Over the years, GoCardless has become synonymous with easy and reliable recurring payments, and for good reason.
72% of the 850+ reviewers on trustpilot.com have given it the perfect 5-Star rating!
That’s a great track record considering the cut-throat competition in the payments industry right now.
So, What Made GoCardless a Popular Choice For Collecting Recurring Payments?
GoCardless provides an automated payment method wherein merchants can directly pull payments from their customers’ bank accounts, without having to manually process transactions. In other words, it supports Direct Debit payments.
A system like this makes it the ideal choice for any subscription-based business or businesses that rely on recurring payments.
But, there are more than a couple of factors that GoCardless can owe its popularity to.
- GoCardless is ideal for individuals, small companies, and big corporations
- The platform is fully automated, and thus saves time and avoids human errors and failed payments
- It’s extremely easy to use
- Provides great support
- It’s set up is easy, fast and free
- Had affordable pricing
But recently, something changed…..
GoCardless Jacked Up Their Prices Suddenly
And their users didn’t take to it very well at all.
Naturally, not all businesses can continue to thrive using GoCardless transactions anymore. That leaves a lot of merchants with no choice but to look for an alternative to GoCardless.
Based on multiple requests we’ve received from clients lately, ease-of-use and affordability are the two main factors these businesses are looking for in a ‘GoCardless alternative’. And of course, security and reliability of the platform go without saying when we’re talking about anything to do with payment processing.
Why WooCommerce Subscriptions is a Great Alternative to GoCardless
Before we begin, WooCommerce Subscriptions is an extension of WooCommerce – the most popular WordPress-based eCommerce platform in the world today.
I know what you’re thinking. How can WooCommerce Subscriptions (a plugin) be an alternative to GoCardless (a payments processor)?
I’ll explain.
WooCommerce Subscriptions helps manage the ‘subscriptions’ and ‘recurring payments’ part of the operation, whereas a payment gateway of your choice can handle the transaction end of it.
Moving on to what makes WooCommerce Subscriptions the perfect choice for anyone looking to make a switch from GoCardless:
- Since both WordPress and WooCommerce are free, at a price of ‘$199 for a single site license’ WooCommerce Subscriptions easily checks the affordability box
- Like any other WordPress-based plugin or extension, it’s extremely easy to use
- It has readily available integrations with all major plugins, 25+ payment gateways, and third-party software
- It is an extremely evolved subscription platform and has provision for all your subscription needs like offering free-trials or setting appropriate billing intervals.
- It adds an extra layer of security by supporting automatic rebilling on in case of failed payments
- It allows you to give subscribers the ability to manage their own plan, including upgrading or downgrading, without needing to wait on you for help.
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What Does the Migration to WooCommerce Subscriptions Really Involve?
That depends on your existing setup.
If you’re a WordPress and WooCommerce user, things are comparatively easier for you. All you have to do is set up the subscription module and integrate it with a suitable and affordable payment gateway.
The good news is, a switch from a non-WordPress website isn’t that difficult either.
Once you’ve backed-up all your data, you need to install WordPress and WooCommerce to start migrating your users onto the new platform. Once you’re through with that, you can move on to set up your subscription products, and payments module.
Whether you’re handling the migration to WooCommerce Subscriptions yourself, or hiring a professional to do it, it’s best to keep yourself informed about what you’re getting into.
To that end, we’ve got a little something to help you out.
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| Check out our 5-Step Beginners Guide to a Fail-Proof Migration to WooCommerce Subscriptions |
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Parting Words
All in all, as long as you’re prepared to take on the challenges you might face during the migration and have planned out every step of the migration, you have nothing to worry about.
That’s all I have for you right now. But, if you have any more questions, feel free to get in touch with us.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think WooCommerce Subscriptions is, in fact, a good alternative to GoCardless? Or do you have other options in mind?
Drop us a line in the comments section below!
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One Response
Hmmm not sure about this. GoCardless are still the cheapest direct debit service despite upping their rates (please correct me if I’m wrong as I’d love to know of a cheaper alternative). To pay 199usd for woo subscriptions per year then pay a hefty commission to PayPal or Stripe thereafter is no way at all more cost effective….
In fact I’d say the only thing that I don’t like about GoCardless is the useless plugin that WooCommerce has made to integrate them especially as it requires woo subscriptions to work properly which they don’t tell you. It doesn’t connect to existing mandates and without subscriptions it would act as a gateway that requires a mandate for a purchase…. that means every time a customer would want to upgrade their subscription they would have to create a new mandate – meh.
If the geniuses at Wisdm create an extension for GC I’d buy in – if not I’m developing my own 🙂