Are you a subscription business? Are you ready to accept recurring payments and looking for the best way to do it? The abundance of choice of payment processors can be difficult to understand by studying each of them separately. That is why we have prepared a comparison of workflows of four of the most popular platforms at the moment.
Platforms
Stripe is a payment processor. Its software and APIs enable businesses to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online. Stripe offers its customers a full-stack payment process – it serves as both a third-party payment processor and a payment gateway.
Chargebee is a cloud based subscription billing and recurring payment software solution. ChargeBee is a multifunctional tool for automating the billing processes of businesses that run subscription services.
Paddle is a well-known ecommerce management tool. The platform provides complete payments infrastructure thanks to a merchant of record model. Paddle enables all-in-one payments, billing, and sales tax solutions.
Recurly subscription billing software is a cloud-based billing and invoicing solution. It’s an integrated subscription management and recurring bill monitoring platform. Recurly can be considered as a third-party billing management service used with existing business merchant accounts.
Core Comparison
The summary table is designed to help visually assess the characteristics of these platforms
|  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niche | E-commerce, SaaS, Marketplaces, Enterprise, Embedded Finances, Crypto, Platforms, Financial Services | SaaS and SaaS-like businesses, E-commerce, eLearning, Publishing, Video & OTT | Software- and SaaS-based companies | SaaS, Content, Media & Entertainment, Retail, Web 2.0, Mobile, publishing, eLearning, consumer and business services |
| Geolocation Coverage | Available in 47 countries. Stripe has list of enabled countries Supports 135+ currencies | Supports Recurring Payments across 150+ countries Supports 100+ currencies | Paddle has a list of sanctioned and restricted countries Supports 30+ currencies | Global presence Supports 140+ currencies |
| Payment Method | ACH (in US); Alipay; Google & Apple Pay; SEPA; Bancontact; Credit transfer; Bank transfers; BECS Direct Debit in Australia; Boleto; Cards; Checks; EPS; FPX; GiroPay; iDEAL; PAD; Konbini; PayNow; PromptPay; Przelewy24; SEPA Direct Debit; WeChat Pay. | Direct debit (ACH, BACS, SEPA, Autogyro, BECS, PADs); Bank Based Payments (iDEAL, Bancontact, Sofort); Credit transfer; PayPal; Amazon Payments; Apple Pay and Google Pay (via Braintree, Stripe, Adyen); Netbanking; UPI; Offline Payments (Cash, Cheque, bank transfers) | Cards (including Mastercard, Visa, Maestro, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, JCB, UnionPay, and Mada) PayPal? Alipay (in Early Access)*iDEAL*Google Pay (Chrome only)*Apple Pay (HTTPS pages on Safari only)*Wire Transfers (ACH/SEPA/BACS)* | Cards; Direct debit (ACH, SEPA, BACS, BECS); Amazon Pay; Apple Pay; PayPal; Google Pay; Bank Based Payments (iDEAL, Sofort); Venmo |
| Merchant Account | Provides the merchant account | Uses your ready-made merchant account | Uses your ready-made merchant account | Uses your ready-made merchant account |
| Payment Gateway | Is a payment gateway | Integrates with 20+ payment gateways | Integrates with multiple payment gateways across the world | Has own payment gateway and integrates with over a dozen payment gateways |
Ease of integration Widget or API | Stripe Connect (for marketplaces) + API+Webhooks APIs are organized around REST. | API+Webhooks APIs follow the essence of REST. | API+Webhooks APIs’ architectural Style is REST. | API+Webhooks APIs are available in REST architecture. |
| Libraries | Angular, Capacitor, Clojure, C#, Dart, Django, Elixir, Ember, Flutter, Haskell, Perl, PHP, Reactive Native, Ruby on Rails, Rust, Smalltalk, Svelte, Vue, Xamarin | Curl, PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, .Net, Node.js | PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js, NPM, C#, Java, Swift, Go | Ruby, Node.js, Python, Dotnet, Java, PHP, Go, Mobile SDKs, iOS, Android |
| Tax Compliance | Own system + third-party integrations | Own system | Own system | Own system |
| Security | PCI-certified Service Provider Level 1,HTTPS and HSTS for secure connections all TLS(SSL), SOC 1 and SOC 2 attestation,All card numbers are encrypted at rest with AES-256,3D Secure authentication | PCI DSS Level 1 certified, EU-GDPR, SOC1 Type 2, SOC2 Type 2, Two Factor Authentication, SAML Single Sign-On, ISO 27001 certification,Amazon RDS in Multi-AZ | 3D-Secure 2 (3DS2), GDPR, SOC 2 type 1 | PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant, GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, PGP Encryption, Two-Factor Authentication, Single Sign-On, IP Allowlist, PrivacyShield |
| Customer Support | Email 24/7 response within 24 hours,Help Desk, Chat (English/Japanese only) wait time 3 min, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Request Phone Call (English/Japanese only) 3 min. Developers Chat | Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, 24/7 (Live Rep), Chat | Chat, Email, FAQs, Knowledge Base, | Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Phone Support, Chat |
| Testing Environment | Exists | Exists | Sandbox environment | Exists |
| Fees for users | 2.9% + 30 c per transaction (+ other features) | Offers 4 plans (one of which is free) | 5% + 50 c (all inclusive) | Offers 3 plans |
| Detailed Documentation | Exists | Exists | Exists | Exists |
| Training | Documentation | Live Online, Webinars, Documentation, Videos | Documentation | Live Online, Webinars, Documentation, Videos |
Features Comparison
Let’s compare the features of the platforms in more detail
• Billing and Invoicing
| Stripe | ChargeBee | Paddle | Recurly | |
| Billing Portal | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contact Database | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contingency Billing | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Customer Portal | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Customizable Invoices | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dunning Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Payment Processing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile Payments | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Multi-Currency | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Online Invoicing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Online Payments | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Project Billing | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Recurring/Subscription Billing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Service Ticket Billing | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Tax Calculator | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Invoice History | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hourly Billing | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ |
• Payment Processing
| Stripe | ChargeBee | Paddle | Recurly | |
| ACH Check Transactions | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Bitcoin Compatible | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Debit Card Support | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Gift Card Management | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile Payments | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Online Payments | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recurring Billing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| POS Transactions | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Receipt Printing | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Signature Capture | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
• Recurring Billing
| Stripe | ChargeBee | Paddle | Recurly | |
| Customer Portal | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Deferred Billing | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Discount Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dunning Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Invoice History | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Multi-Currency | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Multi-Period Recurring Billing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Payment Processing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recurring Donations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Subscription Billing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
• Subscription Management
| Stripe | ChargeBee | Paddle | Recurly | |
| Cancellation Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Discount / Coupon Management | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Dunning Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Enrollment Management | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | _ |
| Product Catalog | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Recurring Billing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Revenue Recognition | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | – |
| Revenue Recovery Tools | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Self Service Portal | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Subscription Plan Management | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Tax Management | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Trial Management | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Usage Tracking/Analytics | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
• Deployment
| Stripe | ChargeBee | Paddle | Recurly | |
| Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Desktop – Mac | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Desktop – Windows | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Desktop – Linux | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Desktop – Chromebook | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
| On-Premise – Windows | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
| On-Premise – Linux | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Mobile – Android | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Mobile – iPhone | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| Mobile – iPad | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Wrap Up
All 4 platforms have similarities:
- Customizable checkout
- Customized invoices
- Plan management
- Getting and keeping customer’s payment information
- Fraud protection
- Tax collection
- Customer support
Of course, platforms have many differences and features that distinguish them from each other. But also each of the similarities has its own nuances.
Each platform has pros and cons, which are worth knowing about before choosing and starting work with one of them.
We can help
Choosing a billing platform is a responsible decision that can help your business grow and scale. Before integrating with any system, you need to analyze how this or that platform really suits your business. Starting from whether the platform is suitable for your field of activity and geography of sales and ending with each individual feature.
It is worth considering all options. Including startups with a more personal approach to each client and each client’s needs than in large corporations.
Rainex is a billing and subscription management platform that will allow you to manage payments and subscriptions in one tool. We offer you flexible configuration of pricing plans with any frequency and in any currencies, integration with several payment gateways at the same time, full control of your customers and their subscriptions, multilingual notifications and invoices, and much more.
To learn more, sign up for a product demonstration. We will be happy to tell you about us and answer any questions.
