Stripe Billing is the default if you want payments and subscriptions from one vendor. Be clear about what it does not do: on its own it is a gateway rather than a merchant of record, so you carry sales tax and VAT registration yourself. The merchant-of-record options below take that liability on, and cost more for doing so.
8 tools reviewedLast reviewed Ranked by us, not by votes
What counts as billing and subscriptions for SaaS
Services that run the money side of a software business: recurring subscriptions, invoicing, usage metering, payment collection, and sales tax or VAT. The central distinction is whether the vendor is a merchant of record, meaning it becomes the legal seller and takes on tax registration, remittance and chargeback liability, or a gateway and billing layer, meaning you stay the seller and keep that liability yourself. A second axis is how well the product handles metered or usage-based pricing as opposed to flat and seat-based plans. Tools that only do accounting, bookkeeping or revenue analytics without collecting or invoicing revenue are out of scope.
How we judged them
Entries were judged first on who carries sales tax and VAT liability (merchant of record versus gateway), because that is the single choice that is expensive to reverse later. Second on usage-based billing depth: whether the product ingests raw usage events and supports credits, commitments and hybrid pricing, or only bills fixed plans. Third on payout and market geography, including which countries a seller can be based in and how funds actually reach them. Each vendor site was fetched during research, ownership changes were checked against the acquirer's own announcements, and anything that could not be read firsthand is marked below verified confidence.
All 8 billing and subscriptions for SaaS in this guide, in ranked order.
stripe.com · A percentage of billing volume charged on top of standard per-transaction payment processing fees, available either pay-as-you-go or as a lower-rate annual contract; Stripe Tax and Stripe Managed Payments are each priced separately on top.
Best for Teams that want payments and billing from one vendor and are prepared to own their own tax registrations, or to buy merchant-of-record coverage as a separate Stripe product.
A subscription and invoicing layer built on top of Stripe's payment processing, covering recurring, seat-based, tiered and usage-based pricing.
Strengths
Widest payment method, currency and country coverage of anything in this category, with documentation and SDKs to match
Usage-based billing is now backed by Metronome, whose acquisition Stripe completed in January 2026
Stripe Tax calculates sales tax, VAT and GST across 90+ countries and can file in supported jurisdictions
Stripe Managed Payments is a separate first-party merchant-of-record option covering tax compliance in 80+ countries, so you can start as the seller and hand that role over later without changing vendor
Hosted checkout, customer portal, dunning and invoicing are included rather than bolted on
Supports flat-rate, per-seat, tiered, hybrid and metered models out of the box
Where it falls short
Stripe Billing on its own is a gateway, not a merchant of record: you remain the legal seller and carry sales tax and VAT registration, filing and audit liability
Stripe Tax calculates and can file, but it does not transfer legal liability to Stripe
Merchant-of-record coverage requires the separate Stripe Managed Payments product, which is scoped to digital goods and a defined list of product categories and supported countries
Billing fees are charged on top of per-transaction payment processing fees, so the blended cost is higher than processing alone
Seller eligibility and payouts are limited to countries where Stripe operates, and accounts are subject to Stripe's own risk review
Account or payout holds following a risk review are handled through support with no contractual SLA on the standard tiers
paddle.com · A single all-inclusive percentage plus a fixed fee per checkout transaction, with no monthly platform fee; custom rates for enterprise, invoiced deals and very low unit prices.
Best for Software companies selling internationally that want sales tax and VAT liability moved off their own books without building a tax function.
A merchant of record for software and digital products that becomes the legal seller and then handles checkout, subscriptions, sales tax and VAT remittance on the seller's behalf.
Strengths
Full merchant-of-record model: Paddle registers, collects and remits tax in its supported markets and is the named seller on the invoice
Sells into 200+ countries and territories with localized checkout, currency and tax treatment
Fraud and chargeback liability sit with Paddle rather than the seller
One all-inclusive rate covers processing, tax and fraud instead of stacking a gateway, a tax engine and a billing tool
Includes churn and dunning tooling (Retain) and subscription analytics (ProfitWell Metrics)
Longest operating history of the merchant-of-record vendors here, which matters for procurement and audit questions
Where it falls short
Digital goods and software only: physical products, and human services not attached to a software offering, are not accepted
Prohibited categories include adult and age-restricted content, regulated financial products, payment services, cryptocurrency, trading platforms and travel services
Payouts run on a fixed monthly cycle against a minimum balance threshold rather than rolling settlement, so cash reaches you slower than with a gateway
Payout currencies are limited to a short list, and a SWIFT fee can apply for some destination countries
Checkout is Paddle-hosted, so branding and flow control are more constrained than a checkout you build yourself on a gateway
Very low-priced products and invoice-led deals fall outside the standard rate and require a custom quote
Onboarding includes a review of your product and business before you can sell
polar.sh · A percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction, with optional monthly plan tiers that lower the percentage as volume grows; a no-monthly-fee entry tier is available.
Best for AI and developer-tools startups that want merchant-of-record tax coverage and metered billing without going through an enterprise sales process.
A developer-focused merchant of record that combines subscriptions, usage-based billing and digital product delivery behind a single API.
Strengths
Acts as reseller and merchant of record in 100+ markets, handling sales tax, refunds, chargebacks and fraud
Usage-based billing is native rather than retrofitted: meters on tokens, API calls and GPU seconds alongside seats and prepaid credits
The core platform is published on GitHub under Apache 2.0, so the billing logic is auditable rather than a black box
Self-serve signup with public pricing and plan tiers that lower the per-transaction rate as volume grows
License keys, file delivery and gated GitHub or Discord access are built in, so digital delivery does not need a second vendor
Reports per-customer cost margin, which is useful when the underlying cost of goods is model inference
Payouts reach roughly 140 countries via Stripe Connect Express, including places where standalone Stripe accounts are hard to obtain
Where it falls short
Physical products and human services are explicitly prohibited under the acceptable use policy
Payouts depend on Stripe Connect Express, so seller payout coverage stops at the Connect Express country list and excludes much of Africa and Central Asia
Younger and smaller than Paddle, with a shorter public track record on tax audits and enterprise procurement review
Apache 2.0 source is available but there is no supported self-hosting path, because the merchant-of-record role depends on Polar's own legal entity
Accounts go through a review before selling can start
The free entry tier carries the highest per-transaction rate; reducing it requires paying a monthly plan fee
chargebee.com · Named plan tiers that pair a platform fee with a percentage of billing volume, plus a higher-percentage pay-as-you-go option and quote-based enterprise tiers; several capabilities are separately priced modules.
Best for Finance and RevOps teams that need revenue recognition, dunning and multi-gateway billing across regions, and that already have their own processing relationships.
A subscription management and revenue operations platform that sits on top of whichever payment gateways a business already uses.
Strengths
Gateway-agnostic: supports 40+ payment gateways across 150+ countries, so processing is not locked to a single processor and can be routed per region
ASC 606 and IFRS 15 revenue recognition is built in rather than exported to a separate tool
Tax automation for sales tax, GST and VAT, with integrations to third-party tax engines where filing is needed
Handles tiered, flat-fee, usage-based, credit and prepaid models in one catalog
Retention and churn tooling included, plus quoting and CPQ modules for sales-led motions
Long operating history with mid-market and enterprise SaaS, which shortens security and procurement review
Where it falls short
Not a merchant of record: tax registration, filing liability and chargeback exposure stay with the seller
You must bring and maintain your own payment gateway and merchant account
Platform fees scale as a percentage of billing volume on top of whatever the gateway charges, so it becomes a third fee layer
Enterprise and higher-function modules are quote-based, and some carry an annual commitment
Implementation is a project rather than a weekend integration, and capabilities such as revenue recognition and CPQ are priced as separate modules
Metering depth is behind the usage-first tools in this list for very high event volumes
Best for AI, infrastructure and data companies whose pricing depends on high-volume metered events plus negotiated enterprise contracts.
A usage-based billing and metering engine that ingests raw usage events and turns complex pricing contracts into invoices.
Strengths
Built around event ingestion and metering from the start rather than added onto a subscription engine
Supports backdating and backfilling, so pricing corrections and late-arriving usage do not require manual invoice surgery
Pricing simulation lets you model a change against historical usage before shipping it
Finance workflows included: revenue recognition, AR aging, collections automation and contract management
Integrates with Stripe and other gateways for collection, and with Avalara, Anrok, Numeral, Sphere, Stripe Tax and TaxJar for tax calculation
NetSuite and QuickBooks integrations for downstream accounting
Where it falls short
Adyen entered a definitive agreement in June 2026 to acquire Orb, and Adyen has stated that after an initial standalone incubator phase its strategic intent is convergence of billing and payments infrastructure
Not a merchant of record and not a payment processor: you still need a gateway and you keep tax liability
Tax calculation is delegated to external providers, which is an additional vendor and cost
No public pricing: every plan is quote-based through sales
No free tier and no self-serve signup
Overkill for flat-rate or seat-based SaaS that does not meter usage
Best for Companies billing on tokens, compute or API calls at high throughput that need live usage visible in-product as well as on the invoice.
A real-time usage metering and billing platform aimed at consumption pricing at large event volumes.
Strengths
Real-time metering with embeddable customer-facing spend dashboards and usage alerts
Handles prepaid credits, commitments and drawdown contracts, which is the shape most AI deals take
Proven at large scale with well-known AI and data infrastructure companies
Combines subscription, tiered and consumption components in one hybrid pricing model
Data warehouse exports plus ERP and CRM integrations on higher tiers for finance reporting
A self-serve entry plan exists alongside custom contracts, unlike some enterprise-only competitors
Where it falls short
Stripe completed its acquisition of Metronome in January 2026 and has publicly stated it intends to integrate the capabilities into the Stripe Billing platform, so standalone independence over time is unclear
Not a merchant of record and not a payment processor: collection relies on an external gateway
Does not remit sales tax or VAT; tax calculation is delegated to integrations
Higher-tier pricing is custom and not published
Purpose-built for consumption pricing, so a flat-rate seat-based SaaS takes on complexity without much return
Buyers who chose it specifically to stay independent of a payment provider's stack now sit inside one
revenuecat.com · Free below a monthly tracked revenue threshold, then a percentage of tracked revenue, with volume-discounted custom enterprise agreements; growth tools are available separately on a percentage-of-conversions basis.
Best for Mobile-first products whose revenue runs through app store in-app purchases and that also want a web purchase path.
Subscription infrastructure for mobile apps that wraps App Store and Google Play in-app purchases behind one cross-platform API, with an optional web billing product.
Strengths
Normalizes receipt validation and entitlements across StoreKit, Google Play, Amazon, smart TV and web, which is the part teams routinely underestimate
Hosted paywalls with templates, plus A/B testing and experiments on paywalls and pricing
Subscription analytics and cohort reporting designed around mobile renewal behavior
Free below a monthly tracked revenue threshold, so early apps pay nothing
Web Billing option with Stripe as processor supports web-to-app funnels that avoid store commissions
Growth tools can be used on their own if you keep your existing purchase infrastructure
Automated handling of Apple refund requests
Where it falls short
Not a merchant of record and not a payment processor: for in-app purchases Apple and Google are the sellers and pay you directly, so store commissions, payout timing and tax treatment are outside RevenueCat's control
With Web Billing you are the merchant of record and Stripe is the gateway, so web tax liability stays with you and needs a separate tax provider such as Stripe Tax or Avalara
Web Billing cannot currently be used in India or other countries that require collecting full billing and shipping address details
Fees are a percentage of tracked revenue above the free threshold, so cost scales with revenue rather than with usage of the product
Not built for B2B web SaaS with invoicing, purchase orders or negotiated contracts
No usage-based or metered billing engine comparable to the usage-first tools in this category
lemonsqueezy.com · A single percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction with no monthly fee, plus stacked percentage surcharges for international cards, PayPal, subscription renewals, cart recovery and affiliate-referred sales.
Best for Solo founders and small teams selling digital downloads, templates or small SaaS who want tax handled with the least possible setup.
A merchant of record aimed at small digital sellers, bundling checkout, subscriptions, tax remittance, license keys and a hosted storefront.
Strengths
Merchant-of-record model: US sales tax and EU VAT are collected and remitted, and Lemon Squeezy is the named seller
No monthly platform fee, so the cost is purely transactional
License key issuance, file delivery, an affiliate program and a hosted storefront are included
Fast self-serve onboarding aimed at individuals rather than companies with a procurement process
Owned by Stripe since 2024, so the underlying payments infrastructure is not a startup dependency
Where it falls short
Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy in 2024 and then launched Stripe Managed Payments as its own merchant-of-record product in 2026, with migration paths from Lemon Squeezy being built; the stated long-term direction is convergence, not independent development
Stripe Managed Payments, not Lemon Squeezy, is the product Stripe is positioning for new merchant-of-record customers
The headline transaction rate is layered with additional percentage surcharges for international cards, PayPal, subscription renewals, recovered carts and affiliate referrals, so the effective rate is meaningfully above the base rate
Digital goods only; physical products are not supported
Features such as the storefront, affiliate program and download delivery have no guaranteed equivalent on Stripe Managed Payments, so a migration may mean rebuilding them
Vendor pages returned HTTP 403 on every fetch attempt during this research, so these details rest on the acquisition announcements and secondary coverage rather than a firsthand read of the site