Best Recurring Billing Software for 2022 — Free and Paid

In a hunt for the best recurring billing software for your business? In this post, we have listed the top invoicing software businesses of all scales can use.

Looking for the best recurring billing software out there?

Your pursuit ends here.

Businesses like yours use recurring billing software to send out recurring invoices to their customers automatically on a regular schedule, such as monthly or annually.

Here, a recurring invoice is one that is sent out on a regular basis to either a customer for the same purchase or to a customer on a certain date.

We’ve listed the best recurring billing software for freelancers, small to mid-scale businesses and large enterprises in this listicle.

Best Recurring Billing Software for Freelancers and Businesses of Every Scale

Following are the best recurring billing software for freelancers, small to mid-scale businesses, and enterprises.

1. Wave

Image via Wave

Wave is among the best recurring billing software. This subscription billing platform offers all the billing automation features for free.

The recurring billing software includes invoicing, accounting, and receipt scanning. You might wonder, if this is the case, how does the platform make money?

Wave makes money by charging a 2.9% plus $0.30 fee for processing most credit cards and a 1% fee for bank payments to use its subscription management solution. This service allows businesses to invoice clients via the internet efficiently.

Wave’s recurring billing software allows you to switch between automatic and manual billing and send customized recurring invoices at any frequency.

You can choose your preferred payment method and automatically send invoices to multiple recipients.

While Wave may not be suitable for large-revenue enterprises, it’s the best recurring billing software for start-ups and freelancers.

Highlighted Features

• Supports invoice creation and sharing
• Recurring bills sync with accounting platform
• Centralized dashboard
• Payment and communication tracking
• Instant notifications
• Accepts online payments via credit card, secure bank payment (ACH/EFT), or Apple Pay.
• Personalized invoices
• Global payments support
• Wide variety of invoice templates

Pros

• Free software access (no trials, subscriptions, or hidden fees)
• Can process credit card payments to smoothen invoicing process
• Offers an accounting management suite for free
• Helps manage subscriptions

Cons

• Credit cards and bank payment transactions carry a 1% charge

Tool Level

• Beginner to intermediate

Usability

• Easy to use

Pricing

• Free for lifetime

Pro Tip: Using Wave mobile app, you can share invoices with your clients through several mediums, including your preferred SMS messaging and email services.

2. Bill.com

Image via Bill.com

With Bill.com, small businesses and freelancers can manage accounts payables by sending domestic and international payments to suppliers apart from storing statements, checks, and receipts.

Being one of the best recurring billing software, Bill.com does more than simply send invoices. Businesses can utilize this recurring billing software to send automated bills and remind customers of payments.

As a result, they’ll receive payments more quickly and easily.

Additionally, Bill.com facilitates contact management and direct payments via ACH, credit card, or PayPal among other modes, making it one of the best recurring software for freelancers and small businesses.

Your small business accounting software can be synced with Bill.com invoicing software, making the process of balancing your bank accounts easier. You can also utilize the chart of accounts to personalize your invoices.

Considering the advanced functionalities, Bill.com is one of the best recurring billing software for small businesses that want to automate their accounts receivable and payable processes.

Highlighted Features

• Powered by machine learning
• Recurring invoices
• Customizable templates
• Accounts receivable and payable support
• Auto-charge and auto-pay
• Automated payment reminders
• Invoice status tracking
• Automatic sync and reconciliation
• Two-way data integration with accounting platform

Pros

• Diverse pricing plans for every small business need
• Gathers invoices from email
• Converts physical invoices into digital formats
• Makes team collaboration easy

Cons

• Non-customizable reports
• Not able to link to underlying data
• Doesn’t offer a free trial

Tool Level

• Intermediate to Advanced

Usability

• Can be complex for beginners

Pricing Plans

• Essentials: $45 / month
• Team: $55 / month

Pro Tip: If your clients have any technical issues with ACH payments or Bill.com service, you can simply direct them to Bill.com customer support.

3. Zoho Invoice

Image via Zoho Invoice

Zoho Subscriptions is the best recurring billing software for freelancers and small businesses because it provides a cost-free alternative that is ideal for those seeking a simple and economical solution.

Zoho gives you a wide variety of options for billing, starting with customized billing periods, prorated billing, and automated billing.

You may also use Zoho Invoice’s subscription management services to develop items, plans, and add-ons and maintain your customers’ subscriptions from start to finish.

Zoho Subscriptions supports multiple currencies, global payment methods, and ACH payments, which makes it the best recurring billing software for freelancers and businesses who work with international clients.

The subscription billing software also offers a variety of integrations and add-ons that allow you to manage every aspect of your subscription business.

Zoho apps, cloud integrators, G Suite, payment gateways, and CMS are just a few of the integrations and add-ons options this recurring invoice software offers.

Highlighted Features

• Recurring billing support
• Subscription management and billing
• Developer APIs for integration
• Dunning management
• Usage-based metered billing
• Hosted payment pages
• Customizable invoices
• Supports multiple currencies
• Sales tax compliance

Pros

• Forever free plan that supports up to 20 subscriptions
• Allows users to organize and group subscriptions
• Easy to manage customer database
• Zoho Subscription can seamlessly integrate with other Zoho products

Cons

• Works flawlessly only with Zoho ecosystem
• No notifications for failed payments
• Sometimes buggy

Tool Level

• Beginner to Intermediate

Usability

• Easy to use

Pricing

• Free Forever
• Basic: $49 / month
• Standard: $99 / month
• Professional: $249 / month
• Enterprise: Custom Pricing

Pro Tip: This recurring billing software seamlessly integrates with Zoho ecosystem, making it one of the best software for mid-scale businesses and enterprises.

4. Invoicera

Image via Invoicera

Invoicera’s strongest function is invoice automation. Its slogan, ‘invoicing simplified,’ is evident in its capacity to automate invoicing, subscriptions, and payments.

The all-in-one subscription billing software enables you to customize templates and accept online payments directly from the invoices. You can also activate invoice approval workflow and invoice PDF protection.

In addition to allowing you to manage multiple invoices simultaneously, Invoicera automates several business processes and communications through project management, expense management, staff management, time tracking, and more.

However, you must integrate Invoicera with a bookkeeping system if you wish to get financial statements since it is a standalone recurring billing software.

Hence, Invoicera is the best recurring billing software for freelancers, service providers, and small businesses who are looking for simple recurring billing software without advanced bookkeeping functionalities.

Highlighted Features

• Time tracking
• Expense management
• Automatic billing
• Multi-business support
• Integrates with existing IT setup
• Can be hosted in-house
• Custom workflow management
• Custom invoice templates
• Layers security
• Facilitates payments
• Various invoice reports
• Real-time invoice status
• Automated invoice scheduling
• Multi-currency support for international invoicing

Pros

• Whitelabled for your business
• Invoice approval process to create accurate invoices
• Offers a forever free plan
• On the go invoicing
• Doesn’t overwhelm users with unnecessary features

Cons

• Can’t replace an accounting solution
• Not suitable for businesses with 1,000+ customers
• Free plan only supports up to 3 customers

Tool Level

• Beginner to Intermediate

Usability

• Invoicera is solely focused on recurring billing, making it the easiest subscription management software in our list

Pricing

• Starter: Free Forever
• Pro: $15 / month
• Business: $29 / month
• Infinite: $149 / month

Pro Tip: Set an automatic reminder to remind clients of payments at first every week and then every day. This can save time if you don’t have the bandwidth to make repeated calls.

5. Sunrise by Lendio

Image via Lendio

If you’re a freelancer or small business and don’t need to track hours, the free cloud-based accounting app, Sunrise by Lendio, is one of the best recurring billing software for your subscription billing needs.

You can create custom invoices, add discount rates, and process refunds with Sunrise. The software also allows you to send out invoices and charge clients’ credit cards automatically using the recurring billing function.

There is a paid version of the software which offers basic-level financial statements, but the free version should be sufficient for most freelancers.

However, both the free and paid plans charge a processing fee for every transaction. For the free plan, the transaction fee is 3.55% + $0.30 per credit card transaction and 1.5% + $0.30 per ACH transaction.

Whereas for the paid plan, the transaction fee is 2.55% + $0.30 per CC transaction and 0.5% + $0.30 per ACH transaction.

Highlighted Features

• Automatic email reminders
• Customizable discounts
• Automatic status updates
• Easy-to-understand invoice formatting
• Invoice previews
• Customizable payment terms
• Payment reminders
• Invoice cloning and templates
• Estimate to invoice conversion
• Invoice and bookkeeping integration
• Mobile app

Pros

• Supports four types of sales forms including recurring invoices, quotes, standard invoices, and estimates
• Bookkeeping service available for additional fee
• Offers a forever-free version

Cons

• Doesn’t support bank reconciliation
• No time tracking functionality

Tool Level

• Beginner to Intermediate

Usability

• Easy to use, making it one of the best recurring billing software for beginners

Pricing

• Free Plan
• Plus: $19.99 / month

Pro Tip: Using WePay with Sunrise allows your customers to sign up for automatic payments.

6. QuickBooks Payments

Image via QuickBooks

QuickBooks is accounting platform that includes QuickBooks Payments in its suite.

Using QuickBooks Payments, QuickBooks users can accept credit and debit card payments, ACH transfers, in person and mobile payments.

In addition to processing recurring payments, the platform offers billing, next-day deposits, and analytics reporting, making it the best recurring billing software for businesses looking for accounting software as well.

Unlike most other recurring billing software in this article, QuickBooks can add correct sales tax information to bills based on the location of the purchase.

This is particularly helpful if you operate in multiple jurisdictions, such as cities or states, where certain goods are taxed.

Also, users can use QuickBooks to keep track of the sales tax they’ve collected, making it easier to prepare their sales tax returns.

Because the recurring billing system allows you to invoice as many clients as needed, you may send recurring invoices as often as you like.

Highlighted Features

• Recurring billing support
• Mobile app with receipt capture support
• Sales tax center
• Progress invoicing
• Next-day deposits via credit cards
• Supports ACH and eChecks
• Contactless and in-person payment support
• Bookkeeping automation
• Invoice tracking
• Cash in-flow forecasting
• Integration with BigCommerce, Shopify, and other web stores
• Real-time alerts
• Bank reconciliation

Pros

• Offers an accounting management suite
• Recurring billing feature is available with starting plans
• Supports an unlimited number of clients and invoices
• Class and location tracking available with advanced plans

Cons

• Transaction fee is costlier than other recurring billing software
• Doesn’t support international currencies
• Only suitable for QuickBooks users

Tool Level

• Intermediate to Advanced

Usability

• Someone who previously has used an accounting and recurring billing software will find it easy to use.

Pricing (Billed Monthly)

• Simple Start: $15 / month
• Essentials: $27.50 / month
• Plus: $42.50 / month
• Advanced: $100 / month

Pro Tip: If you have a fixed amount to be billed at a specific period, you can simply set the “Automate Transaction Entry” feature and it’ll reflect in your books.

7. FreshBooks

Image via FreshBooks

FreshBooks is an easy-to-use accounting and bookkeeping software known for its recurring bill generation capabilities that make accounting simple and effortless.

Setting up and sending invoices is simple with FreshBooks. This is why it is one of the best recurring billing software for small businesses.

With this software, you can create recurring invoices, schedule automatic payment reminders, and accept credit or debit card payments online for your invoices.

FreshBooks automatically records billable hours and expenses, which makes adding them to invoices a breeze.

We named it among the best recurring billing software because it combines professional-looking invoices with a full bookkeeping system.

With its user-friendly interface, creating a recurring invoice is simple, while the additional sales forms allow you to customize your interactions with clients.

FreshBooks is the best option for freelancers and independent contractors who desire an efficient solution to automate billing for their clients.

Highlighted Features

• Automatically records billable hours and expenses
• Outstanding invoice tracking
• Accepts credit cards and ACH
• Recurring invoice reminder
• Allows users to add tracked time and expenses
• Cash in-flow forecasting
• Enables offering discounts
• Automatic tax calculation
• Multiple currency support
• Real-time alerts
• Mobile app support

Pros

• Customizable invoicing payment terms
• Offers an accounting management suite
• All plans include unlimited invoices
• Less expensive than other recurring billing software

Cons

• Recurring billing feature isn’t available with starting plans
• Lite plan only supports five billable clients
• No free trial

Tool Level

• Beginner to Intermediate

Usability

• One of the best recurring building software for freelancers and small businesses due to its low pricing and ease of use

Pricing (Billed Monthly)

• Lite: $4.50 / month
• Plus: $7.50 / month
• Premium: $15 / month
• Custom Pricing: on demand

Pro Tip: You can schedule one-time invoices in advance by setting the “How Many” field to “1.”

8. Chargify

Image via Chargify

For businesses that require recurring billing functionality, Chargify is one of the best recurring billing software. In fact, Chargify is a renowned billing and subscription management platform for B2B SaaS businesses.

Chargify was developed by the team that created Grasshopper.com and EngineYard.com, both of which serve small businesses and entrepreneurs operating on subscription-based billing setups.

The Chargify platform addresses the complete subscription lifestyle, from subscription management to revenue retention, business analytics, and revenue operations.

The subscription billing platform offers a free trial that can help businesses try out its functionalities and see if it suits their purpose.

Also, the price that you have to pay for Chargify is comparatively high, and we don’t recommend recurring billing software for freelancers.

However, it’s among the best recurring billing software for small-large scale businesses that deals with a subscription-based business model.

Highlighted Features

• Quantity-based billing
• Metered billing
• Offer management
• Recurring billing
• Revenue retention
• Subscription analytics and insights
• Subscription relationship management
• CRM and ERP integrations
• Multi-site functionality
• Sales tax integration
• Analytics
• Integration with QuickBooks and Xero
• Customized email templates

Pros

• Offers several bill pricing methods
• Easy-to-use dunning system
• User-friendly interface
• Helpful customer service
• Reporting is wonderful; you can easily see your churn, paid subscribers, etc.

Cons

• Limited customizability
• DKIM/SPF support is weak
• Limited integrations

Tool Level

• Intermediate to Advanced

Usability

• Learning curve is steep

Pricing

• Essential: $599 / month
• Growth: On-demand
• Scale: On-demand

Pro Tip: Keen, the event streaming platform can now be integrated with Chargify to provide instant access to all your Keen data directly within the Chargify platform.

9. Younium

Image via Younium

Younium is among the best recurring billing software that helps companies manage their complete subscription lifecycle, including milestone capabilities, chargeback tracking, credit notes, segmented journals, and more.

What makes it unique is that it’s specifically tailored for B2B firms, providing CRM, service desk, and financial systems integration all in one hub. Its tools and features boost productivity as all subscriptions and bills are managed from one place.

This recurring billing software provides a simple, clean user interface that is best for businesses transitioning to a SaaS subscription model from traditional software.

Younium enables businesses to produce journals with segmentation and obtain transaction information, including customer name, charge type, and product class, among other things.

Additionally, Younium supports subscription metrics which can be discovered via journal summary reports, financial account analyses, and custom report builders.

Lastly, it integrates with Zapier, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, and other third-party programs.

Highlighted Features

• Recurring billing with multi-period support
• Third-party integrations
• Data import and export
• Multi-currency billing support
• Deferred billing
• Subscription billing
• Billing automation
• Bank and credit card reconciliation
• Advanced reporting insights

Pros

• Designed specifically for B2B subscription management
• Easy to use
• Quality support service
• Provides a holistic finance solution instead of just billing management

Cons

• Difficult to implement in an existing business setup
• Pricing isn’t transparent

Tool Level

• Beginner to Advance

Usability

• Easy to use, which makes it one of the best recurring billing software for beginners

Price

• Available on demand

Pro Tip: Younium helps you manage complete customer lifecycle via subscription management, billing, financials, and insights.

10. Recurly

Image via Recurly

Recurly is a subscription management platform that specializes in providing results to companies around the world.

The Revenue Optimization Engine of Recurly helps businesses maximize revenue and maintains billing continuity. Additionally, Recurly’s machine learning technology can help your subscription business minimize churn and maximize revenue.

For these reasons, we chose to include Recurly in this list of best recurring billing software for mid-large scale enterprises.

Especially if you need subscription billing flexibility, Recurly is for you. It can help you create and manage any subscription arrangement you desire, including fixed recurring, quantity or usage-based, one-time fees, and hybrid options.

Also, you can accept payments from over 20 different payment gateways, which helps you work with international customers.

Recurly offers a plethora of global payment options, including credit cards, ACH, invoicing, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Amazon Payments.

Given its pricing, Recurly is among the recurring billing software for small-mid scale businesses.

Highlighted Features

• Automated recurring billing
• Global sales tax management
• Invoice personalization
• Integration with ERPs and CRMs
• Revenue recognition
• Invoice flexibility for different scenarios
• Intelligent retention
• Analytics
• Subscription management
• Subscription renewal reminders

Pros

• No free version
• Lacks transparent pricing
• Handles 1:1 and 1:many accounts on subscription set up
• Reliable customer support
• Analysis of subscriber retention and other metrics

Cons

• No option to edit the quantity, pricing, and charge description after the invoice has been created
• Lacks options for disabling “session timeout”
• No option for a single payment invoice that details all the past due invoices

Tool Level

• Intermediate to Advanced

Usability

• Takes time to get acquainted

Pricing

• Core: $199 / month
• Professional: Price available on-demand
• Elite: price available on demand

Pro Tip: Recurly allows your customers to pause their subscription billing from time to time.

11. Invoice Home

Image via Invoice Home

Invoice Home is among the best recurring billing software that provides professionally designed cost estimates, proposals, invoices, receipts, and purchase order templates.

This recurring billing software offers free as well as low-priced paid plans, which are best for freelancers and small to mid-sized businesses.

There are hundreds of invoice templates offered by Invoice Home that are absolutely free. Users may customize these templates and add their company’s logo to the top of the template.

Invoice Home also enables your customers to pay through payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net by clicking on a payment gateway link in the invoice.

Furthermore, the templates are mobile-friendly, so you may create and send invoices from the mobile app itself.

Using this recurring billing software is simple. Also, the extra features like invoice and payment tracking can be used by a beginner.

Highlighted Features

• Customizable invoices
• Supports multiple currencies
• Project billing option
• Tax support
• Integration with payment gateways
• Unlimited storage
• Downloadable archives
• Invoices via emails

Pros

• Straightforward work-flow and intuitive design
• Easily create a new invoice by cloning existing ones
• Wide range of professionally-designed invoice templates
• Great customer service
• Saves all invoices in one place

Cons

• Doesn’t support minor changes like keeping the date option blank etc.
• Users can’t edit the invoices once they’re sent

Tool Level

• Beginner

Usability

• Easy to use

Pricing

• Available on-demand

Pro Tip: It’s better to include invoice numbers to each invoice so you can keep track of the number of invoices you’ve sent in a given period.

12. Zuora Billing

Image via Zuora

We selected Zuora Billing as one of the best recurring billing software for large-revenue enterprises because of its sophisticated features that can power high-revenue companies.

Zuora allows its customers to pick out a set of features rather than buying one package. It provides a cloud-based software that can help companies establish, manage, and optimize subscription billing.

In fact, Zuora Billing powers some of the world’s largest companies, including Zoom, Toyota, CAT, and NBC Universal.

Zuora supports over 50 billing charge models and 180 currencies. It also captures orders across all sales channels and adjusts to every transformation in the subscription life cycle, including upgrades, downgrades, suspends, and more.

Zuora can monetize even the most complex billing requirements at high volumes. It is also a great recurring billing option for international companies, with 15 payment options and 30 payment gateways.

Highlighted Features

• Product catalog
• Billing and A/R settlements
• International payment processing via ACH and credit cards
• Salesforce integration
• Seamless integration with enterprise-level software
• Revenue recognition
• Billing rate management
• Multi-currency support
• Refund management
• Usage-based pricing support
• Multiple payment methods

Pros

• Flexible packaging, making it hyper-personalizable
• Scalable
• Can be coupled with the holistic subscription management suite
• Rich marketplace

Cons

• Pricing not transparent
• Can be overwhelming for beginners

Tool Level

• Advanced

Usability

• Have a steep learning curve, therefore, ideal for those who have used a recurring billing software previously

Pricing

• Available on-demand

Pro Tip: Although Zuora Billing has a plethora of useful features, it’s pricey. Hence, it’s the best recurring billing software for enterprises.

13. Scoro

Image via Scoro

Scoro is an all-in-one work management platform for small businesses and consultancies around the world. Scoro allows you to manage your entire workflow from the initial greeting to the final bill.

The software provides a comprehensive set of project management, CRM, billing, and reporting services all in one place, allowing you to optimize work, automate routine processes, and keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

This recurring billing software connects with dozens of tools you might already know and love, such as Zapier, Google Calendar, and Xero.

Also, with Scoro CRM tools, you can see all of your customer information in one place, from contact information to linked files, quotes, and invoices.

You can easily search for and filter customers and categorize sales data based on location, category, activity, and fully personalized tasks.

The well-combined feature set of Scoro makes it the best recurring billing software for businesses of all scales.

Highlighted Features

• Multiple access controls and permissions
• Automation feature to invoice clients
• Financial forecasting
• Payment reminders
• Project management
• Customer database management
• Visualized sales funnels
• Quotes to invoices conversion
• Expense tracking
• Mobile app
• Time tracking
• Invoice sending reminders
• Customizable invoicing payment terms
• Discount functionality
• Tax calculation

Pros

• Offers a comprehensive suite of useful apps
• Can be white labeled for your brand
• Great user experience and interface
• Useful invoicing and reminder system
• Can be programmed as per your specific needs

Cons

• Tedious onboarding process
• One of the expensive recurring billing software for small businesses and freelancers due to hidden costs

Tool Level

• Intermediate to Advanced

Usability

• Easy to use, especially for project managers

Pricing Plans

• Essential: $26 / user / month
• Standard: $37 / user / month
• Pro: / $63 / user / month
• Ultimate: Price on demand

Originally published at Attrock.com.

About The Author

Gaurav Sharma is the Founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years.