The need for subscription management software is growing.
And why not? It enables SaaS companies to bill their customers for various payment options and efficiently manage billing cycles and transactions.
However, managing all these processes is not that easy, especially when you have a lot of clients.
Gathering customer data and tracking subscription status, generating invoices and receiving payments and so many things in between can be exhausting.
Currently, relying solely on spreadsheets and other manual methods for various processes can reduce your productivity and slow down the workflow.
But do not worry; Subscription management software is all you need.
So let’s talk about this software and how it can help you!
What is Subscription Management Software?
The software that helps businesses increase their product/service billing and sales based on a recurring period is subscription management software. It aims to provide customers with better services and optimized revenue management for SaaS and other related businesses.
It stores all payment details along with processing fees to automatically manage recurring earnings. The software also ensures that you bill the right subscriber or customer the right amount at the right intervals.
For this, the software is added via the one-time payment function of a payment gateway. Their products are provided as a software suite here, otherwise as standalone software or tool. It also integrates with other tools including ecommerce platforms , catalog management tools, payment gateway, etc.
However, many people get confused with other similar tools like payment gateways, merchant accounts, etc. In reality, subscription management software or recurring billing software works on top of a payment gateway like Stripe so they can manage subscriptions while making sure there are no mistakes in charging customers the correct amounts based on their plan.
Similarly, SaaS analytics software works on top of a subscription management tool that allows you to analyze your MRR, churn, number of active customers, and other key metrics.
What is required for subscription management or analytics?
If you have an ecommerce store, app, delivery service, etc. that serves a lot of customers, a subscription management system can increase your sales. This is because this software helps your customers easily implement subscriptions into their preferred payment gateway.
And when they sign up for one of your services or products, they become your customers or subscribers simply by entering their bank details immediately and using the same information for renewals.
Because of this convenience, ease and fast workflow, your subscriber base will increase. Additionally, your fulfillment and sales team can effortlessly monitor and manage subscriber accounts using the subscription management software to ensure a smooth workflow.
In addition to these aspects, the software offers you some more important features such as analytics, reminders and real-time actionable data to use in your marketing campaigns .
As your customers extend their subscription periods, you can also offer them interesting opportunities like renewals, upsells, and cross-sales by consistently following up with your customers.
Your contact and marketing teams can view subscriber information along with their chosen plans to reach them with product tips, collect feedback, and offer special discounts.
Such personalized interactions will lower your churn rate while increasing customer retention and sales.
Next, let’s discuss the best subscription management software for SaaS and other businesses that may need it.
BareMetrics
Grow your business effectively with BareMetrics , which helps you with accurate metrics, engagement tools and dunning for SaaS companies.
The software displays useful information such as activity trails, transactions, events, and metrics from the control center to help you make better and profitable decisions to drive your business forward. You can visualize present and past data, then plan and strategize for the future.
You can use People Insights to segment customers by location and other metrics. The software even supports you in creating and managing new customers manually via the registration form. BareMetrics has an intelligent dashboard that allows you to easily perform complex comparisons such as: B. with numbers, dates, customer segments , and plans.
Normalize charts by selecting the trend, creating business goals, adding comments and more. Use Recover to use a dunning solution and save your business from losses due to insufficient funds, expired credit cards, bank problems, etc.
It includes tools to customize email campaigns, paywalls, in-app reminders, capture forms, deep analytics, etc. BareMetrics Forecasts help you predict the future using intelligent MRR forecasts, churn percentage, growth type, customer numbers, cash flow forecasts, etc .predict More.
Receive email reports to stay up to date and track progress with monthly, weekly or daily reports. With the extension feature, you can merge external information with your own metrics for deep insights into your business and customers.
You can integrate Zapier and Slack, import CSV files and use their API to send additional data. Many more features are included in BareMetrics such as: B. Segmentation, benchmarking, Slack tools, analytics API, cancellation insights and more.
SaaSOptics
SaaSOptics is one of the leading subscription management software solution built for B2B SaaS business, whether you are a startup or an enterprise.
With the software, you can automate order-to-cash, scale faster, and avoid using spreadsheets and lots of email. With comprehensive job management, you can get more things done in less time while keeping your data clean.
With its help, you can create accurate invoices, generate faster sales schedules, and sync orders from CRM to GL automatically. Ensure correct revenue recognition with accuracy, on-demand and GAAP compliance for your loans, investors, mergers and acquisitions, etc.
Ensure timely and efficient invoicing and collection. The software helps you scale your invoicing processes 100x faster than manual methods. In addition, save time for AR management to improve cash flow.
SaaSOptics makes it easy for you to receive payments on time with an automated collection process. It also eliminates carelessness or friction from too many emails and escalations. CRM users can easily view their account details with ARR, MRR and total balance and generate invoices with transaction details.
Get hundreds of formulas and metrics to reduce the chance of error and respond to board requests. SaaSOptics provides financial reports for revenue, billing, AR, accruals, etc. that are accurate and GAAP compliant for banks, investors, audits, finance, etc.
MRR.io
Track your recurring earnings every month with MRR .io, no matter what payment processing service you use. They automatically provide you with accurate metrics so your SaaS business can thrive. The functions included in MRR will help you calculate:
- Monthly Recurring Revenue
- MRR movement
- Net Sales, Net Sales Churn, Customer Churn and Gross Sales Churn
- New, agitated, contracting and expanding MRR.
- upgrades and downgrades
- Annual run rate and refund
- Average revenue per customer
- paying customers
- New paying customers
- Failed Charges
- lifetime value
- cancellation
In addition to these metrics, MRR.io also offers additional features such as cohort analysis, metric forecasting, multiple data sources, and advanced email reporting. It supports integration with Paddle and Stripe and manual data entry and APIs are available.
MRR.io pricing structure consists of two plans:
- Basic plan with all the metrics explained above and a maximum of 3 users and 100 paying customers. It’s totally free.
- Pro plan with all the above metrics, additional 4 explained features and unlimited users and paying customers. The price is $19/month.
ProfitWell
ProfitWell’s goal is to manage your subscriptions smoothly and without confusion. Whether you need subscription reports, free analytics, or want to become an expert in pricing strategies, they provide you with concise services.
As a result, it optimizes your sales and monetization and reduces churn. These analytics and reports can help you identify areas where you’re already great and areas where you’re not strong.
It helps you to see how you position yourself against your competitors with similar phases for comparison. Use the mobile app to get real-time alerts on your Android or iOS smartphone. With ProfitWell, you can compare your pricing strategy and monetization status to improve.
You can conduct a retention audit to identify the areas where you’re losing revenue and where you can increase your retention. They enrich data with Clearbit and Full Contact to uncover customer segments driven or distracted by subscription growth.
Analyze by location, gender and over 107 other segments for free. Share your metrics wherever you want and integrate with multiple platforms like Stripe, Google Sheets, ReCharge, Chargebee, Braintree, Recurly, Zuora, and Chargify. ProfitWell is secure and GDPR compliant, so you won’t run into any legal issues.
ChartMogul
ChartMogul is probably one of the best subscription data platforms to thrive since 2014. The software allows you to effortlessly clean and consolidate billing data, and then analyze it using efficient subscription analytics.
It helps you understand your business dynamics and visualize where to direct your efforts. You can examine subscription data including MRR, MRR movements, MRR breakdown, net cash flow and more.
With turnkey integrations and APIs, you can quickly import your revenue and subscription data into a single source via an import or CSV upload tool, so you can see everything clearly and concisely.
ChartMogul supports integrations with Stripe, Braintree, Recurly, App Store Connect, PayPal, Chargebee, Chargify, Gocardless, Shopify , Zuora, and Google Play. With data enrichment, you can add more data into ChartMogul, segment customers, and analyze the information.
Bring more data with tools like Intercom, MailChimp , HubSpot , Pipedrive , Wootric, Close.io via Zapier or create one yourself. Perform data exports to view insights and metrics when your team needs them by connecting ChartMogul to Zendesk, CSV export, Geckoboard, Slack, Visible, etc.
Chargebee
If you’re looking for subscription management software that scales with your growing business, Chargebee should be your choice. You can use it to explore new revenue opportunities and retain more subscribers through self-service and proactive engagement.
Users get a unified view of all customer and subscription data for contextual interaction. Also, add-ons and packages are recommended for upselling opportunities. Businesses can manage their pricing using any subscription pricing model.
You can also use Chargebee to create recurring billing flows and automate billing rules. The software eliminates developer dependencies and puts you in control of complex recurring billing scenarios.
It supports 100+ currencies and payment methods for global subscriptions. The software also offers comprehensive subscription analytics to give you 360° business insight across all key metrics.
Maxio
Regardless of your strategy, Maxi has the right infrastructure to manage subscription activity and keep your customers happy with the service. It has a flexible billing engine that can support your evolving strategy for B2B needs.
With the solution, you can align your pricing model with your product value. You can also choose the billing frequency and create individual prices for each individual customer. The software is also ideal for automating your entire process, from orders to renewals to earnings.
Customizable invoice templates are available on Maxio, which the software can automatically send out at the scheduled time. It also supports invoice consolidation so you can simplify customer payments.
The software makes onboarding easier for customers by allowing them to choose their preferred payment method from a range of options. Upgrades or downgrades, centralized subscription data, and integration with popular CRMs are other top features.
Verifone
When it comes to managing recurring billing and invoices, Verifone is here to help. This subscription billing solution allows you to increase your revenue by managing the entire subscription lifecycle.
You can sell subscriptions through multiple channels and provide customers with an improved experience through optimized shopping carts. Features like ordering, invoicing, and recurring invoice automation are also useful for getting customers on board quickly.
Also, with Verifone, you can easily do all subscription upgrades and downgrades. The solution also includes tools to prevent churn (both involuntary and voluntary). It also offers global payment support for recurring billing.
The Authorization and Revenue Recovery Dashboard allows you to monitor strategy and gain insight into key subscription data. It also provides reports for monitoring renewal forecasts and other key metrics.
Zoho Subscriptions
Zoho Subscriptions simplifies the end-to-end subscription billing lifecycle for growing businesses. Eliminate the hassle of manually sending invoices to each subscriber and use this software to automate the billing and invoice sending processes.
Here you get the freedom to choose the billing frequency and cycles for each of your customers. This allows you to send invoices anywhere in the world and still remain tax compliant. It also securely stores personal customer information such as credit cards.
When you use Zoho subscriptions, your customers can pay you in multiple currencies in online and offline mode. In the case of involuntarily failed payments, customers can try again. It also provides customers with a self-service portal and allows them to manage multiple subscriptions.
The platform also provides you with a collection of invoice templates and 30+ types of analytics reports for sales revenue, subscriptions, and churn rate. You can also view the KPIs from the dashboard and create tax reports to learn more about your tax liabilities.
Recurly
Repeated is a subscriber management solution that helps you manage all stages of a subscription lifecycle. It offers robust and flexible tools to maximize subscription value and grow as a business with confidence.
Its intuitive toolsets simplify the subscription process by managing all subscriber data in one place. The Subscriptions Dashboard has everything you need to manage subscriptions with complete transparency, whether they are active, paused, or canceled.
With Recurly, businesses can increase customer satisfaction and business goodwill by allowing subscribers to easily add, change, pause, and cancel their subscriptions at any time. For B2B contracts, setting up a future subscription date is supported.
The software also provides you with subscription status reports for proactive measures on your part. There is also a defer option to change a customer’s current billing cycle.
How to Choose a Good Subscription Management Software?
- Choose the software that can align with your organization’s goals for all the services you actually need, e.g. B. only subscription management or additional services such as analytics, dunning, merchant transactions or all.
- The software must be scalable to meet the needs of your growing business.
- It must support customization that will help you adapt to your challenges.
- It must be flexible enough to provide different plans that you can move up/down.
- You must be able to easily manage your coupons, promotions and discounts with an option to reactivate or cancel.
Conclusion
Subscription management software has become a huge necessity for SaaS companies and now you know why. So, choose any of the services above to streamline your billing, subscription analytics, and other things that are essential to increase your revenue .