Billing and subscription management
Asked as “subscription billing platform”, and as “recurring billing and subscription management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
60%
Clear leader
60Chargebee15Stripe Billing12Maxio12others
60% of first choices, clear leader.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each
One product takes 60% of first choices here, so the chart would put seven markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. One product carries a negative rate above 25% in this category.
What they warned about
Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Zuora50%
19 of 38 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Unless you have a massive IT department and six figures to spend on integration consultants, avoid Zuora.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Chargebee17%
11 of 65 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Chargebee — Highest number of recurring complaints ... the most consistent negative feedback across user review sites.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Stripe Billing15%
9 of 61 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“Stripe Billing is excellent for developers, but it is often advised that non-technical companies or those with complex finance needs avoid building their stack solely on top of it.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Recurly14%
6 of 43 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“Recurly is a strong tool technically, but it is known for aggressive sales tactics and opaque pricing structures.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.
Sites the answers cite
76 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1022 links across 223 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.
vendor site · Younium30 answers · 35 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Rework27 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
27 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
25 answers · 50 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Guideflow24 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Solvimon23 answers · 25 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Solidgate23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Maxio22 answers · 28 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Hyperline22 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
21 answers · 27 citations · 12 models
19 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Chargebee19 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
26 answers · 10 models
25 answers · 9 models
23 answers · 9 models
21 answers · 11 models
20 answers · 11 models
18 answers · 7 models
17 answers · 6 models
16 answers · 8 models
15 answers · 10 models
14 answers · 7 models
Search against answers
Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best subscription billing platform”, “subscription billing platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chargebee chargebee.com | 60% | 180 | 5,400 | 140 | 69,891 | $1,889 | 82 | 7 |
| Stripe stripe.com Stripe Billing 15%, Stripe 2% | 17% | 166 | 823,000 | 102,741 | 3,226,782 | $3,621 | 102 | 1 |
| Maxio maxio.com | 12% | 105 | 2,400 | 49 | 32,891 | $518 | 59 | |
| Zoho parent site Zoho Billing 4% | 4% | 41 | 18,100 | 29 | ||||
| Younium younium.com | 4% | 20 | 110 | 0 | 1,700 | 11 | ||
| Wave wave.video | 2% | 50 | 368,000 | 253,218 | 54,926 | 1 | ||
| Recurly recurly.com | 0% | 122 | 3,600 | 105 | 22,718 | $12,207 | 17 | 2 |
| Paddle paddle.com | 0% | 84 | 60,500 | 69,116 | 172,079 | 31 | ||
| Billsby billsby.com | 0% | 27 | 170 | 1 | 1,447 | |||
| Lemon Squeezy lemonsqueezy.com | 0% | 26 | 9,900 | 419 | 7,174 | 0 |
Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (chargebee.com, solidgate.com, withorb.com, zoneandco.com). The first result for “best subscription billing platform” is salesforce.com.
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.ShowHide
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHideModelDirect“What is the best subscription billing platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which recurring billing and subscription management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top subscription billing platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best subscription billing platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a subscription billing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which subscription billing platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5ChargebeeChargebeeHeldno first choiceagainst: Stripe BillingZoho Billingno first choiceagainst: Maxio, Patreon, PayPal's subscription services, Stripe Billing
Two alternatives
Maxio, Stax BillTwo alternatives
Maxio, RecurlyTwo alternatives
Billsby, FreshBooksGPT-5.4 miniChargebee, Maxioagainst: ZuoraChargebeeChangedno first choiceStripe Billingagainst: Chargebee, Recurlyno first choiceagainst: 2Checkout / Verifone, Altegio, Chargebee, Recharge
Two alternatives
Recurly, Stripe BillingTwo alternatives
Recurly, Stripe BillingTwo alternatives
Paddle, Zoho BillingGemini 3.5 FlashChargebeeagainst: MetronomeChargebee, MaxioChangedno first choiceChargebeeagainst: Stripeno first choiceagainst: Zuoraagainst: Chargebee, Chargify, Lemon Squeezy, Maxio, Paddle, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Five alternatives
Hyperline, Maxio, Solvimon, Stripe Billing, ZoneBillingTwo alternatives
Paddle, Stripe BillingSix alternatives
Chargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, ZuoraFour alternatives
Helcim, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Zoho BillingSeven alternatives
Chargebee, Maxio, Metronome, Orb, Recurly, Solvimon, Stripe BillingPerplexity SonarChargebeeagainst: ZuoraMaxioChangedno first choiceZoho Billingno first choiceagainst: Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Two alternatives
Maxio, YouniumTwo alternatives
Stripe Billing, ZuoraSeven alternatives
Chargebee, Maxio, Orb, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, ZuoraThree alternatives
Billsby, Helcim, Stripe BillingGrok 4.20Chargebeeagainst: ZuoraChargebeeHeldagainst: ZuoraStripe BillingStripe BillingChargebeeagainst: Chargebee, FastSpring, Paddle, Zuora
Two alternatives
Maxio, Stripe BillingThree alternatives
Maxio, Recurly, Stripe BillingFive alternatives
Chargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, ZuoraThree alternatives
Chargebee, Wave, Zoho BillingFour alternatives
Maxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing, ZuoraMistral SmallChargebeeagainst: Zuorano first choiceChangedno first choiceStripe Billingno first choiceagainst: FastSpring
One alternative
Stripe BillingTwo alternatives
Billsby, WaveDeepSeek V4 FlashChargebeeagainst: ZuoraChargebeeHeldagainst: Zuorano first choiceagainst: ZuoraChargebeeno first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Maxio, Paddle.com, Recurly, Zuora
Two alternatives
Maxio, Stripe BillingThree alternatives
Maxio, Recurly, Stripe BillingThree alternatives
Billsby, Paddle, Stripe BillingLlama 4 MaverickChargebeeYouniumChangedno first choiceChargebeeno first choicenothing named
One alternative
OrdwayTwo alternatives
OneBill, SubscriptionFlowTwo alternatives
Pabbly, Stripe BillingQwen 3.7 FlashChargebeeagainst: ZuoraChargebeeHeldagainst: Zuorano first choiceStripeno first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing
Two alternatives
Maxio, Stripe BillingOne alternative
RecurlySix alternatives
Chargebee, Orb, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, ZuoraThree alternatives
GoCardless, Lemon Squeezy, Zoho BillingKimi K2ChargebeeChargebeeHeldagainst: Recurly, Stripe Billingno first choiceChargebeeMaxio, Youniumagainst: Stripe Billingagainst: Chargebee, Maxio
Four alternatives
Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe BillingOne alternative
MaxioThree alternatives
Billsby, PayPal Invoicing, Stripe BillingThree alternatives
Chargebee, Ordway, RecurlyGLM 4.7 FlashXChargebeeagainst: ZuoraChargebeeHeldagainst: OneBillStripe BillingStripe Billingno first choiceagainst: Google Payments, Recharge Subscriptions, SAP Subscription Billing, SubscriptionFlow, Substack
Three alternatives
Maxio, Recurly, Stripe BillingThree alternatives
Recurly, Stripe Billing, SubscriptionFlowFour alternatives
Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly, ZuoraSix alternatives
Appstle Subscriptions, Chargebee, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, PayWhirl, Zoho BillingMiniMax M2.5ChargebeeChargebee, MaxioChangedno first choiceStripe Billing, Waveno first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Doxo
Two alternatives
Maxio, YouniumTwo alternatives
Recurly, ZuoraOne alternative
BoldBold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 09:18 | yes | 9 | 9 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 11:05 | yes | 3 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:05 | yes | 10 | 19 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 13:39 | yes | 20 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 13:51 | yes | 24 | 11 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 09:04 | yes | 10 | 8 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 07:59 | yes | 20 | 30 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 10:03 | yes | 5 | 1 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 10:06 | yes | 10 | 30 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 10:43 | yes | 18 | 23 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 11:31 | yes | 18 | 82 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 13:43 | yes | 11 | 21 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:29 | yes | 17 | 14 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 12:52 | yes | 3 | 7 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 12:54 | yes | 12 | 21 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 10:03 | yes | 20 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 08:32 | yes | 25 | 7 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 11:16 | no | 0 | 1 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 08:31 | yes | 24 | 29 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 13:11 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 13:28 | yes | 13 | 31 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:19 | yes | 20 | 20 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 11:10 | yes | 10 | 47 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:03 | yes | 9 | 25 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 13:11 | yes | 9 | 7 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 10:39 | yes | 5 | 6 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 13:55 | yes | 6 | 20 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 11:55 | yes | 20 | 4 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 08:34 | yes | 19 | 7 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 10:40 | yes | 5 | 8 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 08:47 | yes | 25 | 37 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 10:34 | yes | 5 | 1 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:37 | yes | 5 | 23 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 11:43 | yes | 15 | 24 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 07:45 | yes | 19 | 15 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 07:44 | yes | 5 | 13 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 12:33 | yes | 9 | 7 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 08:03 | no | 0 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 10:02 | yes | 23 | 24 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 11:10 | yes | 20 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 11:25 | yes | 25 | 12 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 08:48 | yes | 5 | 9 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 09:50 | yes | 25 | 18 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 11:53 | yes | 5 | 1 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 12:15 | no | 0 | 27 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:19 | yes | 10 | 14 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 10:49 | yes | 22 | 71 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:43 | yes | 5 | 22 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 11:33 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 08:06 | no | 0 | 9 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:51 | yes | 12 | 27 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 12:37 | yes | 19 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 07:55 | yes | 14 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 12:35 | no | 0 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 14:14 | yes | 24 | 79 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 07:37 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 09:59 | no | 0 | 32 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 09:43 | yes | 10 | 35 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 11:19 | yes | 14 | 32 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 08:16 | no | 0 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 12:20 | yes | 18 | 8 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 09:08 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 13:43 | yes | 20 | 26 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 07:48 | yes | 19 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 14:02 | yes | 25 | 21 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 10:19 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 12:03 | yes | 25 | 75 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 09:53 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 10:49 | yes | 25 | 42 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 09:44 | yes | 24 | 22 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 10:35 | yes | 23 | 86 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:38 | yes | 18 | 30 s |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
PayPal read as PayPal Subscriptions
Unresolved, counted raw
Altegio
Chargebee for Startups
Doxo
GoCardless
Google Payments (payments.google.com)
Paddle.com
PayPal's subscription services
Recharge Subscriptions
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.