SaaS Billing Software: 7 Tools from 3 Categories, and What to Consider -

SaaS billing software automates any of the various aspects of the billing cycle -- payment processing, dunning, fulfillment and more.

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

1. Subscription management: This type of software can automate trial periods, recurring payment schedules, and also the dunning procedure. You'll still need a separate software for processing payments, taxes, chargebacks, and much more.
2. Payment processing: These solutions gather payment details and facilitate the transaction between two parties. With many payment processors, you'll need additional software that can handle complicated recurring payments, tax, chargebacks as well as dunning.
3. Merchants of Record (MoR): Having your billing system also act as the MoR means they take care of the complete payment process through SaaS for you, including the collection and remitting local and international taxes (such as VAT or local sales taxes), staying compliant with local laws and regulations as well as chargebacks and more. In the absence of a MoR company must monitor and assure the compliance of all local taxes and regulations in every country and region in which there are customers.

 Table of Contents

•   : Your MoR for 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

Below is an overview of how it looks like for the MoR to serve as your representative:

Customers visit your site to choose their subscription plan. Then, when they go to check out, the system handles the checkout and completes the transaction. It functions the same way as other SaaS payment processors, with one important feature: acts as your merchant of record.

 The benefits of this is twofold:

1. eliminates the responsibility of paying local consumption tax keeping up-to-date with local transaction laws and managing subscriptions, payments processing, and more. If something goes wrong regarding local taxes, compliance with local laws charges, authorization rates, chargebacks and so on., takes the lead to resolve the problem in your name.
2. The entire SaaS billing solution can be managed from one place -- the account dashboard. Plus, you're only charged one flat rate for all services (more on this later).

Next, we'll take closer at the ways we can assist you in each piece of the bill process. Specifically:

•   Checkout
•   Pay Processing
•   Receipt and Transfer of Consumption Tax
•   Subscriptions and Recurring Billing Management
•   Retention Management
•   Analytics as well as Reporting

Checkout: Customization of the Checkout to allow for higher conversions

Some businesses lose clients due to too much confusion in their checkout procedure. As an example, if the checkout screen doesn't visually match the branding that is displayed on the site, the prospective customer is less likely to believe that the payment process is safe. Or, a customer may opt not to purchase since you do not accept the kind of payment option that they can use (a particular issue for international buyers).

Most payment processors will provide you with checkout templates with a couple of easy modifications like adding your logo. These templates rarely provide the customization abilities that you require to maximize your checkout and achieve higher conversion rates.

  On contrary, offers branding tools, CSS-overrides as well as a JavaScript library of common ecommerce tools, so that you can have total control of each part of your shopping experience.

Here are a few other tools that will help you optimize your checkout:

• Preferred payment methods: While Visa or PayPal might be popular in the U.S., other forms of payments are common in other countries. If you do not offer the payment method of choice which buyers use and you don't convert more of them into buyers. It can also be time-consuming and a drain on resources to introduce new payment methods. It allows you to add tons of payment options that are popular around the globe right away (more about this in a subsequent section).

• Text Translations: If your checkout does not 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 local language according to their place of residence.
• Conversions to local currencies: Certain customers may be unwilling to purchase because they do not know (or need to determine on their own) how much the program will cost in their local currency. solves this by automatically converting prices to local currency when you check out. You can also make a personalized price for each currency.
• Flexibility in integration choices: Part of choosing the most appropriate checkout method is choosing whether to integrate it in your website or direct customers to a separate web page. It offers three options: 1) embed the checkout directly onto your site,) place a pop-up onto your webpage, and 3) redirect users to a separate webpage that's fully branded to your business. The two first options require a few lines of HTML and Javascript while the third is managed by . We'll host your complete shopfront as well as the checkout using your logo.

• Personalized assistance: If you need additional support Our team of software engineers will help you design and develop the right checkout for your business (regardless of how big or small your company is).

Note: We also provide an online checkout template that's been optimized for conversions, but many companies find it easy to create the solution of your choice .

Pay Processing: Improve Authorization Rates Using Local Payment Gateways

Many times, buyers try to buy but the payment method is rejected or is too slow to complete so they don't make the purchase.

assists in improving authorization rates so that you earn more money through a variety of ways:

• Rerouting of payments by the payment gateway: If a payment fails in the initial attempt, it automatically retries the payment using a secondary gateway -and all this without either you or any other member of the support team needing to step in. This often solves payment failures due to connection issues or other system problems.
• Manage preferred payment service providers: As we mentioned previously, implementing new payment methods can be an enormous drain on resources. Every card network and issuing bank has various tolerance levels to deal with fraud and chargebacks and different guidelines for when transactions are conducted. If you're not in compliance to these rules then the network of your card will likely stop authorizing payments. The responsibility is ours to maintaining compliance with different payment service providers, and we deal with chargebacks, fraud and other problems for you.
• localizing processing of payments: Card networks are more likely to accept the payment through a local payment processor. For example, if the buyer is from Italy and the processor has to be an official company in Italy for higher authorization rates. works with payment processors around the globe to ensure most transactions are made locally.

Collection and Remitting of Consumption Tax Increase Globally without Hefty Fines

Some SaaS billing programs can help you collect tax but, at the end of the day, you're responsible for collecting and remitting an appropriate amount when it's due. This is a huge job for any company.

 Since it acts as your MOR. We take care of all the aspects of collecting and remitting consumption tax for you.

Automatically calculates the appropriate quantity and type of tax, and then adds the tax to the cost for the customers when you check out (we also support tax-exempt transactions as well as other unique circumstances). When we finish every tax year We file tax returns with the appropriate authorities. In addition, we'll take on the leadership when it comes to audits.

Subscription and Recurring Billing Management Make Custom Subscriptions and Trials, All the While Staying Compliant With Local Jurisdictions

There are many subscription management programs which offer a variety of options for trial and recurring subscription plans. If you choose the best plan for recurring billing and trial will help you win more customers and increase revenue.

However the subscription plan you choose to use will only be successful if they adhere to local laws and regulations. For example, many states, provinces, and nations don't permit auto-pay for transactions over an amount.

Most subscription management solutions will inform you whenever 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 law and regulations, you could face heavy penalties or even be barred from doing business in the region.

 relieves you of this responsibility by taking complete obligation to adhere to local regulations and laws governing transactions.

Our team of legal experts keep up-to-date on every legal aspect and make certain that the proper processes are in place to making payments. You can start selling in over 200 regions in just a few hours since we've established the processes required in each region.

Also, offers an array of pre-configured trials and subscription options , so that you can create custom solutions using no programming. Or, you could use the API or webhooks library to create sophisticated subscription logic and integrate it into.

 Here are a few examples of the kinds of billing logic and trials that you could create using

• Free or for a nominal cost
• Trials that do not require payments details
• Trials which automatically renew until a paid plan
• Any length of time for subscriptions
• Mid-cycle adjustments to the cycle
• One-time purchases are added to recurring installment
• Cross-sells and upsells and more

Retention Management: Reduce Involuntary Churn With Proactive Dunning

Since involuntary churn is one of the primary reasons subscription-based companies lose customers, the majority of SaaS billing applications offer simple retention-related features, like retrying payments that have failed or email notifications sent to clients following the payment has failed. These features, however, will only help when an attempt to pay has failed.

allows you to turn on proactive notifications that remind customers to change their payment details before the transaction takes place. In our experience, these proactive reminders can significantly reduce the number of transactions that don't work initially.

After a failed payment it is possible to automatically send out reminders two seven, 14 21 days following the failure of a payment. For the next 21 days, your customer's service won't be affected. By sending out regular reminders, and maintaining your services, your customers will more likely refresh their personal information, which can reduce involuntary customer churn.

provides a self-serve portal where customers can change their personal information, and also modify or upgrade their subscriptions. By letting customers control their accounts on their own, there's less friction in the customers' experience, which means higher revenues. The self-serve portal can be customized to match the branding of your company, however the management is handled by our staff so your team doesn't have to be concerned about it.

Analytics and Reporting: Make it easier to make Business Choices

's analytics and reporting feature lets you understand the way each product affects your bottom line, what coupon or promotion is working, which subscription models generate the most revenue, and much more.

 The revenue overview dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of cash flow, which includes:

• The location where your customers will be
• What currencies and payment methods consumers prefer?
• Net sales of the product
• Total transactions by the country
• and more

 The dashboard of your subscription will allow you to explore the monthly recurring income (MRR) and includes SaaS metrics, such as:

• Cross-sells, upsells, as well as add-ons
• Long-term value of each customer
• Churn of the entire customer
• When in the billing cycle churn happens most often
• And more

Through's reporting function it is possible to create and save customized reports, which allows you to have the data you need, at the time you require it. Our support team will help users use these reports to get the answers you're looking for to improve and grow your SaaS company. Finally, you can send any report to important people via the dashboard. Or, you can export the report in the form of a PNG, CSV or XLSX spreadsheet.

Make a Plan for the Future with Flat-Rate Pricing

For the majority of SaaS billing solutions, you'll need to add to other solutions, or switch to the least costly plan in order to gain the capabilities you want.

On the other hand, is a full payment system which means you don't require other billing software. Plus, all of 's features are offered at a flat-rate price (without any fees for migration).

Our team will work with you to find the most affordable cost based upon the amount of transactions you move through , and you'll only be charged when transactions are completed.

3 Subscription Management Platforms

Chargebee: Built for Complex Subscription Logic

Chargebee is an extremely popular option for subscription billing and revenue management. Chargebee supports several payment types and payment gateways, however, you'll be responsible for setting up and partnering with each one.

The features of Chargebee's are:

• Self-serve and automated subscription models
• Automated billing and invoicing
• Flexible pricing plans
• Tool for managing quotes
• Smart dunning
• PCI-compliant checkout

Chargify: Subscription Management for B2B SaaS

Chargify is a software for subscription billing built specifically for B2B SaaS. At the time of writing, Chargify is in the process of joining forces with SaaSOptics in order to create a new software company, Maxio. With this alliance, Chargify customers will have access to payment processing services but you'll require a separate system for taxes and legal compliance.

Other important Chargify attributes are:

• Dozens upon dozens of trial and pricing models.
• Custom sign up experiences
• Automatic dunning
• Self-service analytics suite
• Revenue recognition

Recurly is a payment gateway that supports multiple Payment Gateways

Recurly is a subscription and billing platform for optimizing your growth strategies. Recurly advertises the ability to seamlessly integrate with a variety of payment gateways and merchant accounts However, you will have to manage and pay for these third-party services in addition to your Recurly plan.

Recurly's offerings consist of:

• Customizable subscription models
• Automated, recurring invoices
• Revenue recovery tools
• Intelligent retention
• Subscription analytics

3 Payment Processors

Verifone: Payment Platform for Enterprises

Verifone (formerly 2Checkout) lets you choose between the MoR model as well as the payment processing model. Though startups might benefit from the services of Verifone, Verifone tends to be more toward large enterprises.

Its primary features are:

• Reporting and analytics
• Global Tax and Financial Services, as well as financial
• Compliance and risk management
• B2B quote builder
• Channel partner management

Stripe, a well-known and trusted payment processor

Stripe is a payment processor for online and in-person transactions. While Stripe provides a handful of options for managing subscriptions and features, they usually recommend that you integrate with Chargebee to offer more extensive services for recurring billing that means you'll have to manage and pay for two platforms.

Other features offered by Stripe are:

• Checkout
• Fraud and risk management
• Online payment
• In-person payments
• Subscription management
• Physical and virtual cards are issued
• Business spend management for subscriptions

Braintree: PayPal's Solution for SaaS

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

Braintree also has other noteworthy offerings. Braintree are:

• Merchant accounts
• Checkout flow is optimized
• Flexible risk mitigation solutions for risk
• Analytics on the subscription lifecycle
• Integrations from third-party companies for recurring billing, accounting, and more