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38 Comments

What's your go-to Payments+Billing+Accounting infrastructure for SaaS? ๐Ÿค”

Hey IH! ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿฝ I am starting a new SaaS and I have a question for the community...

The idea is to start with freemium Alpha & Beta; then, move to freemium + subscription-based model. What's your go-to payments/billing/accounting infrastructure, and why? What should I have in mind when structuring my new biz?

Much appreciated. -Ved

P.S. in my current 100% self-funded startup we wanted to preserve $ but also have a solid infrastructure so we implemented Stripe+ChargeOver+Xero. Would love to read some alternatives here. ๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿผ

posted to
Growth
on June 7, 2020
  1. 4

    for now, with upstamps.com I am using Paddle, simple and very easy to integrate, it saves a lot of time and handles all the hard tasks for you.

    1. 2

      Really nice design and illustrations, very unique!

      1. 1

        Hey thank you for the nice words ๐Ÿ™

    2. 1

      I've met the founders in Ottawa at SaaS-North. Checked the demo - looks promising. But I also heard that it's quite rigid in terms of the methodology they use? Not sure never used the software myself.

      1. 2

        They are resellers of your product, this solves a lot of problems when it comes to taxes in different countries, but one thing about this is that they want to control what they are selling to maintain quality and control

    3. 1

      We are thinking of Paddle. Is there a complicated approval process?

      1. 2

        Integration is super smooth and simple to create an account. You can do everything with simple webhooks. The simple dashboard reminds me of the old Parse. You just have to respect their terms and conditions regarding what you are going to sell.

        1. 2

          I also have good experience with them. Easy to integrate, good support, very flexible product

        2. 2

          Thankyou for the info.

  2. 3

    Look for companies that will act as your resellers (the invoice to the customer is issued by them), especially if you want international sales.
    Paddle, 2checkout, FastSpring, (and more on my review at https://www.starmessagesoftware.com/e-commerce-software-publishers )
    These all-inclusive services, take care of the translations of the order page, have multiple currencies, comply to different national sales laws (Tax, Vat, etc), operate customer (sales only) support, even take care of the chargebacks without any extra cost for you.
    Why would you want all this complexity to live inside your business when you can so elegantly outsource it for a predefined % fee per sale?

  3. 3

    Firebase + stripe. Mostly itโ€™s been google/appleโ€™s payments however since you have to use them for apps

    1. 1

      Thanks man we actually have both (building on top of firebase)

      1. 1

        If you need any help, feel free to reach out. My business is using Firebase+Stripe and it's been great.

        1. 2

          Much appreciated, Sam. I'll let you know. For now, it'll be all freemium. I am 3-6 months away from monetization.

  4. 2

    We are using Stripe.com with billsby.com to handle the subscriptions, integration nice and easy.

    1. 1

      Billsby looks interesting, but why do you also need Stripe?

      1. 1

        Stripe integrates to take the money with Billsby so you can easily build a landing page without having to build a complete checkout solution, wordpress site etc.

        1. 1

          Confusing, it seems you end up paying fees twice.

          1. 1

            Potentially yes, but it's about time to market, we need to move fast and have something in place rapidly, And currently Billsby is offering the first $50K FOC

            1. 1

              Thanks for mentioning us here Tim! Mark from Billsby. All subscription billing software out there that sits on top of payment gateways charges a fee on top of the gateway element - and as you point out, it's really about time to market.

              You could build your own dunning, retention tools, SCA compliance etc. - or you could let us worry about that for you. And as you grow your business, you shouldn't run into scaling challenges as you want to add new plans, discounts, coupons - that kind of thing.

              We'll always work very hard to justify our .8%!

  5. 2

    I use "Paddle". Best choice for EU located business in my opinion as they handle the VAT for me.

  6. 2

    Zoho Suite + Stripe

    1. 1

      Thanks - do you use the entire Zoho Suite, CRM and support with it?

      1. 2

        We changed so many tools in the past 6 years:
        -salesforce
        -suitecrm
        -customer google spreadsheet
        -pancakeapp

        With the Zoho Suite, everything came together.
        Now we use heavily:
        Zoho CRM
        Zoho helpdesk
        Zoho Project
        Zoho Billing/Books
        Zoho Analytics

        1. 2

          Whoa, how am I just learning about Zoho and breadth of their products!

  7. 2

    First started with Stripe, then switched to Paddle when I discovered legal stuff that I should take care of as an EU/French citizen:

    • Applying the right VAT depending on customer's location
    • Verifying VAT numbers
    • Filling tax declaration exchange (Specific to french customs)

    I might switch back to Stripe the day where my company is successfull and I can automate or afford someone to take care of filling tax declarations.

    1. 1

      Thanks, Gaรซl. How would you compare Stripe vs Paddle - what do you get with Paddle besides the 'legal stuff'?

      1. 2

        I used and implemented both. If I didn't have a VAT declarations to do, I would definitely choose Stripe.

        Paddle does the job, but it's less polished, has fewer features and is much less well supported in terms of integrations with third apps.

        1. 1

          Super useful Gael thank you!

  8. 1

    I integrated our application with Chargebee, specially for their VAT handling, automatic emails and subscriptions.

  9. 1

    For ChatFox.app we've been super happy with Stripe + Chargebee - can't say i've been super happy with any accounting software at the end of the day

    1. 1

      Xero.com has some good integrations with the likes of Zapier should make things easier

    2. 1

      :) yep - it's really not easy to make them work together in sync. And companies that do combine them all, make it super rigid cause you have to follow one or two methodologies so not a lot of room to personalize the workflow

  10. 1

    Using 2checkout for billing purposes

    2checkout + WooCommerce = allows me to accept all debit and credit card payments + PayPal payments

    For Bitcoin payments using OpenNode

    Website: https://Kingmailer.co

    1. 1

      is that useful for SaaS though?

      1. 1

        For me it is...

        1. 1

          fair enough :)

  11. 0

    It's impossible to achieve customer satisfaction in a short time however, with the most effective internet-based subscription software we are able to transform this idea into reality. Our solutions are focused on moving your company to an entirely new level and adopting an outcome-oriented approach to the business. We assist companies in making their subscription more efficient and manageable through custom solutions for every type of service. Subscription management can help you understand more about our solutions and help you with the new system now.

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