Technical Migration Guide

Subscription Migration & Gateway Guide: Token Portability and Cutover Protocols

Direct Answer: Migrating an enterprise subscription programme requires transferring subscriber profiles, billing cadences, order history, and payment credentials without billing interruptions. In Orderly, payment processing is verified for Stripe, Razorpay, and Paytm. Payment token portability is not universal: it depends strictly on vault ownership and source vendor cooperation. Claims of "zero downtime" or "universal token portability" are technically misleading and should never be assumed without pre-migration vault audits.

Product: Orderly Scope: Technical Migration & Gateway Protocols Last Verified: September 2026

1. Verified Supported Payment Gateways

Orderly executes recurring transactions against tokenized customer payment references held in supported payment gateways. We verify and support the following gateways out of the box:

Stripe (Card, SEPA, Link) Production

Verified production integration. Direct recurring charge execution against Stripe Customer (`cus_...`) and PaymentMethod (`pm_...`) references.

Human approval: Not Required
Dependency: Stripe Account & API Keys
Razorpay (Cards, UPI AutoPay, Mandates) Production

Verified production integration. Handles recurring mandates, UPI AutoPay tokenization, and tokenized card renewals.

Human approval: Not Required
Dependency: Razorpay Merchant Account
Paytm (Subscription & Recurring Engine) Production

Verified production integration. Manages automated recurring subscription debits against customer mandate tokens.

Human approval: Not Required
Dependency: Paytm Business Account
CyberSource / Adyen / Other Gateways Roadmap

Orderly does not claim production support for CyberSource, Adyen, or other third-party gateways out of the box.

Human approval: Required
Dependency: Custom Gateway Adaptor

Gateway Boundary Clarification

Orderly does not claim production support for CyberSource, Adyen, Braintree, or other gateways unless explicitly scoped and implemented as custom integrations. If your storefront relies on a gateway not listed above, tokenization and recurring charge execution require custom adaptor engineering.

2. The Technical Reality of Payment Token Portability

A frequent misconception in subscription migration is that credit card tokens can simply be copied between vendors via CSV export. Under PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance requirements:

  • Raw credit card primary account numbers (PANs) and CVVs are never accessible to merchants or subscription software.
  • Payment tokens represent an agreement between a specific merchant account and a specific payment gateway vault.
  • If your incumbent subscription vendor (e.g. Recharge, Ordergroove, Bold) owns the gateway vault credentials, moving payment tokens requires a formal, secure PCI vault-to-vault migration between PCI DSS Level 1 certified entities.
  • If your merchant entity already owns the Stripe, Razorpay, or Paytm account, customer tokens (e.g. Stripe cus_xxx and pm_xxx) remain valid across platforms, making migration straightforward and low-risk.

Token Portability Scenarios

Evaluating migration complexity by vault ownership model

Vault Ownership ScenarioPortability LevelTechnical MechanismMerchant Impact
Merchant Owns Direct Gateway Account High Portability Direct API Mapping Low Risk Customer and payment method tokens persist without re-vaulting
Source Vendor Owns Gateway Vault (Recharge/Ordergroove/Bold) Restricted Portability PCI Vault-to-Vault Transfer Moderate Risk Requires vendor cooperation; source vendor may charge export fees or delay cutover
Proprietary Checkout Gateway Proxies Zero Portability Subscriber Re-Vaulting Required High Risk Customer must re-enter payment method at next billing event
Technical Evidence Block

Orderly Subscription Migration Verifications

Verified Capabilities & Contracts

  • ✓ Verified production recurring charge execution for Stripe, Razorpay, and Paytm.
  • ✓ Structured CSV and JSON schema ingestion for subscriber schedules, cadences, and SKU maps.
  • ✓ Pre-cutover dry run validation in sandbox environments.
  • ✓ Graceful dunning ladders and customer-facing portal payment update links for invalid tokens.
  • ✓ Full webhook replay and reconciliation tooling to ensure no missed billing events.

Operational Boundaries & Limitations

  • ⚠ Token portability cannot be guaranteed where source vendor denies vault export or enforces proprietary token proxies.
  • ⚠ CyberSource, Adyen, and other non-listed gateways require custom adapter development.
  • ⚠ Zero downtime cannot be promised without verified vault portability and staging cutover validation.
Last verified: September 2026
Reviewed by: tailoredd Platform Engineering
Sources: Orderly API & Integration Documentation , Stripe API — Migrating Customers and Payment Methods , Orderly Product Surface

3. Step-by-Step Migration Protocol

To ensure continuity of monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and prevent unintentional subscriber churn, Orderly implementations follow a six-stage cutover protocol:

Orderly Migration Protocol

Stage-by-stage responsibilities, verification criteria, and rollback contingencies

Migration Stage Responsible Party Verification Criteria Rollback / Fallback Path
01 Subscriber Profile & Plan Extraction Merchant & Legacy Vendor Clean export of active subscriber IDs, renewal intervals, shipping addresses, and next scheduled billing dates. Retain legacy system subscription scheduler active.
02 Catalogue & SKU Mapping Merchant Team 100% SKU resolution against target commerce catalogue, including bundle definitions and variant IDs. Unmapped SKUs flagged in ingestion report; pause cutover until resolved.
03 Payment Reference Portability Audit Merchant & Payment Gateway Team Audit confirming whether existing payment references (e.g. Stripe `cus_...`) remain valid under merchant credentials. If vendor-locked, initiate PCI-compliant vault-to-vault transfer before scheduling cutover.
04 Staging Ingestion & Dry-Run Validation Tailoredd Engineers & Merchant Import test cohort onto Orderly staging; simulate renewal calculation, dunning rules, and webhook dispatches. Wipe staging sandbox; refine transformation scripts.
05 Dual-Run Webhook Routing & Verification Merchant Engineering Commerce platform order creation verified; billing engine runs in test mode alongside legacy scheduler. Revert webhook route endpoints to legacy subscription app.
06 Production Switch & Legacy Scheduler Deactivation Merchant Team Legacy subscription scheduler paused; Orderly billing engine activated; first live billing batch audited 1:1. Re-enable legacy billing schedules if payment decline rate exceeds 2x historical baseline.

4. Fault Tolerance & Exception Handling

Payment processing inevitably encounters declined cards, expired mandates, and inventory shortages. The system must degrade gracefully without canceling active subscribers:

Fault Tolerance

Known Failure Modes & Degradation Behaviors

Payment gateway token revocation or expiration during cutover

Behavior during fault:

Orderly catches transaction decline, marks subscription in `billing_failed` state, and queues for smart retry.

Fallback / Degradation:

Triggers customer portal update link via SMS/Email rather than immediately canceling subscription.

Operator Visibility:

Failed charge surfaces in Orderly billing exception queue with raw gateway error code.

Commerce platform out-of-stock on scheduled renewal

Behavior during fault:

Inventory validation hook flags unavailable SKU before payment capture.

Fallback / Degradation:

Configurable policy: delay renewal 48 hours, swap with pre-configured alternate SKU, or notify subscriber.

Operator Visibility:

Surfaced in Orderly inventory exception tab with impacted subscription count.

Webhook delivery failure to ERP / fulfillment system

Behavior during fault:

Orderly queues undelivered order creation webhooks with exponential backoff retry.

Fallback / Degradation:

Manual single-click replay available in Orderly webhook management console.

Operator Visibility:

Real-time alert in system health dashboard indicating stale webhook pipelines.

5. Architecture Summary for Subscription Teams

Summary for Technical Decision Makers

Orderly provides enterprise subscription management with direct gateway token execution for Stripe, Razorpay, and Paytm. Successful migrations depend on early verification of payment vault ownership and thorough dry-run testing rather than vendor marketing promises of effortless one-click transfers.

To evaluate Orderly for your commerce stack, review the Orderly product overview or examine the Tailoredd API documentation.

Primary Documentation & Verified Sources