Best Subscription Management Software

Best subscription management software are Zoho Subscription, FastSpring, Recurly, Zuora, and Fusebill, with which you can easily manage all types of subscription models and other associated details.

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Zoho Billing

4.7

Scalable subscription billing software

API

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Moosend

4.5

Software by Moosend

API

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Marg ERP9+ Billing & Invoicing Software

4.8

Integrated with eBusiness Apps & Ready with GST

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GymCircle

4.9

Best Gym Management Software

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Table of Content

What is Subscription Management Software?
Features of Subscription Management Software
Benefits of Subscription Management Software
Who should have a Subscription Management Software?
Difference between Subscription Management Software and Recurring Billing
Things to Consider Before Buying a Subscription Management Software

The subscription revenue model requires a user to pay a recurring subscription amount to access a product or service. In this article, we will explore how subscription management software solutions can streamline and automate the various complex activities related to managing subscriptions for multiple customers.

What is Subscription Management Software?

Subscription management software can help businesses manage the entire subscription lifecycle for all their customers on a centralized platform. They simplify multiple subscription management processes, including billing customers on a recurrent basis along with managing various other aspects of their subscription plans.

Subscription management software solutions allow businesses to set up and manage subscription plans based on monthly, annual, metered, and even one-time usage. They can handle metering, usage capping, multi tier pricing plans, service/product bundling, and multiple revenue streams from a single customer.

Subscription management software solutions facilitate end-to-end subscription management. They automate tasks such as managing free trial periods, assigning credits to customers, enabling off-cycle changes to existing subscription plans, and processing refunds.

Subscription management software is often confused with recurring invoicing and billing software, but we will get to that a bit later. For now, let’s discuss some of the features and benefits of the best subscription management software solutions available today.

Features of Subscription Management Software

Here are some of the standard features of subscription management software solutions:

1. Subscription Lifecycle Management:

Managing subscriptions can be challenging with a wide range of customers, multiple products and services, and various payment plans. Subscription management solutions manage the end-to-end subscription lifecycle, right from signups, free trials, issuing automated invoices and securing timely payments, updating changes in existing plans, and more.

2. Marketing Automation:

You can use subscription management software solutions to run various marketing activities and promotions. You can send out bulk emails and messages announcing various discounts and promotions. The system can set up and manage discounts, coupon codes, limited-period offers, customer loyalty programs, and more effortlessly.

3. Recurring Billing and Payments:

Once you set up billing frequencies and payment cycles, subscription management software solutions send out automated invoices to your customers automatically ahead of payment due dates. They follow up on payments with the help of payment reminders. They provide customers a wide range of payment modes such as credit/debit cards, online banking, online wallets, etc.

4. Dunning Management

When payments fail or get denied, subscription management software solutions notify subscribers. They send relentless follow-up messages to prompt your customer to make the payment.

5. Reports and Analytics

Subscription management solutions provide businesses with insightful and analytical data. You can obtain various reports related to monthly recurring revenue, churn rates, and more to monitor the growth of your business and make strategic, data-backed decisions.

Benefits of Subscription Management Software

With its various features and process automation capabilities, subscription management software solutions offer a host of benefits. Some of them are as follows:

1. Time-Savings and Cost-Efficiency

Subscription management software minimizes manual effort from the process by automating a wide range of tasks. They are mostly available as SaaS solutions, making them highly affordable and a better alternative to costly, time-consuming, labor-intensive, manual subscription management processes.

2. Pricing Agility

Your pricing strategy plays a critical role in the success of your business. Subscription management software solutions allow you to provide your customers with a wide range of pricing plans and options. You can set up standard pricing for all your products and services or offer tiered pricing, volume-based pricing, stairstep pricing, or create a hybrid plan.

3. Healthy Cashflow

Subscription management solutions stay on top of billing and invoicing. They issue invoices on time, follow up with payment reminders, provide multiple payment options to customers, and dun customers for failed payments. All of this ensures timely and accurate payments so that you enjoy a steady cash flow.

4. Business Growth and Development

We have discussed how subscription management software solutions allow you to run various marketing campaigns and promotions. These marketing tactics are essential to attract new customers and retain existing ones. You can also measure your marketing efforts by tracking their performance with the help of various reports and analytics.

5. Customer Experience

Subscription management solutions enable self-service. Customers can subscribe to new products/services, make changes to their subscription plans, update personal information and payment details, and more, by themselves with just a few clicks. The system also ensures that they enjoy uninterrupted services with the help of timely alerts for future payments.

6. Compliance

The best subscription management software solutions ensure that the system is compliant with local laws and statutory regulations. This is especially important when you accept payments through modes such as credit cards and e-wallets. The system already comes with the required compliance certifications and saves you the trouble of obtaining them.

7. Data Security

Subscription management involves sensitive customer data such as credit card information, personal details such as addresses and phone numbers, and more. Customers do not tolerate any lapses, especially when it comes to online payments. Subscription management solutions come with various security features to ensure maximum data security.

8. Eco-Friendly

Subscription management software solutions drastically reduce the scope of paperwork since they manage all subscription management tasks online.

9. Integration

The best subscription management software solutions can integrate with your existing technology stack seamlessly. It ensures a flawless exchange of data among various systems. They enhance the overall performance of your current systems by complementing their features with their own unique functionalities.

Who should have a Subscription Management Software?

Subscription management software solutions can find applications in any business that employs a subscription business model. Examples are cable television, streaming platforms such as Netflix, gyms, websites, magazine publishers, cloud storage services such as Apple iCloud, and meal delivery services.

Difference Between Subscription Management Software and Recurring Billing

Many people take subscription management and recurring billing to mean the same thing. However, it's not the case at all. While subscription management involves recurring invoicing, it is a tiny aspect of subscription management.

Recurring billing solutions allow businesses to bill customers on an ongoing basis. However, these solutions offer limited functionalities. The primary job of a recurring billing solution is to charge your customers a specific amount on a fixed date of every month. It can also keep track of the periodic transactions between the business and the customers. It might be able to manage prorations and tax calculations. However, besides these tasks, they don’t do much else.

One the other hand, subscription management software solutions have various other functionalities, including but not limited to recurring billing, dunning management, managing customer communications, promotions, multiple pricing plans, and more. Subscription billing is an advanced revenue model designed to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Things to Consider Before Buying a Subscription Management Software

Choosing the best subscription management software solution from a wide range of options available today can be quite tedious. However, here are some questions you must ask as you evaluate various options:

1. Will the software be able to scale up to accommodate business growth?

The subscription management software should be able to scale up or down as per your business’s needs since it would be expensive and impractical to reinvest in another subscription management solution, simply because your business has outgrown your existing one.

2. Will it be able to integrate with your existing technology stack?

The software should be able to integrate seamlessly with your existing technology stack. Having to maintain and reconcile customer information in each system separately can lead to errors and inconsistencies. It may end up defeating the purpose of adopting the new software altogether.

3. What is the extent of customer support you can expect from the vendor?

Even the best software solutions can be rendered ineffective without proper customer support. Its important to understand the extent of the customer support you can expect from the vendor. Inquire how long they will take to respond. Read the fine print to ensure that there are no hidden charges involved.

4. What do people who have used the subscription management software have to say about it?

Spend time on prominent websites and forums to learn what people are saying about the subscription management software you have shortlisted. Check user ratings and testimonials.

5. Will it meet the specific needs of your business?

Every business is unique and may have its own set of requirements from a software. Evaluate your business needs carefully. There is no point in paying for features that you don’t need. At the same time, you also don’t want to end up with a solution that does not help you solve the specific subscription management issues in your business.

Compare Pricing Plans of Top Subscription Management Software Providers

Name	Ratings & Reviews	Starting Price	Free Trial?
Marg ERP9+ Billing & Invoicing Software	4.8(24 Reviews)	$112.5 Full Licence/ Single-User	Yes	Learn More
GymCircle	4.9(16 Reviews)	$83.33 Single User	Yes	Learn More
Sage 50cloud	4.6(12 Reviews)	$50.58 Per Month	Yes	Learn More
3dcart	4.6(5 Reviews)	$29 Per Month	Yes	Learn More
Easebuzz	4.8(5 Reviews)	$0 Per User	Yes	Learn More

FAQs of Subscription Management Software

What is Subscription Billing?

The subscription billing model allows you to charge your customers regularly for specific products and services as per a predetermined schedule.

What Happens If a User Stops a Subscription Plan?

Subscription management software platforms allow customers to stop the subscription immediately or at a specific date or the end of the current term. After that, the system will not bill the customer unless there are any outstanding dues.

Are One-Time Transactions Supported?

Yes, subscription management software platforms also support one-time transactions effectively.

Does Subscription Management Software Retry Failed Payments?

Yes, the subscription management software solutions retry payments and even let the customers know when their payments have failed.

Are Subscription Management Software Platforms Secure?

Absolutely. The best subscription management solutions are PCI-compliant to create a safe environment for online payments.

Last Updated: September 19, 2023