SaaS Billing Software: 7 Tools from 3 Categories, and How to Choose -

SaaS billing software can automatize some or all aspects of the process of recurring billing such as payment processing dunning, fulfillment, and much more.

In this article we'll compare 7 SaaS billing services that we separate into three types:

1. Subscription administration: This type of software lets you automate free trial, recurring payment schedules, and also the dunning procedure. It's still necessary to have a separate software for processing payments tax, chargebacks, and much more.
2. Payment processing: These solutions gather payment details and facilitate the transaction between two parties. Since there are many payment processors they require additional software to manage complex recurring payments, charges, taxes as well as dunning.
3. Merchants of Record (MoR): Having your billing solution also act as a MoR is to handle the complete bill-paying process in SaaS to your benefit, such as taking care of collecting and remitting local and international taxes (such as VAT or local sales taxes), staying compliant to local regulations and laws as well as chargebacks and more. Without a MoR, your company must be aware of and in that you are in compliance with local regulations and taxes within any region or country in which you have customers.

 Table of Contents

•   Your MoR the All-in-1 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 Billing

Below is an overview of how it looks like for acting as your MoR:

The customers who visit your website for a chance to pick their preferred software subscription plans. When they get to pay, it your system takes over and closes the purchase. It works just like most other common SaaS payment processors, with an important aspect: acting as the merchant in your account.

 The advantage of this is that it doubles as:

1. relieves you of the obligation of paying the local consumption tax keeping up-to-date in local laws governing transactions as well as managing subscriptions, payment processing and much more. If something goes wrong in the area of taxes, local compliance or chargebacks, rates for authorization, etc. takes over to resolve the problem for you.
2. The entire SaaS billing system is accessible all from the dashboard. Plus, you're only charged a flat fee for all services (more on this later).

In the next section, we'll look at an in-depth look at the ways we can assist you in every aspect of the procedure. Specifically:

•   Checkout
•   Pay Processing
•   Collecting and Remitting Consumption Tax
•   Subscription and Recurring Billing Management
•   Retention Management
•   Analytics as well as Reporting

Checkout: Customization of the Checkout for greater conversion

Many companies lose potential customers because there's too much friction in their checkout process. As an example, if the checkout screen does not visually align with the brand that is displayed on the site, the prospective customer is less likely to feel confident that the transaction is secure. Also, the customer might opt not to purchase due to the kind of payment option they have available (a problem especially common with foreign customers).

Most payment processors will provide customers with templates for checkouts that allow for simple customizations such as including your company logo. But, the templates for checkout do not offer the flexibility to customize you need to truly optimize your checkout for high conversion rates.

  On the other hand, provides branding tools, CSS overrides and also a JavaScript library of common ecommerce tools, so that you can have total control of every aspect of your purchase.

Below are some additional tools that will help you optimize your checkout:

• preferred payment options: While Visa or PayPal might be popular within the U.S., other forms of payment are utilized in other countries. If you don't offer the payment method of choice which buyers use then you'll lose fewer of them into customers. However, it's time-consuming and a drain on resources to add different payment options. It allows users to include a variety of popular payment methods across the world in a matter of minutes (more on this in a later section).

• Text Translations: If your checkout doesn't use the same language as the rest of your website and you're not sure if it's a good idea to lose customers. With , you can let the customers pick their preferred language at checkout or let them select the correct language based on their location.
• Local currency conversions: Some customers will not purchase the product if they don't know (or must figure out by themselves) how much the program will cost in local currency. This is solved by automatically changing cost to local currency upon checkout. Alternatively, you can set a custom price to every currency.
• Options for flexible integration: Part of choosing the right checkout flow is choosing whether to integrate it in your website or direct customers to an additional site. There are three choices available to you that include: 1)) Integrate the checkout directly on your webpage, 2) add a pop-up on your website, and) redirect users to a different page that's entirely branded for your business. The first two options only need a couple of lines of HTML and Javascript The third choice is provided by . We'll host your complete storefront and checkout for you with your branding.

• Personalized help: If you need additional support Our team of software engineers will help you create and implement the best check-out system for your business (regardless the size or small your company is).

NOTE: We also provide the checkout templates that have been optimized for conversions, but many companies find that it's simple to set up the solution of your choice .

Pay Processing: Improve Authorization Rates Using Local Payment Gateways

In many cases, people attempt to purchase but the payment method is rejected or is too slow to complete so they don't complete the purchase.

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

• Rerouting of payments by the payment gateway: When a payment is unsuccessful on the first attempt, immediately tries to make the same payment again with a different gatewaywith no need for either you or any other member of your support team being required to step in. This often solves payment failures caused by problems with connectivity or the system.
• managing preferred payment processors: As we mentioned previously, implementing the new methods of payment can result in a huge drain on resources. Each card company and bank have different levels of tolerance for chargingbacks and fraud as well as distinct guidelines for when the transaction is conducted. If you're not in compliance with these regulations then the network of your card will likely stop authorizing payments. The responsibility is ours to maintaining compliance with different payment providers which means we deal with chargebacks, fraud as well as other issues for you.
• Localizing payments processing: Card networks are more likely to authorize the payment through a local payment processor. If, for instance, the buyer is in Italy the merchant should have a legal entity located in Italy to get higher rates of authorization. Works with various payment processors across all over the world to make sure that most transactions are made locally.

Collecting and Remitting Consumption Tax Expande Globally, Without Heavy Fines

Certain SaaS billing tools can assist in collecting tax, however, at the end of the day, you're responsible in settling and paying an appropriate amount when it's due. This is an enormous responsibility for every business.

 Because serves as your MoR, we manage all details of collecting, and paying consumption tax for you.

automatically calculates the right quantity and type of tax. We then add it to the price for customers when you check out (we additionally support tax-exempt transactions and other special cases). When we finish each tax season, we file taxes with the appropriate authorities. Additionally, we will lead on audits.

Manage Recurring and Subscription Billing Make Custom Trials and Subscriptions While Staying Compliant With Local Jurisdictions

There are a variety of subscription management programs that offer flexible options to create trials as well as regular subscription plans. With the right trial and recurring billing model it is possible to attract more customers and boost revenue.

But the subscription plan you choose to use are only successful when they comply with local regulations and laws. For example, several states, provinces and countries don't allow auto-pay for transactions over an amount.

The majority of subscription management software will notify you when they learn about changes to the law and regulations, however it is you who are the ultimate responsible. If you do not adhere to these ever-changing rules and laws, you could face heavy penalties or even be barred from doing business in the region.

 takes away this burden by taking full accountability for observing local regulations and laws governing transactions.

Our experts in legal matters remain up-to-date with every legal aspect and make certain that the proper procedures are in place for collecting payments. Start selling your products across more than 200 countries in a matter of minutes as we've already set up the required processes for every single region.

Additionally, has a variety of pre-configured trial and subscription plans so that you can design your own solutions without writing code. Or, you can use the API and webhooks library to build sophisticated subscription logic and integrate it into.

 Here are a few examples of of trials and billing logic you can create with :

• Free or paid trials
• Trials with or without collecting payments details
• Trials which automatically renew until a paid plan
• Any length of time for subscriptions
• Prorations mid-cycle
• One-time purchase is added to recurring installment
• Discounts, upsells, cross-sells and many more

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

Involuntary churn being one major reasons why 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 clients following a failed payment. However, these features are only helpful when an attempt to pay has failed.

lets you turn on alerts that prompt customers to change their data on the payment before the transaction can take place. In our experience this type of reminder can significantly reduce the number of transactions that don't work at all.

Once a payment has failed it is possible to automatically send out reminders to your customers for two, seven, 14 21 days in the wake of an unsuccessful payment. For the next 21 days the customer's services won't be interrupted. By sending out regular reminders, and maintaining your services, your customers are more likely to refresh their personal information, which can reduce uninvoluntary churn.

offers a self-service portal through which customers can change their personal information, and also upgrade or downgrade the subscription they have. When customers can control their accounts on their own, you'll have less hassle in your customers' experience, which means higher revenue. Self-service portals can be tailored to suit your brand identity but it's managed by our team to ensure that your staff doesn't need to worry about it.

Analytical and reporting Make it easier to make Business Making

Analytics and Reporting allows you to understand how each product contributes to the bottom line of your business, which coupons or promotions are effective, what subscription plans yield the most profit, and much more.

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

• Where your customers are located
• What currencies and payment methods customers prefer
• Net sales of the product
• Total transactions by country
• and more

 The dashboard for subscriptions will allow you to explore the monthly recurring income (MRR) as well as SaaS metrics, such as:

• Upsells, cross-sells, and other add-ons
• Value of each customer's long-term relationship
• Total customer churn
• When the billing cycle is in progress, churn happens most often
• And more

Through's reporting function allows you to build and save your own custom reports that lets you access all the information you require, at the time you require it. Our support team will help you use these reports to find the answers you need to improve and grow your SaaS business. Additionally, you are able to share any report with key stakeholders via the dashboard or as a CSV, PNG or XLSX spreadsheet.

Make a Plan for the Future with Flat-Rate Pricing

In the case of most SaaS billing programs, you'll need to add additional software or change to the more costly plan in order to gain the capabilities you want.

The other side of the coin is that it is a full payment system which means you don't require extra billing software. Plus, all of 's features are offered at a all-inclusive price (without any fees for migration).

Our team works in partnership with you to determine an affordable price that is based on the number of transactions that you conduct  You'll only be charged for transactions that take place.

3 Subscription Management Platforms

Chargebee: Built for Complex Subscription Logic

Chargebee is a popular choice for subscription billing and revenue management. Chargebee is compatible with a range of payment methods as well as payment gateways. However, you'll be responsible for partnering with and configuring 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
• Tool for managing quotes
• Smart dunning
• PCI-compliant checkout

Chargify: Subscription Management B2B SaaS

Chargify is a subscription-based billing program specially designed for B2B SaaS. In the moment of writing, Chargify is in the process of joining forces with SaaSOptics to become the new software business, Maxio. With this alliance, Chargify customers will have access to payment processing services, however, you'll still require a different solution to deal with tax compliance and legal requirements.

Other notable Chargify attributes are:

• Dozens upon dozens of trial and pricing models
• Sign up experience that is customized to your preferences
• Automated dunning
• Self-service Analytics Suite
• Revenue recognition

Recurly is a payment gateway that supports multiple Payment Gateways

Recurly is a subscription-based and billing platform for optimizing your growth strategy. Recurly claims to be able to integrate easily with various merchant and payment processors but you'll have to manage and be responsible for these services in addition to your Recurly plan.

Recurly's offerings include:

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

3 Payment Processors

Verifone Pay Platform for Enterprises

Verifone (formerly 2Checkout) lets you choose between a MoR model and Payment processing model. Though startups might benefit from these services Verifone is geared more toward large enterprises.

Verifone's main features include:

• Analytics and reporting
• Global tax and financial and banking services
• Compliance and risk management
• B2B quote builder
• Channel partner management

Stripe is a well-known payment processor.

Stripe is a processor for payments that allows transactions online as well as in person. While Stripe offers a few services for managing your subscription and features, they usually recommend that you integrate with Chargebee to offer more extensive services for recurring billing that means you'll be managing and manage two payment platforms.

Some of Stripe's other features include:

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

Braintree: PayPal's Solution for SaaS

Braintree from PayPal is a processor for payments which supports Venmo (in the US), Apple Pay and Google Pay. Additionally, they offer SaaS tools for managing subscriptions.

Braintree also has other noteworthy offerings. Braintree are:

• Merchant accounts
• Checkout flow is optimized
• Flexible risk mitigation options
• Analytics on the subscription lifecycle
• Integrations from third-party companies for recurring billing as well as accounting and accounting.