Which payment methods work with subscriptions

Updated Oct 14, 2026 Payments

A subscription renewal is a charge made weeks or months later, with nobody at the keyboard. That is only possible when the gateway saved a reusable payment method at the first checkout. This article lists which TitanCart gateways can do that, what the shopper sees when one cannot, and the one PayPal setting that must be on before you sell a subscription through it.

Edition note: the Subscriptions extension comes with TitanCart Pro. The gateway facts below apply wherever it runs.

1. The short answer

Gateway	Renews automatically?	What it saves	Notes
Stripe	Yes	The card, as a Stripe payment method on a Stripe customer	The only gateway that can also start a subscription with nothing to pay today (preorder / delayed start).
PayPal	Yes, once PayPal allows saving	The buyer’s PayPal account, as a PayPal vault token	“Save payment methods” must be enabled on your PayPal app and your account approved for it. See §3.
Square	Yes	The card, as a Square card on file	Subscription orders are always charged immediately, whatever the gateway’s Capture Method says.
Authorize.net	Yes	The card, as a customer payment profile
Venmo	No	Nothing	Venmo never saves a payment method.
Cash on Delivery, Bank Transfer, Check	No	Nothing	Nobody can be charged by hand later.

2. What the shopper sees

TitanCart sorts this out at checkout rather than letting a shopper find out at the end. On a cart that contains a subscription:

Payment methods that cannot renew are removed from the payment picker, and an amber notice names them: “Your order contains a subscription. Venmo, Cash on Delivery are not available because they cannot be charged automatically when the subscription renews — please choose another method.”
If none of the store’s active methods can renew, the notice says so instead of showing an empty picker, and asks the shopper to contact you.
The server checks again when the order is placed, so a method cannot be smuggled in: “The selected payment method cannot be used for a subscription. Please choose a card or PayPal payment method.”

A cart with only one-time products is unaffected; every active method shows as usual.

Marketplace stores: the TitanCart Marketplace extension’s own checkout page removes the same methods but does not yet print the amber notice, so shoppers there see the shorter picker without the explanation.

3. PayPal: turn on saved payment methods first

PayPal only lets a store save a buyer’s account for later charges when the app is allowed to. Two gates, both on PayPal’s side:

The app. In the Developer Dashboard, with the Sandbox | Live toggle on the environment you use, open Apps & Credentials → your app → Features → Payment capabilities → Save payment methods (sandbox apps: Sandbox App Settings → App Feature Options → Accept payments → Advanced options → Vault).
The account. At paypal.com → Account Settings → Payment Preferences → Save PayPal and Venmo payment methods → Get Started. PayPal reviews the request and answers Success, Need more information, or Denied. PayPal decides; TitanCart can only ask.

If PayPal declines to save the method, the first payment still completes and the customer gets a normal confirmation, but the subscription has nothing to renew with. TitanCart flags it: the subscription’s admin page shows a red “No renewal token — this subscription cannot bill” notice and a subscription-token-missing email goes out, so you find out at signup rather than at the first failed renewal. Ask the customer to add a payment method under My Account → Subscriptions, or collect one another way.

4. Preorders and delayed starts need Stripe

A subscription in preorder / delayed-start mode takes nothing today and charges on the launch date, so the gateway has to save the card without a payment. Only Stripe does that (a card-setup request rather than a charge). On PayPal, Square or Authorize.net a $0 preorder cannot be completed; keep preorder subscriptions on Stripe, or give them a small signup fee so there is a real first payment.

5. Test it before you sell it

Put a subscription product in a cart and open checkout: the picker should show only the renewing methods and, if any were removed, the amber notice.
Complete a sandbox subscription order on each gateway you intend to offer. Open it under Growth → Subscriptions: the Payment card should show the saved method (“Visa ending in 4242”), not “No payment method on file” or the red no-token notice.
On PayPal, do this on the live app before launch as well; the sandbox app’s vault setting and the live app’s are separate switches.

Troubleshooting

Venmo (or Cash on Delivery) vanished from checkout. The cart contains a subscription. They come back on a cart without one.
A PayPal subscription shows “No renewal token”. Saved payment methods are not enabled on the app, or the account’s request is still under review or was denied (§3). The customer paid once; the subscription cannot renew until a method is added.
A preorder subscription on PayPal / Square / Authorize.net never completes. By design; see §4.
The amber notice says none of my methods can renew. Every active gateway is an offline method or Venmo. Add Stripe, PayPal, Square or Authorize.net.