License & Deployment Mix: 17 tools – 4 OSS, 12 SaaS. (OSS and SaaS counts can overlap when an open-source tool also offers a vendor-hosted edition.)
What Is Subscription/Billing Management?
Subscription and billing management platforms automate the lifecycle of recurring revenue – from plan creation and customer signup through invoicing, payment collection, dunning (failed payment recovery), and revenue recognition. These systems serve as the financial engine for SaaS providers, MSPs, and any business that charges customers on a recurring or usage-based basis.
This directory evaluates billing and subscription management tools – both self-hosted and SaaS. For payment gateways and processing (Stripe payments, PayPal, etc.), see Payment Processing. For general accounting and ERP systems, see ERP & Accounting. For PSA platforms with integrated billing, see PSA / MSP Platforms. For quote-to-cash workflow and CPQ, see quoting/.
Core Capabilities
A billing/subscription management platform typically provides:
- Subscription lifecycle management – create, upgrade, downgrade, pause, resume, and cancel subscriptions with automated proration
- Recurring billing – automated invoice generation and payment collection on configurable billing cycles (monthly, quarterly, annual)
- Usage-based metering – track consumption (API calls, storage, seats, etc.) and bill based on actual usage with configurable rating models
- Invoicing – generate, send, and manage professional invoices with line items, taxes, discounts, and credits
- Dunning management – automated retry logic, escalation emails, and grace periods for failed payments to reduce involuntary churn
- Revenue recognition – ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliant revenue scheduling and deferred revenue tracking
- Tax calculation – sales tax, VAT, GST computation (often via third-party integrations like Avalara or TaxJar)
- Payment method support – credit/debit cards, ACH/SEPA bank transfers, wire, PayPal, and other payment methods via gateway integrations
- Multi-currency – price plans and collect payments in multiple currencies with automatic conversion
- Self-service portal – customer-facing portal for plan management, payment method updates, invoice history, and usage dashboards
The information on these pages was researched by a combination of human review and large language models. To suggest an addition or correction, please contact us. Prepared by Rhodium Systems Inc., author of the ResorsIT platform — a unified IT operations management platform for IT teams and MSPs that integrates a curated suite of open-source, commercial, and SaaS applications into a single system with shared identity, single sign-on, access control, and a common audit trail. Use this catalogue only as a starting point for your own research, and review any tool carefully against your own requirements before relying on it. Catalogue data version 2026.197.
Comparison
Deployment Model
| Tool | Type | Self-Hosted | SaaS | Docker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | OSS | Yes | No | Yes |
| Lago | OSS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lotus | OSS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WHMCS | Proprietary | Yes | No | No |
| FOSSBilling | OSS | Yes | No | Yes |
| Stripe Billing | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Chargebee | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Recurly | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Maxio | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Paddle | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Zuora | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Zoho Subscriptions | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| FastSpring | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Ordway | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
| Tridens | SaaS | No | Yes | N/A |
Core Billing Features
| Tool | Subs | Usage | Invoice | Dunning | Prorate | Multi-$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | Yes | Yes (plugin) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lago | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lotus | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| WHMCS | Yes | Yes (modules) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FOSSBilling | Yes | No | Yes | Basic | Yes | Yes |
| Stripe Billing | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (135+) |
| Chargebee | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (100+) |
| Recurly | Yes | Yes (add-on) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (140+) |
| Maxio | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paddle | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (30+) |
| Zuora | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (180+) |
| Zoho Subscriptions | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (20+) |
| FastSpring | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (20+) |
| Ordway | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tridens | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Best usage metering: Lago, Stripe Billing, Zuora, Tridens (purpose-built metering engines)
Best multi-currency: Zuora (180+), Recurly (140+), Stripe Billing (135+)
Revenue Recognition
| Tool | ASC 606 | IFRS 15 | Deferred Revenue | Rev Schedules | Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | Plugin | Plugin | Via plugin | Via plugin | Basic |
| Lago | No | No | No | No | Basic |
| Lotus | No | No | No | No | Basic |
| WHMCS | No | No | No | No | Basic |
| FOSSBilling | No | No | No | No | Basic |
| Stripe Billing | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* |
| Chargebee | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Recurly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maxio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paddle | Partial | Partial | Partial | No | Basic |
| Zuora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zoho Subscriptions | No | No | No | No | Basic |
| FastSpring | Partial | Partial | Partial | No | Basic |
| Ordway | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tridens | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
* = Stripe Revenue Recognition is a separate add-on product (Stripe Revenue Recognition)
Best revenue recognition: Maxio (purpose-built for B2B SaaS rev rec), Zuora, Chargebee, Ordway
Payment Method Support
| Tool | Cards | ACH/SEPA | PayPal | Wire | Crypto | Gateways |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | 20+ plugins |
| Lago | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | Stripe, GoCardless, Adyen |
| Lotus | Yes | Yes | No | Manual | No | Stripe |
| WHMCS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | Yes | 50+ modules |
| FOSSBilling | Yes | No | Yes | Manual | Yes | 10+ modules |
| Stripe Billing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | Stripe native |
| Chargebee | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | Stripe, Braintree, Adyen, GoCardless |
| Recurly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | 20+ gateways |
| Maxio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | Stripe, Braintree, GoCardless |
| Paddle | Yes | Yes | Yes | Wire | No | Paddle native |
| Zuora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Wire | No | 30+ gateways |
| Zoho Subscriptions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless |
| FastSpring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Wire | No | FastSpring native |
| Ordway | Yes | Yes | No | Manual | No | Stripe, Braintree |
| Tridens | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual | No | Multiple gateways |
Best gateway coverage: Kill Bill (20+ plugin gateways), WHMCS (50+ modules), Zuora (30+), Recurly (20+)
Tax Handling
| Tool | Built-in Tax | Avalara | TaxJar | Vertex | MoR Tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | No | Plugin | No | No | No |
| Lago | No | No | No | No | No |
| Lotus | No | No | No | No | No |
| WHMCS | Basic | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| FOSSBilling | Basic | No | No | No | No |
| Stripe Billing | Stripe Tax | Yes | No | No | No |
| Chargebee | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Recurly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Maxio | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Paddle | Full (MoR) | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Zuora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Zoho Subscriptions | Basic | No | No | No | No |
| FastSpring | Full (MoR) | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Ordway | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Tridens | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
MoR = Merchant of Record (platform handles tax remittance on seller’s behalf)
Best tax handling: Paddle and FastSpring (MoR – they handle all tax compliance); Zuora and Recurly (broadest tax engine integrations)
SSO / OIDC (Authentik)
| Tool | Admin OIDC | Admin SAML | Admin LDAP | Customer SSO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | No | No | No | No |
| Lago | No | No | No | No |
| Lotus | No | No | No | No |
| WHMCS | No | No | No | OAuth2 |
| FOSSBilling | No | No | No | No |
| Stripe Billing | No | Yes | No | SSO (Enterprise) |
| Chargebee | No | Yes | No | SAML |
| Recurly | No | Yes | No | SAML |
| Maxio | No | Yes | No | SAML |
| Paddle | No | No | No | No |
| Zuora | Yes | Yes | Yes | SAML/OIDC |
| Zoho Subscriptions | No | Yes | No | SAML |
| FastSpring | No | No | No | No |
| Ordway | No | Yes | No | SAML |
| Tridens | No | Yes | No | SAML |
Best Authentik integration: Zuora (native OIDC/SAML for admin and customer portals); Chargebee, Recurly, Maxio (SAML admin SSO)
OSS gap: None of the open-source billing platforms support OIDC/SAML natively; proxy-based auth (Traefik + Authentik forward-auth) is the recommended workaround
API Capabilities
| Tool | REST API | GraphQL | Webhooks | SDKs | Rate Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | Yes | No | Yes | Java, Ruby, Python, PHP | Self-hosted |
| Lago | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ruby, Python, Node, Go | Self-hosted |
| Lotus | Yes | No | Yes | Python | Self-hosted |
| WHMCS | Yes | No | Yes | PHP | Self-hosted |
| FOSSBilling | Yes | No | No | PHP | Self-hosted |
| Stripe Billing | Yes | No | Yes | 10+ languages | Tiered |
| Chargebee | Yes | No | Yes | 10+ languages | Tiered |
| Recurly | Yes | No | Yes | 8+ languages | Tiered |
| Maxio | Yes | No | Yes | Ruby, Python | Tiered |
| Paddle | Yes | No | Yes | Node, Python, PHP, Go | Tiered |
| Zuora | Yes | No | Yes | Java, .NET, Python | Tiered |
| Zoho Subscriptions | Yes | No | Yes | 6+ languages | Tiered |
| FastSpring | Yes | No | Yes | Limited | Tiered |
| Ordway | Yes | No | Yes | Limited | Tiered |
| Tridens | Yes | No | Yes | Limited | Tiered |
Best API: Stripe Billing (most comprehensive, best documentation), Lago (REST + GraphQL, OSS), Kill Bill (extensive REST, plugin system)
Monitoring Integration
| Tool | Prometheus | Health EP | Logs | Metrics API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | No | Yes | Log4j | Yes |
| Lago | No | Docker HC | Stdout | Yes |
| Lotus | No | Docker HC | Stdout | Yes |
| WHMCS | No | No | Files | No |
| FOSSBilling | No | No | Files | No |
| Stripe Billing | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Chargebee | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Recurly | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Maxio | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Paddle | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Zuora | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Zoho Subscriptions | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| FastSpring | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Ordway | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
| Tridens | No | Dashboard | API | Yes |
Best monitoring integration: Kill Bill (JMX metrics via Jolokia + Telegraf, Log4j to Fluent Bit), Lago (Docker health checks, stdout logs, REST API metrics)
Pricing
Self-Hosted
| Tool | License | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Kill Bill | Apache 2.0 | Free (open source) |
| Lago | AGPL-3.0 | Free (OSS) / Premium from $1k/mo |
| Lotus | MIT | Free (open source) |
| WHMCS | Proprietary | From $16.95/month |
| FOSSBilling | Apache 2.0 | Free (open source) |
SaaS
| Tool | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Stripe Billing | 0.5-0.8% of billing volume |
| Chargebee | Free tier; from $249/month |
| Recurly | From $249/month |
| Maxio | Quote-based |
| Paddle | 5% + $0.50 per transaction (MoR) |
| Zuora | Quote-based (enterprise) |
| Zoho Subscriptions | Free tier; from $49/month |
| FastSpring | 5.9% + $0.95 per transaction (MoR) |
| Ordway | Quote-based |
| Tridens | Quote-based |
Tools
17 tools.
BillingPlatform
BillingPlatform is an enterprise revenue lifecycle management platform that handles the complete order-to-revenue process.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Chargebee
Chargebee is a gateway-agnostic subscription management platform for B2B SaaS, handling recurring billing, invoicing, dunning, revenue recognition, and self- service customer portals across 100+ currencies.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
FastSpring
FastSpring is a merchant-of-record platform for software and digital products, handling global payment processing, tax collection, subscription billing, and hosted checkout on behalf of vendors since 2005.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
FOSSBilling
FOSSBilling is an open-source billing and client management platform forked from the abandoned BoxBilling project. It targets web hosting providers and service providers who need a free, self-hosted alternative to WHMCS.
License: Apache-2.0 (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native · SSO: none
Kill Bill
Kill Bill is a mature open-source subscription billing and payments platform with a plugin architecture supporting many payment gateways, complex pricing models, invoicing, and dunning.
License: Apache-2.0 (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native, docker · SSO: none
Lago
Lago is a modern open-source billing platform purpose-built for usage-based and hybrid billing models.
License: AGPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native, docker · SSO: none
Lotus (Uselotus)
Lotus is an open-source usage-based billing platform designed for companies that need to meter and bill based on product usage rather than fixed subscriptions.
License: MIT (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native, docker · SSO: none
Maxio
Maxio is a B2B SaaS financial operations platform formed by the merger of Chargify (subscription billing) and SaaSOptics (revenue recognition and SaaS analytics).
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Oracle Subscription Management
Oracle Subscription Management is the subscription billing and revenue management module within Oracle Cloud ERP (Oracle Financials Cloud).
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: OIDC
Ordway
Ordway is a billing and revenue automation platform designed for B2B companies that have outgrown spreadsheet-based billing but do not need the complexity of enterprise platforms like Zuora.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Paddle
Paddle is a merchant-of-record billing platform for SaaS and digital products, handling payment processing, global tax collection and remittance, subscriptions, invoicing, and hosted checkout.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Recurly
Recurly is a subscription billing platform focused on maximizing subscriber retention and revenue recovery.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Stripe Billing
Stripe Billing is a SaaS subscription and usage-based billing platform built on Stripe’s payment infrastructure, handling invoicing, dunning, proration, and multi- currency billing via an API-first model.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Tridens Monetization
Tridens Monetization is a billing and revenue management platform with roots in the telecommunications industry.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
WHMCS
WHMCS (Web Host Manager Complete Solution) is the industry-standard billing and automation platform for web hosting providers and managed service providers (MSPs).
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: native · SSO: none
Zoho Subscriptions
Zoho Subscriptions (rebranded as Zoho Billing) is the subscription management component of the Zoho business suite.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
Zuora
Zuora is the enterprise-grade subscription management platform, purpose-built for large-scale recurring revenue businesses.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
