Top 6 Zuora alternatives & competitors in 2024

Let's be honest — Zuora isn’t the perfect solution for every business. 

While it's a well-established subscription billing platform, better alternatives are available and better address the unique challenges of modern SaaS billing.

In this article, we'll explore the top Zuora alternatives, giving you a complete overview of the best billing management software options available. 

Our goal is to help you find the solution that fits your specific business requirements.

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Top Zuora alternatives: At a glance

Here is a brief summary of the Zuora competitors we’ll be analyzing: 

• Orb: Top pick for its ease of use, usage-based billing capabilities, and in-depth invoicing features.
• Chargebee: A user-friendly subscription management platform known for its ease of use and transparent pricing.
• Recurly: Developer-first subscription billing platform to handle intricate subscription scenarios.
• Maxio: Offers a vast feature set designed for rapidly scaling businesses with high-complexity billing needs.
• FastSpring: Digital commerce payment platform for SaaS focused on simplifying tax and compliance
• Zoho Billing: Cost-effective subscription management solution for businesses already within the Zoho ecosystem.

Why consider alternatives to Zuora?

While Zuora boasts a range of features, here's why B2B companies might explore other options:

Pricing

Zuora's pricing structure can be complex and unpredictable. It may not be cost-effective for smaller businesses or those with tight budgets.

Solution: Consider Chargebee, which has more transparent pricing models that scale with your growth.

Complexity and scalability

Zuora faces challenges handling complex, intricate subscription models or extremely rapid growth.

Solution: For complex scenarios and scaling needs, explore Maxio, Orb, or FastSpring (if global tax compliance is a priority). These alternatives are known for handling convoluted billing situations.

Ease of use

User feedback suggests Zuora's interface is less intuitive, especially for non-technical users. This could lead to a steeper learning curve.

Solution: Choose a competitor with a better UX. Orb and Chargebee often receive praise for their user-friendly interfaces, even for non-technical users, making them appealing options.

Integration gaps

Zuora doesn’t offer native integrations for all the tools your business relies on.

Solution: Alternatives like FastSpring (with its focus on seamless integrations), or Orb (with data warehouse,CRM, and accounting software integrations) could be a better fit.

Feature limitations

If your business requires very specialized billing features (e.g., advanced revenue recognition, niche payment gateways), Zuora isn’t the best fit.

Solution: Look at better-featured competitors. Recurly (developer-friendly) or Maxio (B2B focus) might provide the necessary advanced capabilities.

Best Zuora alternatives

#1 Orb — The top alternative to Zuora

What is it?

Orb simplifies billing for B2B businesses of any scale, excelling in usage-based models.

Orb’s greatest strength lies in supporting diverse SaaS pricing models, including complex hybrid structures that blend usage-based and subscription-based fees.

The platform also automates detailed invoicing tasks, provides insightful reporting, and easily integrates with tools like Snowflake, Netsuite, and QuickBooks. When you need to peek under the hood, Orb even includes a direct SQL editor.

How does it beat Zuora?

• Improved invoicing and data handling: Orb is superior when it comes to processing large amounts of usage data. Its invoicing provides a remarkable level of detail, with usage graphs, timelines, and individual pricing insights — a big improvement over Zuora's invoicing capabilities.
• Simplified pricing updates: Orb's plan versioning streamlines the process of making pricing adjustments. This eliminates the need for complex migrations, offering a smoother workflow compared to Zuora.
• Intuitive design: Orb prioritizes a user-friendly experience, making billing management precise even for those without extensive technical expertise. This offers a huge advantage over Zuora's clunkier interface.

#2 Chargebee — The setup-friendly alternative to Zuora

What is it?

Chargebee is a recurring billing and subscription management platform designed to simplify the complexities of subscription-based businesses. It offers a user-friendly interface, flexible billing models, and integration with various payment gateways. 

Chargebee's focus on ease of use and customization makes it a popular choice for businesses of varying sizes.

How does it beat Zuora?

• Setup and configuration: Chargebee is known for its intuitive interface and well-structured onboarding process. This can significantly reduce the time and technical expertise needed to get your subscription billing up and running compared to Zuora's often complicated configuration process.

• Pricing predictability: Chargebee's transparent pricing model with tiered plans provides more cost certainty. This eliminates the potential for unexpected expenses that can occur with Zuora's less predictable pricing structure, which is not publicly disclosed.

• Responsive support: Chargebee offers timely and helpful customer support, ensuring that you get assistance when you need it. This contrasts with Zuora, where multiple users report support issues that lead to delays and frustration.

#3 Recurly — The developer-focused alternative to Zuora

What is it?

Recurly is a subscription billing platform built to simplify recurring payments for businesses. It's particularly good at handling different billing situations, such as changing prices, offering discounts, and managing various subscription types.

Recurly helps keep customers subscribed by offering tools for managing prorated charges, sending payment reminders, and offering a variety of payment methods.

With support for many payment options, built-in fraud protection, and the ability to handle multiple currencies, Recurly is a good choice for businesses looking to grow internationally.

How does it beat Zuora?

• Focus on recurring billing: Recurly specializes in subscription and recurring billing management. This translates to features specifically designed to handle the unique requirements of recurring payments, potentially offering a more refined experience than Zuora's broader approach to billing.

• Dunning management: Recurly includes robust dunning management features (automatic retries, customizable communication, etc.). This helps reduce involuntary churn and recover failed payments more effectively, providing an edge over Zuora in revenue retention.

• Developer-centric approach: Recurly's developer-friendly design offers more customization options. This makes it easier to tailor the platform to your exact business needs, providing an advantage if flexibility is key.

#4 Maxio  — The highly adaptable alternative to Zuora

What is it?

Maxio is a specialized billing and financial platform built for B2B SaaS businesses. It emphasizes adaptable pricing models and effective subscription management. It also focuses on simplifying the order-to-cash process and minimizing customer churn.

Designed for GAAP compliance and supporting growth, it automates billing tasks and offers in-depth financial reporting. 

Additionally, Maxio includes features for managing the customer journey and optimizing revenue streams. It provides insightful dashboards and real-time analytics to empower data-driven decision-making.

How does it beat Zuora?

• Built for scalability: Designed to accommodate high growth, Maxio effectively manages large subscriber volumes and complex billing processes. This makes it a strong fit for rapidly expanding businesses where Zuora has too many limitations.

• Tailored workflow options: Maxio offers greater customization possibilities than Zuora. This allows businesses to adapt the platform precisely to their unique needs and workflows.
• Stronger billing capabilities: Maxio excels in handling complex billing scenarios, offering features like revenue recognition and multi-currency support. This could provide an edge over Zuora, particularly for businesses with intricate billing requirements.

#5 FastSpring  — The digital commerce end-to-end alternative to Zuora

What is it?

FastSpring is a complete payment platform specializing in helping software companies expand globally. It combines subscription management with a full suite of back-office functions, including sales tax calculation and remittance (across multiple jurisdictions), fraud management, and compliance with local transaction laws.

With a focus on a frictionless customer experience, FastSpring offers localized checkout, multiple payment gateways, and automatic dunning management to boost conversions and reduce involuntary churn. 

Moreover, it provides detailed analytics to give businesses insights into customer behavior and revenue trends.

How does it beat Zuora?

• Simplifying sales tax and compliance: FastSpring stands out by taking on the complexities of sales tax, VAT, GST, and other transaction liabilities. This eliminates a major burden for businesses, especially those targeting international markets where regulations are convoluted and constantly evolving.

• Seamless global expansion: With built-in support for multiple payment gateways, localized checkout experiences, and sophisticated fraud detection, FastSpring provides a smoother path to global growth compared to the complexities of setting this up independently with Zuora.

• Focus on churn reduction: FastSpring’s focus is on intuitive customer portals, proactive dunning features, and various payment options to enhance customer experience. This can lead to improved retention and reduced churn, an aspect less highlighted by Zuora.

#6 Zoho Billing — A cost-effective alternative to Zuora

What is it?

Zoho Billing is a versatile billing solution aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Evolving from Zoho Subscriptions, it now offers comprehensive features beyond subscriptions, including invoicing, expense management, and project-based billing.

Known for its adaptability, Zoho Billing accommodates diverse pricing models and streamlines the invoicing and expense tracking processes. Businesses can experiment with different pricing strategies and easily manage discounts and promotions, aiming to boost overall revenue.

Zoho Billing supports various payment options and provides tools for managing the customer journey, from initial trials through to potential cancellations. It offers valuable business insights to support informed decision-making.

How does it beat Zuora?

• Integration with the Zoho ecosystem: If your business already uses other Zoho products (CRM, accounting, etc.), Zoho Billing offers a direct integration. This can speed up workflows and reduce the need to manage data across multiple platforms.

• Pricing model flexibility: Zoho Billing may be better suited for businesses that need to experiment with various pricing models (one-time, usage-based, tiered, etc.). It allows for quick adjustments and testing, giving you an edge in finding the optimal pricing strategy.

• Ease of expense tracking: Zoho Billing includes expense tracking capabilities, which is a valuable addition for smaller businesses. This might eliminate the need for a separate expense management tool, simplifying your overall operations.

How to choose the right Zuora alternative

Finding the best platform to replace Zuora requires careful analysis of your business requirements. Consider these crucial factors:

• Intuitiveness and expertise: Factor in the user interface's friendliness and your team's available technical skills when evaluating potential platforms.

• Growth potential: Choose a solution designed to evolve alongside your business's expansion.

• Integration options: Explore how the platform interacts with your existing tools (CRM, accounting software, etc.) to guarantee smooth workflows.

• Support availability and quality: Reliable customer support is vital for quick troubleshooting and maximizing platform benefits. Research the type and quality of support offered.
• Complexity and scale: Assess whether you're a smaller business with simpler subscription models or a large-scale enterprise with highly intricate billing needs.

• Must-have features: Pinpoint the non-negotiable features for your business. These could include automated invoicing, proactive dunning features, in-depth analytics, or others.

• Budget: Align your financial resources with the platforms' pricing structures. Options range from transparent tiers to more complex customized pricing.

Ready to solve billing?

With a deeper understanding of Zuora alternatives, you're well-equipped to select a billing platform that aligns perfectly with your business goals.

For a fully done-for-you usage-based billing solution, consider using Orb.

Explore Orb's powerful features or test-drive our platform within the free SaaS sandbox. Discover the convenience Orb brings, taking the burden of complex billing off your shoulders.