Payment as well as Subscription Management: A Comprehensive Comparison of 5 Options -

A majority of billing and subscription management solutions let you:

• Create a variety of trial and subscription models (e.g. either a free or paid trials, Fixed price or usage-based subscriptions).
• Manage active subscriptions (e.g. upgrade or downgrades as well as moving or removing items).
• Invoices or payment notification notifications can be sent.
• Offer your clients a self-serve portal where they can control their account.
• Reports on the major metrics that affect revenues.

In reality, the majority of businesses realize they need additional software for different aspects of the payment lifecycle, such as:

• Payment processing
• Tax collection for VAT and sales tax
• Find Translations
• Conversion of currency
• Chargebacks
• And more...

If you require one of these options, you'll need to make sure they are offered by billing software you choose (or seamlessly incorporate with other solutions).

In this guide, we compare five options by examining the subscription management and billing features they provide along with the extra options they provide that begin by taking a deeper look at our service for SaaS businesses, .

 Table of Contents

1.   Chargebee
2.   Recurly
3.   Chargify
4.   Zoho Subscriptions

1.  1. Subscription Management Payment Processing, and Much More SaaS Companies

There are a variety of options available for subscription management (which we'll go over below), however, it's much more than an online platform for managing subscriptions- we're our own Merchant of Record (MoR) for software businesses.

 We, as MoR assume the responsibility for transactions on behalf of you, meaning we:

• Collect and pay the right amount of sales tax, VAT, and GST for you.
• Be sure that the appropriate procedures and documentation are in place so that you remain legally compliant at every place you sell.
• We lead the way on audits.

 Plus offers extensive solutions covering the whole cycle of payment, including:

• The localized checkout (i.e. Currency changes, translations into languages Custom designs, currency conversions and much many more)
• International processing for payments (for dozens of preferred payment methods)
• Fraud detection
• Chargebacks
• Analytics and reporting
• and there's and more...

In the sections below in the next sections, we will look at the various options and services in greater in depth.

Recurring and Customized Subscription Modells for B2C and B2B

allows you to set up nearly any subscription by just clicking. You can set up most subscription types with no code, but you can develop more complicated subscriptions using our API and webhooks library.

Here's a summary of your options:

 Trials

Certain subscription management software require payment information as potential clients sign up for trial periods, or even trials. It can lead some potential customers to get cold feet and may not complete the registration procedure. lets you decide whether or not to collect payment details in each trial.

You can also:

• Create trials of any length.
• Make free, paid or trial-based, usage-based ones.
• Choose to automatically bill the user once the trial has ended or allow them to begin a subscription manually.
• Allow subscribers to reactivate expired trial accounts.
• Choose when sends reminders of the trial's end (e.g. three days before trial end).
• Automatically detect when one user tries to sign up for several trials. You can only allow one trial account.

 Subscriptions

Each product inside a company could see greater results with different subscription plans. For example, low-tier products may perform better if offered with a subscription that is monthly while top-end products could perform better if sold as an annual subscription.

Furthermore, what worked at one point in time could not be the ideal solution in the future.

That's why lets you:

• Pick the duration of the subscription as well as the payment date (or let your customers decide).
• Set subscriptions to auto-renew, need manual renewal (i.e. clients have to re-enter payment information each time they're billed) and/or ask your staff to start the charge using the API (this is an excellent option for usage-based billing).
• Coupons and discounts are available.
• Let prorated billing be used if a customer wants to upgrade, downgrade, or pause the service part-way through the billing cycle.
• Include one-time purchases on the first bill, but do not include the recurring bills.
• Manage upsell and cross-sell products when you check out.
• Give customers the option of whether or not they want to save payment information (or let them decide on behalf of the entire customer).
• Automatically renew certain subscriptions for different subscriptions (e.g. after the end of the service or product).

 Recurring Billing and Invoicing

can manage B2B orders alongside B2C purchases using Digital Invoicing.

Digital Invoicing lets you:

• Customize and manage quotes that are updated in real time (including custom tags, coupons, discounts, and many more).
• Set expiration dates for quotes.
• Include notes to your customer or potential customer.

Fully Branded Self-Service Features to Your Customers

provides a self-serve portal where customers are able to:

• Renewal of subscriptions
• Manage billing periods
• Update payment information
• View payment history
• And much More ...

We handle all the backend maintenance on this website to ensure that your team does not have to.

As your MoR As your MoR, we will take care of your customer's questions regarding billing, such as cancellation requests, billing problems as well as questions related to the subscription they have, and so on. The platform comes with a customer portal that makes it easy for your customers to handle their subscriptions.

Below is the basic design of the self-service website, but for a more seamless user experience, the whole portal can be customized to match your branding.

You can also enable buyer-generated quotes. This allows buyers to create a quote based on the contents in the cart, without having to contact the sales department. This can be extremely useful in securing potential customers who require approval prior to making purchases.

Local Transaction and Indirect Tax Compliance made Simple

There are two main aspects of conformity when it comes to transactions that are repeated:

1. Conformity to transactions (i.e., the systems you have in place to collect payment).
2. Tax on sales, VAT and GST conformity (i.e. what you do to pay and transfer taxes that are indirect).

In order to avoid penalties and fines You must be aware of the tax and transaction law for every jurisdiction you do business in. In this section, we will cover:

• Examples of transaction laws that affect subscription-based companies.
• Whether or not software companies have to be able to collect VAT, sales tax as well as GST.
• How do you handle this for you.

Transaction Compliance

Every state, country, and province has its individual laws and regulations on the ways businesses collect and save customer data. Most companies know about privacy laws such as GDPR, however, there are many transactions regulations that aren't popularly known.

For example, in some countries, such as Canada and Korea, customers are eligible by law for an amount prorated when they decide to cancel their subscription prior to the expiration of the payment period. This is only one instance for one aspect of the lifecycle of subscriptionswhich is why these rules and laws are always changing.

For the majority of subscription management tools, you'll be on yourself to research transaction laws and regulations and follow the appropriate procedures. In addition, certain subscription platforms don't provide the required options to comply with laws and regulations (e.g. certain services don't allow rebates that are prorated).

The other side, handles all of it for you. Our team of legal experts is up-to-date on all relevant transaction laws and regulations and helps you establish the proper procedures needed for ensuring compliance. Also, we support all subscription models for the compliance of your business.

Revenue Taxes, VAT and GST Compliance

Software companies didn't always have to collect sales tax, VAT as well as GST. In some jurisdictions, this is the situation. But, tax laws for digital services and goods change rapidly in a variety of countries.

Many nations are now requiring software firms to collect some form or indirect tax. Additionally, certain countries require digital businesses to fill out tax forms even if they have the right to tax exemption.

In the end, paying sales tax is usually more complex than filing a tax form and wiring the funds. In the last few years, more and more countries have imposed further obligations for compliance.

Example:

• Countries such as Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Serbia, and others are governed by local representation, meaning you have to hire someone with an actual presence in the country to be responsible for the tax liabilities. It can range between $5k and $15k per year.
• States like Serbia, United Kingdom, Taiwan as well as others need electronic invoicing from all companies that are selling within their countries. The EU is rolling out universal electronic invoicing requirements by 2028.
• Some countries like Taiwan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, and others are requiring you to file the tax on your income as well as to indirect tax.

handles the entire process of collecting and paying VAT, sales tax as well as GST for you .

We ensure the correct amount (and the correct type) of indirect tax is being taken at checkout (including tax-exempt transactions within the US as well as 0% reverse charge when permitted abroad).

Then, our team remits the tax for you, and will ensure that the proper processes are in place to ensure total conformity.

In the event that a foreign country or state approaches you about tax compliance, our team will guide you on how to respond -- even by providing copies and paste responses.

International Pay Processing with Dozens of Payment Methods

Most payment processors focus their efforts on a specific area, and all processors offer a limited number of payment methods they accept. In particular, some processors aim to support transactions within the U.S. They'll therefore only accept the payment methods that are widely used within the U.S. (e.g., Mastercard or Apple Pay) and they aren't going to support something like UnionPay, which is commonly employed in China.

Furthermore, many payment processors can only accept payment for certain currencies or countries. For example, they could be able to support Amazon Pay but will not take payments that originate from Turkey.

SaaS companies that want to take payments from around the world have to connect to and control multiple payment processors, which can be a huge undertaking.

With , SaaS companies automatically have access to multiple payment processors that are specialized in international transactions. maintains relationships with numerous payment processors as well as dozens of card networks , so there is no need to. Turn on our localized payments feature and you can begin accepting international payment right away.

It also has a variety of features that assist in ensuring successful payment and decrease involuntary churn which include:

• Payment gateways that are local: Transactions are more likely to be accepted in the event that the payment gateway is located in the same area as the customer (e.g., a transaction originating from Germany passes through a gateway in Germany). Automatically routes payments to the payment gateway that has best authorization rates in that region.
• Payment gateway rerouting: If a transaction fails on the first attempt, instantly retries it with a different gatewayand all this without either you or any other member of the support team needing to intervene. This often solves payment failures due to problems with connectivity or the system.
• Payment reminders that are proactive. If a customer's card is scheduled to expire, you should inform the user prior tothe expiration date to ensure they have a chance to make changes to the card's information. It is possible to use our already-designed notice template, or design your own notification.
• Multiple follow-up messages. If a recurring payment is rejected it is possible to schedule several payment failure notification messages to be sent out two 5, 7, 14, and 21 days following the initial error. Before sending out each reminder, try a new payment.

Tailor-Made Checkout to Reflect your Visual Brand

Many payment services offer a checkout module that offers a variety of possibilities for customizing it, like the addition of your logo, and selecting a color palette. However, these customization options don't always represent your brand's visual identity to create an effortless user experience for customers and improve your checkout to increase sales.

 offers custom branding tools, as well as CSS overlays so that you can have a variety of customization choices for controlling the look as well as feel of the checkout.

Also, you'll be able to access our store Builder Library -- a JavaScript library which allows users to personalize the customer process leading to checkout.For instance, you can make a cross-sell and upsell funnel. This lets you optimize the buyer experience for higher sales.

Checkout is available in three different forms three ways: pop-up, embedded or as a storefront on the web. Your storefront on the web redirects clients to an additional webpage that is hosted by .

If you choose one of these options (including the storefront on the internet) it is possible to personalize the checkout process by using tools for branding and CSS overlays to fit your branding.

Here are several other features which can help you maximize your shopping experience:

• localized checkout:Let customers choose their preferred language and preferred currency or let them select the most appropriate currency and language based on the buyer's location. It supports 19 languages and over 23 currencies.
  
• Support for developers that is personalized:Our team is always happy to help you build the most efficient checkout experience possible for your company. Certain companies provide only personalized support to their largest clients and practically ignore small businesses. At , we believe every firm deserves the same amount of consideration and care.

Analytical and Comprehensive Reporting

• The majority of my top-paying clients located?
• What are the products that generate the most revenue?
• Which discounts are generating revenues as opposed to. taking revenue away?
• There are numerous others...

Reports are split into two main dashboards: Revenue Overview and Subscription Overview.

If you don't find the report you require, you can customize every report, and save it to your dashboard. Our team is always available to design custom reports to find the information you require.

Our webhooks and API for data enable you to quickly connect revenue and subscription data to whatever software for business intelligence or CRM you are using. Each report is able to be downloaded as a CSV as a PNG, CSV or XLSX files.

All-in-One Pricing (No Hidden Fees)

Most payment service providers offer a flat fee for processing payments and a few core features, like an embeddable checkout. However, you'll typically be charged extra for additional features, such as the conversion of currencies or fraud detection. There are a few payment systems that offer an all-inclusive solution, and many companies have to put an additional piece of software. It's difficult to grow globally as your business expands because costs will increase as you need additional features and programs.

is a full payment solution for SaaS companies with everything included for a flat fee dependent on the number of transactions that you conduct . In addition, you'll only be debited when transactions are completed.

Next, we cover four other payment systems for businesses with subscriptions.

2. Chargebee

Here are a few highlights of Chargebee highlights:

• Invoicing based on usage, automatized invoicing, proration, and more
• Automated process for the processing of accounts receivable
• Compliant revenue recognition and subscription models
• Support for in-app purchases
• Self-service portal for customers
• Smart dunning

You can use the Chargebee platform free of charge for the first $100k in earnings. Then, they'll offer a variety of pricing plans that cover different levels of monthly income.

3. Recurly

Recurly is a recurring billing platform designed for optimising your growth strategy. Recurly easily integrates with various credit card processors and merchant accounts, however, you still must manage and pay for these third-party services on top of your Recurly account.

Below are some additional highlights from Recurly's features.

• Customizable subscription models
• Automated recurring invoicing
• Revenue recovery tools
• Intelligent retention
• Analytics on customer subscriptions

Recurly offers three pricing packages but you must contact their support team for more details.

4. Chargify

Chargify is a subscription-based billing software that's working on a merger with SaaSOptics, a software for managing revenue. The combination will enable you to automate the management of subscriptions accounting for revenue and expenses as well as SaaS metrics tracking all from the same revenue management software.

Here are a few highlights of the features Chargify offers:

• Usage-based and global billing
• Tools for billing and recognition of revenue instruments
• Analytics and metrics for the billing system
• Built-in integrations with various other programs (e.g., accounting software, such as QuickBooks or Xero)
• Payment gateways from around the world

The pricing structure of Chargify is for companies earning 75k in monthly billings However, if you have more income or access to every feature, it is necessary to reach their team.

5. Zoho Subscriptions

Zoho Subscriptions is an element of the Zoho platform (a suite of software to help you manage every aspect of your business, e.g., CRMs and ERPs). If you're already using this feature of the Zoho platform, this might be an option. For new users, they usually find that there is a steep process of learning.

The benefits of Zoho Subscriptions comprise:

• Multiple pricing models
• Customizable, tax-compliant invoices
• Conversions between currencies
• 30+ pre-built reports to keep track of each phase of the lifecycle of a subscription
• Support for in-person cash and check transactions (in addition to credit card transactions)
• In-the-box integrations that integrate with different billing solutions (e.g., Stripe, PayPal or others.)
• Toolkits to build specific workflow rules

Each aspect that is part of the Zoho system is purchased differently and includes Zoho Subscriptions -- which makes it challenging and costly to build an all-inclusive payment system.