Residual income or one time payment?

The big question like that can be answered but to do so few things have to be considered.

First thing that has to be considered is how much money you are willing to invest before you start making money(and I mean really make money).Is it 10 ,100 or 1000$ because you must be aware that if you choose program of making money online that requires monthly payments you could be paying that monthly fee for a long time before that business becomes at least self sustainable if not making more than it costs because you might need tens of referrals before some programs become like that(self sustainable).If you prefer not to spend money on monthly basis you can always choose some system of making money online that has a requirement of only one time payment and there are probably thousands of programs like that and the price can vary from 1$ to hundreds but after that you are not required to pay any other fees but some systems like that can give you option to purchase more than one position but those can be purchased with money earned through the system itself so the expense would remain the same.

Second thing that can and should be taken into consideration in ability of someone to recruit people into the system.If your promotional skills are not on a high level than for you the one time payment system is much better choice because even if you don't get a single person under you you can loose only the one time payment which is much less in comparison to monthly payments that can drain your bank account if you fail to recruit.

Best comparison of systems with these payment methods is GDI vs F5M.

Both of these systems are reliable and effective in making money in their way and they are operational for over a decade.To give answer which one is better you can use the guidelines above because they are school example of each of payment methods.
GDI requires monthly payments and when you start paying for it there is cancel option for payment so if you fail your credit card can suffer a big loss.
F5M is in that comparison a system than can make money from one time payment of 5$ and if you see that the system is making money for you you can choose to buy additional positions for 50 and 100 dollars so you can increase your earnings.
With all this info you have enough to make your mind what's best for you.