Payment as well as Subscription Control: Comprehensive Comparison of 5 Options -

Most billing and subscription management tools allow:

• Develop a range of types of subscription and trial models (e.g. either a free or paid trial , or usage-based or fixed price subscriptions).
• Control active subscriptions (e.g. upgrading or downgrades as well as the addition or removal of products).
• Invoices or payment notification notifications can be sent.
• Provide your customers with an online self-service portal through which they are able to manage their accounts.
• Read reports about the most important metrics that affect revenues.

But, many businesses discover that they need to use additional software for other aspects of the payment lifecycle, such as:

• Payment processing
• Collecting sales tax and VAT
• Checkout the translations
• Currency conversion
• Chargebacks
• and more...

If you're in need of one of these options, you'll need to make sure that these features are available through the any billing software you select (or seamlessly integrate with other software solutions).

In this tutorial, we compare five solutions by looking at the subscription and billing features they provide along with the extra options they provide that begin with an in-depth look into our solution that caters to SaaS firms, .

 Table of Contents

1.   Chargebee
2.   Recurly
3.   Chargify
4.   Zoho Subscriptions

1.  The Subscription Management Process, Payment Processing and More for SaaS Companies

offers several options for subscription management (which we'll discuss in the following), however, it's more than just a subscription management platform -We're also an Merchant of Record (MoR) for software companies.

 We, as MoR take on transaction liability for us, which means that we:

• Make sure you collect and remit the right amount of sales tax, VAT as well as GST on behalf of you.
• Be sure that the appropriate procedures and paperwork have been put in place to ensure you are in compliance with transaction law at every place you are selling.
• We lead the way on audits.

 Plus, has extensive solutions covering the whole process of making a payment. It includes:

• The localized checkout (i.e. Currency conversions, language translations, custom designs and much more)
• International processing for payments (for many payment options)
• Fraud detection
• Chargebacks
• Analytics and reporting
• and there's and more...

In the next sections We will explore the various options and services in greater in depth.

Custom Subscriptions and Recurring Billing Modells for B2C and B2B

makes it easy to set up nearly any subscription in just a couple of clicks. It is possible to set up the majority of subscriptions without writing codes, but you may develop more complicated subscription logic using our API and webhooks library.

Here's a summary of the options available to you:

 Trials

Certain subscription management software will always collect payment details when potential customers sign up for trial periods, or even trial periods. Some potential clients may be enticed to lose interest and not finish the signup procedure. lets you decide whether or not you want to gather data on payment at the end of each trial.

Also:

• Trials of any length can be created.
• Create free, paid or trial-based, usage-based ones.
• Choose to automatically bill the user once the trial has ended or allow them to begin a subscription manually.
• Allow subscribers to reactivate account that have been cancelled.
• Select the time when you send reminders about closing trials (e.g., three days prior to the time when trial is scheduled to end).
• Automatically detect when one user attempts to sign up for multiple trials and only permit only one trial account.

 Subscriptions

Every product and every business within a business may see better results from different subscription models. As an example, lower-end products may perform better if offered with a subscription that is monthly while top-end products could perform better if sold as an annual subscription.

Also, what was successful at one point in time might not be the most effective strategy in the future.

We'll let you know:

• Pick the duration of the subscription as well as the dates for billing (or let your customers decide).
• Make subscriptions auto-renewable and need an manual renewal (i.e., customers have to enter payment details each time they're billed), or require your team to initiate the charge via API API (this is a good option for usage-based billing).
• Coupons and discounts are available.
• Let prorated billing be used if customers wish to upgrade, reduce, or even pause the service midway during the billing process.
• Include one-time purchases on the first bill, but do not include recurring billings.
• Manage upsell and cross-sell products during checkout.
• Customers have the choice of the storage of details about their payment (or decide for all customers).
• Auto-renew certain subscriptions to different subscriptions (e.g. in the event of retiring an item or service).

 Recurring billing and invoicing

allows you to manage B2B orders along with B2C purchases using Digital Invoicing.

Digital Invoicing can help you:

• Manage and create custom quotes that are updated in real time (including custom tags coupons, discounts, and more).
• Set expiration dates for quotes.
• Notes for your client or prospect.

Fully Branded Self-Service Features to Your Customers

offers a self-service portal through which your customers can:

• Renewal of subscriptions
• Control billing times
• Make changes to payment details
• View payment history
• And much and more ...

We manage all of the maintenance of the backend for this portal to ensure that your team does not have to.

As your MoR As your MoR, we will manage your customers' queries regarding their billing, which include cancellation requests, billing problems, questions about their subscriptions, and more. Our platform includes a customer portal that makes it easy for your customers to manage their subscriptions.

The picture below illustrates the basic design of the self-service portal, however, to ensure a smoother user experience, the whole website can be tailored to match your branding.

Also, you can enable buyers-generated quotes. This allows buyers to create a quote based on the items in the cart, without having to contact your sales team. This is extremely helpful for attracting potential customers that require approval before they make purchases.

Local Transactions and Indirect Tax Compliance made Simple

There are two major aspects of conformity to recurring transactions:

1. Compliance with transactions (i.e., the systems you use for collecting payments).
2. Sales tax, VAT and GST conformity (i.e. the method you use to pay and transfer indirect tax).

In order to avoid penalties and fines To avoid penalties and fines, it is important to think about the tax and transaction laws applicable to each location you conduct business within. In the following sections, we will cover:

• A few examples of the laws on transactions that affect subscription-based companies.
• If software firms have to be able to collect VAT, sales tax as well as GST.
• How do you handle this .

Transaction Compliance

Each state, nation each province and state has its specific laws and regulations regarding how businesses can collect payment and keep customer details. Many companies have a good understanding of privacy rules like GDPR. However, there are many transaction regulations that aren't as widely understood.

In certain countries, such as Canada and Korea, customers are eligible to receive the prorated amount of their refunds in the event that they end their subscription prior to the close of the period for payment. This is just one example for one part of the entire subscription cyclewhich is why these rules and laws are always changing.

In the case of most subscription management software it's your own to find out about the laws and regulations governing transactions and implement the necessary processes. Additionally, some subscription platforms don't provide the required alternatives to meet the requirements of law and regulations (e.g., some platforms do not support prorated refunds).

On the other hand, handles all of it on your behalf. Our legal team keeps up-to-date with the relevant laws and regulations , and assists you to adopt the appropriate procedures to ensure that you are in compliance. also supports all necessary subscription models for conformity.

GST, Sales Tax, and GST Compliance

Software companies didn't always have to collect the sales tax or VAT and GST, and in some jurisdictions, this is in place. However, tax laws for digital services and goods change rapidly in a variety of countries.

Many countries are mandating software companies to pay some kind of indirect tax. Plus, some nations are now requiring companies that use digital technology to file tax forms regardless of whether they qualify for tax exemption.

The final step is to pay sales taxes. This can be more complicated than filing a tax form and then wire the money. More and more countries are mandating more obligations to stay compliant.

Example:

• Countries such as Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Serbia, and others require local representation, meaning you have an employee with physically present in that nation to take care of your tax liability. It can range from $5k-$15k annually.
• Some countries like Serbia, United Kingdom, Taiwan and many others demand electronic invoices for any business that sells in their country. The EU is rolling out all-encompassing electronic invoice requirements before 2028.
• Some countries like Taiwan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, and others have you file income tax as well as to indirect tax.

handles the entire process of collecting and paying VAT, sales tax along with GST for you .

We ensure the correct amount (and type) in indirect taxes is being collected at checkout (including tax-exempt transactions within the US as well as 0% reverse charge when permitted abroad).

Our team then remits these taxes on your behalf and will ensure that the proper processes are in place to ensure full compliance.

If a nation or state asks you questions about tax compliance, we will advise you on how you can respond, even as far as providing copy and paste responses.

International Pay Processing to Dozens Of payment methods

A majority of the payment processors focus their efforts around a particular location, while all payment processors are limited in their set of payment options that they can accept. As an example, certain payment processors have a goal of supporting transactions that are accepted in the U.S. So, they'll only support those payment options that are popular in the U.S. (e.g., Mastercard or Apple Pay) and they won't support something like UnionPay, which is commonly utilized in China.

Furthermore, many payment processors will only process payments within certain currencies and countries. For example, they may accept Amazon Pay but will not accept payments made coming from Turkey.

SaaS businesses who want to accept payment from all over the world have to connect to and control multiple payment processors. This could be an overwhelming job.

With , SaaS firms automatically have access to a variety of payment processors that specialize in international payment. maintains relationships with multiple payment processors and dozens of card networks , so it is not necessary to. Simply turn on our localized payments feature and you can begin accepting international payment as soon as possible.

It also has a variety of features that make sure that payments are successful and reduce involuntary churn, for example:

• Payment gateways that are local: Transactions are more likely to be approved when the gateway used for payment is in the same location that the purchaser (e.g., a transaction that originates from Germany passes through a gateway located in Germany). Automatically routes payments to the payment gateway with the highest authorization rates for that area.
• Rerouting of payments by the payment gateway: When a payment is unsuccessful in the initial attempt, it immediately retries to make the payment again using a secondary gateway -with no need for you or anyone on the support team needing to get involved. The process is usually able to resolve payment issues because of problems with connectivity or the system.
• Payment reminders that are proactive. If a customer's card is scheduled to expire, notify the cardholder beforethe deadline so that they can update the payment information. You can use our pre-made templates for notification or create your own notification.
• Multiple follow-up messages. If a recurring payment fails, you can schedule multiple payment failure notifications to be sent 2 days, five, seven, 14, and 21 days after the initial failure. Before sending out each reminder, will retry the payment.

A Custom-Made Checkout that reflects Your Personal Corporate

Many payment services have a checkout option that comes with a few options for customization such as adding your logo and choosing the color scheme. But these options for customization do not always represent your brand's visual identity to create an effortless user experience for customers and make your checkout more efficient for conversions.

 offers custom branding tools as well as CSS-overrides to ensure that you can have a variety of customization choices for controlling the look as well as feel of the shopping cart.

Also, you'll be able to access the Store Builder Library -- a JavaScript library which allows customers to modify the experience leading to checkout.For example, you can create a cross-sell or upsell funnel. It allows you to optimize the buyer experience for higher conversions.

checkout comes in three versions: embedded, popup, or as a web storefront. Your storefront on the web redirects clients to an additional website which is run by .

In any of these choices (including the storefront on the internet) You'll have the ability to personalize the checkout process using branding tools and CSS overlays to fit the visual style of your brand.

Here are several other features which can help you optimize your checkout:

• Localized Checkouts:Let customers choose their preferred language and preferred currency or let choose the appropriate language and currency in accordance with the buyer's location. It supports 19 languages and 23+ currencies.
  
• Support for developers that is personalized:Our team is always happy to help you build the most efficient checkout experience possible for your company. Certain businesses only offer personal support for their biggest clients and practically ignore small businesses. We believe that every company deserves the same attention and consideration.

Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics

• Which are the most of my top-paying customers?
• Which products are bringing in the highest amount of revenue?
• Which discounts bring in income in comparison to. the revenue draining ones?
• And there are many more...

Reports are split into two main dashboards: Revenue Overview and Subscription Overview.

If you don't find the report you're looking for, you can customize the report you want and put it on your dashboard. Our staff is available to assist you in creating custom reports that will provide your answers.

Webhooks and data API make it easy to pull in revenue and subscription data to whatever software for business intelligence or CRM that you employ. Each report is able to be downloaded in CSV as a PNG, CSV or XLSX format.

All-in-One Pricing (No Hidden Fees)

Many payment system providers will charge a base price for the processing of payments, and also some of the core features such as embeddable checkout. But, typically, you'll need to shell out extra money to get additional services like currency conversions or fraud detection. Few payment processors are a complete solution, so many companies have to put on additional software. This makes it difficult to scale globally as your business expands because the price will grow as you add additional features and programs.

is a complete payment system that is ideal for SaaS firms that comes with everything for a flat charge determined by the amount of transactions that you conduct . Plus, you'll only be debited when transactions are completed.

Next, we cover four other payment systems for businesses with subscriptions.

2. Chargebee

Here are some highlights of Chargebee highlights:

• Usage-based billing, automated invoicing, proration and much more
• Automated procedures for receivables
• Compliant revenue recognition and subscription model
• Support for in-app purchases
• Self-service portal available to customers
• Smart dunning

It is possible to use the Chargebee platform at no cost beginning with the first $100,000 in income earned. Following that, they provide various pricing plans that cover different levels of monthly income.

3. Recurring

Recurly is a recurring-billing platform built for optimizing your growth strategies. Recurly can easily be integrated with multiple merchant accounts and payment gateways However, you will have to manage and cover these additional services in addition to your Recurly subscription.

Below are some additional highlights from Recurly's features:

• Customizable subscription models
• Automated and recurring invoicing
• Revenue recovery tools
• Intelligent retention
• Customer subscription analytics

Recurly has three pricing plans, however, you have to reach out to their team for details.

4. Chargify

Chargify is a subscription-based billing application that is in the process of merging with SaaSOptics, which is a Revenue management system. The combination will enable you to automate subscription management accounting for revenue and expenses as well as SaaS metric tracking from one revenue management system.

Here are a few of the highlights of the features Chargify offers:

• Usage-based and global billing
• Billing management and revenue recognition tools
• Billing system analytics and metrics
• Integrations built-in to other software (e.g., accounting software like QuickBooks as well as Xero)
• International payment gateways

Chargify offers a price plan that allows companies to earn $750k or more in monthly bills however, if your company have more income or access to all features, you'll need to speak with the team.

5. Zoho Subscriptions

Zoho Subscriptions is an element of Zoho Subscriptions is one of the components that make up Zoho platform (a set of programs that can be used that can be used for all aspects of your business, e.g., CRMs and ERPs). If you're already using this feature of the Zoho platform, it could be a great alternative. However, new users usually find that there is unforgiving to learn curve.

A few advantages of Zoho Subscriptions include:

• Multiple pricing models
• Customizable, tax-compliant invoices
• Multi-currency conversions
• 30+ pre-built reports to track each stage of the subscription lifecycle
• Cash and check payments (in addition to payment via credit card)
• In-the-box integrations that integrate with different billing solutions (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
• Toolkits to build specific workflow rules

Each component of the Zoho platform is priced separately -- including Zoho Subscriptions -- which makes it challenging and costly to build an end-to-end payment solution.