A comprehensive guide for Subscription Paying Systems (+ 5 Options)

Most subscription billing platforms let you:

• Automate invoicing and payments.
• Customize and manage one or more subscription and trial models.
• Create a self-service platform for clients to manage their accounts (including seating information, payment details and much more).
• Manage and offer one-time add-ons, coupons, and more.
• Gather metrics and view reports on monthly recurring revenue.

However, the vast majority of businesses that use subscription billing will need an option to manage different aspects of management of subscription bills, including:

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

Some subscription billing systems don't provide these crucial issues that are involved in managing subscriptions.

Plus, you'll need to consider whether or not the billing platform supports businesses like that of yours. As an example, certain billing solutions solely support SaaS businesses, while some support companies selling physical goods or services (e.g. fitness memberships, food programs, remote accounting solutions).

 In this blog this article, we review five of the top bill-paying platforms that allow subscriptions, stating the areas of the billing lifecycle they support, what alternatives you'll have to include, and the types of companies they serve.

Our solution, , lets the world's SaaS businesses handle all the details on both lists above. So, we'll start with a deep dive into . The remaining options on this list are geared towards e-commerce and businesses that offer physical goods and services.

 Table of Contents

•   Recurly
•   Chargebee
•   Chargify
•   Zuora

: Comprehensive Subscription Billing Platform Global Software Companies

is a comprehensive payment solution designed for SaaS firms and businesses selling products that are digital or downloadable. Through the use of B2B and B2C software companies can manage:

• Multiple subscription models, trials and one-time add-ons as well as other features.
• Automated invoices and customer notifications.
• Payment processing (for many payment options all over the world).
• A fully managed self-serve portal for customers.
• Reporting and analytics.
• Plus much plus.

Additionally, takes on the liability of transactions, that means we handle chargebacks, fraud prevention collecting and remitting consumption tax as well as legal conformity.

When you increase your usage, there won't be no unexpected costs as the entire feature set is offered at the same price, based on the amount of transactions you move through -which means you'll only be charged when transactions occur.

 In the next sections, we take a closer review of how you can:

•   Make Custom Subscription Models and Trials without Code
•   Help Customers Manage Their Account Details from a User-friendly portal
•   Enhance the Checkout Process to Improve Conversion
•   Secure Your Business from legal liability of Transactions
•   Let Gather and Remit VAT and Sales Tax to You
•   Automate the Handling of Payment Failure and reduce the Churn
•   Automatically Gather Key Metrics and View Detailed Reports

Make Custom Subscription Models, Subscriptions and trial without code

Most companies need a variety of billing as well as trial options to suit various products and target markets. The models that you are using in the beginning may not be the most efficient longer-term ones as your business evolves.

Many billing platforms will allow the creation of custom subscription plans however, you'll require your developers team to set up these customizations manually (with little or no assistance from your provider of billing solutions).

 has a wide range of pre-built options so anyone can set up customized subscription plans with no the technical expertise.

Here are just a few examples of of subscription plans and trials that you could set up:

• Paying for, free or use-based trial.
• Automated billing once the trial is over (or allow customers to manually begin an active subscription).
• Preset billing frequencies and/or dates (or allow your clients to choose).
• Usage-based billing.
• Discounts, coupons, prorated amounts, and one-time add-ons.
• Automatically store the payment details (or let the customer choose).
• Auto-renew for a new subscription plan.
• and more.

If you need even additional customization, you could use 's API and Webhooks Library to design your own subscription model. Developers are available 24/7 to help you build the perfect solution and answer any queries you might have.

Help customers manage account information via a simple and user-friendly website

provides a self-serve portal where your customers can view:

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

From this portal, customers can control changes, upgrades, or downgrades to their the bank or credit card information, and much more, by contacting your staff.

manages the entire portal to ensure that your staff doesn't need to. However, you'll retain full control over the look and feel of the portal. This lets you create an unified experience for your customers without straining your development team.

Optimize Your Checkout Process for greater conversion

With most subscription billing solutions, you'll require an alternative solution for payments and checkout (which will require additional charges and software that you have to control).

 can control subscriptions, checkout as well as payment processing, all in the same solution.

Over the course of nearly two decades, we have gained experience helping software companies to grow their businesses, we've gained invaluable knowledge of how to improve checkout to increase conversion. For example, customers will be more likely to go through with a purchase if:

• You agree to the preferred method of payment.
• The money is accepted after the first attempt.
• Checkout takes place in the local currency and language.
• The look and feel that the process for checkout is in line with the rest of the website.

Each of these areas are included in the platform:

• Payment methods that are preferred: lets you accept the most common method of payment around the globe.
• High payment approval rates: Each card network and issuing bank has different acceptable levels of fraud and chargebacks. makes sure you're in compliance with the regulations in order that you are able to keep high authorization rates. Furthermore the transactions are more likely to be approved when the provider of the transaction is a legal entity that is located in the same place as the purchaser. It works with multiple payment gateways around the world and automatically routes each payment through that gateway that has the highest approval rates for that area.
• Automated currency conversion is a software that automatically converts prices into the buyer's local currency. You can either choose an exact amount for each location or let do the conversion instantly.
• Checkout language translations: also helps you translate checkout in the local language. It is possible to pick the correct local language for the buyer based on their location, or you can allow the customer to choose which preferred language.
• Fully customized checkouts: With , you have three choices for your checkout that include an integrated checkout, a pop-up checkout, or a separate storefront that is managed by our team. In each case, you are in complete control of the appearance and experience of your checkout page or. Most checkout solutions only have the option of modifying a couple of things (e.g. you can add a logo or choose from a pre-set list of colors) But checkouts are able to be customized to the pixels.

Protect Your Company from Legal Liability of Transactions

As the experienced SaaS businesses know, it's necessary to outline the terms and conditions of the subscription. Customers must agree to those terms before receiving payment. The problem is figuring out what should be included in the contract. The process becomes even more complex for international businesses because the details of what the contract needs to include will change with each country, state, territory and province. If you don't include all the necessary elements, you could face severe penalties or be disqualified from conducting business in that particular jurisdiction.

Additionally, many states have extra law and rules for automated periodic payments that go beyond the amount specified by the agreement. As an example, India limits automatic payments up to 15,000 rupees (approximately $180 as of the date of writing). If a regular payment goes above that threshold, the user will have to approve the transaction manually every time. To avoid being fined You must also submit an electronic Mandate to the Reserve Bank of India that outlines how you will adhere to the rules.

Being up-to-date with rules like these in every jurisdiction is a huge issue for any company.

Customers, this is not a concern because we handle conformity with local law and rules. Our legal team keeps up to date with every aspect of transaction law and makes sure that the proper procedure and documentation is in place for collecting automatic payments.

is fully compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and it is in full compliance with California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as well as other regulations.

Let Gather and Remit GST and Sales Tax for You

SaaS businesses didn't have the obligation to collect tax on consumption, however, tax laws for software companies are changing and are being enforced more rigorously.

Many payment platforms will assist you gather consumption tax, however, you're responsible for making sure you collect the correct amount, and then remitting the tax after each tax period. If you don't collect and remit the correct amount (and the correct type) in consumption taxes in the appropriate dates, you may be subject to heavy fines and/or be barred from transacting in that location.

automatically applies the correct amount (and type) in consumption taxes onto the price that customers pay and then remits these taxes on your behalf..

We support tax-exempt transactions and other cases of specialization. We also take the lead for any audits.

Automate payment failure handling and Reduce Churn

Between the initial transaction and every subsequent rebill there are many issues that stop the payment from being accepted and causes customers to turn. After working with hundreds of companies We've designed automated procedures to solve common issues that cause churn and recover most failed payments.

 Here are a few options that could help cut down on churn as well as failed payments:

• Reminders that are proactive:In our experience, informing customers of upcoming payment dates and notifying them about expired payment methods, is one of the best methods to decrease involuntary churn , as well as the failure of transactions. By using this software , you can set up automatic reminders about future payments.
• Reminders in multiple formats: If a purchase is unsuccessful, clients typically require multiple reminders until they can fix the problem (e.g. adding funds to their account, update their payment method, etc.). It is possible to send out follow-up reminders two, five, seven, 14, and/or 21 days after the initial failure of the payment ( you can retry the transaction before sending out every reminder).
• Continued service: Another effective way to decrease churn in involuntary manner is to run the service in the meantime you are trying to make the payment. This provides a better customer experience since the client has an opportunity to solve the issue without the negative impression of a service that is stopped. A better customer experience is, the more likely they are to stay.
• Easy reactivation: After all reminders have been sent You can decide to pause instead of cancelling the customer's subscription. This allows users to renew their subscriptions without having to onboard once more (onboarding can be a major barrier to restarting a service).

Like we mentioned earlier, also automatically retries every transaction using a different gateway (without anyone on your team needing to lift a finger) that can fix failed payments caused by difficulties with your network.

Automatically collect key metrics and review detailed reports

Analytics and Reporting lets you address questions like:

• How is each product contributing to my profit margin?
• What products have proven to be the most successful and which consume resources?
• What promotions, coupons and discounts are attracting new customers?
• Which subscription model is most effective?
• What markets are the most successful and which ones have more potential?

Two main dashboards are available: the revenue overview dashboard, as well as the dashboard for subscription overview.

The revenue overview dashboard provides you with a comprehensive overview of your entire business' performance, including:

• The location of your clients.
• Which currencies and methods of payment do clients prefer.
• Net sales of the product.
• All transactions for each the country.
• Plus.

This Dashboard for the overview of subscriptions allows you to track your the monthly recurring income (MRR) and delves into what's affecting your MRR over time. This dashboard gives you metrics on:

• Cross-sells, upsells, and add-ons.
• The long-term value of each customer.
• Total customer churn.
• When in the billing cycle churn happens most often.
• The life-time value of a customer.
• Plus.

You are able to modify and save any report and also share them with important users via the dashboard, or by exporting them as PNG, CSV, or XLSX spreadsheet export.

Four Other Subscription Management Platforms

Recurly

Recurly is a recurring-billing and management platform designed to help companies sell:

• B2B and B2C software.
• Mobile app.
• Entertainment and media.
• Consumer products and retail.
• Professional Services.
• eLearning.

Recurly allows easy integration with various payment gateways, but you're accountable for the setup and management of each of them. Most companies using Recruly also end up adding programs to:

• Taxes (e.g., Avalara).
• Accounting (e.g., Accounting (e.g.,).
• Fraud protection (e.g. Sift- customers are automatically protected with Sift).

Additionally, you'll be accountable for the tax and transaction liability, which means it's likely that you'll need a separate department that is responsible for compliance. (With  everything, it is covered in one package and managed entirely by our staff.)

Chargebee

Chargebee is a billing for subscriptions and revenue management platform designed for:

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

Like Recurly, Chargebee is primarily a subscription billing software so you'll likely need additional solutions for tax, fraud prevention as well as payment processing and much more. Chargebee offers a variety of integrations built in (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, SalesForce, and QuickBooks) but they are not included in the plans of any Chargebee package.

Chargify

Chargify is a provider of subscription billing solutions for B2B SaaS companies.

It is likely that you will require other solutions to prevent fraud, taxes, payment processing, and more. Yet, Chargify does offer simple accounting software that can be used to track revenue (for multiple types of business).

Chargify will also join forces with SaaSOptics to create a new companycalled Maxio. As a result of the merger, businesses that subscribe to services will have more functionalities for managing their finances, including automated expense and revenue recognition as well as automatic report-writing.

Zuora

Zuora provides an end-to-end monetization platform which includes subscription management software within. The majority of their customers are in the following industries:

• Manufacturing as well as IoT.
• Software.
• High-tech.
• Media and Entertainment.

Zuora is compatible with subscription-based pricing (e.g., a usage-based freemium plan that is upgraded to a paid plan) However, they provide features that streamline the accounting process, such as dunning and payment processing (although some companies have the option of connecting to different payments gateways).