12 Best Subscription Management Software for 2022

As a SaaS which provides subscription-based services or products to your customers, you may be jumbling between multiple pages of invoices and billing cycles. The traditional management methods are not the most efficient and productive since it can take hours for you to input the details in excel sheets, tally them, and do much more. 

A subscription management software is the ideal way to make the entire process feasible for you. Such software uses automation to assist you in managing different processes revolving around your company subscriptions, such as payments, refunds, plan changes, billing cycles, generating invoices, and many more. 

Since there are multiple options for subscription management software available in the market, we have curated a simple guide about everything you should know about subscription management software and the top 12 subscription management software suitable for different types of businesses. Let’s check them out.

What is a SaaS Subscription Management Software?

Before we discuss the list of the 12 best subscription management software, let’s first understand its basics. A subscription management software is simply a recurring or subscription billing engine that takes care of the different processes in subscriptions of the company. It saves the time and cost of manually handling the customer subscriptions and improves efficiency. 

With a subscription management software, you can carry out a plethora of tasks such as:

• Managing customer subscriptions
• Managing pricing and packaging details from different sales channels of the business
• Reporting the subscription revenue metrics
• Managing the billing flows, emails, invoicing, etc

And many more…

It aims at giving your customers a streamlined experience with your business. At the same time, your team no longer has to do the heavy lifting of manually managing the different processes such as billing, invoicing, reporting, etc.

The Importance of SaaS Subscription Management Software

Like we have discussed earlier, having a manual approach results in lower efficiency and productivity. With automation from the subscription management software, you can carry out the processes with the least amount of effort.

The software will be designed to carry out the different requirements of the subscriptions services. However, you can also include many add ons to your software and customize it as per your requirements to maximize efficiency. 

You can also integrate eCommerce websites, payment gateway systems, catalog management services, and other eCommerce applications into our subscription management software to manage everything under one platform. 

It will help in keeping a consistent track of payment records and customer information. Similarly, automating the billing and contracts can make the process of recurring subscriptions easier. You can also integrate support for the payment gateway if available within the software.

To sum up, subscription management software can be your ultimate savior from the tedious tasks of managing and organizing the subscription services of your company.

The Right Time to Choose SaaS Subscription Management Software

Apart from SaaS, subscription management software is suitable for any company which offers subscription-based services such as Paas, IaaS, etc. You can also use this software for your eCommerce requirements by choosing the non-subscription-related pricing and packaging options. 

So when should you start incorporating subscription management software into your business? The ideal time to start using subscription management software for your business is obviously when your startup is launching. Why?

This is because, as your startup grows, the number of in-flight contracts or complexities such as regular adjustments, multi-element agreements, etc., may arise, which can be tough to track and monitor later if you incorporate this software late. 

Thus, it is always advisable to start using subscription management software for your business as soon as possible and let it take care of the transactions, billing, and other requirements of your subscription services while you focus on the other core business activities. 

Choosing SaaS Subscription Managment Software    

A subscription management service comes with tons of features and functionalities. However, irrespective of the number of functionalities, it should meet the requirements of your company. Let’s check some crucial points you should consider while choosing subscription management software for your business.

Functionality vs. Maturity

Sure, the number of functionalities and features may look appealing to you but remember, their processes should be equally important. Let’s simplify it further.

Suppose you choose a subscription-based software that has multiple features that are useful for your business. However, essential aspects like customer service, disaster relief, and corporate funding may not be up to the mark. In that case, if you overlook such essential requisites just for the sake of the exciting features and functionalities, you will end up regretting your decision. Why? In case of any unprecedented situations with the software, if their customer support team or disaster relief procedure is not ready to fix it, your sales can instantly go down to a massive extent!

Thus, while choosing a subscription management software, choose the one which has the right balance between functionality and other essential facilities for their customers. 

SaaS Pricing & Business Model

Different SaaS companies have different SaaS pricing models and subscription plans. You need to ensure that the software you choose can support the pricing models well. You can also experiment with different pricing models too such as:

• Recurring billions either monthly or annually
• Flat fee billing
• Usage-based billing
• Combination of different types of billing
• Discounts and coupons

Similarly, it should also support your billing model, even the most intricate ones such as:

• Self-service checkout portal wherein self serve customers convert into direct sales customers
• Free trial facilities, after which the lead will be charged automatically.
• Any specific payment terms for the enterprise customers
• Sending out dunning emails
• Experimenting with new billing methods while keeping the existing customers into the previous ones

These are just a few instances you can consider. It can change as per different businesses. The key is to test out different scenarios and facilities before settling with subscription management software for your business. 

Some subscription management services offer free trials for a stipulated time period which can be a great way to assess their features and understand whether it works for your business or not.

List of SaaS Subscription Management Software

You can find a myriad of options for subscription management software with a single click on the internet. However, not every software is suitable for SaaS. Let’s check out the complete list of the top 12 subscription management software to help you make the ideal choice for your business and start using it right away.

1. Chargebee

Chargebee is a PCI Level 1 certified software that is designed mostly for SaaS and other subscription-based businesses. It offers a plethora of features and functionalities that can cover the entire subscription lifecycle management and make the entire process of managing subscriptions, recurring payments, invoices, and much easier! 

You can integrate it with 30+ payment gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, etc. Chargebee also has an inbuilt coupon management system, which is incredible for maximizing your subscription sales in the business.

Pros:

• Easy to use interface
• Trial management wherein you can customize trial periods, automate the trial ending reminders and extend trial dates whenever required
• Automated upsell benefits to upsell at the right time to bring more value and revenue to the company.
• Easy process of integrating payment gateways and other features

Cons:

• The backend is slightly unoptimized, which may cause certain glitches
• The generated invoices are not legal in every country

Starting price: $249/month

2. Chargify

Chargify is a globally renowned subscription management software that offers multiple features in the management and billing space. It offers a centralized interface to track every subscription activity by the team, which is super seamless. Every data is easily accessible from different devices via specific credentials. Lastly, Chargify offers automated email communication wherein your customers can get the right set of emails at the right time automatically using specific email templates which are already available in their database. 

Pros:

• The customer support is exceptional. They handle queries via phone and email support
• You can integrate multiple billing strategies and pricing models
• The MRR Analytics offers real-time insights about the subscription services of the company
• Easy to use interface
• You can customize and integrate as many add ons as you want to improve the functionality
• You can preview customer invoices before sending them

Cons:

• Non-monthly subscriptions are not managed well
• Not able to manage multiple sales channels effectively

Starting price: $599/month

3. Recurly

Recurly has incredible support for self-serve and direct sales business models. It is integrated with DataHero, allowing users to identify and understand a business through data analytics and visualization. They offer different tailored offers and messages to the customers to bring personalization throughout the process.

Pros:

• Flexible billing models such as fixed, volume-based, usage-based, etc
• Gift subscriptions offer cards and plan to attract new customers to the business at low acquisition rates
• Easy access to the MRR or subscription metrics under a single platform
• Out of box customizations available to suit different businesses
• Offers dunning facilities for customers
• The user interface for customers is easy to use and attractive

Cons:

• Refined invoices come with a new invoice number which can sometimes be tough to track
• May time out sometimes after a specific period of inactivity

Starting price: $149/month

4. Stripe

Stripe Billing is another very popular subscription management software that is renowned for its fast services. They can create subscriptions for your business in just a few clicks. You can experiment with tons of integrations that can make your business more functional. You get exceptional support from Stripe. Hence, your downtimes are always covered by their prompt support team. In addition to that, you can use the API for customizing the forms according to your requirements. 

Pros: 

• Flexible billing model 
• Supports free trials, coupons, discounts, etc. to attract more customers
• Seamless integration for maximum functionality
• Support for self serve and direct sales business models
• Seamless UI, which is easy to navigate
• Supports business of any size

Cons:

• Does not offer any free trial

Starting price: 0/5% on every successful recurring charge

5. Zuora

Zuora is the one-stop destination for your business since it can integrate different departments such as the IT infrastructure, CRM, ERP, coupon management, tax management, and so much more under one single platform. Integrating with Zuora is a beginner-friendly process. 

Pros:

• Effective dunning management to keep customers updated with real-time alerts via product notifications, emails, etc.
• Get insights into real-time analytics of different metrics such as billings, cash inflow, MRR, revenue, etc.
• Leverage the agility to customize whenever required to meet business needs and demands
• Flexibility in billing packages like cross-platform packaging and billing, consumption-based pricing, etc
• Personalize every customer’s bill with just a few clicks
• Offers a customers’ self-service portal 

Cons:

• Too many features placed in an unorganized manner can be tough to navigate for a beginner

Starting Price: You can get a custom quote from their sales team

6. SaaSoptics

If you are looking for subscription management software solely designed for SaaS companies, SaaSoptics is the right choice. This software offers different features that streamline the workflow, such as expense recognition, resource allocation, and many more. It eliminates the struggle of using spreadsheets since you can automate the complete renewal processes by connecting SaaSoptics to your CRM with just a few clicks.

Pros:

• Easier invoice management with CRM integration
• Multiple payment options available for customers
• Get access to real-time insights about different metrics and analytics 
• Prompt customer support team for customer queries
• Create your own dashboard to customize the placement at your convenience

Cons:

• The search feature can be a little too intuitive
• The pricing plans is not the most affordable for SaaS startups

Starting price: You can request a custom quote from their sales team

7. GoCardless        

GoCardless makes recurring and one-off payments directly from the customer’s bank accounts seamless. They have complete support for self-serve and direct sales business models to help configure the services they use. Even though the billing systems are not the most robust like other subscription management software, it covers the basic billing facilities. 

Pros:

• Offer real-time analytics and metrics which are integrated with ChartMogul to improve accuracy.
• Customize the payment pages and other web pages with the GoCardless API
• Easy to use interface which makes navigation seamless

Cons:

• Limited billing facilities

Starting price: $56.66/month. Currency conversion rates excluded.

8. Profitwell

Profitwell is one of the leading subscription management software that is popular for its accurate data and analytics. It is tried and tested by some of the most reputed companies such as Canva, Masterclass, Notion, etc. With the term optimization feature at Profitwell, you can automatically identify the best customers that will upgrade to your company’s long-term plans. The software automatically reaches these specific customers via email, in-app notifications, etc., to provide a 1 step upgrade, which is a very useful advantage for gaining more high-paying sales for your business.

Pros:

• View data and analytics after segmenting based on different requirements such as gender, location, usage, etc. to analyze the reports on a micro level
• Regular financial reporting facility to analyze the growth in the business
• Offers a free trial to try and test out their software
• Both support for self-serve and direct sales business models are available.

Cons:

• Limited support for the pricing models
• Can be slightly tough to customize

Starting Price: You can get a custom quote from their sales team

9. SageIntacct

Sage Intacct is an AICPA chosen financial management tool and subscription management software that streamlines every process with automation. They reduce the dependency on spreadsheets and offer businesses a simpler alternative. One of the best features about Sage Intacct is its compliance management which ensures that the business complies with the industry and security standards. They also have reimbursement management facilities wherein your business can reimburse customers as per the business policies. 

Pros:

• Reimburse management to reimburse customers conveniently
• Compliance management to keep the compilation policies in check
• Self-service dashboard to assist customers in ordering their subscriptions, plans, coupons, etc. easily
• The integration capacity is incredible
• Trace every transaction with just a few clicks
• Affordable pricing plans which are suitable for startups
• Offers flexibility in planning, forecasting, and budgeting the subscriptions
•  

Cons:

• The support team is not very helpful to their customers

Starting price: $15,000/year

10. 2Checkout

2checkout, now known as Verifone, is an all-in-one subscription management software that is also focused on promoting client relationships. It offers recurring revenue from both local and global markets with no hassle. It offers multiple features which help onboarding and upgrading to pricing models seamless for the customers. You can access advanced insights about your business subscriptions, such as revenue and customer retention rates.

Pros: 

• Advanced tracking for a deeper analysis of the business
• Simplistic yet robust payment gateway solutions for every business
• Easier process for creating and managing product pricing models
• Unlimited scope of configuring and customizing 
• Easy to navigate 

Cons:

• The customer support of 2checkout is not up to the mark. They are not the quickest at providing resolutions to customers
• The control panel is not mobile-friendly. You may not be able to track via your smartphone.

Staring price: 3.5% + $0.35 per successful sale

11. Paddle

Paddle is another subscription management software that is again completely designed for SaaS companies. It provides a vast range of features to optimize the subscription management process. They also have an additional fraud detection feature while invoicing global currencies and many more. To maximize the functionality, you can integrate Paddle with many applications such as Pabbly Connect, Proxyman, Rambox, etc.

Pros:

• Vast SaaS payment options for both national and international payments
• Separate customer support team to take care of your customer queries for no extra charges
• Great scope of customization 
• Easily integrate different applications and tools

Cons:

• The API documentation may lag at times

Starting price: You can get a custom quote from their sales team.

12. Zoho Subscriptions

Even though Zoho is already very popular in the SaaS industry for their powerful suite of products and solutions, they also have a subscription management software that manages the recurring billing, customization of invoices, and so much more for their customers. You can automate everything about your company subscriptions with just a few clicks at Zoho Subscriptions. To understand whether Zoho subscriptions work well for your business or not, you can also try out their free trial.

Pros:

• Create and manage custom invoices for customers. Choose from 100+ templates and implement your customizations real quick
• Offers both self-serve and direct sales portals for customers
• Quick integration with powerful platforms such as Zoho apps, G Suite, and other cloud integrators
• Affordable pricing plans which are suitable for SaaS startups

Cons:

• Multilingual interface not available, which can constrict your scope of attracting international customers to your business

Starting price: $59/month

Conclusion

Handling tons of processes in subscription services can get very overwhelming, especially when you have a SaaS company. Subscription management software is an absolute necessity in the current scenario for SaaS companies. Now that you finally know the importance of these subscription management softwares, choose any one of the above-mentioned software to streamline your billing, subscription analysis, and so much more in your business while you witness revenue growth over time.