Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in subscription billing software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 13 tools, reviewed
#1 Maxio
B2B SaaS billing with revenue recognition and metrics · United States · maxio.com
B2B SaaS SaaS metrics Revenue recognition
Maxio is built for the finance side of a B2B software company. It handles both self-serve subscriptions and contracts negotiated by sales, with invoicing, payment terms and purchase orders, and ties them to revenue schedules and deferred revenue balances.
- Pricing: Tiered monthly. Grow plan at $599 a month for up to $100,000 in monthly billings on an annual agreement, with unlimited users. Free plan: none.
- Best for: B2B SaaS with sales-led contracts
- Strengths: Contract and invoice billing; Self-serve subscription billing; ASC 606 revenue schedules.
Where it falls short
The merger history shows: parts of the product still feel like two systems joined together, and navigation and terminology are not always consistent. Consumer-scale checkout and dunning are less developed than at Recurly.
Wrong for
Consumer subscription apps with high transaction counts and small charges should use Recurly or Chargebee, which put more effort into checkout conversion and card recovery.
Visit Maxio →
#2 Zoho Billing
Affordable recurring billing inside the Zoho suite · India · zoho.com
Low cost Zoho ecosystem Published pricing
Zoho Billing gives small subscription businesses the essentials at a flat monthly price instead of a revenue percentage: plans, add-ons, hosted payment pages, dunning, usage charges and a customer portal. The connection to Zoho Books makes the accounting side nearly automatic, and Zoho CRM users can see subscription status next to deals.
- Pricing: Flat monthly. Published plans from $39 a month billed annually for Standard (quotes and invoices) and $79 for Premium, which adds subscription billing, usage pricing, hosted payment pages and dunning. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Small businesses using Zoho apps
- Strengths: Recurring plans and add-ons; Quotes and invoices; Hosted payment pages.
Where it falls short
Advanced SaaS needs, such as complex contract amendments and high-volume metering, are limited, revenue recognition sits on the quoted Enterprise edition, and Standard and Premium are capped at $1 million in annual revenue.
Wrong for
Venture-backed SaaS companies expecting fast growth and complex pricing should start on Chargebee or Maxio instead, to avoid a migration within two years.
Visit Zoho Billing →
#3 Ordway
Billing and revenue automation for B2B finance teams · United States · ordwaylabs.com
B2B billing Revenue schedules Finance-led
Ordway is built for a controller rather than a growth marketer. It bills B2B contracts, usage and ramps, generates revenue schedules, and syncs cleanly with NetSuite, QuickBooks and Xero so the month-end close gets faster. Customers often mention responsive support and a reasonable implementation effort.
- Pricing: Quote only. Tiered subscription quoted by billing volume and modules. Free plan: none.
- Best for: B2B SaaS finance teams
- Strengths: Contract and usage billing; Revenue recognition schedules; Customer payment portal.
Where it falls short
It is a small vendor, with fewer integrations, a smaller partner network and less self-serve checkout functionality than the leaders. Consumer-style dunning and retention tools are basic.
Wrong for
High-volume consumer subscriptions, or companies wanting polished self-serve checkout and card recovery at scale, should choose Recurly, Chargebee or Stripe Billing.
Visit Ordway →
#4 Chargebee
Subscription billing and revenue platform for SaaS · United States · chargebee.com
Multi-gateway Flexible catalogue Revenue recognition
Chargebee is the product we would recommend to most subscription companies because it rarely forces a trade-off early. The catalogue handles tiers, add-ons, ramps and multi-currency, proration is configurable, and it connects to more than forty payment gateways, so the processor decision stays yours. Hosted checkout and the customer portal cover self-serve sign-up; quotes and invoice billing cover sales-led deals.
- Pricing: Percentage of billing. Flow plan with no base fee and 0.80% of invoiced volume, or $99 a month plus 0.65%. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: SaaS companies from seed to mid-market
- Strengths: Plans, add-ons, coupons and multi-currency pricing; Proration and mid-cycle changes; Smart dunning and retries.
Where it falls short
The percentage-of-billing model means cost rises with revenue, and useful features such as multi-entity management, contract terms and the Salesforce subscription integration sit on the quoted Enterprise plan.
Wrong for
A Shopify brand shipping physical boxes should use Recharge, and an AI company billing billions of metered events should look at Orb or Stripe's usage tools instead.
Visit Chargebee →
#5 Recurly
Subscription management focused on consumer and media businesses · United States · recurly.com
Payment recovery Consumer subscriptions Multi-gateway
Recurly has spent many years on the problem that matters most for consumer subscriptions: keeping payments from failing. Its retry logic, trained across a large network of merchants, decides when and how to retry declined cards, and account-updater services refresh expired card details.
- Pricing: Percentage of billing. Starter at $249 a month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40,000 of monthly billings included. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Consumer subscriptions and media
- Strengths: Machine-learning payment retries; Multi-gateway routing; Subscriber engagement and offers.
Where it falls short
B2B features such as sales-negotiated contracts, ramps, purchase orders and complex invoicing are less developed than at Maxio or Chargebee.
Wrong for
B2B SaaS companies with annual contracts, purchase orders, invoicing on terms and heavy revenue recognition should shortlist Maxio, Chargebee or Ordway instead.
Visit Recurly →
#6 Stripe Billing
Stripe's recurring billing layer on top of Stripe Payments · United States · stripe.com
API-first Stripe ecosystem Usage billing
For a developer-led startup already processing payments with Stripe, Billing is the path of least resistance: the API is excellent, documentation is thorough, and subscriptions, invoices, checkout and the customer portal can be live within days. Smart Retries recover a good share of failed payments, Stripe Tax handles tax calculation, and the Metronome acquisition strengthens its usage-based billing for AI companies.
- Pricing: Percentage of billing. Pay-as-you-go at 0.7% of billing volume with no monthly fee, plus Stripe payment processing fees; annual contracts available at volume. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Developer-led startups on Stripe
- Strengths: Subscriptions and invoicing API; Hosted checkout and customer portal; Smart Retries.
Where it falls short
Billing is designed around Stripe Payments, so using other processors is limited and moving tokens out later requires a formal export. Complex B2B contract amendments, ramps and multi-entity invoicing need custom work.
Wrong for
Companies wanting several payment processors side by side, or finance teams billing negotiated B2B contracts with ramps and amendments, should compare Chargebee, Maxio or Ordway before committing.
Visit Stripe Billing →
#7 Zuora
Enterprise subscription billing, revenue and quoting suite · United States · zuora.com
Enterprise billing Revenue automation Complex implementations
Zuora is the platform large companies choose when monetization is genuinely complex: many product lines, several legal entities, consumption pricing, bundles, and revenue recognition that must satisfy auditors across jurisdictions. Its revenue product is one of the most capable available, and it has long experience with telecoms, media and industrial companies moving to subscription models.
- Pricing: Quote only. Annual subscription on a custom quote at enterprise levels, typically with a partner-led implementation. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Large enterprises with complex monetization
- Strengths: Zuora Billing; Zuora Revenue for ASC 606 and IFRS 15; CPQ integrations.
Where it falls short
Implementations are long, expensive and usually require a systems integrator, and changing configuration later often needs specialist help. Licensing costs put it beyond most mid-market budgets. The interface and admin experience feel heavier than newer platforms.
Wrong for
Companies billing under roughly fifty million dollars a year, or with straightforward plans, should choose Chargebee, Maxio or Stripe Billing and avoid the enterprise implementation.
Visit Zuora →
#8 Paddle
Merchant of record for software and digital products · United Kingdom · paddle.com
Merchant of record Global tax handled Published pricing
Paddle solves a problem other billing tools leave to you: it becomes the legal seller in each transaction, so it collects and remits sales tax and VAT in every jurisdiction, handles chargebacks and fraud, and supports local payment methods. For a small software company selling to customers in dozens of countries, that removes dozens of tax registrations.
- Pricing: Per transaction. Published at 5% plus 50 cents per checkout transaction with no monthly fee, covering payments, tax and billing. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Software sellers going global without a tax team
- Strengths: Global sales tax and VAT remittance; Checkout with local payment methods; Subscription billing.
Where it falls short
The 5% plus fixed fee is well above gateway-plus-billing costs once revenue grows, and negotiating it down requires volume. Paddle sits between you and your customers on invoices and card statements, which some B2B buyers dislike.
Wrong for
Companies with a finance team able to manage tax registrations, or large B2B contracts invoiced on terms, will pay less and keep more control with Chargebee or Maxio.
Visit Paddle →
#9 Orb
Usage-based billing engine for AI and infrastructure products · United States · withorb.com
Usage-based billing High event volume Pricing simulation
Orb was built specifically for companies that charge by consumption: tokens, API calls, compute minutes or storage. It ingests high volumes of raw usage events, lets teams define billable metrics in SQL, supports prepaid credits and commitments, and can simulate how a new price would have billed last quarter's customers before it goes live.
- Pricing: Quote only. Annual contract on a quote, scaled by billing volume and event throughput. Free plan: none.
- Best for: AI and API companies with metered pricing
- Strengths: High-throughput event ingestion; SQL-defined billable metrics; Prepaid credits and commitments.
Where it falls short
It requires engineering involvement to instrument events and maintain metric definitions, and finance teams depend on that engineering time for pricing changes. For simple seat-based subscriptions it adds complexity without benefit.
Wrong for
Companies selling fixed monthly plans or annual seat licences should use Chargebee, Maxio or Stripe Billing, which take far less effort to run and cost less to operate.
Visit Orb →
#10 Recharge
Subscription app for Shopify ecommerce brands · United States · getrecharge.com
Shopify DTC subscriptions Retention flows
Recharge handles subscriptions for physical products sold through Shopify: coffee, supplements, pet food, beauty refills. Shoppers pick subscribe-and-save at checkout, then manage deliveries in a portal where they can skip, swap or delay orders, which reduces cancellations. Retention flows, bundles and analytics sit alongside. For a direct-to-consumer brand on Shopify, it is the most established option.
- Pricing: Flat monthly + transaction fee. Published monthly plans starting at $99 per month for the Starter tier, plus transaction fees; custom pricing for high volume. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Shopify DTC subscription brands
- Strengths: Subscribe-and-save checkout; Customer portal to skip, swap or pause; Cancellation and retention flows.
Where it falls short
It is built primarily for Shopify stores, so brands on other platforms have limited use for it. Transaction fees on top of the monthly plan add up at volume.
Wrong for
Any software or B2B company should ignore it and look at Chargebee, Maxio or Stripe Billing, which are built for recurring digital services.
Visit Recharge →
#11 FastSpring
Merchant of record for software, SaaS and games · United States · fastspring.com
Merchant of record Global payments Software and games
FastSpring has acted as a merchant of record for software sellers for many years and knows that business well. It handles global tax, payments in local currencies, fraud and chargebacks, and supports both one-time software licences and subscriptions, which suits companies selling desktop software, games or plugins alongside SaaS.
- Pricing: Per transaction. Percentage of each transaction covering payments, tax and fraud handling; exact rates are quoted. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Software and game publishers selling globally
- Strengths: Global tax and VAT handling; Localized checkout and currencies; Subscription management.
Where it falls short
Its SaaS billing features, such as complex proration, usage billing and B2B contracts, are less developed than those of Paddle or dedicated billing platforms. The checkout and admin experience feel older.
Wrong for
B2B SaaS companies with sales-led contracts, or anyone prepared to manage their own tax registrations through a tax engine, should choose Chargebee or Maxio instead.
Visit FastSpring →
#12 Younium
B2B subscription management for European SaaS · Sweden · younium.com
B2B contracts European focus CRM-connected
Younium models subscriptions around B2B contracts: order changes, renewals, ramps and amendments flow from the CRM, and invoicing, revenue recognition and SaaS metrics follow from the same records. It is popular with Nordic and wider European SaaS companies whose finance teams handle invoice-based billing in several currencies and need clean ERP handoffs. For that profile, it is a well-considered alternative to Maxio.
- Pricing: Quote only. Subscription on a quote, based on company size and modules. Free plan: none.
- Best for: European B2B SaaS finance teams
- Strengths: Contract-based subscription management; Invoicing and payment matching; Revenue recognition.
Where it falls short
It is a smaller vendor with a mostly European customer base, so US sales tax integrations and partner support are thinner than those of American rivals. Self-serve checkout, card-based dunning and consumer features are limited.
Wrong for
US companies selling self-serve plans paid by card, or consumer subscription businesses with thousands of small charges, should choose Chargebee, Recurly or Stripe Billing instead.
Visit Younium →
#13 ChargeOver
Recurring invoicing and payments for B2B service firms · United States · chargeover.com
Flat pricing Accounting sync ACH payments
ChargeOver serves a different company from the SaaS-focused tools above it: the managed IT provider, the HVAC maintenance contractor, the software reseller or the association that bills the same customers every month and keeps its books in QuickBooks or Xero.
- Pricing: Per customer tier / month. Published monthly plans priced by the number of paying customers billed, with no percentage-of-revenue fee and no annual contract; gateway processing charges are separate. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Service businesses billing through QuickBooks or Xero
- Strengths: Recurring invoices and subscriptions; QuickBooks and Xero sync; Customer self-service portal.
Where it falls short
Revenue recognition, SaaS metrics and multi-currency handling are thinner than in Maxio or Chargebee, and the catalogue struggles with ramps or amendments negotiated by a sales team. The interface is functional rather than modern.
Wrong for
A self-serve SaaS company selling globally in several currencies, or one needing ASC 606 schedules, should look at Chargebee, Maxio or Paddle instead.
Visit ChargeOver →
Questions and answers
What is the best subscription billing software in 2026?
Maxio ranks first of 13, best for b2B SaaS with sales-led contracts. Zoho Billing is second (small businesses using Zoho apps) and Ordway third (b2B SaaS finance teams). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
Is Stripe Billing enough, or do we need a separate billing platform?
Stripe Billing is enough for many startups, especially self-serve products already on Stripe Payments.
What is a merchant of record and when should we use one?
A merchant of record is the legal seller in each transaction. Paddle and FastSpring buy from you and resell to your customer, so they collect and remit sales tax and VAT worldwide and handle chargebacks.
How does dunning reduce churn?
Dunning is the process of recovering failed payments: retrying cards at well-chosen times, updating expired card details through network account updater services, emailing customers with a link to update payment, and pausing rather than cancelling.
Can these tools handle usage-based and hybrid pricing?
Most support basic metered billing, but the depth varies. Orb and Stripe (since acquiring Metronome) are built for high-volume event ingestion, complex rating and prepaid credit drawdowns typical of AI and infrastructure pricing.
Do we need separate revenue recognition software?
Not necessarily. Maxio, Zuora, Ordway, Younium and Chargebee's RevRec product generate ASC 606 revenue schedules and deferred revenue reporting. Stripe and Recurly sell revenue recognition as paid add-ons.
How hard is it to migrate from one billing system to another?
The main difficulty is payment tokens. If card details are stored in a gateway you keep, migration is mostly a data exercise: plans, subscriptions, renewal dates and balances.
How do subscription billing tools handle sales tax and VAT?
Merchants of record handle tax completely. Other platforms calculate tax by connecting to a tax engine, commonly Avalara, Anrok, TaxJar or Stripe Tax, and apply it to invoices, but you remain responsible for registering and filing in each jurisdiction.
What is the difference between billing software and invoicing software?
Invoicing software creates and sends one-off invoices and records payment. Subscription billing software manages the recurring relationship behind the invoices: plan changes, proration, renewals, automatic charges, retries, usage and revenue schedules.
Which billing tool suits a Shopify subscription brand?
Recharge is the most widely used subscription app for Shopify stores selling replenishment products such as coffee, supplements and pet food. It manages subscribe-and-save offers, customer portals for skipping or swapping products, and retention flows inside the Shopify checkout.
Why are Stripe Billing and Zuora not ranked in the top three?
Both are dominant vendors in subscription billing, Stripe by volume and Zuora in the enterprise, and our rules keep dominant vendors out of places one to three.
