Best Recurring Payment Tools

What to compare
The five tools

A recurring payment tool charges or bills a customer on a schedule, such as every month, so you don't create each invoice or charge by hand. One kind of tool sends a recurring invoice that the client pays, and another charges a saved card or other payment method automatically. When you compare them, look at how the schedule is set, whether clients can pay automatically, what happens when a payment fails, and how the payments connect to your invoices and records.

Billed publishes this page and is listed first. The other tools are listed alphabetically and aren't ranked. Each description quotes the vendor's own pages, opened on October 30, 2026, and the products weren't tested for this page. Fees change and vary by country, plan and payment type, so this page doesn't list them; check each vendor's pricing page for your country.

For setting up repeat billing step by step, see the recurring invoices guide.

What to compare

Recurring invoices or subscriptions: a recurring invoice bills a client on a schedule, and a subscription charges a customer for ongoing access to a product or service. Services and retainers fit the first; software plans fit the second.
The schedule: the billing interval, such as weekly or monthly, and whether billing stops after a set number of payments.
Automatic payment: whether a client's card is saved and charged, or the client pays each invoice.
Failed payments: whether the tool retries a declined payment and tells the customer when a card expires.
Records: whether every payment stays linked to the invoice or plan it pays. For reminder wording, see how to write invoice payment reminders.

The five tools

Billed

Billed's recurring invoices page says: "With Billed recurring billing you don't have to create invoices manually every day, week, month or year. Invoices are created automatically and sent to your customers according to your settings."

Schedule: "Choose whether to send invoices daily, weekly, monthly or yearly." and "Choose how many invoices you want to send or send invoices indefinitely."
Payment method: "Choose between manual and automatic subscription method for your customers." The page also says: "Your clients can also link their credit cards which makes it easier for them to pay."
Drafts: "Auto send invoices or save them as draft to recheck and send later."
Automatic charges: the page's FAQ says: "Yes you can charge your clients and collect payments automatically by integrating Billed with Stripe." It also says: "Yes you can record offline payments for recurring invoices from recurring invoices dashboard."
Payment providers: Billed's accept payments page says: "Billed integrates with Stripe to enable online payments on invoices." and "Add your Paypal account to Billed to start accepting payments via Paypal on your invoices."

Plans are on Billed's pricing page.

Chargebee

Chargebee's invoicing page says you can "Bill all customers on a specific date, by sign-up date, or on custom schedules."

Plan changes: the same page lists "Automatic Proration - upgrades and mid-cycle changes prorated to the day".
Credits: it lists "Credit Notes - full or partial credits with complete audit trail".
Failed payments: its retries and dunning page says: "Revive recovers that revenue through intelligent retries." It adds: "Some teams want a model making every retry decision. Some want rules they wrote themselves."

PayPal

PayPal's recurring payments page (US) says: "Tap into subscription revenue with easy-to-set-up recurring payments that automatically charge customers on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual schedule."

Plans: "Choose a pricing model, define the billing cycle, and add a one-time setup fee."
Trials: "Grow your customer base with free or discounted trial periods."
Setup: "Subscription payments are built into PayPal Checkout and Expanded Checkout."
Uses: "From memberships and lessons to service plans, licenses and more, we make recurring payments easy."

Square

Square's invoices page (US) says: "Set up recurring billing on a schedule that suits your business needs and customer preferences."

Saved cards: "Save customer payment cards to your customer directory, automate your billing for any invoice, and get paid sooner."
Reminders: "Reduce overdue invoices with automatic payment reminders sent before, on, or after the due date."

Stripe

Stripe's subscriptions page says: "Accept recurring payments with subscriptions." and "Let customers manage subscriptions, invoices, and billing."

Plans and trials: "Convert customers with built-in features like coupons, free and paid trials, and prorations."
Failed payments: "Set up automated dunning flows, including email alerts for failed transactions and expiring payment methods."
Invoices: its Billing page says: "Create and send one-off or recurring invoices in minutes, with no code."

Billed's automatic charges on recurring invoices run through its Stripe integration, as quoted above. For a subscription-first view, see the subscription billing software comparison.

Sample: a monthly retainer for a year

The client, retainer and fee rate here are a sample, invented for this example. The rate isn't any vendor's price.

A bookkeeper bills a client a $400.00 retainer on the 1st of each month for 12 months, and the client pays each invoice by card. The sample processing fee is 3% of each payment plus $0.25 per payment. In Billed, that's a recurring profile with the billing frequency set to monthly and the number of invoices set to 12.

Billed over the year: 12 × $400.00 = $4,800.00.
Fee per payment: 3% × $400.00 = $12.00, plus $0.25 = $12.25.
Received per payment: $400.00 − $12.25 = $387.75.
Fees over the year: 12 × $12.25 = $147.00.
Received over the year: $4,800.00 − $147.00 = $4,653.00, which matches 12 × $387.75.

If one month's card payment fails, that month's $400.00 stays unpaid until the client pays, so check each tool's failed-payment handling before you rely on automatic charges.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between recurring invoices and subscriptions?

A recurring invoice bills a client on a schedule, and the client pays each invoice or has a saved card charged. A subscription charges a customer for ongoing access to a product or service. Retainers and service plans fit recurring invoices; software plans with trials and plan changes fit subscriptions.

Can clients pay recurring invoices automatically in Billed?

Billed's recurring invoices page says "Yes you can charge your clients and collect payments automatically by integrating Billed with Stripe." It also says clients can link their credit cards.

What happens when a recurring card payment fails?

It depends on the tool. Stripe's Billing page says you can "Customize dunning flows with email alerts for failed transactions and expiring payment methods," and Chargebee's retries and dunning page describes retries.

Does this page rank the tools?

No. Billed publishes this page, so Billed is listed first, and the others follow alphabetically. Each description quotes the vendor's own pages, opened on October 30, 2026.

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Best Recurring Payment Tools in 2026