Need paid subscriptions, should I install mod or upgrade to 2.0?

[ammonihah99]

We are a small board of only about 50 members, I need the ability to offer paid subscriptions and I understand SMF 2.0 has this ability. I am running 1.1.11, should I upgrade or install the paid subscriptions mod? Can either one or both do the following?:

1. We charge $30/yr for the first year and $20/yr after that. Can it do this?

2. Some of our members will opt to pay cash in person or check by mail. Can I manually authorize payment for these exceptions?

3. The way I have it set up now is that if they don't pay by a certain time, their membergroup is changed to a restricted one with limited access, once they pay, they get their upgraded membergroup back. Can it make this process automated?

Thanks!

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Currently the subscriptions in 2.0 support only fixed amounts per timeperiod, so you couldn't easily offer discounts for following years out of the box.

The subscriptions do allow for automatically adding a membergroup, and by the end of the subscription also automatically remove that given membergroup. But, it would only revert to the group the user was in, before the subscription.

EDIT: Oh, and you can add subscriptions manually, by simply filling in a start date, and an end date.

[ammonihah99]

Thanks - So then are there any differences between the paid sub. mod for 1.1.11 and the built-in sub. features with 2.0? Any advantages for upgrading?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I don't actually know the mod too well, so wouldn't be able to compare them easily.

Advantages of upgrading, well - 2.0 has many new improvements and features added to it, would be hard to list them all,
but specifically I know 2.0 has aimed at improving speed, security, moderation and administration tools, and a broader language support, so that you can have agreement texts in multiple languages, and can edit installed language packs directly from the admin panel etc.

[ammonihah99]

I don't think I should upgrade right now until the final release of 2.0 is out. My forum is very small, and I only have two mods installed, but I'm not quite confident that if something goes wrong I will be able to fix it. So in the meantime I will try to get the paid subscription mod working. Thanks.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

No problem, I'll mark this topic solved - but if you still have something to ask related to upgrading or subscriptions, feel free to let us know