The Best Recurring Billing Software of 2022

The best subscription management software for those who need marketing capabilities as well.

What Is Pabbly?

Pabbly is a SaaS company focusing on several different features, including both subscription billing and marketing. They offer seamless email marketing, data collecting through surveys and audience reviews, billing, and other automated workflows, and email verification. 

They have detailed video tutorials for each of their features. They have unlimited revenue ceilings and don’t charge transaction fees, plus they also offer tax management and various levels of customization.

Pabbly Pricing

For Pabbly Subscription Billing, there are 4 main plans depending on the number of customers.

Starter: $9/month, up to 50 customers.

Rookie: $19/month, up to 1,000 customers.

Pro: $29/month, up to 1,500 customers.

Advanced: starting at $41/month for up to 2,500 customers, this feature lets you choose the number of customers and returns the price according to that.

Every plan includes the same features. If you want to take advantage of the other Pabbly services (like email marketing), you can purchase an all-inclusive plan, but you can also pay for each service as you go.

Pabbly Best Features

• Pabbly is the best recurring billing software in terms of price.
• The flexibility in picking the features for your business lets you tailor it to your needs at a good price.
• There are no additional transaction fees.
• Sales Analytics gives insight into important data that can help you further your business.
• Their excellent customer support team goes above and beyond to fix any issues you might have.
• They offer almost any payment gateway you may need, as well as multiple currencies.

What We Disliked

• Businesses who need high-level features might not find them here, as their offers are rather basic.
• Their Premium plans don’t really add anything new.

Pabbly Customer Reviews

Customer reviews for Pabbly are equally positive and negative. However, the negatives are almost exclusively about their other features. 

They’re considered the best recurring payment system when it comes to their price/quality ratio, and their customer service is often praised for being very prompt.

We Recommend Pabbly For

Customers who need affordable subscription software, as well as those who could use their marketing capabilities, and need a provider that scales with them.

A cloud-based accounting software, initially designed specifically for self-employed customers, FreshBooks offers great automation every step of the way.

What Is FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is an accounting software first and foremost, meaning that its recurring invoice software is not at the forefront of their offer. You can create both estimates and proposals and the program lets your client review them and sign them electronically. You can add a discount, request a deposit, and set up a payment schedule. Your clients can pay you through the provider’s own payment function.

When it comes to recurring billing, you can send out reminders and charge late fees, which is relatively uncommon. Each entry in the system is tracked by the client, so you can see your history with them in one place. As a great recurring billing software for small business’ needs, the vast majority of details are customizable.

FreshBooks Pricing

FreshBooks has three main plans, plus a customizable plan for users whose needs exceed what’s already on offer. All prices are their regular ones as billed monthly, although they offer discounts for annual contracts, plus extra discounts for the first few months.

Lite: $15/month, up to five clients, excludes the ability to charge clients’ credit cards.

Plus: $25/month, up to 50 clients, includes charging clients’ credit cards.

Premium: $50/month, up to 500 clients.

The Custom plan (price available upon request) is the only one that includes subscription billing as a combination of their recurring payment software and additional automation.

FreshBooks Best Features

• FreshBooks lets you request deposits, either as a fixed price or as percentages, and charge late fees.
• The accounting is almost fully automated.
• You can customize almost everything, including tax-related data.
• The provider offers rich project management functionality with hourly billing as an option.
• You can connect Freshbooks to your favorite ecommerce platform like Shopify.
• There is both an iOS and an Android app available.
• You can add billable expenses to invoices, along with extra billable hours.
• You can send automatic payment reminders either before or on the due date and let their autopay system handle it.

What We Disliked

• FreshBooks lacks a lot of functionality needed for larger businesses.
• Actual subscription billing is not included in any premade plans.
• There are no batch-invoicing shortcuts, plus invoice customization options are relatively poor.

FreshBooks Customer Reviews

FreshBooks has the fewest customer complaints out of all the recurring billing software reviews we’ve seen, with the vast majority of users praising its intuitive UI, the ease with which it integrated into their business model, and the amount of time it has saved them.

The only relatively common issue people have is that it is not as global as it could be in terms of adding international banks.

We Recommend FreshBooks For

Any customers who need to keep track of their clients beyond simple invoicing are likely to find everything they need and more at FreshBooks.

Zuora is a cloud-based automated billing software focusing on order-to-cash unification for businesses of all types and sizes.

What Is Zuora?

Zuora is one of the leading SaaS subscription management services, claiming to be the only one to automate subscription order-to-cash operation in real-time.

Their Central platform lets users manage payments, billing, collections, pricing, accounting, and project catalogs. 

They offer an additional five SaaS applications: Billing (for recurring billing), Revenue (for revenue recognition), CPQ (for sales quoting), Collect (for payment collections), and Analytics (for subscription metrics).

The Zuora sandbox lets users test and deploy new features in a safe environment.

Zuora Pricing

Zuora’s SaaS billing services are priced according to the needs of each business, which means there is no pricing publicly available.

Zuora Best Features

• Zuora’s automation possibilities allow you to set up virtually anything to be done automatically, minimizing the time and effort you have to spend on these tasks.
• Their role-based access rules mean you don’t risk a temp making irreversible damage to your setup.
• A trial lets you see whether their products, like their billing tools, fit in with your needs before you commit.
• Extensive customer support can help you out of any rut, no matter which time zone you’re in.
• There are plenty of built-in templates if you don’t want to build them from the ground up.
• It also allows you to send email reminders to users in advance, so they know that the time for payment is coming up.
• Their subscription analytics and data make it easy to adapt your marketing strategies to evolving needs.

What We Disliked

• The lack of transparent pricing makes it hard for businesses to decide whether or not Zuora is out of their price range.
• Training new users with such a robust subscription billing software can be a challenge.
• The UI can be overwhelming.

Zuora User Reviews

Customer reviews for Zuora online are largely positive, praising their excellent range of customization options, flexibility within the product catalog, and their constant upgrades. 

The biggest issue for many is the fact that the UI could be more intuitive, while a number of users report that the variety of options means new users are difficult to train.

We Recommend Zuora For

Zuora is the best solution for large businesses that need robust infrastructure, especially those with already established marketing and sales teams, as well as those looking to grow their revenue quickly.

Plug-and-play billing that scales with your needs, along with extreme user-friendliness, means you’re unlikely to be looking much further.

What Is Chargebee?

Chargebee is an intuitive, polished-looking, cloud-based SaaS recurring billing system that focuses on covering any and all billing-related needs a business can have, as evidenced by their 480+ recurring billing scenarios. 

All of these scenarios are extremely easy to set up without the need for a developer, with detailed instructions and even tax compliance. 

Their payment methods include more than 100 local currencies and payment methods, including bank transfers and checks. In short, when it comes to Saas billing software, you are likely to find everything you need and more at Chargebee.

Chargebee Pricing

Chargebee offers four different plans to fit your needs (prices shown are as billed annually):

Launch: Free until your business invoices a total of $100,000 in revenue, after that $99/month. This is a way for early-stage startups to start using recurring billing software.

Rise: Costing $249/month, this plan is best suited for newcomers to the world of automated billing software and includes 10 users, unlimited payment gateways, and multiple tax regions, plus metrics.

Scale: This option will set you back $549/month. It accepts 25 users, offering advanced invoices, custom user roles, and multiple payment methods with in-depth subscription analytics.

Enterprise: The price is available upon request and has virtually no limits, as the experience is perfectly tailored to your needs and includes white-glove support, every step of the way.

Chargebee Best Features

• Chargebee has options for everyone, depending on the size of the business and its projected revenue.
• They offer seamless payment gateway integration with 32 different preferred partners.
• Chargebee integrates with some of the best email autoresponders and CRM software.
• To keep loyal customers happy, Chargebee also lets you grandfather pricing.
• As soon as a customer stops using your services, you can delete their private identifying information to keep in line with privacy laws.
• The multi-currency, multi-language payment support means that your business can become truly global.
• You can also offer your users a free trial, or even set up freemium plans.

What We Disliked

• Chargebee’s subscription payment service does not have a free trial unless you’re a completely new startup, so it can get costly.
• The amount of options can be confusing for those who only need the basics.

Chargebee User Reviews

Users are largely satisfied with Chargebee, citing only minor issues aside from the price. Many are even claiming an increase in signups from new customers after migrating to Chargebee. 

We Recommend Chargebee For

Midsize to large companies with a need for robust infrastructure will benefit the most from Chargebee, as will completely new startups. Others might find the pricing on the steep side.

The best recurring billing software for companies on a budget which includes a free option, but highly dependable for enterprise-level customers as well.

What Is Zoho Subscriptions?

Zoho Subscriptions is an online subscription management software, one of the tools offered by software development company Zoho, along with a number of other web-based business tools. 

Their biggest advantage is that they have a free version for one user and up to 20 subscriptions. Combining Zoho Subscriptions with their other tools will allow you to manage all aspects of your business. 

Aside from their online subscription billing software, they also offer apps for both iOS and Android to always have them on hand.

Zoho Subscriptions Pricing

Zoho Subscriptions offers four main plans (prices shown are as billed annually):

Free: The plan is free for one user and up to 20 customers or subscriptions (depending on which is higher), and includes multi-currency support, hosted payment pages, subscription metrics, and Stripe integration.

Basic: At $49/month, this subscription billing service plan allows three users and up to 500 customers (allowing multiple subscriptions per customer), adds Dunning for automated payments, a low-code developer platform, and multiple payment gateways.

Standard: Setting you back $99/month, it allows five users and up to 2,000 customers, aside from the features of previous plans, it also adds web tabs, customer portal single sign-on, domain branding, and custom buttons.

Professional: At $249/month, you can have 10 users and up to 5,000 customers, you will also get custom schedulers and live chat support.

Businesses with over 5,000 customers can request a personal price quote.

Zoho Subscriptions Best Features

• Their free recurring billing software is excellent for individuals starting a business, allowing them to scale up as needed. 
• Large businesses can work with the platform to find the solution that best fits their needs.
• A free trial lets users explore the possibilities of their Professional plan.
• Invoices can be personalized, more information added, and generally customized to reflect your brand.
• Zoho Subscription tax compliance has special dedicated editions for the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, as well as a Global Edition.
• Their Knowledgebase will help you with any issues like how to set up recurring payments step by step, as will their customer support team.

What We Disliked

• One-time payments can be tricky to set up.
• Some features are not as user-friendly as they could be.

Zoho Subscriptions Customer Reviews

Online reviews of Zoho Subscriptions show that users are very satisfied with the product, praising the simple access and detailed reports. They also love easy integrations with important software, like online storage solutions such as Dropbox.

A common complaint, however, is that when entering new data and missing a field, the platform tells that you missed something without specifying what it is.

We Recommend Zoho Subscriptions For

Up-and-coming businesses who need the best subscription management software ASAP without breaking the bank, as well as those who are already using other Zoho tools.

A membership management software that also offers recurring membership payments as part of their wider offer.

What Is Wild Apricot?

Wild Apricot is a membership management software, meaning they offer the necessary functionalities for keeping track of memberships in a given group, billing them, assigning them tasks, etc. This means their main focus is not on offering a recurring billing service, but it still makes up a decent part of their overall service.  

The platform also offers financial reports that can help you see payment and donation statistics as well as overdue dues. Since each supported payment system supports different currencies and merchant locations, clients can pick and choose what they need for a tailored plan.

Wild Apricot Pricing

Wild Apricot offers eight different plans. Prices are shown as billed monthly, while an annual contract includes a 10% discount, and a biennial increases that to 15%.

Free: As the name implies, it’s free with a maximum of 50 contacts, 100 MB of storage space, one administrator role, and only the basic functions.

Personal: Starting at $48/month, this is for up to 100 contacts and includes online payments (including recurring billing), a custom domain, theme overrides, a site search gadget, scheduled emails, an online store, and mobile apps. Every subsequent plan includes the same features and only increases the number of contacts.

Group: $60/month, up to 250 contacts.

Community: $110/month, up to 500 contacts.

Professional: $190/month, up to 2,000 contacts.

Network: $350/month, up to 5,000 contacts.

Enterprise: $420/mo, up to 15,000 contacts.

Global: $720/month, up to 50,0000 contacts.

There is also a trial version that excludes your custom domain and is limited to 500 contacts.

Wild Apricot Best Features

• Although not a subscription billing system first and foremost, Wild Apricot offers a decent range of options in this regard along with the rest of the features.
• The system is very flexible and can be tailored to fit anyone’s needs.
• All the features are built upon a contact database which makes for simple tracking of dues.
• It offers both public-facing pages and members-only access for all things related to the club.
• You can offer and manage discounts, such as Early Bird registration, through their event coordination segment.
• The mobile app includes support for card payments through the Square Chip Card Reader.
• Financial reports are simple and easy to understand, covering payments, donation summaries, and overdue dues.

What We Disliked

• The reports can be too simple for some users and exclude important information that could help you grow your base.
• The UI looks a little dated.
• It is not an automated billing system, so the focus is not on this aspect.

Wild Apricot Customer Reviews

The majority of reviews are positive, praising the provider’s cost-effectiveness, although the most common issue is the simplicity of the services offered. Still, the fact that it does not require a developer to manage the platform, as well as all the features included in a single package tend to be enough to satisfy the vast majority of customers.

We Recommend Wild Apricot For

Wild Apricot is the perfect provider that includes a subscription billing platform for users who will require the rest of their features as well, meaning those who manage clubs and organize events.

A recurring billing platform that automates and simplifies even one-time billing that can be integrated with your accounting software.

What Is ChargeOver?

ChargeOver is one of the most popular cloud billing systems that automates each step of the billing and payment process but also lets users customize everything to their liking. 

They also help smoothen the audit trail and let users choose (and switch) payment processors to find the ones that work best for them. ChargeOver integrates with a number of accounting software already in the market, while their API makes bridging gaps between apps much easier.

ChargeOver Pricing

ChargeOver offers three plans:

Starter: This plan costs $115/month and works for up to 100 customers and three admin users. It includes all native integrations, API, and standard support.

Growth: For $229/month, you get all the perks in the Starter plan plus white labeling, quoting, and late fees functionality. The plan supports up to 250 active customers and 10 admin users.

Enterprise: ChargeOver's custom plan gives you additional perks, like tailored onboarding, support SLA, and a two-way Salesforce integration. Plus, there's no limit on the number of admin users.

ChargeOver Best Features

Every feature is fully customizable.

• The automated payment system integrates well with accounting software.
• You can set up automatic emails to remind customers to pay, as well as adjust the frequency of retries after a failed payment.
• A number of pre-configured strategies make it easy to implement one before figuring out your own (or even tweaking an existing one to fit your needs).
• The UI is user-friendly and intuitive.
• Offers excellent customer support.

What We Disliked

• All the plans are relatively expensive.
• The payment system can be a bit slow.
• The analytics side is best utilized in conjunction with another program.

ChargeOver Customer Reviews

Many customers consider this to be the best recurring payment system they ever used, according to their reviews. They report that their stress levels due to billing issues have dropped dramatically since they started using this software, but many believe it would be even better if a few tiny tweaks could be done, such as disabling the auto-pay option on customers’ sign up screens.

We Recommend ChargeOver For

Businesses who want a single place through which they can keep track of all things related to invoicing, including accounting, will find their moneys’ worth at ChargeOver, while others may find the platform a bit too pricey.