Best Subscription Billing Software

Subhransu Sahu
SS
Researched and written by Subhransu Sahu

Subscription billing software manages recurring billing for companies offering subscription-based products and services. This type of software generates invoices for various subscription plans and billing frequencies. Subscription billing also manages standard and special offers, packages, or discounts to ensure the billing process is accurate. Besides accountants who use subscription billing to manage revenue, this type of software can also be used by sales departments to identify a company’s best-selling products and services and to adjust their offerings to adapt to their markets.

Some subscription billing products include features for payments or integrate with this type of software. Subscription billing can be delivered as a standalone product or as part of a suite for subscription management software, which usually includes functionality for subscription revenue software and subscription analytics software.

To qualify for inclusion in the Subscription Billing category, a product must:

Generate recurring invoices at predefined or custom frequencies
Ensure that customers are billed accurately and on time
Accept payments and match them with invoices and subscription plans
Monitor the performance of various types of packages and special offers
Provide features to address late and incomplete payments
Include standard tax rules and allow users to create custom rules
Adjust billing based on changes to plans such as upgrades or downgrades
Identify the least- and most-performant packages and products
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Featured Subscription Billing Software At A Glance

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G2 takes pride in showing unbiased reviews on user satisfaction in our ratings and reports. We do not allow paid placements in any of our ratings, rankings, or reports. Learn about our scoring methodologies.

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201 Listings in Subscription Billing Available
(954)4.4 out of 5
Entry Level Price:Free
6th Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software
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(4,110)4.3 out of 5
8th Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software
View top Consulting Services for Sage Intacct
(1,498)4.2 out of 5
View top Consulting Services for Agentforce Revenue Management (formerly Salesforce Revenue Cloud)
(234)4.5 out of 5
Entry Level Price:Pay As You Go
3rd Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software
(90)4.6 out of 5
11th Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software
View top Consulting Services for HubSpot Commerce Hub
(83)4.8 out of 5
7th Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software
(842)4.7 out of 5
Entry Level Price:Contact Us
1st Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software
View top Consulting Services for DealHub.io
(122)4.9 out of 5
Entry Level Price:Contact Us
4th Easiest To Use in Subscription Billing software

Learn More About Subscription Billing Software

What is Subscription Billing Software?

Subscription billing software allows users to set up the collection of recurring payments from customers. Many businesses are beginning to realize the benefits of a subscription-based model and how it’s equally important to have a platform that seamlessly allows users to collect recurring payments. Subscription businesses constantly change their pricing models with new product rollouts, promotions, and trials. Subscription billing software allows users to make these changes while still maintaining the active billing and accounting systems that manage recurring revenue. This helps them manage cash flow more effectively while also maintaining high customer satisfaction.

Key Benefits of Subscription Billing Software

  • Help businesses upkeep effective communication with customers regarding their payments
  • Allow businesses to bill with fixed or variable recurring payments
  • Provide users with analytics tools to evaluate billing metrics

Why Use Subscription Billing Software?

Subscription billing software is built to accommodate the changing needs of customers. On a daily basis, customers change their billing preferences which include upgrading their account information, pausing, and canceling their subscriptions. Subscription billing software provides real-time visibility into the customers’ preferences as users are enabled to monitor their desired adjustments and make changes wherever necessary. This software also offers plenty of customizability features. Users can change prices, add discount coupons, and manage promotions, trials, and product updates. This gives the user control across the entire billing cycle as well as lets customers manage their own billing preferences.

Enhances customer experience — Subscription billing software primarily helps businesses manage customer subscriptions. The software comes with a host of subscription management tools so businesses can manage customer relationships on a more personal level. This includes communicating with a customer if their payments are due soon, if they’re late on a payment, or if their payment was declined for a particular reason. All of these tools ensure that customers are kept in constant communication with the business.

Saves time — Businesses that set up auto-recurring billing don’t have to worry about the legwork that comes with manually billing each customer at varying times or with variable amounts, hence saving time. The subscription billing software produces invoices, collects payments, and even automatically notifies customers of any pertinent billing information on a regular basis. All of these functionalities also reduce the potential for gaps, manual errors, and missed opportunities.

Who Uses Subscription Billing Software?

Subscription services are becoming the new norm in the business world. Whether it’s business to business or business to consumer, almost every company is realizing the benefits of running a subscription model over a one-time purchase. With this trend in mind, subscription billing software accommodates a wide range of businesses that are switching to service offerings.

Subscription services — Magazines, streaming services, SaaS software, subscription retail services, and subscription grocery services are only a few examples of subscription services as almost all businesses are shifting towards this model. As subscription services, they also require reliable payment systems that fit their subscription needs. For any business-to-business SaaS service, setting up a recurring billing system will automate the billing cycle and free up time for other business tasks.

Membership services — Gyms, coworking spaces, and social clubs highlight the different types of membership services that utilize subscription billing software. Similar to subscription services, membership services generally require fixed recurring payments on a monthly or annual schedule.

Municipal services — Both government and municipal services such as taxes and utility bills charge at a recurring period. Because of this, these services are ideal candidates for subscription billing software. The key difference between municipal services and subscription services is that municipal service charges are more likely to be variable charges rather than fixed recurring payments. For example, an electricity or heating charge is usually based on the amount of heat and electricity a customer uses each month. As such it’s important for variable recurring payment services to choose a subscription billing software that is able to calculate payments based on usage.

One-to-one services — One-to-one services such as child care services, cleaning services, and legal services are also likely to bill customers on a recurring basis. By using subscription billing software, businesses in these fields make it easy for customers to complete payments.

Kinds of Subscription Billing Software

Listed below are two different kinds of subscription billing software.

Fixed payments — Fixed payments are when customers are charged the same amount of money each time they are billed. Almost all subscription billing solutions are built to handle fixed payments. Fixed payments are great for subscription services and membership services that generally charge the same fixed cost throughout a customer’s billing cycle.

Variable payments — Variable recurring payments are payments that vary from invoice to invoice. This is usually in regards to usage-based charges such as utilities or phone bills. If the business generally charges based on usage it may be important to choose a system that is able to handle variable payments. Municipal services are a good fit for software that handles variable payments.

Subscription Billing Software Features

Subscription billing software offers a host of features that allow users to manage their subscription billing offerings. From managing customer data to calculating annual recurring revenue and subscriber churn, subscription billing software covers all subscription billing needs irrespective of the use case.

Custom recurring billing — An ideal subscription billing platform allows business users to customize how often they bill their customers. One of the key customizations include the ability to bill customers on a yearly, monthly, or daily period.

Subscription data management— Another key feature in a subscription management platform is providing users with a central location to manage data. With a data management platform, users are enabled to leverage a unified overview of all customer data in one place. This includes contact information, billing information, and other additional, relevant customer information that businesses use to identify trends, inefficiencies, and actionable business insight.

Subscription lifecycle management — Having visibility into a customer’s subscription lifecycle is key to establishing a good service. Subscription lifecycle management features allow users to automate processes related to collecting payment information, managing billing adjustments as well as subscription renewals.

Compliance — Many subscription management platforms provide users with features to handle financial compliance by helping them adhere to documented international financial reporting standards (IFRS). This compliance functionality includes features that automatically notify the users if tax rules are changing.

Analytics — A robust subscription billing platform allows users to calculate a host of performance metrics. This includes calculating annual recurring revenue, subscriber churn, and subscriber acquisition. If a business decides to change its prices for recurring billing, they can analyze the customer churn that the price change caused. This allows businesses to optimize their offerings.

DunningDunning is the process of communicating with customers to ensure the collection of payments. Having a recurring revenue model means that businesses must maintain regular communication with their customers. This includes notifying customers of key information such as contract expiration warning, activations, welcome notices, and failed billing attempts.

Multi-currency support — For businesses that operate globally, it’s important to have features that allow for a wide variety of currencies. Choosing a subscription billing software that supports a range of payments on various currencies increases the chances for a business to collect more global revenue.

A/B testing — Subscription billing software provides users with A/B testing features. A/B testing in subscription billing allows users to conduct experiments for pricing models. Users can test to see if raising the monthly subscription price of their offering drives customers away, or if it allows the business to drive more revenue. This is a great way to hone in on the most optimal pricing model for a business.

Other Features of Subscription Billing Software: Blacklisting, Consolidation, Dispute Management, Escalation, Plan Changes