Chargify is a recurring billing system designed for Web 2.0 and SaaS companies. Chargify frees you from worrying about billing so you can focus on building innovative web applications.
Chargify provides the tools you need for your business, including:
Chargify is based on our own experience running a small business. Chargify was developed by the team behind Grasshopper.com and EngineYard.com—both companies that serve entrepreneurs and small businesses that operate on recurring, subscription-based billing models.
Over the past six years, we've been developing and evolving Chargify based on our experience building the recurring billing system that we needed when we started our businesses. The Chargify at your fingertips today is based on what we've seen that works and void of what we've seen that doesn't work. And to keep up with changing times, the Chargify team is continually working on amazing future updates to promote growth for your business.
You can start using Chargify today! Get a free test account to try everything out, or to use as a "fake gateway" while you build your software. Just answer a few signup questions, and we'll set you up with a test Chargify account, which you can use to make sure Chargify works for you before you invest in an active merchant account and payment gateway.
When it's time to charge customers real money, you'll need to connect Chargify to a payment gateway and merchant account. Many merchants already have these, but if you don't, then expect it to take a few days to get set up. If you're a U.S. merchant, get everything you need with our partner, Merchant Focus.
Chargify has an extensive support section available, as well as a 24/5 support team.
Chargify bills your customer's credit card on whatever schedule you define. In addition to processing one-time and recurring transactions, Chargify can handle free trial periods, one-time fees, promotions, refunds, email receipts, and even dunning (reminders for failed credit card payments) management.
Chargify acts as an intermediary between your website and your payment gateway. You create subscription plans and integrate them into the signup process on your website. Then, Chargify initiates transactions with your payment gateway.
A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payment by debit or credit cards. A merchant account also serves as an agreement between a retailer, a merchant bank, and a payment gateway for the settlement of credit card and/or debit transactions. A payment gateway facilitates the secure transfer of information between your website and your merchant account.
If you simply want to test Chargify with our developer plan, you do not need either of these. In order to use Chargify on a live site, you must set up a merchant account and payment gateway. Learn more about how Chargify works with multiple merchant accounts and payment gateways.
Chargify currently supports many major payment gateways and we are constantly adding new ones, so you can switch at any time. A full list of supported gateways is available on our payment gateways page.
Yep! Once you have an active subscription for a customer, you can attach one-time charges to their account. You could also set up a specially configured “One-Time-Purchase Product.”
Of course! With metered billing components, sellers can charge for a product on a per-usage basis. Creating metered components with Chargify is easy. Once it's set, usage is tallied throughout the billing cycle and the charge is seamlessly integrated on the customer's next invoice.
Yes. You can bill your customers as many times per month as you’d like.
Totally! Chargify allows you to create custom subscription plans and charge at any interval. Chargify’s subscription management tools are flexible and easy to use. Feel free to customize your billing intervals, trial periods, introductory pricing, one-time fees, and more.
Yes, you can. If you have more than one company, you may use Chargify to bill customers for all of them–and keep the accounting separate.
Online transactions can fail for several reasons. Sometimes it’s a problem with the credit card itself, other times there can be something wrong with your payment gateway settings or merchant account. If it’s a problem with the customer’s credit card, Chargify will manage the entire process automatically, sending customized emails to alert the customer of the error.
Chargify does not store any actual credit card data. Currently, we only support gateways that offer vault storage options. The cards are stored in these secure vaults, and we store a token that can be used to charge that card on your gateway. If you leave Chargify, your credit card vault data remains with your gateway provider. You will need to work with your gateway directly if you need to export that data.
If you need access to your subscription, customer, or transaction data, you can use the Chargify API or our CSV Export feature. For more information, please see our documentation section "Exporting Data."
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Cardholder data is any personally identifiable data associated with a cardholder. This could be an account number, expiration date, name, address, social security number, or other information. All personally identifiable information associated with the cardholder that is stored, processed, or transmitted is also considered cardholder data.
Chargify is Level 1 PCI Compliant, the highest level a business can attain. We also work with only the most reputable gateways to make sure all of your customers' payment information is stored in a PCI-compliant way.
We publish our public uptime via the third-party service Pingdom. It's available here.
Yes. Chargify is officially Level 1 PCI compliant, the highest level of security a business can offer.
Chargify also works with your payment gateway's secure vault (for instance, Customer Information Manager in Authorize.net) to store your customers' billing information in a PCI-compliant way. We work with your gateway so you don’t have to worry about managing this sensitive information.
Your customers can be located almost anywhere in the world and they can buy from you via Chargify. As long as they have a type of credit card that is supported by your payment gateway (usually Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, and sometimes others), your customers can purchase from you using Chargify.
Your location matters. You need to be able to conduct legal business (or at least have a bank account) in one of the countries where we have supported payment gateways.
You, the merchant, must be located in one of the countries where there's a payment gateway provider that's supported by Chargify. Please check this list of payment gateways that connect to Chargify.
Your customers can be in any country. They just need to have a credit card that your payment gateway and merchant account accept, such as Visa or MasterCard.
Depending on the payment gateway you've chosen, Chargify can support different currencies. For a current list, please see our documentation on Currency Selection.
There is no software required to use Chargify. Chargify has an easy-to-use online interface that will help you manage your subscription billing; it takes only minutes to set up your subscription plans. You’ll have the ability to search across plans, transactions, and even customer groups, making it easy to track trends.
Yes! Some merchants don't connect Chargify to any kind of website. They create a few products in Chargify and just use the Chargify signup page links in emails and social media to get their customers signed up.
Some merchants do a light integration to their website where they link from their website to the Chargify signup pages.
Other merchants integrate with their website and other software on a deeper level with the Chargify API. This allows customers to be able to see and edit Chargify data inside their own website or app.
Chargify offers an extensive support section on integrating with the Chargify API. If you’re unsure of how to integrate your site with Chargify, we have a group of implementation consultants who can assist you.
Once you’ve signed up for Chargify, you’ll be asked to log in for the first time and set up your merchant credentials. At this time, you will also define your hosted payment page URL as a subdomain of Chargify. Most companies choose their company name for simplicity, for instance, 37noises.chargify.com.
