It’s no understatement to say that Stripe revolutionized online payment processing.
Where businesses once struggled with complex integrations, confusing fee structures, and limited customization, Stripe allows companies of all sizes to seamlessly accept payments for goods or services.
Modern businesses need to do much more than simply process payments—they also need systems to recognize the revenue they generate in compliance with ASC 606
In this article, we’ll consider the top Stripe alternatives and additions, empowering your business to simplify payments and revenue accounting.
Why Businesses Seek Revenue Recognition Alternatives to Stripe
As noted, Stripe is an excellent way to accept online payments. But what about the grittier details, such as recognizing revenue beyond a one-and-done transaction? That’s where Stripe tends to fall short.
Consider a few example scenarios that have pushed some companies to explore Stripe alternatives:
- Cases of complex revenue: Many business models rely on multiple revenue streams, such as tiered pricing, usage-based billing, and hybrid subscriptions, which the Stripe revenue recognition system can struggle to reconcile.
- Integration needs: Businesses built on established ERP, CRM, and accounting software tech stacks may find integrating Stripe’s revenue recognition features challenging without a complete system overhaul.
- Scaling for fast-growing businesses: The higher transaction volumes and increasingly diverse revenue scenarios often accompany high-growth businesses can leave Stripe struggling to keep pace.
For growing businesses you need a tool that can grow with you, especially when it comes to the nuances of revenue recognition.
For example, while Stripe excels at straight-line revenue recognition over a specific term or via invoicing, you need a platform like RightRev to handle finer details, such as:
- Automatically allocating standalone selling prices (SSP)
- Recognizing event-based, bundled, or similarly complex revenue
- Allocating fees for a merchant account or merchant account provider
- Amending contracts—and having the associated revenue parameters automatically follow suit
Core Features to Evaluate in a Revenue Recognition Platform
Rather than abandon Stripe entirely, many businesses choose to integrate dedicated revenue recognition software on top of it. But with so many choices, how can you know which platform is right for your business?
Consider filtering your options through the following criteria:
- Revenue recognition features: Compliance is the core goal, so ensure your chosen platform supports ASC 606 and IFRS 15 standards. Related features, such as identifying performance obligations or contract modifications, should always do so through the lens of compliance.
- Integration: Look for platforms that seamlessly integrate with your existing workflow and tools, such as Salesforce or QuickBooks. Preferably, it should do so without requiring you to conduct a system overhaul or digging too deeply into the code.
- Scalability: Can your chosen solution handle high transaction volume? Even with advanced consumption models, such as usage-based billing or hybrid plans, can it do so? Such features ensure compliance even as you grow.
- Automation capabilities: The right platform minimizes manual intervention in tasks like revenue allocation, recognition schedules, and journal entry creation, freeing up accounting teams for meaningful, strategic work.
- Customer support: Besides the platform itself, ensure your selection is backed by expertise—ideally specialized in revenue recognition—to match the software’s nuances with your accounting needs.
These features fill the gaps of payment processors like Stripe. Integrating a platform that meets these criteria simplifies financial reporting.
For further information on the accounting standards that modern software needs to meet, see our revenue recognition guide.
Top Stripe Alternatives for Revenue Recognition
Clearly, modern revenue recognition platforms are highly anticipated. Finding the right match for you is no easy task.
For context, we compiled a few top Stripe alternatives for various business sizes and industries, along with a few revenue recognition examples.
RightRev
RightRev stands out as an innovative platform due to its powerful integration and automation capabilities, enabling:
- Stripe integration for easy generation of revenue contracts based on payment terms, invoices, and order information.
- ERP integration for seamless revenue journal entry sharing, with a choice of granularity between summary or detailed views
- Automated revenue recognition tailored for ASC 606 and IFRS 15 compliance
These capabilities position RightRev as a powerful Stripe alternative for high-growth businesses seeking a scalable, easily integrated revenue recognition solution.
Chargebee
With a focus on subscription management and deferred revenue tracking, Chargebee is an ideal Stripe alternative for small to mid-sized SaaS businesses with recurring revenue models. Coupled with a user-friendly interface, Chargebee offers:
- Tools for managing subscription lifecycles
- Deferred revenue tracking
- Simplified handling of common compliance challenges—such as credit card processing fees
These features make managing subscriptions easier than Stripe’s straight line payment systems. However, it’s worth noting that Chargebee’s rule-based revenue recognition capabilities may be limited when handling more complex billing models.
Recurly
Similar to Chargebee, Recurly offers a straightforward platform for subscription management and credit card processing. Rather than being a rule-reliant system, Recurly aims to help manage revenue over the subscriber lifecycle.
Its key features include:
- The ability to handle subscription setups and revenue recognition
- Automation capabilities for functions such as dunning management and churn reduction tools
- Configurable subscription management, payment orchestration, and recurring billing.
Overall, Recurly offers a strong subscription management platform. It is more oriented toward subscription businesses.
Nue.io
An innovative platform built for managing the entire revenue lifecycle, Nue.io offers a simple, attractive Stripe alternative built natively on Salesforce for easy CRM integration.
This integration highlights one of Nue.io’s greatest strengths: The platform thrives on an interconnected ecosystem. In collaboration with RightRev, Nue.io simplifies complex revenue recognition scenarios to provide a comprehensive view of your financials.
Nue.io’s blend of features presents a compelling option for businesses seeking a unified billing and revenue recognition approach.
Zuora
Zuora specializes in enterprise-grade subscription management and revenue recognition, particularly for larger organizations. Rather than a singular solution, Zuora offers a suite of tools to support features such as:
- Automated revenue recognition
- Subscription lifecycle management
- Standalone billing software
For enterprises seeking a standalone solution rather than a Stripe integration, Zuora’s extensive toolset provides a “one-stop-shop” for financial oversight.
Comparing Stripe Alternatives: Which One Is Right for You?
After delving into the details of each potential solution, let’s zoom out to compare each Stripe alternative side by side. While many platforms charge a monthly fee, estimates for most enterprise-level plans are only available upon request.
Here’s an overview of these solutions:
- RightRev: Designed with ASC 606 and IFRS 15 compliance and future-proof scalability in mind, RightRev is ideal for high-growth, enterprise, or mid-market companies with complex revenue scenarios.
- Best for: Businesses with numerous revenue models and high-volume transactions
- Core features: Automated compliance, agile integrations, contract amendments, event-based recognition
- Customer support: Dedicated revenue recognition specialists
- Integrations: Salesforce, Nue.io, ERP systems, API integration
- Chargebee: Centered around deferred revenue tracking, Chargebee is best suited for SaaS or subscription services.
- Best for: SaaS companies, subscription-based businesses, and companies with recurring billing models
- Core features: Subscription billing automation, revenue recovery, automated dunning
- Customer support: Responsive email and chat support
- Integrations: QuickBooks, Xero, Salesforce, and almost any major payment gateway
- Recurly: An automated platform that captures subscriber data to enable more in-depth analytics.
- Best for: Subscription-based companies seeking to understand and reduce churn
- Core features: Advanced subscription analytics, churn prediction, revenue recovery tools
- Customer support: Fast and friendly, extensive developer documentation
- Integrations: PayPal, Stripe, Kount fraud management, QuickBooks, Salesforce
- Nue.io: Well-rounded choice to integrate with parallel solutions such as RightRev and Salesforce CRM, enabling a more holistic view of one’s revenue lifecycle.
- Best for: Organizations seeking quote-to-revenue insights
- Core features: Customizable billing and price modeling, built-in customer lifecycle manager, quote builder
- Customer support: Dedicated customer success team
- Integrations: Salesforce-native, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Avalara, DocuSign, API integrations
- Zuora: Modular and extensive tools to manage various aspects of billing and reporting across global currencies and payment methods.
- Best for: International enterprises seeking a fully holistic platform for financial management.
- Core features: Revenue recognition, recurring billing
- Customer support: Dedicated knowledge center, developer center, and customer support center
- Integrations: Workday, API integrations
Overall, your choice depends on your existing tech stack, billing structure, and accounting priorities.
For example, Recurly and Chargebee excel at managing simple subscriptions, with revenue recognition tools tailored to that objective compared to more complex models. These platforms are thus well-equipped to handle deferred payment allocations, such as charging annual subscriptions via credit card payments while only recognizing revenue monthly.
In contrast, Nue.io and RightRev prioritize automated compliance tools and easy integration. While capable of the same level of granularity regarding subscriptions, these platforms take it a step further. RightRev offers real-time visibility and automated compliance on every dollar of your revenue streams—regardless of your choice of payment processing solution.
RightRev: The Ideal Alternative
Stripe is an excellent tool, but for many modern businesses, it is not enough.
With revenue recognition standards such as ASC 606 and IFRS 15 raising the bar for accountants across the board, compliance is now the primary concern. Maintaining that compliance (without double-checking every transaction) requires more than a payment processing platform; it requires a dedicated revenue recognition tool.
The Stripe alternatives listed above are only a snippet of the possibilities. Choosing one that aligns with your business’s growth and compliance needs is essential to automating yourself away from spreadsheets and closer to the real goal: sustainable growth.
While you’re here, why not request a demo to see RightRev in action? Experience firsthand how RightRev can automate and streamline your revenue recognition processes today.
