SaaS Billing Software: 7 Tools in 3 Categories & the Best Ways to Select -

SaaS billing software can automatize any of the various aspects of the process of recurring billing such as payment processing fulfillment, dunning, and many more.

In this post, we'll be comparing 7 SaaS billing solutions that we separate into three categories:

1. Subscription management This type of software can automate free trials, recurring payment schedules, as well as the dunning process. You'll still need a separate solution for payment processing and tax refunds. and more.
2. Payment processing: These solutions gather information about the payment and allow for a transaction between two parties. Since there are many payment processors, you'll need additional software to manage the complicated and recurring payment process, including tax, chargebacks as well as dunning.
3. Merchants of Record (MoR): Having your billing system also act as a MoR is to handle the complete payment process through SaaS to your benefit, such as the collection and paying local and international taxes (such as VAT or local sales taxes) as well as ensuring that you are in compliance with local laws and regulations, chargebacks, and much more. Without a MoR, your business will need to be aware of and in that you are in compliance with local laws and taxes in any country or region where your customers are.

 Table of Contents

•   : Your MoR for the All-in-1 SaaS Billing
•   3. Subscription Management Software
•     Chargebee
•     Chargify
•     Recurly
•   3 Payment Processors
• Verifone (formerly 2Checkout)
•     Stripe
•     Braintree

The MoR you receive for all-in-one SaaS billing

Below is an overview of how you'll need to do to act as your MoR:

Your customers visit your website to choose their subscription. Then, when they go to checkout, your system takes over and concludes the transaction. It functions the same way as other common SaaS payment processors, with one crucial aspect: it acts as the merchant in your account.

 The benefit from this is twofold.

1. eliminates the responsibility of paying local consumption taxes and keeps you up-to-date with local transaction laws, managing subscriptions, payment processing, and so on. If something goes wrong regarding taxes, local compliance charges, authorization rates, chargebacks and so on. takes over to resolve the problem on your behalf.
2. Your entire SaaS billing system can be managed all from the account dashboard. Plus, you're only charged one fixed rate for all services (more about this in the future).

In the next section, we'll look at an in-depth look at how helps you with each piece of the bill procedure. Specifically:

•   Checkout
•   Process Payment
•   Collection and Payment of Consumption Tax
•   Subscriptions and Recurring Billing Management
•   Retention Management
•   Analytics as well as Reporting

Checkout: Full Checkout Customization for Higher Conversions

Many companies lose potential customers because there's too much confusion in their checkout procedure. In particular it's a problem if the checkout display does not visually align with the brand of the rest of the website, the potential customer is less likely to trust that the checkout is secure. A customer could decide not to buy due to the payment method that they can use (a particular issue for foreign customers).

Many payment processors will supply you with checkout templates with a couple of basic modifications, such as including your company logo. These templates do not offer the flexibility to customize necessary to fully improve your checkout to achieve high efficiency and conversion.

 , on the other hand, provides branding tools, CSS-overrides as well as a JavaScript collection of most commonly used e-commerce features so you have full control over each aspect of your shopping experience.

There are other features that offers to assist you in optimizing your shopping experience:

• preferred payment options: While Visa or PayPal may be common within the U.S., other forms of payment are utilized in different countries. If you don't offer the preferred payment method that buyers are used to, you'll convert fewer of them into buyers. It can also be laborious and draining on resources to add new payment methods. It allows users to incorporate a wide range of preferred payment methods around the world in a matter of minutes (more about this in a subsequent section).

• Text translations: If your checkout doesn't use the same language as other pages on your website it could result in losing some customers. By letting customers choose their preferred language when they check out or let choose the appropriate language based on their location.
• Conversions to local currencies: Certain customers may not purchase the product because they do not know (or need to determine on their own) what the software is going to cost in their local currency. This is solved by automatically changing prices to local currency at checkout. You can also set a custom price in the currencies of each.
• Flexible integration options: Part of choosing the right checkout flow is deciding whether you want to embed the checkout on your site or redirect customers to a different site. There are three choices available to you one of which is to) Embed the checkout directly onto your website, or) insert a pop-up over the page, and) redirect your customers to a separate webpage that's entirely branded for your business. These two options require just a couple lines of HTML and Javascript The third choice is hosted by . We will host your entire storefront and checkout for you using your logo.

• Personalized support: If you need extra assistance Our team of software engineers can help create and implement the best payment system for your company (regardless the size or small your business is).

NOTE: We also provide an online checkout template that's been optimized to convert, However, many businesses discover that it's easy to implement the solution of your choice .

Payment Processing: Improve Authorization Rates With Localized Payment Gateways

In many cases, people try to buy but the payment method gets declined or takes too long to finish, and they fail to complete the purchase.

Improves authorization rates, so you earn more money by a variety of methods:

• Rerouting of payments by the payment gateway: If a transaction fails on the first attempt, instantly retries it by using a second gateway- all without any member of your support team having to intervene. This often solves payment failures caused by connectivity or system issues.
• Managing preferred payment providers: As we mentioned previously, implementing new payment methods can be an immense drain on resources. Each card company and bank has different tolerance levels for chargingbacks and fraud as well as distinct rules for how transactions are conducted. If you're not complying to these rules The card company is likely to stop approving payments. The responsibility is ours to keeping up with the various requirements of payment providers which means we take care of chargebacks, fraud, and more for you.
• localizing processing of payments: Card networks are more likely to authorize payments sent by a local processing company. For example, if the purchaser is located situated in Italy and the processor should have a legal entity with a legal entity in Italy to get higher rates of authorization. collaborates with processors across all over the world, to ensure that all transactions are made locally.

Collecting and Remitting Consumption Tax Increase Globally without Hefty Fines

Certain SaaS billing programs can help to collect taxes, but ultimately, you'll be responsible for collecting and remitting the correct amount at the right time. This is an enormous task for any business.

 Because serves as your MoR, we handle all elements of collecting and paying consumption tax on your behalf.

automatically calculates the right quantity and type of tax, and then adds the tax to the cost for the customers at checkout (we can also assist with tax-free transactions as well as other unique situations). At the end of every tax year We file tax returns with every jurisdiction. In addition, we'll take on the leadership in audits.

Subscription and Recurring Billing Management Make Custom Trials and Subscriptions While Making sure you are in compliance with local jurisdictions

There are many subscription management programs with flexible plans for trial and recurring subscription plans. By using the correct subscription model, including recurring and trial billing it is possible to win more customers and increase revenue.

In the end it is true that your subscription plans can only succeed when they comply with local laws and regulations. For example, many states, provinces, and nations don't permit automatic payment for transactions exceeding a certain amount.

Most subscription management solutions provide you with a notification when they learn about changes to rules and laws, but it is you who are the ultimate responsible. If you don't adhere to these ever-changing rules and laws, you could face heavy fines or be prevented from transacting in that region.

 relieves you of this burden by taking full accountability for observing local regulations and laws governing transactions.

Our experts in legal matters stay up to date on every legal aspect and make certain that the proper procedures are in place for making payments. You can start selling in 200+ regions almost instantly because we've already established the processes required in every region.

Also, offers various pre-configured trial and subscription options , so that you can design your own solutions using no programming. Or, you can use the API and webhooks library to build complicated subscription logic as well as integrations.

 Here are some examples of the types of trials and billing logic that you could create using

• Free or for a nominal cost
• Trials with or without collecting the payment information
• Trials which automatically renew until the paid plan automatically.
• Subscription intervals of any length
• Prorations mid-cycle
• One-time purchase added to a ongoing payment
• Upsells, cross-sells, discounts and more

Retention Management: Reduce Involuntary Churn With Proactive Dunning

Since involuntary churn is one of the primary reasons businesses that use subscriptions lose customers. the majority of SaaS billing applications offer basic retention management features for example, retrying unsuccessful payments or sending email messages to clients following the payment has failed. These features, however, can only be useful following a payment has failed.

allows you to turn on alerts that prompt customers to change their information about their payment prior to when the transaction occurs. In our experience the proactive reminders could significantly reduce the number of payments that fail in the first place.

Once a payment has failed the payment fails, you are able to send reminders automatically two, seven, 14 21 days following an unsuccessful payment. For the next 21 days, your customer's service won't be disrupted. By sending out frequent reminders and continuing the service, customers will be more likely to update their information which reduces the rate of involuntary customer churn.

provides a self-serve portal where your customers can update their information and change or cancel their subscriptions. When customers can manage their own accounts, it's easier for them to manage their user experience, which results in more profits. Self-service portals can be tailored to suit the brand's identity, but it's managed by our team to ensure that your staff doesn't need to be concerned about it.

Analytical and reporting Simplify Business Making

Analytics and Reporting allows you to understand what each product does to the bottom line of your business, which coupon or promotion is effective, what subscription plans yield the most profit, and more.

 The revenue overview dashboard provides a comprehensive view of your cash flow comprising:

• Which areas are your clients located
• What currencies and payment methods customers prefer
• Net sales of the product
• Transactions totals by country
• And more

 The dashboard for subscriptions will allow you to explore your monthly recurring revenues (MRR) and also includes SaaS parameters, including:

• Upsells, cross-sells, and add-ons
• Value of each customer's long-term relationship
• Customer churn is the total
• In the cycle of billing, it is commonplace for churn to occur
• And more

By using's reporting features it is possible to create and save customized reports, which lets you access the data you need, whenever you require it. Our support team will help you use these reports to discover the information you require to improve and grow your SaaS company. Additionally, you are able to share any report with key stakeholders via the dashboard or as a CSV, PNG, or XLSX spreadsheet export.

Make a Plan for the Future with Flat-Rate Pricing

For the majority of SaaS billing programs it is necessary to either add to other solutions, or upgrade to the most expensive plan to get all the features you require.

The other side of the coin is that it is a full payment system so you won't need any extra billing software. Additionally, all offerings are provided at one cost (without any fees for migration).

Our team will work with you to find an affordable price that is based on the volume of transactions  You'll only be charged for transactions that are completed.

3 Subscription Management Platforms

Chargebee: Built for Complex Subscription Logic

Chargebee is a popular choice for billing subscriptions as well as revenue management. Chargebee has a variety of payment options and payment gateways, however, you'll be responsible for partnering with and configuring each one.

The features of Chargebee's are:

• Self-serve and automated 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 designed specifically for SaaS B2B. As of the date of this the writing of this article, Chargify is in the process of partnering with SaaSOptics to become the new software business, Maxio. As a result of this collaboration users of Chargify will be able to gain access to payment gateways However, you'll need a separate solution for tax compliance and legal requirements.

Other notable Chargify features include:

• Dozens of pricing and trial models.
• Experiences for signing up that are customized
• Automatic dunning
• Self-service Analytics Suite
• Revenue recognition

Recurly: Supports Multiple Payment Gateways

Recurly is a subscription and billing system that can help you optimize your growth plan. Recurly claims to be able to seamlessly integrate with a variety of payments gateways and merchant accounts, however, you still must manage and cover these additional services on top of your Recurly plan.

Recurly's offerings include:

• Customizable subscription models
• Automated, recurring invoices
• Tools for revenue recovery
• Intelligent retention
• Subscription analytics

3 Payment Processors

Verifone is a Payment Platform designed for Enterprises

Verifone (formerly 2Checkout) offers the MoR model as well as the payment processing models. Although startup companies may benefit from these services Verifone has been designed more towards large corporations.

Its primary features are:

• Reporting and analytics
• Global tax and financial services
• Compliance and risk management
• B2B quote builder
• Channel partner management

Stripe, a well-known and trusted payment processor

Stripe is a processor for payments for online and in-person transactions. While Stripe offers a few subscription management features and features, they usually recommend that you integrate with Chargebee for more robust recurring billing features and this means that you'll have to manage and pay for two platforms.

Some of Stripe's other features include:

• Checkout
• Fraud and risk management
• Online payment
• Payments in person
• Management of subscriptions
• Card issuing both physical and virtual
• Subscription business spend management

Braintree: PayPal's Solutions for SaaS

Braintree from PayPal is a processing company that supports Venmo (in the US), Apple Pay as well as Google Pay. The company also offers SaaS services for managing subscriptions.

Other notable offerings by Braintree are:

• Merchant accounts
• Improved checkout flow
• Flexible risk mitigation options
• An analysis of the subscription lifecycle
• Integrations from third-party companies for recurring billing, accounting, and more