Expletive Inserted analyzes startup business models, payment processor costs, and platform strategy, mostly from around 2011.
Commenters use its payment cost comparison and calculator when choosing among Stripe, Recurly, and Chargify, though one calls the Recurly figures misleading.
I am in the process of integrating Recurly into my existing business, and I have to say, those graphs misleading regarding Recurly.
The Recurly gateway is already included with the normal Recurly costs.
Zero out the gateway numbers in the calculator there and you will see the difference.
http://expletiveinserted.com/recurring-payment-cost-calculator/
Granted, Stripe avoids the paperwork and business requirements for getting a merchant account. However, I already had most of those requirements ticked (you need them anyways if you intend to operate aboveboard), and I want all the subscription management features Recurly provides.
Further, the Recurly gateway includes credit card portability (Braintree is the only other company I know of that supports this).
http://www.portabilitystandard.org/
EDIT: Removed incorrect merchant account fees.
Android has more market share than iOS, which would seem to suggest it's moved far beyond the "technical, geeky" crowd.
OS market share is the easy metric, but it's not the right metric. Read the last six paragraphs:
http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/04/02/ios-versus-android-os-footprint-is-not-a-proxy-for-application-footprint/
Applying the Windows/Mac analogy to the mobile market is like trying to cram modern geopolitics into a cold war framework. You'll ruin your mind trying to make it work. Google isn't Microsoft, Android isn't Windows, and smartphones aren't purchased or used like desktop computers.
Apple is still Apple, which confuses people, I'll admit.
During my search, I have found that Stripe is the best solution out there. There is even a post with cost comparison (http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/10/02/stripes-new-online-payments-service-wheres-the-catch/) that demosntrates that is also cheap.
Unfortunately, Stripe is for USA-only.
An alternative is, as some people already mentioned, http://saasy.com/, which is a FastSpring service.
His clients are the ones accepting payments though, so they need Canadian merchant accounts. Beanstream accepts Canadian merchants. We just started the sign up process with them last week, from Victoria BC.
We're going with Beanstream + Chargify. You might want to take a look at this: http://expletiveinserted.com/2011/10/02/stripes-new-online-payments-service-wheres-the-catch/
http://expletiveinserted.com/recurring-payment-cost-calculator/