow your customers to checkout at cart level with multiple items. Subscriptions allow your buyers to complete their purchase for one item or service at a time.
• Recurring Payments support merchant management, including limited modification, suspension / reactivation, and billing on outstanding amount.

On top of that, we also have Recurring Invoices. Recurring Invoices allows businesses to create recurring invoice series. Merchants can schedule invoices to be sent weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and custom. This feature is more designed for businesses and organizations that don't have websites.

Please Note: Recurring invoices do not automatically bill the buyer. The buyer must still initiate payment each time an invoice is received.

I hope that covers all the bases! Thanks again and have a great day!

 - Jon K

[Norman-Trails]

Let me see if I understand this correctly. Recurring series are the same as recurring invoices. And they are simply invoices for the same amount that get sent on a schedule to the customer. However the customer still has to pay the invoice each time they receive it.  Correct? And it appears that this type of invoice is created and managed inside the business account under "Manage Recurring Series".  

Whereas "Recurring Payments" and "Subscriptions" are NOT created in the account control panel, and must use code on one's website to create and connect to PayPal. 

So if the two above are correct, then is it also true that I cannot send my client an invoice from within my business account where they put in their payment information and agree to have the amount automatically deducted each month? 

Scenario: Client wants to subscribe to my gardening service for $80/month. I email them a PayPal invoice. They pay for the invoice, and are charged automatically every month. Payments are hands off on my end and my client's end after the first payment.