Updated on by Guest Post
As more people adopt the use of readily accessible technology on mobile and desktop devices, it’s no surprise that many Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses have moved online. Many businesses nowadays operate on a subscription model, using the convenience of their services as a unique selling proposition (USP) to their customers — all for a monthly fee, often allowing easy opt-outs at any time.
The subscription model, however, is not without its challenges. Companies may face high cancellation rates, uncertainty in revenue, and pressure to continually provide valuable new features. On the bright side, there are many tools today designed to help businesses manage subscriptions more efficiently to keep customers happy and operations running smoothly.
In this article, we take a look at 8 popular subscription management tools designed to streamline business processes. We evaluate their pros and cons, unearthing what features and capabilities makes them a value-adding tool worth investing in.
What is a subscription business model?
A subscription business model is a revenue strategy in which customers pay a selection of fixed fees at regular intervals to access or use a product or service. The schedule of payments offered is at the businesses’ discretion. Often, customers can choose from biweekly, monthly, or annual subscriptions.
This strategy enables businesses to generate a regular revenue stream. Some of the most common industries that use the subscription model are video streaming services like YouTube and Netflix, SaaS companies like Figma, and learning platforms like Duolingo.
How a B2B subscription service helps streamline the business process
As more businesses adopt subscription pricing strategies, using a subscription management tool has become an essential part of operations for many SaaS businesses. This is primarily because B2B subscription services can streamline business processes — particularly the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks like managing renewals, emails, cancellations, and billing.
Here are some of the most significant benefits businesses can gain from integrating a B2B subscription service.
Enhancing Customer Retention and Reducing Churn
Subscription management tools deliver insights that businesses can use strategically for customer retention. Customer behaviour and subscription trends are some of the most useful data that can be maximized for this purpose.
Additionally, these insights can inform businesses on how to personalize communication with subscribers to foster engagement, build trust, and positively impact customer relationships.
Optimizing Revenue
The right subscription management software will support a variety of pricing strategies, such as tiered pricing, usage-based billing, and discounts. Businesses can effortlessly implement more diverse pricing models that are more flexible for a wider audience, helping optimize revenue.
Identifying Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities
Advanced technology and consumer insights such as user behaviour and purchase history allow organisations to create highly personalised, relevant and tailored experiences for customers. Instead of generic email communications for instance consumers can receive custom communication about a product or service they have previously bought. This could be educational or a new feature. These communications also have the opportunity to upsell or cross-sell to consumers.
Get access to innovative features
Innovations have the potential to positively impact businesses and any existing processes. Regularly updating products with new features and security upgrades is a great way to keep offerings fresh and valuable to customers.
Improve Risk Mitigation
Subscription services are all subject to financial regulations and standards like PCI-DSS when it comes to payment processing. Because of this, most subscription services have a form of disaster recovery with backup solutions and stringent data security for customer information.
All of this supports businesses in case unforeseen events occur. This means businesses can ensure regulatory compliance on top of an added layer of security for data.
Better Customer Experience
Subscription management tools often have self-service portals that let customers find what they need, from managing their subscriptions to viewing billing history, and updating payment information. A good service allows easy integration with CRM systems for a more thorough view of customer accounts and insights.
Increased Profitability
When businesses invest in subscription management software, the need for manual labour is reduced, which allows them to reallocate resources and funds to other important tasks. Using a tool that can automate many tasks can minimize errors and decrease chargebacks.
8 Best Subscription Management Tools
A successful subscription business is more often than not backed by a good subscription management tool. Choosing one that can help manage subscription tasks can be overwhelming with the amount of options available today.
Where it should make the most difference is the range of capabilities you get for the price you pay. Here’s a comprehensive roundup of 2024’s best software.
1. Younium
Younium is a subscription billing platform that offers a full lifecycle solution for B2B companies. The software streamlines and automates multiple processes in the billing cycle to keep businesses and their customers happy, from contracting to invoicing and reporting.
Best Features
- Support for legal entities and currencies worldwide
- Teams can check the status of customers, sales, and income
- Stay on track of revenue with clear invoicing timelines
- Manage the full Q2C process with integrated ancillary systems
Pros
- Get full billing reports, overviews, and forecasts fast
- Track and collect all subscriptions with one platform
- Licensing and renewals are possible on the platform
- Seamlessly import data to streamline your processes
Cons
- Customer support is accessible only via email
For pricing, request for a quote.
2. Maxio
Maxio, formerly Chargify, is a platform that automates billing and subscription management. This product is best suited for larger businesses and enterprises as it supports more complex subscription setups, which may be something companies with more offerings need. Subscription-based businesses can also effortlessly scale operations without having to sacrifice quality on their subscription plans.
Best Features
- Metrics and analytics designed for SaaS companies
- Subscription billing
- Seamless integrations
Pros
- Can handle more complex billing setups
- Enterprise-grade level security
- Straightforward interface, making it a user-friendly platform
Cons
- Onboarding is quite long and can be confusing
Pricing starts at $599/month.
3. Invoicera
Invoicera is a tool that simplifies subscription billing and invoicing. The platform alerts businesses on invoicing schedules and makes it easy to manage a steadily growing business.
Best Features
- Generate and send professional invoices for easy billing
- Payment gateway support for 14+ payment methods
- Automated tax calculations based on your clients and their respective countries
Pros
- Cloud-based invoicing and billing, no need to install anything
- View financial reports to monitor performance
- 24/7 monitoring with quick responses for resolution
Cons
- There is a Learning curve for the interface
Pricing for a business plans start at $49/month.
4. Chargebee
Chargebee covers a wide range of solutions for businesses using a subscription model. Notably, it enables businesses to shift from one-time purchases into subscription models. With it, you can easily migrate all your data from product catalogues to subscription pilots, and customers.
Best Features
- Shift-to-subscription for businesses who want to expand offerings
- Pilot test subscription model with small audience groups
- Easy data migration
Pros
- Generate straightforward reports
- Seamless automation
- Connects easily with other programs
Cons
- Invoices can only be downloaded individually
- Interface has a learning curve when transitioning data
- Some users have reported bugs when integrating the API
Pricing starts at $599/month.
5. Zoho Subscriptions
Zoho Subscriptions is a platform that prioritizes automating many of the minute tasks businesses have for organizing. It offers customizable product catalogues for pricing option testing, making it ideal for companies looking to explore growing their brand.
Best Features
- Invoicing and pricing automation
- End-to-end billing and subscription management
Pros
- Customizable invoices
- Easily create and schedule subscriptions
- Experiment with pricing catalogues effortlessly
Cons
- Steeper learning curve for certain features
- More advanced features are only unlocked at more expensive plans
Pricing for standard plans start at $15/month.
6. Billsby
Billsby is a solution for billing and accounting with flexible plans that can be customized based on a business’s set rules. Its easy-to-use interface makes it easily navigable for anyone new to subscription management tools.
Best Features
- Access different pricing models for billing and flexible pricing
- Automated billing systems
Pros
- Easy to implement with an existing CRM
- Tax calculations are factored
- Seamless API integration
Cons
- Certain procedures can take time
- No previews of checkout pages
- Pricing is on the steeper end for small businesses
Pricing for core plan starts at $45/month.
7. Stripe Billing
Stripe is known for its payment processing, however, its Stripe Billing product focuses on subscription models. With it, businesses can utilize multiple billing models, automate invoicing, and more.
Best Features
- Payment form templates
- UI toolkits can be embedded
Pros
- Get a global market reach for billing
- Unlock multiple payment methods
- Easy to customize your plan with a usage-based pricing option
Cons
- Challenging to mix billing periods
- Some users have concerns about the promptness of customer support
- Many features are only available via coding
Pricing starts at $620/month.
8. Recurly
Recurly is a flexible subscription management tool for digital businesses. It offers a customizable advanced billing model, automated invoicing, and access to multiple payment gateways.
Best Features
- Customizable payment gateway routing
- Automated exports for reports
Pros
- Thorough insights on key metrics
- Affordable pricing
Cons
- Limited reporting capabilities
- Quite a bit of limitations on certain customizations
- Integrations are required for payment gateways
For pricing, request for a quote.
Key features to look for in subscription management software
Businesses should consider several key features and capabilities to enhance their management framework when choosing subscription management software to ensure the tool meets their needs effectively. Here are the most critical factors to look for.
1. Workflow Automation
Time and resources are valuable for businesses. How you use them can dictate how efficient you are. Using the right tools should allow you to manage things like billing cycles for different kinds of subscription plans. The capacity to handle mid-cycle changes and proration is a big plus, considering that these are inevitable situations for subscription business models.
2. Scalability
The best subscription tool will be able to scale with your business. Company growth is, more often than not, the goal for many businesses. This means a tool with scalable support can handle an increasing number of customers without any bumps in performance.
3. Payment Processing
Processing payments from billing to invoicing takes time for the average person cycling through every customer. Choosing effective tools can streamline the process. Ideally, they can integrate the most popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal and support international payments if businesses are looking to expand to other markets.
4. Subscription Flexibility
Supporting flexible subscription payment options can greatly impact a business’s revenue optimization. In this way, customers are no longer limited to a few plans, meaning more people can enjoy a business’s offerings. This makes it a great way to grow a loyal customer base.
5. Analytics and Reporting
Getting all the right data enables better decision-making and can ultimately lead a company to success. The right tool should provide access to a business’s standard key performance indicators like monthly recurring revenues (MRR), lifetime values (LTV), and churn rates to name a few.
It would be even better if the tool allows companies to generate customizable reports using real-time data.
6. Seamless Integration
More often than not, businesses already have a plethora of tools, platforms, and processes in place before using a new subscription management system. This is where the importance of APIs comes in. Making sure that it can work harmoniously with existing CRM systems and accounting software will go a long way in customer and financial management.
In order to ensure integrations are seamless, businesses can use an embedded integration platform like Cyclr. This tool streamlines integration processes for SaaS applications so subscription-based businesses can manage existing business systems’ API connections and automate workflows. The platform’s low-code interface makes it easy for users to create, manage, and deploy integrations seamlessly within their applications.
Optimizing operations for subscription businesses
If you’re looking to kick off a subscription business model or just looking to expand your business to bigger markets, the right management tool can do wonders.
Fortunately, there are many options available today. Selecting the tool that best fits your business comes down to aligning with features that can handle priorities in place. See if you can automate tasks, improve processes, or simply speed up workflows.
