For most SaaS startups, Stripe Billing is the best subscription billing software. It’s built into Stripe, costs nothing beyond standard processing fees, handles 95% of subscription billing scenarios, and integrates with every tool in the SaaS ecosystem. Specialized billing platforms like Chargebee and Recurly are worth considering only when you outgrow what Stripe handles natively.
Stripe Billing — Best for Most SaaS
Price: Included with Stripe. No additional monthly fee. Standard Stripe processing fees (2.9% + 30¢) apply.
What it handles:
- Simple monthly/annual subscriptions
- Free trials (trial end, trial-to-paid conversion)
- Multiple subscription items (add-ons, seats)
- Metered billing (charge by usage at period end)
- Proration when customers upgrade or downgrade mid-period
- Dunning (automatic retry of failed payments with Smart Retries)
- Customer portal (self-service subscription management)
- Invoicing and receipts
- Revenue recognition reporting
What it doesn’t handle well:
- Complex usage-based pricing with multiple meters
- Multi-currency with different pricing per currency
- Very complex enterprise billing (custom quote-to-cash workflows)
For 80% of SaaS products, Stripe Billing is sufficient from launch to $5M ARR.
Chargebee — Best for Mid-Market SaaS
Price: Free up to $100K revenue. Then 0.75% of revenue. Enterprise pricing negotiable.
What it adds over Stripe Billing:
- Revenue recognition automation (ASC 606, IFRS 15 compliant)
- Dunning sequences with custom email content and timing
- Subscription analytics and cohort reporting out of the box
- Multi-currency with currency-specific pricing
- Complex coupon and discount logic
- CPQ (configure-price-quote) for enterprise sales motions
- Better reporting and forecasting tools
When to use Chargebee: When you have finance stakeholders who need revenue recognition reports, complex international pricing, or an enterprise sales motion with custom contracts. Typically relevant above $500K ARR.
Recurly — Best for Subscription Complexity
Price: Starts at $249/month. Percentage fee varies by plan.
What it does differently:
- Excellent dunning management with proven recovery rates
- Sophisticated subscription lifecycle management
- Strong analytics for subscription businesses
- Flexible plan and add-on modeling
When to use Recurly: When you have high subscription churn and want sophisticated dunning tools, or when your billing model is very complex (many plan tiers, many add-ons, frequent changes).
Lago — Best Open Source Option
Price: Free self-hosted. Cloud version starts at $299/month.
What makes it different: Lago is open source and purpose-built for usage-based billing. If your SaaS charges by API calls, compute time, seats+usage combinations, or any non-standard metered model, Lago handles it with more flexibility than Stripe Billing.
When to use Lago: When Stripe’s metered billing is too rigid for your pricing model, and you want full control over billing logic without paying Chargebee’s percentage fees.
Comparison Table
| Tool | Best For | Pricing | Metered Billing | Revenue Recognition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe Billing | Early-stage SaaS | % of revenue | Basic | Manual |
| Chargebee | Mid-market SaaS | 0.75% of revenue | Advanced | Automated |
| Recurly | Subscription-heavy | $249+/month | Advanced | Good |
| Lago | Usage-based SaaS | Free / $299/month | Excellent | Configurable |
Implementation: What We Build at Whipp Studio
Our standard Stripe Billing setup for a SaaS MVP:
- Products and Prices created in Stripe Dashboard for each plan tier
- Stripe Checkout for the payment UI (hosted, PCI-compliant, high-converting)
- Webhooks to sync subscription state to your database (
customer.subscription.created,customer.subscription.updated,invoice.payment_failed, etc.) - Customer Portal enabled so users can manage their own subscriptions
- Smart Retries and dunning email sequence via Resend for failed payments
- Trial configuration for products offering free trials
This setup takes 3–4 days to build correctly and handles everything a new SaaS needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I move from Stripe Billing to Chargebee? When your finance team needs automated revenue recognition reports, when you’re billing enterprise clients with custom contracts, or when you’re managing 500+ subscribers with complex plan combinations.
Can I use Stripe Billing for usage-based pricing? Yes, via Stripe’s metered billing feature. You report usage via API and Stripe calculates the charge at the end of the billing period. For simple usage-based models, this works well. For complex multi-dimensional usage, consider Lago.
Do I need a billing tool if I’m just starting out? Stripe Billing is sufficient from day one. Don’t add complexity before you need it.
How does dunning work and why does it matter? Dunning is the process of retrying failed payments and notifying customers. In SaaS, 5–10% of monthly subscriptions fail due to card issues. A good dunning setup recovers 60–80% of these — that’s real revenue that would otherwise be lost. Stripe’s Smart Retries handles this automatically.
What’s the difference between subscription billing and usage-based billing? Subscription billing: charge a fixed amount per period (monthly, annually). Usage-based: charge based on how much the customer uses. Many SaaS products combine both (base subscription + usage overage).
Building a SaaS with complex billing requirements? At Whipp Studio we’ve set up Stripe Billing, Chargebee, and custom billing systems for 50+ SaaS products. Book a free strategy call →