A comprehensive guide to Subscription Platforms for Billing (and 5 alternatives)

Most subscription billing platforms let you:

• Automate invoicing and payments.
• Manage and customize one or more subscription and trial models.
• Provide a self-service portal to clients to manage their accounts (including seating information, payment details as well as many more).
• Offer and manage one-time add-ons Coupons, discounts, and more.
• Review reports and gather metrics on monthly recurring revenue.

But, the majority of businesses that use subscription billing will require an option to manage other aspects of managing subscription billing, such as:

• Payment processing.
• Chargeback prevention and fraud prevention.
• Incorporating and paying consumption tax.
• Legal Compliance.
• and more.

Some subscription billing systems don't cover these essential aspects that are involved in managing subscriptions.

In addition, you'll want be aware of whether the billing solution is compatible with businesses like that of yours. Some, for instance, payment solutions solely provide support to SaaS companies while others also support companies selling physical goods and/or services (e.g., gym memberships, monthly food programs, remote accounting solutions).

 In this post We review the five most popular payment platforms for subscriptions by describing the parts of the billing cycle they can support, the alternatives you'll have to integrate, as well as the kind of business they can support.

Our solution allows the world's SaaS companies handle everything in both of the above lists. Therefore, let's begin by taking a an in-depth look at . The other options on the list cater to ecommerce as well as companies that sell physical products and services.

 Table of Contents

•   Recurly
•   Chargebee
•   Chargify
•   Zuora

: Comprehensive Subscription Billing Platform for Global Software Companies

is a comprehensive payment solution built to cater to SaaS firms and businesses selling downloadable and/or digital goods. Through the use of B2B as well as B2C software businesses can control:

• Trials, multiple subscription options additions that are one-time, discounts, and more.
• Automated invoices and customer notifications.
• Processing of payments (for a myriad of payment methods around the world).
• A fully managed self-serve portal for customers.
• Analytics and reporting.
• and many plus.

Furthermore, takes on the liability of transactions, and we take care of chargesbacks, fraud prevention collecting and remitting consumption tax as well as legal compliance.

As you grow, there won't be surprises because the entire feature set is offered at an affordable price that is based upon how many transactions that you makeYou'll be charged after transactions are completed.

 In the next sections We take a close look at how to:

•   Create Custom Subscription Models, Trials, and Subscriptions without Code
•   Let Customers Manage account details from a simple portal
•   Optimize Your Checkout Process to Improve Conversion
•   Protect Your Company from Legal Liability of Transactions
•   Let's Collect and Remit Sales Tax and VAT for You
•   Automated Payment Failure Handling and Reduce Churn
•   Automatically collect Key Metrics and display detailed reports

Create Custom Subscription Models and Trials with no code

The majority of companies require a range of recurring billing options as well as trial options to suit diverse products and various target markets. The models which work best for you initially could not be the best in the long run as your company evolves.

Some billing platforms permit to create custom subscription plans however you'll have to ask your team of developers to manually configure those customizations (with minimal or no help from your provider of billing solutions).

 has a wide range of built-in features so anyone can set up personalized subscription plans, even without any technical skills.

Here are a few examples of of trials and subscriptions that you could set up:

• Paying for, free or trial-based on usage.
• Automatic billing after the trial period has expired (or let customers manually start a paid subscription).
• Set up your billing frequency and/or date (or allow your clients to choose).
• Usage-based billing.
• Discounts, coupons Prorated amount, discounts, as well as single-time additions.
• Automatically store information about payment (or allow customers to choose).
• Auto-renew to a different subscription plan.
• and more.

If you need even additional customization, you could make use of's API and Webhooks Library to build your own subscription models. The developers are on hand to help you build your ideal solution and address any questions you may have.

Allow customers to manage their account details from a User-friendly Portal

provides a self-serve portal where your clients can access:

• Active and inactive subscriptions (or trial subscriptions).
• History of orders (and identification numbers).
• Keys to licenses and download history.
• Payment details.
• Contact information.
• Plus.

On this site, clients can manage upgrades, downgrades, the bank or credit card details, and more by contacting your staff.

handles the whole portal so that your team doesn't need work. However, you'll be in complete control of the design and layout of the portal. This allows you to provide an unified experience for your customers and not put more stress on your development team.

Optimize Your Checkout Process to Increase Conversions

For most subscription-based billing systems, you'll need an alternative solution for checkout and payment processing (which implies additional costs and software that you have to control).

 allows you to manage subscriptions, checkout, and payment processing in one solution.

Over the course of nearly two decades, we have gained expertise in helping software firms gain valuable insights into the best ways to optimize checkout for increased conversions. In particular, clients will be more likely to go the purchase through if:

• Accept their preferred payment method.
• The transaction is accepted on the first attempt.
• Checkout will be in local currency and language.
• The style and design of the checkout process match to the overall design of the website.

Each of these areas are included in the platform

• Payment methods that are preferred: lets you accept the most common payment methods around the world.
• High payment approval rates: Each card network and the bank that issued it has distinct acceptability levels for fraudulent transactions as well as chargebacks. Make sure that your transactions are compliant with these regulations so you can maintain an acceptable rate of authorization. In addition, transactions are more likely to be approved when the provider of the transaction is a legal entity in the same location as the buyer. works with multiple payment gateways all over the world, and transfers each payment to that gateway that has the highest acceptance rates in that region.
• Automated currency conversion is a software that automatically converts prices into the buyer's local currency. You can either choose an amount that is set per location, or let convert in real-time.
• Checkout Language Translations Also, it helps translate the checkout process into local languages. It is possible to pick the correct one based on the customer's location, or you can allow the customer to choose which one they would prefer.
• Fully branded checkout: With , you can choose from three checkout options which include an embedded checkout that pops up and a storefront that is managed by our staff. With each option, you have complete control over the look and feel of the checkout or webpage. The majority of checkout options offer a few options for customization (e.g. you can add the logo, or pick from a pre-set list of colors), but checkouts can be tailored to just the millimeter.

Secure Your Company from legal Liability of Transactions

The experienced SaaS businesses know the importance of defining the conditions and terms of the subscription, and to have users agree to those terms before receiving payments. It's a challenge to determine what should be included in the contract. The process becomes even more complex when you are transacting internationally since the exact details of what a contract must contain will differ with every country, state and province. If you don't include all the necessary elements the contract must include, you may be subject to severe penalties or be disqualified from conducting business in that particular jurisdiction.

Furthermore, several states have extra law and rules for automated periodic payments that go beyond the amount stipulated by the agreement. For instance, India limits automatic payments to Rs15,000 (approximately $180 as of the date of writing). If a recurring payment is in excess of that limit then the customer will have to approve the transaction manually every time. In order to avoid penalties Additionally, you must file an eMandate with the Reserve Bank of India that specifies how you'll comply.

Being up-to-date with laws like these that apply to each jurisdiction can be a major issue for any company.

Customers that aren't concerned, this shouldn't be a concern because we handle conformity with local law and rules. Our legal team is up-to-date on every aspect of transaction law and makes sure that the proper processes and documents are set up to collect the automatic payment.

It is completely compliant with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and it is in full compliance with California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), among many other regulations.

Let Gather and Remit GST and Sales Tax to You

SaaS businesses didn't have to collect consumption tax but tax regulations for software companies are changing and getting more strict enforced.

The majority of payment services will assist to collect the consumption tax however, you're responsible for making sure it's the correct amount, and then remitting the tax at the end of each tax period. If you don't pay and deposit the right amount (and kind) in consumption taxes in the appropriate time, you'll be liable to heavy fines and/or be barred from conducting business at that particular location.

automatically adds the right amount (and type) of consumption tax into the customer-facing price and remits those taxes for you.

We support tax-exempt transactions and other special cases. We also take the lead on any audits.

Automate Payment Failure Handling and Reduce Churn

Between the initial payment as well as each subsequent bill, numerous things could go wrong that stop the payment from being processed and cause customers to turn. After working with hundreds of businesses, we've developed automatic processes to address common problems to prevent churn as well as get back most payments that failed.

 There are some HTML0 options that could help reduce churn and failed payments:

• Reminders for proactive payments:In our experience, informing customers of upcoming payments , and also notifying them of payments that have expired is one of the best strategies to cut down on involuntary churn and failed payment attempts. You can also schedule automatic reminders of the upcoming payment.
• Reminders in multiple formats: If a purchase is unsuccessful, clients typically require multiple reminders until they are able to fix the issue (e.g. to add money to their account, modify the payment method, etc.). It is possible to remind them two five, seven, 14or 21 days after the initial unsuccessful payment ( you can retry the transaction before sending out every reminder).
• Continued service: Another way to reduce involuntary churn is to continue the service while you attempt to collect the payment. It will provide a better customer satisfaction since they have an opportunity to address issues without having to endure the unpleasant feeling of having a suspended service. A better customer experience and the better the likelihood that they will stay.
• Reactivation is simple: After all reminders have been sent out it is possible to suspend instead of cancelling the client's subscription. This makes it easier for customers to restart their subscriptions without having to onboard yet (onboarding is often a significant hurdle to restarting services).

As we covered earlier, also automatically retries every payment with a different method (without anybody on your team needing to lift the finger) which can solve problems with failed transactions caused by problems with the network.

Automatically collect key metrics and view detailed reports

Analytics and Reporting can help you answer questions such as:

• What is the contribution of each product to the bottom line of my business?
• Which are the products that have been most popular and are a drain on resources?
• What coupons, promotions, or discounts attract new customers?
• Which model of subscription is the most effective?
• What markets are the most profitable and which ones have more potential?

provides two main dashboards that include the revenue overview dashboard, as well as the dashboard for subscription overview.

The Revenue Overview Dashboard provides you with a comprehensive overall view of your business' performance, including:

• Your customers' locations.
• What currencies and payment methods consumers prefer.
• Net sales by product.
• All transactions for each the country.
• and more.

The Dashboard for the overview of subscriptions lets you track the monthly recurring income (MRR) as well as dig deeper into the factors that affect your MRR in the course of time. This dashboard gives you information regarding:

• Upsells, cross-sells, and additional products.
• Long-term value for each client.
• Customer churn is the total number of customers.
• When in the billing cycle the churning happens more often.
• The life-time value of a client.
• And more.

It is possible to customize your report, save it and also share them with important people via the dashboard. You can also export reports by exporting them as PNG, CSV or XLSX spreadsheet file export.

Four more subscription management platforms

Recurly

Recurly is a recurring-billing and subscription management platform built by companies that sell:

• Software for B2C and B2B.
• Mobile app.
• Entertainment and media.
• Consumer goods and retail.
• Professional Services.
• eLearning.

Recurly allows easy integration using multiple payment gateways. but you're accountable for setting up and managing each of them. Many companies who use Recruly also end up adding programs to:

• Taxes (e.g., Avalara).
• Accounting (e.g. Accounting (e.g., QuickBooks).
• Fraud protection (e.g. Siftclients are protected with Sift).

Additionally, you'll be accountable for the tax and transaction liability, which means there's a good chance you'll require a separate department that is responsible for compliance. (With , all of this comes in one cost and fully handled by our staff.)

Chargebee

Chargebee is a subscription-based billing and revenue management platform designed to:

• B2B SaaS.
• eCommerce.
• eLearning.
• Publishing.
• YouTube and OTT.

Similar to Recurly, Chargebee is predominantly an application for billing subscriptions, so it is likely that you will require additional options to prevent fraud, taxes, payment processing, and many more. Chargebee offers a variety of built-in integrations (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, SalesForce, and QuickBooks), however, these do not come with any Chargebee package.

Chargify

Chargify provides subscription-based billing services for B2B SaaS businesses.

You'll likely need additional solutions for taxes, fraud prevention, payment processing, and more. Yet, Chargify does offer simple accounting software to recognize revenue (for multiple types of business).

Chargify has also joined forces with SaaSOptics to form a new company, Maxio. Through this deal, businesses that are subscription-based will have more functionalities for managing their finances such as automated expense reporting and revenue recognition, as well as automated reporting.

Zuora

Zuora provides an end-to-end monetization platform which includes subscription management software in. It is mainly used by companies operating that are in the following sectors:

• Manufacturing and IoT.
• Software.
• High tech.
• Entertainment, Media and Entertainment.

Zuora supports typically subscription-based pricing models (e.g., a usage-based freemium plan that is upgraded to a premium plan), but they also include features for streamlined the accounting process, such as dunning and processing payments (although certain companies do end up connecting to additional Payment gateways).