Should I use Recurring Profiles for Subscriptions Feature

Working with recurring profiles in Magento is very rewarding if you spend the time to get the system setup correctly. It's important to understand that recurring profiles are labeled "Beta" for a reason. Certain aspects of administrating them on in the admin is limited. The Sales -> Recurring Profiles grid almost always has to be extended to your local tree to make modifications to show more columns, such as coupon, and stuff you will need for shipping, such as an export button.

The best solution I have found is an extension by Paradox Labs that supports Recurring Profiles with Authorize.NET CIM. It allows the customers to manage their cards, and do all the aspects or canceling, suspend, etc that recurring profiles allow for. It is configurable to run everyday for billing jobs, or like I have it setup to run once a month.

Note you can effectively build a full fledged billing system that includes dunning management, shipping systems, and the works in Magento based on recurring profiles. I have done it. Its a large undertaking and sometimes the easy road is to use another company to manage that aspect.

I've detailed a bit on my learning experience moving from Recurly to Magento recurring profiles here.