Wanna / 8 subscription billing and failed-payment tools for a small SaaS
8 subscription billing and failed-payment tools for a small SaaS
Written by Wanna AI. Checked on 19 Oct 2026, refreshed every 30 days. Wanna is our product and is in this list, and it bills nobody. Prices change; open each link before you decide.
Short answer. We do not rank these. Five bill subscribers (Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Recurly, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy) and two add failed-payment recovery to a billing system you already have (Churnkey, Baremetrics). Only Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly and Churnkey name machine learning or AI around retries or churn on the pages we read. The eight are alphabetical, not scored. We read each vendor's page and ran none of them, except Wanna.
How we chose
- The vendor's own page prints a price or fee and says it bills subscribers or recovers failed card payments. Wanna is here to say where it does not help.
- Amounts are in US dollars unless marked. Stripe served us its English page for Germany, so its monthly tiers are in euros (€).
- FastSpring is not in the table: its page says fees are a revenue share discussed with an account executive, with no rate printed.
The eight
| Tool | What it does | Price and fee, read 19 Oct 2026 | Honest minuses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baremetrics | Subscription analytics, plus a Payment Recovery add-on | Launch from 75 a month (less billed yearly) for up to 360K ARR; Payment Recovery adds 129 a month on any plan, so 204 together at the lowest tier (our sum). The page promises more recovered than the plan costs, or the next month is free | It does not bill anyone. Recovery is an add-on to an analytics plan. The page names no AI feature |
| Chargebee | Subscription billing; Flow lists basic and smart dunning; the menu names ML-powered retries | Flow: 0 a month plus 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume, or 99 plus 0.65%; the page's slider puts the break-even at 66K a month | You connect your own payment gateway (the page lists 40+), and its card fees are not on this page. Built for usage and hybrid billing, which may be more than a small SaaS needs |
| Churnkey | Cancel flows and payment recovery; works with Stripe, Chargebee, Maxio, Paddle and Braintree | Starter 250 a month billed yearly, for under 5K a month of churn volume; 14-day trial, no card. Core and Intelligence (AI offers, an account agent) are for 10K a month of churn and up; Intelligence is a quote | It does not bill. A/B testing is listed from Core up, not on Starter |
| Lemon Squeezy | Sells for you as merchant of record; lists failed-payment recovery that is "more than just card retries" | 5% + 50 cents per transaction, no monthly fee; some payments may carry extra fees | A notice on the page about Stripe Managed Payments, which we did not open. A bigger cut than the billing-only percentages, though a merchant of record does more |
| Paddle | Merchant of record for SaaS; its Retain toolkit does failed-payment recovery and cancellation flows | 5% + 50 cents per checkout transaction, no monthly fee; Retain is stated as no extra cost | Items under 10 need custom pricing. You sell through Paddle, not your own processor account. The recovery page names no AI feature |
| Recurly | Subscription billing; Starter has one dunning campaign | Starter 249 a month plus 0.9% of billing volume (first 40K a month of billings free); 90-day free trial. All-Access is a quote, 1M billing volume minimum, with multiple dunning campaigns | Starter's churn tools are called static; the AI churn model is in Engage, from 1,600 a month billed yearly |
| Stripe Billing | Subscriptions and invoices; Smart Retries use machine learning, plus reminder emails and up to three recovery automations | Pay as you go: 0.7% of Billing volume. Monthly tiers from €500 a month on a one-year contract (up to €80,000 of volume, then 0.67%) | Card fees are separate (the page showed 1.5% + €0.25 for standard European cards). We read it in euros |
| Wanna | Reads your site, proposes the week's tasks, drafts letters, posts and ads for your OK (Trust) | Free: the plan and first drafts, then 100 credits after setup, about 10 tasks. Starter 20 a month, 200 credits, about 20 tasks. Growth 49, 5,000 credits. Scale 149, up to 5 companies | Early: 4 companies, 0 paying on 27 Oct 2026 (live). It bills no subscribers and retries no card |
By job
Billing engine with recovery included: Stripe Billing (0.7%), Chargebee Flow (0.80% or 99 + 0.65%), Recurly Starter (249 + 0.9%). Someone else sells and files tax for you, for a share of each sale: Paddle and Lemon Squeezy (5% + 50 cents). Recovery on top of billing you already run: Churnkey Starter (250 a month) or Baremetrics (75 + 129). Finding the next paying customers, which is a different problem: Wanna. More tools for the rest of the stack: AI tools for SaaS startups. How to weigh any vendor: how to choose.
What Wanna is and is not
Wanna is marketing and operations help for an owner with a product: it reads your link, plans the week and drafts the work. Posts and ads wait for your OK, and sending letters is off until you turn it on (Trust). It sits next to your billing, not in it. Wanna's own subscriptions are paid by card through Stripe. On the live page at 05:15 UTC on 27 Oct 2026: 4 companies of people, 0 paying, MRR $0, 16 tasks done in 7 days. That is a small base.
What this list does not replace
It does not replace your own trial: we read pages, not products, and none of these pages measures your churn. It does not replace a tax adviser or accountant; a merchant of record changes who files sales tax and VAT, so confirm what that means for your company. It does not replace a lawyer for subscription terms, refunds and renewal notices. This is not tax or legal advice.
FAQ
What is the best subscription billing tool for a small SaaS? We do not rank them. The By job section sorts the eight by task, and the table has each price and minus.
What do subscription billing tools charge a small SaaS? As a share of volume: Chargebee Flow 0.80%, or 0.65% with 99 a month; Stripe Billing 0.7%; Recurly Starter 0.9% plus 249 a month. Paddle and Lemon Squeezy list 5% + 50 cents and, as merchants of record, collect and file sales tax for you. That is a different service from billing alone, so the rates are not like for like.
How do I recover failed subscription payments automatically? Stripe Billing lists Smart Retries and reminder emails, Chargebee basic and smart dunning, Recurly Starter one dunning campaign, and Paddle Retain recovery at no extra cost. Churnkey and Baremetrics add it to billing you already have.
Can AI recover failed payments for me? Stripe says its Smart Retries use machine learning, and Chargebee's menu says ML-powered retries. Recurly names an AI churn model in Engage, and Churnkey's top tier lists AI offers. We ran none of them, so read a retry log before you trust one.
Is Wanna a billing or dunning tool? No. It plans the work to find customers and drafts it for your OK. Its minuses are in the table.
Paste your link and see the plan Wanna would make for your company.