Not a simple subscription? Time to switch from Chargebee to Zenskar

Handle any pricing model with ease

Chargebee is great for simple subscriptions. It can also support a flat fee, per unit, tiered, volume and stair step pricing models. It has no metering capabilities and hence cannot support any consumption based computations or adjustments. The work around is to calculate these outside Chargebee and send it manually or via API.

Zenskar’s graphical data model empowers you to handle advanced pricing models with ease. Here are some of the pricing models Zenskar can automate for you that Chargebee cannot:

• Usage based pricing
• Hybrid pricing 
• Prepaid subscriptions
• Prepaid usage
• Part prepaid, part postpaid contracts
• Ramp deals
• Product bundles
• Contract level discounts

Manage your products and features without any hassle

Chargebee’s product organization and categorization is rigid and complicated, making it difficult to manage product attributes and hierarchy, support different currencies for different products or create bundle deals.

Zenskar’s product dashboard is simple and flexible - allows you to configure products and features with different billing cadences, currencies, pricing models, discounts and entitlements.

All the usage capabilities you’ll ever need

Chargebee does not have a metering module.

• It allows up to 5000 events during the lifetime of a subscription which is quite restrictive.
• Data has to be aggregated at source as Chargebee offers no aggregation option.

Essentially, one needs an in-house or dedicated metering module to manage usage with Chargebee. The limited usage capabilities also mean less than stellar ability to handle usage based pricing models or experiment with pricing.

Usage metering and monitoring is one of Zenskar’s core offerings. Here’s why Zenskar can be the source of truth for your usage data:

• Zenskar can reliably ingest data from data warehouses without any code. You can pull data via APIs too or simply upload spreadsheets or manually enter data.
• You can send raw data or usage data aggregates. Zenskar supports complex aggregation through SQL query or a no-code visual query builder.
• Decoupling usage from billing and pricing enables pricing experimentations at any time and independent from metering.
• Set up usage monitors, create alerts and email updates based on your usage trends. Get valuable insights from usage analytics and reports.

Automate and customize your invoices

Chargebee offers very little flexibility and customization in terms of invoice generation.

• The branding and customization of the invoice PDF is only available for early access as of March 2024. Current limitations do not allow adding logos or custom elements.
• Invoice line items cannot be added/removed/edited with limits adding barriers for resellers.
• Invoice consolidation has limitations. Invoice or payment splits are not possible.
• Only one template can be used for a full site at any given point of time.
• Invoice approval based on roles is not possible.
• Invoices cannot be pre-dated invoices/generated ahead of time
• There is very little customization and personalization possible.

Zenskar is designed to cater to the needs of large businesses and enterprises, and offers customizations at every step.

• Automatic invoice generation based on contract creation.
• Create branded invoice templates on Zenskar or upload HTML code.
• Invoices are dynamically generated each month based on the template.

Tailored and reliable revenue recognition at scale

Both Chargebee and Zenskar help you stay compliant with ASC 606 and support creating journal entries automatically and posting them to ledgers, revenue reporting etc.

However, Chargebee's revenue recognition module offers limited customization options. This is especially difficult for businesses with unique revenue models, complex subscriptions or usage based billing since its lack of adaptability could lead to inaccuracies or inefficiencies in revenue recognition.

Its constraints with handling high volume of data - bulk upload limited to 20,000 records per file, upload limit of 5 files per job, reports limited to only 100,000 rows etc can be restrictive in handling high volumes of transactions or complex revenue arrangements.

Zenskar not only offers more flexibility and scale, it also offers more in terms of revenue recognition and accounting than Chargebee:

• Journal entries can be automatically created on Zenskar and synced with ERP of your choice.
• Journal entries can be populated to revenue, receivables and credit liability sub ledgers and updated/edited at any time.
• Create custom rules to tailor revenue recognition to your business model and needs.
• Schedule your revenue recognition periodically, manually or through specific events or triggers.
• Control your accounting periods - set revenue periods irrespective of contract period.
• Automatically derive performance obligations from contracts and products or define them on contracts yourself.
• Integrate with CRMs for contract and customer information, payment gateways for received revenue to eliminate manual reconciliation.

Connect with your tech stack effortlessly

While Chargebee integrates with some popular tools across categories, it offers limited choice of integrations, limited capabilities within the integrations and in some cases costs additionally for it.

• Integrations like NetSuite, Intacct, Salesforce cost an additional $100-$130/month.
• Only one way integrations supported with Xero, Quickbooks and NetSuite.
• Some of Chargebee’s integrations face issues with compatibility and data synchronization. But don’t take our word for it, see the reviews by Hubspot - Chargebee users.

With Zenskar, you can seamlessly integrate with 200+ data sources and warehouses and 35+ tools to best fit your needs.

• Connect your CRM with Zenskar to sync your customer data, contracts, and communication emails.
• Automatically send customer invoices, credit notes, payment status, and refund information into your ERP.
• Add your tax computations to the invoices automatically with integrations with tools like Avalara.
• Collect payments via Stripe, Adyen, Razorpay or offline payments methods.