7 Best Recurring Billing Software of 2024 (Ranked)

Are you looking for the best recurring billing software for 2024? Businesses are increasingly using recurring billing platforms to assist with the management of recurring invoices and payments.

The best recurring billing software can handle everything from invoice automation to collection of payments, late payment reminders, expense tracking, financial reports, and so much more. It simplifies everyday tasks by streamlining the billing process and tracking interactions.

However, choosing the right recurring billing software is vitally important to your business because there are so many ways to get tricked.

In this post, We will show you how to choose the best recurring billing software by comparing their pros, cons and pricing.

Let’s dive right in.

What Are The Best Recurring Billing Software?

Here are my picks for the best recurring billing software to consider this year:

1. FreshBooks — Best Overall

FreshBooks is one of the most popular recurring billing software in the world. It offers a variety of features, including invoice automation, payment remittance, expense tracking, time tracking, client management, and reporting and payment management.

You also receive analytics and the ability to generate financial reports so you know how your business is doing and help you make the right decisions.

Plus, FreshBooks Integrates well with essential third-party tools, including Paypal, MailChimp, Zenpayroll and Basecamp.

Pros:

• Ease of use — FreshBooks offers an intuitive and straightforward dashboard to help you run your business more efficiently.
• It comes with an automated late payment reminders feature.
• The platform takes care of the entire process of payment.
• Online Payments — It makes it easier for your clients to pay online.
• You get all the essentials of business activities, deal tracking, and reporting that you need from recurring billing software. 
• FreshBooks Projects keep your team organized and boost their productivity.

Cons:

• Not tailored for large organizations.
• The Lite plan only allows five billable clients.

Pricing:

FreshBooks offers the following plans:

• Lite: $15 per month for up to 5 billable clients
• Plus: $30 per month for up to 50 billable clients
• Premium: $55 per month for up to Unlimited billable clients
• Select: Custom pricing for unlimited billable clients and specialized features

2. QuickBooks Online

Quickbooks Online is another famous recurring billing software that controls all aspects of the financial side of your business. It helps users save time and stay organized.

Quickbooks Online is used by freelancers, small businesses, and mid-sized businesses in any industry including restaurants, retail, construction, manufacturing, nonprofit, and more. The platform comes with invoice management, bank reconciliation, expense tracker, receipt scanner, financial reporting, payroll, tax management and more.

Quickbooks Online simplifies your business billing process, and the learning curve is low.

In addition, The software is accessible from any web browser and requires no download.

Pros:

• Intuitive and Powerful recurring billing software.
• It allows you to send efficient invoices that get you paid faster.
• The platform comes with free easy-to-use mobile apps for Android and IOS devices.
• You can integrate Quickbooks with various third-party apps to increase the usability of the platform by multiple.
• It has a powerful bills & payments management feature, which allows you to pay multiple vendors and bills at the same time.
• It offers one of the best reporting tools on the market.

Cons:

• The customer support is not robust.
• It’s a bit more expensive than other recurring billing options on this list.

Pricing:

Quickbooks Online offers 4 pricing plans to cater to your needs:

• EasyStart: $12.50 per month
• Essentials: $25 per month
• Plus: $40 per month
• Advanced: $90 per month

3. Zoho Invoice

Looking for a recurring billing software that’s simple, free, and handles your customer billing life cycle from start to finish?

Zoho Invoice is one of the best options on the market.

It enables small businesses to create and send invoices that match your brand in an organized manner.

Key features include seamless invoicing, time tracking, client portal, reporting, customizable templates, payment collection, and more.

Pros:

• It makes small business invoicing and billing so simple.
• It allows users to generate reports to help them make smart decisions.
• The platform is available in over 15 languages.
• It allows integration with various third-party applications such as Slack, WordPress, Office 365, Google Workspace, and more.
• Helps you keep track of customers’ invoice status.
• Allows you to easily accept online payments.

Cons:

• Their mobile version doesn’t include all the features.

Pricing:

Zoho Invoice is a 100% free invoicing solution.

4. Xero

Xero is another robust invoicing software designed for small businesses. It helps users close more deals and collect cash faster.

The software comes with a ton of functionality including automatic reminders, invoicing, customizable templates, accepting payments online, inventory, reporting and more.

Xero is most suitable for small business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers. One of the things I like about Xero is that it evolves with you as your business grows.

Pros:

• The platform is easy to set up and offers a user-friendly dashboard.
• Offers a great customer experience even with their free trial.
• Allows you to view your cash flows, transactions and account details through an intuitive dashboard.
• Allows integration with third-party apps and bank accounts to provide automated transaction feeds.
• It makes it easy to create and send invoices from any device with an active internet connection.

Cons:

• Time tracking and reporting are limited

Pricing:

Plans start from $12 and go up to $65. You can get a 30-day free trial of Xero – no credit card required.

5. Chargebee

Chargebee is a user-friendly platform that is appealing to all sizes of businesses. They offer a suite of effective solutions, including subscription management and recurring billing, invoicing, revenue recognition, collections, and customer retention.

If your businesses rely on subscription-based revenue models, then you will love Chargebee. It will help you deliver one of the best subscription experiences for your customers.

One feature that stands out from Chargebee is their customizable Billing Logic. With this feature, you can bill all customers on a specific date, set it according to when they signed up, or even set specific billing dates for each customer. This way, you have billing flexibility to offer to your customers.

Pros:

• Chargebee is highly user-friendly.
• Extensive recurring billing features to handle complex recurring billing scenarios.
• Detailed reports on subscription analytics, allowing you to make effective decisions based on key metrics.
• They offer a free plan, allowing customers to test out the features, and overall quality of the product.
• Chargebee also stands out for its quality customer support.

Cons:

• New users may find the configuration process of adding custom fields for customer checkout difficult.

Pricing:

Chargebee offers an attractive free plan with limited features for new users. Their paying plans start at 599$ per month. The platform also offers an Entreprise plan for their product.

6. Recurly

Recurly is a subscription management and recurring billing software that helps you deliver new revenue opportunities and new markets with flexible billing workflows and automated, customizable invoicing. It’s one of the easiest-to-use recurring billing tools on the market.

I especially love how Recurly makes upselling easy and accessible.

On top of that, Recurly integrates seamlessly with leading applications that power every aspect of your business. All these impressive features make Recurly a highly competitive subscription management platform used by numerous professionals and entrepreneurs worldwide.

Pros:

• Straightforward to set up and easy to manage.
• A flexible payment method for businesses.
• One of the best recurring billing software for subscription-based businesses.
• Integrates seamlessly with third-party solutions like marketing automation tools, accounting and CRM.

Cons:

• Sometimes a new activity is slow to load when viewing analytics.
• Their pricing model is quite expensive for startups.

Pricing:

With Recurly’s free plan, you get robust subscription management, automated invoicing, 20+ prebuilt reports and dashboards, and 24×7 customer support.

If you want to upgrade, Recurly also offers two other plans with more advanced features. These plans are designed for midsize companies and enterprises with large payment volumes.

7. Wave

Wave is an online accounting software company that can help you streamline your billing process through multiple channels. Using this tool, you can easily send professional invoices and track the status of invoices through mobile, desktop, and web browsers.

Key features include invoicing, billing, payment tracking, payroll management, instant notifications, credit card processing, and receipt scanning.

Wave is one of the best free recurring billing software options, especially for small business owners, freelancers, accountants, bookkeepers, and tax preparers.

Pros:

• Easy to use and completely free.
• It enables users to choose customizable invoicing templates based on their business needs.
• Allows users to collect payments online.
• Get access to crucial financial reports that include various data such as sales tax, cash flow, balance sheet, and more.
• Allows you to send unlimited invoices.

Cons:

• Their customer support is limited.
• Not suitable for large businesses.

Pricing:

Wave is completely free.

What is recurring billing software?

Recurring billing software is invoicing and payment software that helps businesses automate their invoicing process. It allows business owners to send out automated invoices on a regular basis and handle the collection of payments.

Recurring billing software gives businesses the ability to prevent late payments, automate the payments process, get paid 2x faster, track revenue, generate financial reports and much more.

Recurring billing tools are suitable for businesses who want to manage their billing process with less effort since the software takes care of the entire process.

Here are some of the benefits of using recurring billing software:

• Time and Cost saving
• Reduces late payment
• Improves customer experience
• Eliminates human error
• Boosts team productivity

How to Choose the Best Recurring Billing Software for Your Business

Now that you know why it’s important to use recurring billing software for your business, we’ll show you how to choose the right one by considering These crucial factors.

• Scalability: The first factor to consider is the scalability of the tool. You should make sure the solution can grow with your business.
• Customization: If you’re wondering how to choose a recurring billing software, it’s crucial to consider the level of customization on offer. The right tool should allow customization of billing cycles, invoices, and customer communications.
• Integration capabilities: Although you want to find a recurring billing software that is feature-rich, it’s equally important to choose a tool that has great integration capabilities. That way, you can gain access to additional features and capabilities, expanding its functionality.
• Global payment support: If you have international customers, multi-currency and payment method support is crucial. By accepting payments from customers worldwide, you can improve customer satisfaction, and increase revenue.
• Reporting and analytics: When talking about how to choose a recurring billing solution, reporting and analytics are key factors to take into account. Robust reporting tools can provide valuable insights into your subscription business, enabling data-driven decision-making.
• Customer management features: A recurring billing software with great customer management capabilities, such as self-service portals can help businesses streamline their operations, improve customer satisfaction, and drive revenue growth.

Summary

Recurring billing software is the fastest way for businesses and freelancers to bill customers with invoices. Generate more revenue, support new deals or business models, and accept recurring payments globally.

If you’re a business owner and want to streamline your billing process to get paid faster, increase recurring revenue, and access reports, one of these tools might be for you.

To recap, Here are my top picks for the best recurring billing software and what they’re best at:

1. 1. FreshBooks — Best Overall recurring billing software
   2. QuickBooks Online  — Best recurring billing software for small businesses
   3. Zoho Invoice  – Best free recurring billing software
   4. Chargebee  – Best recurring billing software for businesses relying on subscription-based revenue models

Whatever your industry niche or business size, choosing one of the recurring billing software above will be a game changer for your business’s financial health.