Top 10 Subscription Management Tools

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Subscription management is a complicated and time-consuming process. From gathering customer details to generating invoices, the process involves various key steps.

It’s also difficult to handle, especially when you have a medium business or a large enterprise. And, you cannot update your spreadsheets manually. It will be a disaster.

This is where subscription management tools come into the picture. These tools will ensure you’re not handling subscription-related tasks manually.

If you’re facing problems managing your business’s subscriptions, this article is perfect for you. We will discuss subscription management tools and why you need them, along with the 10 best tools.

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TL;DR

• Subscription management is complex, especially for medium to large businesses, and manual processes can lead to inefficiencies and errors.
• SaaS subscription management tools automate billing, renewals, upgrades, and cancellations, ensuring efficiency, accuracy, and compliance in recurring revenue models.
• Key benefits of using these tools include scalability, revenue optimization, risk management, and streamlined subscription processes.
• CloudEagle.ai is highlighted as a top tool, offering features like license management, contract management, spend and app discovery, and renewal management, specifically tailored for SaaS businesses.
• The blog also lists other leading subscription management tools, each with unique features and pricing, to help businesses choose the right tool based on their specific needs.

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What is Subscription Management?

SaaS subscription management allows you to effectively manage and optimize your business’s overall SaaS subscriptions. The process includes initial setup, billing, renewals, upgrades, and cancellations. SaaS subscription management is extremely important if your business operates on a recurring revenue model.

Effective subscription management ensures effective and on-time billing. This way, you can ensure any changes to the subscription plans are executed properly.

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What are SaaS Subscription Management Tools and Why Do You Need Them?

SaaS subscription management tools are designed to simplify recurring billing and subscriptions for SaaS businesses. These tools manage complex tasks like billing cycles and revenue recognition. Here are some reasons why you need SaaS subscription management tools:

Efficiency and Accuracy

Manual subscription management can be time-consuming and prone to errors. SaaS subscription management tools automate these processes and ensure that billing is accurate.

Compliance and Risk Management

SaaS subscription management tools ensure that your billing and revenue recognition practices comply with relevant accounting standards.

Scalability

Subscription management tools can scale with your business. They can handle increased transaction volumes and more complex billing without compromising efficiency.

Revenue Optimization

These tools will help you identify opportunities to optimize pricing and reduce churn. This way, you can ultimately boost your recurring revenue.

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Top 10 Subscription Management Tools

1. CloudEagle.ai

Coming first on our list is CloudEagle.ai, a SaaS procurement and management platform. With CloudEagle.ai, you can discover, optimize, renew, and govern your business’s SaaS applications.

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Using CloudEagle.ai, you will get 100% visibility on your whole SaaS ecosystem. As you don’t need to rely on surface-level insights, you will get to know all about your business’s SaaS applications.

Key Features

License Management

Managing your business’s SaaS licenses is extremely important. However, it often becomes challenging due to surface-level application tracking. But thanks to CloudEagle.ai, you will gain real-time visibility into provisioned, purchased, and used licenses.

This platform features more than 500 direct integrations. These integrations will monitor logins and feature-level usage. This way, you can optimize relevant licenses for every user.

CloudEagle.ai's direct integrations and Excel uploads provide you with detailed usage insights at the feature level for every license. From one centralized dashboard, you can efficiently oversee license types, keep an eye on assigned and active users, monitor login frequency and activity, and track the costs associated with each license.

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No need to worry if direct integration isn't available. Simply upload your license file, and CloudEagle.ai’s AI will automatically extract contract metadata, organizing all your purchased and provisioned licenses. This eliminates the need to rely on separate Excel sheets to manage your apps.

You'll receive alerts based on app usage patterns, helping you decide whether to upgrade or downgrade licenses. You can also invite app admins to audit licenses and deprovision users directly from the app, making license management more efficient.

Contract Management

Relying on spreadsheets to manage vendor contracts is challenging. When you use CloudEagle.ai, you can use a centralized dashboard to access and manage your vendor contracts. AI-driven metadata extraction eliminates the need for manual entry, minimizing the risk of errors.

You can avoid last-minute contract renewals with CloudEagle.ai, which automatically starts renewal workflows up to 90 days in advance. You'll also receive reminders via Slack and email to keep you on track.

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CloudEagle.ai offers native integrations with multiple contract repositories, allowing you to import contracts from various document sources easily. The AI engine swiftly organizes and extracts metadata such as renewal dates, billing frequency, payment terms, and auto-renewals, providing a unified view of all your contract data in just minutes.

Spend and App Discovery

With CloudEagle.ai’s application discovery feature, you can keep track of every app in your SaaS stack. The platform supports over 500 integrations, providing a complete view of your SaaS portfolio. It consolidates and manages apps, spending, contracts, licenses, and vendors all in one place.

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CloudEagle.ai also aids in categorization and resource allocation, efficiently categorizing apps to easily distinguish between marketing and product applications. This enables you to monitor usage at the department level and effectively reduce costs.

Keep in mind that unauthorized apps can jeopardize company data and inflate SaaS costs when they transition to paid subscriptions. Configuring proactive alerts will help you detect unauthorized apps purchased with company credit cards, helping to prevent shadow IT from early on

SaaS Budgeting

CloudEagle.ai’s SaaS budgeting feature allows you to assign software budgets to each employee within a particular department, ensuring that new hires' software expenses are tracked alongside other benefits.

You can review SaaS spending and usage by department and individual users. This approach will help you identify which departments are the biggest spenders and whether they are adhering to their budgets.

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Additionally, you can set budgets for specific applications, receiving early alerts if spending nears or surpasses the limit. This enables you to monitor all your vendors and avoid any unexpected cost overruns.

Spend Management

As your business expands, you might accidentally purchase duplicate applications, some of which may remain unused for long periods. If left unchecked, these apps can inflate your SaaS expenses and contribute to SaaS sprawl.

You will get complete visibility to manage your SaaS applications effectively. With usage insights, you can identify and eliminate underutilized apps, cutting down on unnecessary costs.

Moreover, CloudEagle.ai helps you recycle SaaS licenses. When an employee leaves, their licenses can often remain active if not properly managed. However, with CloudEagle.ai’s integration with your HRIS, licenses can be automatically revoked when an employee departs.

Vendor Research

Stop wasting time researching software products. With CloudEagle.ai’s machine learning and AI capabilities, you can easily find the right vendors and software, allowing you to optimize your budget and speed up the buying process.

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CloudEagle.ai narrows down your vendor options to a few relevant choices based on the business problem you need to solve. Just input your requirements, and you'll receive a curated list of SaaS vendors.

No need to visit multiple sites to read reviews. You will be able to look at all the reviews in one place, along with the pros and cons.

Renewal Management

With CloudEagle.ai's automated workflows, you can avoid unexpected last-minute contract renewals by initiating the renewal process up to 90 days in advance. This renewal management ensures timely approvals from the relevant stakeholders.

You can also establish dedicated channels for transparent communication among stakeholders, allowing you to easily raise requests, approve workflows, and add comments.

Monitor renewal opt-out dates 30, 60, or 90 days in advance to decide whether to continue or opt-out. If you're considering switching vendors, CloudEagle.ai’s app directory lets you quickly find alternative options.

Price Benchmarking

No more guessing or relying on advice for benchmarking data. You will get access to unbiased price benchmarking data, compiled from over 1 billion transactions. This allows you to compare prices with your peers and secure fair pricing during procurement and renewals.

CloudEagle.ai's extensive database, powered by AI and machine learning, includes over 150,000 vendors, ensuring you always have plenty of options.

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You can evaluate whether your pricing is above or below benchmark levels for your company size, based on factors like license count, contract terms, and average cost per license. Use this actionable data to negotiate effectively with vendors and ensure you’re never overpaying.

Self-Service App Catalog

The self-service app catalog streamlines app access requests for both employees and administrators. When an access request is submitted, administrators receive notifications via Slack and email.

Employees can easily see all the apps they currently have access to and request new ones directly through Slack. If a similar app is already available, they will be directed to use that app instead of purchasing a new one.

Employee Onboarding

Manual employee onboarding can be time-consuming, but you can streamline and speed up the process with CloudEagle.ai’s auto-provisioning workflows.

You can configure workflows to automatically assign app access to new users based on their roles and departments, saving your IT team valuable time.

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With CloudEagle.ai, new employees can be productive from day one without waiting for access approvals. You will receive suggestions of relevant applications based on the employee’s role and designation, ensuring immediate access without delays.

Here’s a video of Remediant where Alice Park explains how CloudEagle.ai automated user provisioning and deprovisioning.

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Employee Offboarding

When an employee's contract ends, there's no need to manually revoke access to each application. You can configure deprovisioning rules to handle this automatically.

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Additionally, you can set up workflows to deprovision inactive employees. If a user hasn’t logged into an application for a specified period, you can revoke their access to prevent unauthorized entry.

With CloudEagle.ai’s auto offboarding features, you can prevent unmanaged or unauthorized access, helping to safeguard your business from potential security risks.

Access Control

With CloudEagle.ai, you can simplify access monitoring and reviews without needing to visit each individual app. CloudEagle.ai’s intuitive dashboard allows you to manage and audit access to all your SaaS applications in one place.

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Hackers often target privileged accounts due to their access to sensitive information, so CloudEagle.ai helps ensure that the appropriate level of access is assigned, strengthening your security posture.

Additionally, you can grant timed access to users, specifying a period during which they can access an application. Once that period expires, their access is automatically revoked.

Pros

• CloudEagle.ai provides real-time visibility into license usage, helping you optimize your business’s software investments.
• The platform detects unauthorized apps early on, preventing potential security risks and unnecessary expenses.
• CloudEagle.ai offers detailed insights into SaaS spending, helping you eliminate underutilized or duplicate applications.
• The platform’s automated renewal workflows ensure that contract renewals are initiated well in advance.

Pricing

CloudEagle.ai has three customizable pricing plans according to employee bucket size.

• Starter: $2000/month
• Growth: $3000/month
• Enterprise: $4000/month

2. Chargebee

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Chargebee is one of the most popular subscription management tools. This platform can help you handle your SaaS business's recurring billing and subscription management. Its features can automate the billing process and handle compliance with global tax regulations.

Key Features

• Dunning Management: Chargebee provides advanced dunning management features to recover failed payments automatically.
• Multi-Currency Support: The platform supports billing in multiple currencies, which is perfect when your business operates in various countries.
• Customizable Checkout Pages: Chargebee allows you to create and customize checkout pages to align with your brand’s identity.
• Subscription Lifecycle Automation: Chargebee automates the entire subscription lifecycle to enhance efficiency.

Pros

• Chargebee’s automated features can reduce manual errors and administrative overhead.
• The platform ensures compliance with global tax regulations, including VAT and GST.
• It integrates with various third-party applications like QuickBooks, HubSpot, etc.
• Chargebee provides detailed analytics and reporting tools to help you monitor subscription metrics.

Cons

• The initial setup can be complex and time-consuming.
• The pricing structure isn’t ideal for startups and small businesses.

Pricing

Here’s the pricing structure of Chargebee:

• Performance (Billing): $599/month
• Performance (Retention): $50/month
• Enterprise: Talk to sales

3. Baremetrics

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If you’re looking for a comprehensive analytics and metrics platform, Baremetrics is for you. Geared toward your subscription-based business, it delivers real-time insights into critical performance indicators. This platform can integrate with popular payment gateways to provide you with subscription data.

Key Features

• Real-Time Metrics Dashboard: Baremetrics provides a dynamic dashboard that updates metrics in real-time.
• Automated Insights and Alerts: Baremetrics automatically generates insights and sends alerts for significant changes or anomalies in subscription data.
• Customizable Metrics Tracking: Users can tailor the metrics they track and display on their dashboards.
• Revenue Recognition: Built-in revenue recognition features can help you adhere to accounting standards.

Pros

• A user-friendly and navigational interface to access information effortlessly.
• Its automation can save your business significant time and reduce the potential for manual errors.
• The responsive customer support team can address your queries.
• The payment gateway integrations will ensure you connect all the data sources effortlessly.

Cons

• Reporting and dashboard customization options are quite limited.
• Interpreting complex metrics will require additional time and expertise.

Pricing

Here are the pricing plans of Baremetrics:

• Cancellation Insights: $108/month
• Recover: $158/month
• Metrics: $208/month

4. Sage Intacct

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Sage Intacct is a cloud-based accounting solution offering subscription and contract management features. When your business is in the growth phase, its real-time financial insights will prove highly beneficial. This subscription management tool automates complex accounting processes, including billing and expense management.

Key Features

• AI-Powered Insights: Sage Intacct leverages AI to provide predictive insights and analytics.
• Audit-Ready Compliance: Sage Intacct ensures audit-ready financials with detailed transaction histories.
• Multi-Entity Management: The platform supports multi-entity and multi-currency management.
• Advanced Revenue Recognition: Sage Intacct includes sophisticated revenue recognition features that automate compliance with ASC 606 and IFRS 15.

Pros

• Sage Intacct can grow with your business and offer flexible solutions over time.
• The extensive financial reporting options include real-time visibility into financial performance.
• Despite its advanced features, Sage Intacct’s interface is accessible to everyone.
• You will get a unified financial ecosystem to manage all your business’s applications.

Cons

• Due to its extensive capabilities, there will be a steep learning curve.
• If your business has intricate financial structures, implementation will prove time-consuming.

Pricing

Contact the sales team to request customized pricing for your business.

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5. Zoho Subscriptions

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Despite your business’s size, Zoho Subscriptions can prove beneficial in many ways, especially if you’re in the SaaS industry. It helps you manage customer subscriptions and invoicing. Moreover, you will also get other tools that integrate seamlessly with the broader Zoho ecosystem.

Key Features

• Automated Recurring Billing: As Zoho Subscriptions automates recurring billing, you can ensure timely payments.
• Multiple Payment Gateways: Zoho Subscriptions supports integration with multiple payment gateways.
• Tax Management: The platform automates tax calculations and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Plan Management: Users can create and manage various subscription plans as per different segments.

Pros

• Zoho Subscriptions integrates smoothly with other Zoho products, such as Zoho Books and Zoho CRM.
• The platform provides extensive customization for invoicing and subscription plans.
• Zoho Subscriptions offers competitive pricing, perfect for businesses of all sizes.
• The intuitive interface simplifies subscription management tasks to a great extent.

Cons

• Zoho Subscriptions lack certain advanced features like complex revenue recognition tools.
• Fully utilizing its customization options may require some learning curve.

Pricing

Here’s the pricing structure of Zoho Subscriptions:

• Standard: $29/month
• Premium: $69/month
• Custom: Talk to sales

6. Maxio

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Maxio (formerly known as SaaSOptics) is another SaaS subscription management tool. It offers various features to automate revenue recognition and provide detailed financial reporting. Maxio is particularly useful when your business is scaling and you need to manage complex subscription models.

Key Features

• Subscription Analytics: The platform offers in-depth analytics on key subscription metrics like MRR, ARR, churn, and customer lifetime value.
• Complex Billing Management: Maxio supports various billing models, including usage-based and one-time charges.
• Financial Forecasting: The platform includes forecasting tools that help you project future revenue and cash flow.
• Customizable Reporting: Maxio provides customizable reporting templates.

Pros

• Maxio offers strong customer support, including onboarding assistance and ongoing help.
• The platform helps businesses stay compliant with financial regulations.
• Maxio integrates with a wide range of CRMs, ERPs, and other business tools.
• You will receive comprehensive financial reports that are crucial for audit readiness and strategic planning.

Cons

• Maxio’s advanced features and scalability come at a higher cost.
• The dashboard occasionally goes through bugs and glitches.

Pricing

Maxio offers a transparent pricing structure:

• Base: $599/month
• Custom: Get a demo

7. Recurly

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With Recurly, you will face no problems simplifying recurring billing, especially if you have a SaaS business. Thanks to its flexibility and scalability, Recurly supports various billing models and integrates seamlessly with numerous payment gateways. It’s an excellent subscription management tool if you want to streamline the overall subscription process.

Key Features

• Account Updater: Recurly's account updater automatically updates the payment information.
• Subscription Analytics: Recurly provides detailed analytics on key metrics such as MRR, LTV, and churn.
• Flexible Billing Models: Recurly supports a variety of billing models, including one-time charges and usage-based billing.
• Dunning Management: The dunning management features can reduce churn and improve cash flow.

Pros

• As mentioned, Recurly is super flexible and scalable. So, it can cater to your business’s growing needs.
• You can keep track of all your business’s transactions easily.
• The customer support and success team is highly proficient and reliable.
• Many users have praised Recurly’s API.

Cons

• The dashboard sometimes gets logged out automatically.
• When you need to access an account, you must log in every time.

Pricing

Recurly’s pricing structure is eye-catching. They provide their Starter plan for free for the first three months. However, it’s only applicable for new users. After that, it will get renewed at €220/month.

But, if you need a customized pricing structure, you can consider its Professional and Elite pricing plans. Contact their sales and request the pricing structure.

8. ProfitWell

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ProfitWell is a data-driven subscription management and revenue optimization platform. This tool is focused on providing actionable insights, helping your business track and analyze subscription metrics. This makes ProfitWell an ideal solution if you have a SaaS or subscription-based business.

Key Features

• Customizable Dashboards: Users can create and customize dashboards to focus on specific metrics and reports.
• Automated Metrics Tracking: With this feature, you don’t need to rely on manual data entry and analysis.
• Customer Insights: ProfitWell delivers detailed customer behavior insights, including cohort analysis and segmentation.
• Revenue Recognition: The platform automates revenue recognition in line with accounting standards.

Pros

• ProfitWell’s advanced analytics can help your business make data-driven decisions.
• Automated tracking and reporting will help you access and analyze critical subscription metrics.
• ProfitWell’s insights and recommendations are actionable.
• The platform’s focus is on churn analysis and retention strategies to manage customer attrition.

Cons

• Integrating ProfitWell with certain billing systems can be challenging.
• The billing features are quite limited compared to other platforms.

Pricing

ProfitWell is 100% free. You can also schedule a live demo to understand its features.

9. Billsby

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Billsby is another effective subscription management platform. It can seamlessly automate billing processes and provide detailed subscription insights. The platform offers flexibility in billing models and integrates with multiple payment gateways.

Key Features

• Dynamic Pricing Models: Billsby supports a range of pricing models, including usage-based, tiered, and freemium options.
• Subscription Analytics and Reporting: Billsby provides comprehensive analytics and reporting tools to track key metrics.
• Automated Billing and Invoicing: The platform automates billing cycles and invoicing to reduce manual effort.
• Customizable Checkout Experience: Users can customize the checkout experience to align with their brand.

Pros

• The platform’s automation of billing and invoicing processes helps reduce administrative tasks.
• Billsby features an intuitive interface that simplifies subscription management.
• You can create a branded checkout experience, which can enhance customer satisfaction.
• Detailed analytics and reporting tools to gain valuable insights into subscription performance.

Cons

• Billsby lacks some advanced features found in other platforms, such as in-depth revenue recognition tools.
• Some users report difficulties in integrating Billsby with other systems or platforms.

Pricing

Here’s the pricing structure of Billsby:

• Free: $0
• Core: $45/month
• Pro: $135/month
• Custom: Book a demo

10. Lineup’s Amplio

Lineup’s Amplio is a specialized subscription management platform tailored. It’s perfect if you have a media and publishing company. It focuses on managing subscriptions for digital and print content. Amplio can optimize revenue through targeted offerings and flexible pricing models.

Key Features

• Content Access Management: Amplio allows publishers to control access to digital and print content based on subscription levels.
• Customer Engagement Tools: The platform includes features to enhance customer engagement.
• Analytics and Reporting: Amplio provides insights into subscriber behavior and content consumption.
• Integrated Payment Processing: Amplio integrates with multiple payment processors and simply payment collection process.

Pros

• The platform allows for detailed control over content delivery.
• The platform’s analytics offer valuable insights into subscriber behavior and content performance.
• With tools for personalized content and targeted marketing, Amplio can increase subscriber loyalty.
• It has the the flexibility to adapt to market demands and customer preferences.

Cons

• The dashboard is quite laggy.
• Not highly beneficial for businesses outside the media and publishing industries.

Pricing

Book a call with the experts and they will schedule a demo with you.

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Conclusion

We hope you found our list of best subscription management tools information. Isn’t is better than just scorching the internet? Instead of coming across hundreds of such tools, we have picked the most effective ones for you.

What should you do next? We recommend listing your business’s requirements, compare with the tools, and then choose the most appropriate one.

For example, if you want to manage a subscription for your SaaS business, CloudeEagle is the perfect option. You will get superior visibility into your whole SaaS ecosystem. Schedule a demo with the experts today and they will help you.

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