Finding the right billing platform for your subscription business is vital for collecting payments simply and efficiently. But that’s not easy when so many options are on the market. How do you know where to start?
To make it easier for you, we’re exploring some of the top platforms and what they offer. We’ve already looked at Zuora and Stripe Billing in detail. Now, we’ll check out Chargebee, especially Chargebee’s billing and subscription management features.
What is Chargebee?
Chargebee empowers businesses to set up and automate essential billing processes, from billing for subscription services to renewals. Chargebee integravarious range of other platforms that countless subscription businesses depend on, including Shopify, Mailchimp, and Salesforce. It also integraovermore than 32 payment gateways, including Stripe, Worldpay, and PayPal Express Checkout.
With the Chargebee subscriptions and billing platform, companies can take advantage of comprehensive subscription management features, experiment with different pricing models discover ways to increase customer retention, and analyse subscriber data in one place.
What are Chargebee's main features?
Chargebee is packed with impressive features, but subscription businesses will get the most out of the following:
Order-to-revenue lifecycle automation
Automating processes is a terrific way to save time and effort. And Chargebee is designed to power the complete order-to-revenue lifecycle. You can take recurring payments from subscribers online and offline, provide trials to engage newcomers, and offer various pricing plans to suit diverse demographics.
Manage billing workflows with complex GTM strategy
The Chargebee billing system enables subscription businesses to try different billing workflows, including self-serve workflows. For example, to maintain a strong connection, you can keep self-serve subscribers engaged through contextual segmented emails across their lifecycle.
Additionally, Chargebee lets you make sense of exciting new go-to-market (GTM) strategies whenever you discover a fresh opportunity. Offer usage-based billing, incentivise subscribers with discounts, and explore more than 480 different billing scenarios.
Scale revenue stack for all growth stages
The Chargebee billing platform helps you scale your revenue stack for all growth stages. You can expand worldwide with localised payments and currencies, handle increasingly complex workflows, and manage more intricate financial processes.
Access 360-degree revenue reporting and make informed decisions
Chargebee’s in-depth revenue reporting is a powerful resource for making data-driven choices. Build custom reports quickly and explore key metrics (e.g. Lifetime Value, Average Venue Per Subscription) to understand your subscription business’s recurring revenue.
Provide subscribers with secure payments
The Chargebee billing system lets you stay up-to-date with all relevant regulations in new markets. Avoid the risk of non-compliance, fines, and reputation damage.
Chargebee pricing
Chargebee offers four pricing plans:
- Launch (free for your first GBP 80k in revenue): For early-stage startups looking to streamline operations and generate more revenue. Startups that generate £80K in revenue through Chargebee will be automatically moved to a paid plan.
- Rise (£199 per month, includes GBP 480K/yr revenue then 0.6% of overage revenue): For agile startups working to increase their market share, using data to make decisions and experiment with new opportunities.
- Scale (£379 per month, includes GBP 960K/yr revenue 0.75% of overage revenue): For businesses growing quickly and aiming to increase efficiency in revenue operations.
- Enterprise (bespoke quotes): For large-scale companies.
Who are some of Chargebee's customers?
The Chargebee subscriptions and billing platform has built a vast customer base since it secured its first clients in 2013. Let’s look at how Chargebee has helped two of them.
Founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham started Freshdesk to deliver outstanding customer experiences and knew that billing played a significant part in that process. However, Freshdesk realised that its own billing engine was inadequate for their continued growth. Their billing engine needed daily updates, inevitably affecting the business’s productivity.
That’s when Freshdesk turned to Chargebee.
They began to onboard new customers via Chargebee, and then gradually migrated existing customers over, too. For example, subscribers who registered for a trial period had their subscription set up in Chargebee.
Switching to Chargebee allowed Freshdesk to accept numerous payment methods, including PayPal and cash. It also provided a user-friendly, API-powered in-app checkout experience.
Doodle is a Swiss subscription business designed to make scheduling events and meetings easier than ever. As of 2023, Doodle helps 30 million active users save time scheduling appointments each month.
While Doodle initially used a custom-built system for subscriptions and billings, this began to take too much development time for each new use case.
So, Doodle started working with Chargebee to automate their subscriptions and give subscribers an improved experience. Chargebee helped Doodle scale across new regions and accept payments in Euros. Today, subscribers can use Doodle in around 20 languages.
Doodle has also automated its reporting and increased customer acquisition with coupons.
What do people like about Chargebee?
Chargebee has earned plenty of high ratings at review sites like G2 and TrustRadius, with some praising it as the best subscription billing platform they’ve used. Some of the most common compliments include:
- User-friendly design
- Quick, simple setup
- Reliable support
- Easy scale-up
- Free plans suit startups and small companies
- Lots of features to explore
- Helpful reporting
What do people think Chargebee could improve?
No subscription billing platform can please all of its users all of the time. Even positive reviews suggest areas where Chargebee could improve, including:
- More guidance on how to get the most out of Chargebee
- Some features labelled “advanced” and for Enterprise plans only would be helpful in lower-priced plans
- Some users find editing invoices difficult without help
- The large number of features can be confusing
Using Chargebee for your subscription business
Chargebee offers subscription companies plenty of terrific features and can make subscription management and billing simpler. Limio isn't yet a Chargebee technology partner, but if you are interested in us adding support, reach out to hello@limio.com.
Contact Limio now to book a demo and try it yourself.