by Ben Dwyer For businesses that offer memberships or charge customers on a set basis, recurring billing is key. Are specific recurring billing platforms worth it?
The answer really depends on your specific needs and preferences. While they can make it easier to manage memberships and follow up on declined transactions, it comes at a cost. Some business owners prefer to do those steps manually and save the monthly cost, while others find recurring billing platforms invaluable. In this review, we’ll look at one such platform – Chargebee – to see whether it suits your needs.
Chargebee Overview
Chargebee is a subscription management / recurring billing platform designed to streamline all aspects of recurring billing. It includes features for automated billing that make it easier to manage customer subscription and follow up on declines. It also includes optional add-ons for revenue recognition and other financial considerations. For those who use CRM systems, accounting platforms, and other tools, Chargebee connects with many popular software solutions. In this review, I’ll primarily focus on the recurring billing management, including “dunning” management.
Features
Chargebee offers several key features for membership-based businesses, including:
Recurring Billing and Automatic Invoicing
With this feature, you can automate customer billing cycles, easily handle pro-rated memberships for subscribers who join partway through a cycle, and even offer discounts or trial memberships. The platform includes the ability to automatically calculate taxes as well.
While Chargebee is best for recurring billing, you can also manage one-time payments through the platform.
Subscription Management
Down the road, an existing customer may want to change their subscription to another level. With subscription management, you can upgrade or downgrade a customer’s subscription, cancel entirely, or offer a “pause” for customers who may want to temporarily stop services without cancelling completely.
Reporting and Analytics
Chargebee provides plenty of advanced reporting to help you keep tabs on your business.
Their report builder tool lets you set up reports with the specific information most important to you (or your managers) and subscribe people to the report. You can see key details about revenue, total subscriptions, transaction issues, cancellations, and more.
However, in consumer reviews, some complain about the lack of reporting. It’s unclear if Chargebee requires a higher cost plan to get access to all reporting features.
Dunning Management
A key aspect of successful recurring billing is managing declines. This process, called dunning management, can be done manually, but is easier and faster with a dedicated solution like Chargebee.
Chargebee offers a “smart retry” feature that sets up a schedule for automatically retrying payments at set intervals rather than just spamming the retries. Or, if you have already determined the most successful retry intervals for your business, you can set it in the retry system. You can also choose what happens with the customer’s account if the dunning process runs completely, with all retries, and still has not resulted in payment. If you’d like the customer’s account to automatically pause or cancel, you can set that to happen.
Payment Processing
Although Chargebee helps with recurring billing management, it isn’t the actual credit card processor that accepts payment information from your customers. You’ll need to work with a credit card processing company and use a payment gateway for that aspect. Chargebee is compatible with several popular gateways, including Authorize.Net, Stripe, and Paypal.
The costs for your payment processor and gateway account will vary depending on your specific business profile. Need help finding the right credit card processor or gateway? Check out CardFellow’s free credit card processor comparison marketplace. You’ll get real, fully-disclosed quotes from multiple processors in one convenient (private!) online dashboard. There’s no obligation and no sales pressure. Give it a try!
Chargebee Costs
As of autumn 2025, Chargebee pricing is published on its website, as follows:
Starter Plan
Geared toward early startups, the starter plan is free for the first $250,000 worth of billing. After that, Chargebee will run you 0.75% of each transaction.
Performance Plan
For up to $100,000 in billing per month, you’ll pay $7,188/year (billed monthly as $599 per month but requires annual commitment.)
If you exceed $100,000, you’ll pay an ‘overage’ rate of 0.75% on all transactions over the $100k.
Enterprise Plan
For businesses processing over $100,000/month, Chargebee provides a custom quote. Pricing is not published for this plan.
Note that these costs do not include any credit card processing transaction fees or gateway fees charged through your payment processor.
Pricing subject to change at Chargebee’s discretion.
Pros of Using Chargebee
The most convenient aspect of Chargebee is that it’s specifically designed for revenue management, including subscription billing. As a dedicated tool, it has the features membership-based companies need and want, and provides convenient options for managing declined transactions.
The company also offers plenty of documentation on its website, showing how to use various features. Some articles and blog posts include videos for those who prefer more visual training.
Cons of Using Chargebee
The primary con is that it’s another cost. Small businesses frequently have to make tough decisions on whether to spend money on dedicated tools or make do with less comprehensive options that still mostly get the job done.
However, it is nice to see that Chargebee understands that new businesses in particular may struggle to afford dedicated tools and offers a free plan for those just getting started.
Another possible con is data portability. While Chargebee’s website has plenty of details on porting data IN to its platform, information on whether you’re able to port data out is limited. Porting data out of the platform would allow you to switch companies in the future without having to manually re-enter all of your customers and their information. Some customers report in reviews that Chargebee does not allow data porting out of their system. I will attempt to confirm with Chargebee and update this article if I receive an answer.
Competitors
Chargebee is not without competition. In the recurring billing space, its two main challengers are Recurly and Maxio (formerly Chargify.) All three services offer robust subscription management and declined transaction features. The differences come in with compatible processors / gateways, and pricing structures. Check out the links above for more detail.
Chargebee Reviews
Chargebee’s rating on Trustpilot is mixed, coming in at 3.3 stars out of 5. The negative reviews claim that Chargebee onboarding and training for use is poor or non-existent and that the software itself is buggy. Several users complain of unhelpful reporting features, though it’s not clear what plans they are on. A few users report frequent “upsells” and that even on the paid plans, they don’t have access to as much reporting as expected. Chargebee does respond publicly to the customer reviews, typically offering to look into the situation further or saying they have reached out to the reviewer to assist.
The positive reviews say that Chargebee is a game-changer, with helpful and responsive customer service, and awesome features. Some praise reporting, and almost all mention that they had a great experience when they have questions or need assistance.
At the end of the day, Chargebee can be a good option for businesses with complex subscription billing or those that want more customizable options for handling memberships and declined transactions. It’s not strictly necessary to use a recurring billing platform, but if you choose to, be sure to compare a few options.
Have you used Chargebee? What was your experience? Leave a comment below!
