SaaS Billing Software: 7 Tools across 3 Categories and the Best Ways to Select -

SaaS billing software automates one or more aspects of the billing cycle including payment processing, fulfillment, dunning, and many more.

In this post, we'll be comparing 7 SaaS billing solutions that we've divided into three types:

1. Subscription administration: This software allows you to automate free trials as well as recurring payment scheduling and the dunning procedure. It's still necessary to have a separate solution for payment processing, taxes, chargebacks, and more.
2. Payment processing: These solutions gather information about the payment and allow for a exchange of funds between two parties. There are a variety of payment processors available that you'll require other software for managing the complicated and recurring payment process, including tax, chargebacks Dunning, and many more.
3. Merchants of Record (MoR): Having your billing software also function as a MoR is to take care of the complete payment process through SaaS for you, including the collection and paying international and local taxes (such as VAT and local sales taxes) and ensuring compliance to local regulations and laws including chargebacks, tax refunds, and more. If you don't have a MoR, your business will need to monitor and assure the compliance of all local taxes and regulations in any region or country in which your customers are.

 Table of Contents

•   Your MoR All-in-One SaaS Billing
•   3 Subscription Management Software
•     Chargebee
•     Chargify
•     Recurly
•   3 Payment Processors
• Verifone (formerly 2Checkout)
•     Stripe
•     Braintree

You can get your MoR from All-in-One SaaS Payment

Here's an overview of what it looks like for acting as your MoR:

Customers visit your site to choose their subscription. When they get to check out, the system your system takes over and concludes the transaction. It operates the same as other SaaS payment processors, with an important aspect: acting as your merchant of record.

 The benefits of this is that it doubles as:

1. takes away the burden of paying local consumption taxes and keeps you up-to-date in local laws governing transactions, managing subscriptions, payment processing, and more. If something goes wrong regarding local taxes, compliance with local laws charges, authorization rates, chargebacks, etc. takes over in resolving the issue for you.
2. Your entire SaaS billing solution is accessible from one place -- the account dashboard. Plus, you're only charged a flat fee for all your services (more about this in the future).

In the next section, we'll look at an in-depth look at what we recommend to you for each piece of the procedure. Specifically:

•   Checkout
•   Pay Processing
•   Collection and Payment of Consumption Tax
•   Subscriptions and Recurring Billing Management
•   Retention Management
•   Analytics and Reporting

Checkout: Customization of the Checkout for Higher Conversions

Many companies lose potential clients due to too much confusion in their checkout procedure. For example when the checkout page isn't in a way that matches the branding of the of the website, the potential buyer is less likely to trust that the checkout is safe. A customer could choose not to purchase due to the payment method you offer (a problem especially common with international customers).

Most payment processors will provide the checkout template that allow for basic modifications, such as including your company logo. However, these checkout templates rarely provide the customization abilities necessary to fully optimize your checkout for high conversion rates.

 , on contrary, offers branding tools, CSS-overrides and also a JavaScript library of popular e-commerce features so you have full control of every aspect of your shopping experience.

There are other options that can assist you in optimizing your shopping experience:

• preferred payment options: While Visa or PayPal are popular across the U.S., other forms of payments are common across other nations. If you don't provide the preferred payment method that buyers are used to then you'll lose fewer of them to customers. But it can be very time-consuming and a drain on resources to add different payment options. makes it possible for you to add tons of preferred payment methods around the world right now (more on this in a later section).

• Text Translations: If your checkout does not use the same language as other pages on your website and you're not sure if it's a good idea to lose customers. By letting the customers pick their preferred language at checkout or let them select the correct language based on their location.
• Conversions to local currencies: Certain customers may not purchase the product when they aren't sure (or have to figure out on their own) what the software is going to cost in local currency. solves this by automatically converting cost to local currency upon checkout. Alternatively, you can set a custom price in every currency.
• Flexibility in integration choices: Part of choosing the right checkout flow is deciding whether to embed the checkout on your site or redirect customers to a different site. There are three choices available to you: 1) Integrate the checkout directly onto your webpage, 2) insert a pop-up over the page, and) redirect customers to a different page that's completely branded with your company's logo. The first two options only require a few lines of HTML and Javascript while the third is hosted by . We will host your entire storefront and checkout for you and your brand.

• Personalized support: If you need extra assistance, our team of software engineers can help in the design and development of the perfect check-out system for your business (regardless of how big or small your company is).

NOTE: We also provide a checkout template that has been optimized for conversions, However, many businesses discover that it's simple to set up an individual solution using .

Payment Processing: Improve Authorization Rates with Localized Payment Gateways

In many cases, people attempt to purchase but the payment method gets declined or takes too long to complete so they don't make the purchase.

helps improve authorization rates so you earn more money through a variety of ways:

• Payment gateway rerouting: When a payment is unsuccessful on the first attempt, immediately tries to make the same payment again using a secondary gateway -and all this without you or anyone on the support team needing to step in. The process is usually able to resolve payment issues caused by connection issues or other system problems.
• Manage preferred payment service providers: As we mentioned in the past, support for new payment methods can be an enormous drain on resources. Every card network and issuing bank has different levels of tolerance for charges and fraud, as well as different regulations for the way a transaction takes place. If you aren't in compliance with these requirements The card company will likely stop authorizing payments. The responsibility is ours to staying compliant with various payment service providers, and we deal with chargebacks, fraud, and more for you.
• Localizing payment processing: Card networks are more likely to approve the payment via a local processor. For example, if the purchaser is located situated in Italy and the processor has to be an official company with a legal entity in Italy for higher authorization rates. collaborates with processors across all over the world to make sure that all payment transactions are locally based.

Collecting and Remitting Consumption Tax Expande Globally, Without Heavy Fines

Certain SaaS billing software will help to collect taxes, but in the end, you'll be accountable for collecting and remitting an appropriate amount in the correct time. It's a major job for any company.

 Because acts as your MoR. We handle all aspects of collecting and remitting consumption tax for you.

automatically calculates the right type and amount of tax and adds it to the price for customers at checkout (we can also assist with tax-free transactions as well as other unique circumstances). At the end of each tax period we submit taxes to each jurisdiction. In addition, we'll take on the leadership on audits.

Control of Recurring and Subscription Billing Design custom trials and subscriptions while Being Compliant with Local Jurisdictions

There are many subscription management software available with flexible plans for trial and regular subscription plans. By using the correct plan for recurring billing and trial it is possible to win more customers and increase the amount of revenue.

However it is true that your subscription plans will only be successful when they comply with local regulations and laws. For example, numerous states, provinces and countries don't allow auto-pay on transactions that exceed an amount.

Most subscription management solutions provide you with a notification when they discover changes in laws and regulations, but it is you who are the ultimate responsible. If you don't comply with these changing rules and laws and laws, you may be subject to severe penalties or even be barred from conducting business in that area.

 relieves you of this burden by taking full responsibility for adhering to local transaction laws and regulations.

Our team of legal experts remain up-to-date with all relevant legalities and make certain that the proper procedures are in place for paying customers. You can start selling in 200+ regions almost instantly since we've established the necessary processes in every region.

Also, offers an array of pre-configured trials and subscription options so you can design your own solutions using no code. Or, you could use the API or webhooks library to build complicated subscription logic as well as integrations.

 Here are a few examples of of billing logic and trials you can design using

• Trials for free or with a fee
• Trials that do not require the payment information
• Trials that automatically renew to a paid plan
• Any length of time for subscriptions
• Prorations mid-cycle
• One-time purchases are added to ongoing payment
• Cross-sells and upsells and many more

Retention Management: Reduce Churn that is not voluntary by using proactive and proactive methods.

Involuntary churn being one of the main ways businesses that use subscriptions lose customers. the majority of SaaS billing programs offer simple retention-related features, like retrying payments that have failed or sending email messages to customers after an unsuccessful payment. But, these options are only helpful following the payment fails.

lets you turn on proactive notifications that remind the client to correct their payment details before the transaction can take place. In our experience the proactive reminders could significantly reduce the number of transactions that don't work at all.

After a failed payment it is possible to automatically send out reminders two, five, seven, 14 21 days following an unsuccessful payment. During the 21 days the customer's services won't be disrupted. With periodic reminders and also maintaining the service, customers will be more likely to refresh their personal information, which can reduce the rate of involuntary customer churn.

provides a self-serve portal where customers can change their details and modify or upgrade their subscriptions. When customers can control their accounts on their own, you'll have less hassle in your customer experience which means more revenue. Self-service portals is customizable to fit the branding of your company, however the management is handled by our staff so your team doesn't have to worry about it.

Analysis and reporting: Make it easier to make Business Decisions

Analytics and Reporting will help you determine the way each product affects your bottom line, what coupon or promotion is effective, what subscription plans generate the most revenue, and so on.

 The revenue overview dashboard gives you a complete overview of cash flow, comprising:

• The location where your customers will be
• Which currencies and methods of payment do clients prefer?
• Net sales by product
• Transactions totals by the country
• And more

 The dashboard for subscriptions lets you dig deeper into the monthly recurring income (MRR) and includes SaaS parameters, including:

• Upsells, cross-sells, and other add-ons
• Value of each customer's long-term relationship
• Customer churn is the total
• When in the billing cycle the churn is most likely
• and more

Through's reporting function it is possible to create and save custom reports which allows you to have the data you need, when you need it. Our team can help with these reports and help you discover the information you require to grow and optimize your SaaS company. Finally, you can share any report with key users via the dashboard, or by way of CSV, PNG or XLSX spreadsheet.

Prepare for the Future Flat-Rate Pricing

For the majority of SaaS billing software it is necessary to either add to other solutions, or upgrade to the most expensive plan to access the capabilities you want.

However, it is a complete payment solution that means you'll not require extra billing software. Additionally, all offerings are provided at one flat-rate price (without any migration fees).

Our team works in partnership with you to determine an affordable price that is based upon the amount of transactions you move through , and you'll only be charged when transactions take place.

3. Subscription Management Platforms

Chargebee: Built for Complex Subscription Logic

Chargebee is an extremely popular option for billing subscriptions as well as revenue management. Chargebee supports several payment types and payment gateways, however it is your responsibility to setting up and partnering with each one.

A few of the features offered by Chargebee comprise:

• Automated and self-serve subscription models
• Invoicing and billing can be automated.
• Flexible pricing plans
• Quote management tool
• Smart dunning
• PCI-compliant checkout

The Chargify Subscription Management System for B2B SaaS

Chargify is a software for subscription billing built specifically for B2B SaaS. At the time of writing, Chargify is in the phase of partnering with SaaSOptics and forming a new software company, Maxio. With this alliance, Chargify customers will have access to payment processors but you'll require a separate system for tax compliance and legal requirements.

Other important Chargify attributes comprise:

• Dozens of trial and pricing models
• Custom sign up experiences
• Automatic dunning
• Analytics suite for self-service
• Recognition of revenue

Recurly is a payment gateway that supports multiple Payment Gateways

Recurly is a subscription and billing platform that helps you to optimize your growth strategy. Recurly advertises the ability to integrate easily with various merchant and payment processors However, you will need to be responsible for these services on top of your Recurly plan.

Recurly's services include:

• Customizable subscription models
• Automated and recurring invoicing
• Tools for revenue recovery
• Intelligent retention
• Subscription analytics

3 Payment Processors

Verifone Pay Platform for Enterprises

Verifone (formerly 2Checkout) allows you to choose between the MoR model as well as the payment processing model. Though startups might be able to use these services Verifone has been designed more towards large corporations.

The main functions of Verifone are:

• Reporting and analytics
• Global tax and financial services
• Risk management and compliance
• B2B quote builder
• Channel partner management

Stripe, a well-known and trusted payment processor

Stripe is a payment processor for in-person and online transactions. Though Stripe offers a few services for managing your subscription and features, they usually recommend that you integrate with Chargebee for more robust services for recurring billing -- which means you'll be managing and manage two payment platforms.

Some of Stripe's other features comprise:

• Checkout
• Management of risk and fraud
• Payments online
• In-person payments
• Subscription management
• Virtual and physical card issuing
• Subscription business spend management

Braintree: PayPal's Solution for SaaS

Braintree from PayPal is a processing company that supports Venmo (in the US), Apple Pay and Google Pay. They also offer some SaaS services for managing subscriptions.

Some other notable offerings from Braintree are:

• Merchant accounts
• Optimized checkout flow
• Options for risk reduction that are flexible
• An analysis of the subscription lifecycle
• Integrations with third party integrations to help you manage recurring bills as well as accounting and accounting.