GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Revenue operations › Billing › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Billing and subscription management for small business buyers

Asked as “subscription billing platform”, and as “recurring billing and subscription management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Stripe Billing
Clear leader
41% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessStripe Billing41%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketChargebee58%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseZuora60%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Stripe Billing41%7%59endorsed leader
02Chargebee27%16%61accepted challenger
03Zoho Billing6%4%23accepted challenger
04Zoho Subscriptions6%7%14accepted challenger
05Billsby4%12%16accepted challenger
06Whop4%0%13accepted challenger
07Recurly2%28%40criticized challenger
08Paddle2%28%29criticized challenger
09Maxio2%44%25criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Zuora0%81%21criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Chargebee vs Stripe BillingChargebee vs RecurlyStripe Billing vs Recurly

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Stripe Billing41%
02Chargebee27%
03Zoho Billing6%
04Zoho Subscriptions6%
05Billsby4%
06Whop4%
07Recurly2%
08Paddle2%
09Maxio2%
10Zuora0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash 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.
Zuora
81%
17 of 21 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Zuora & SAP Subscription Billing: These are fundamentally enterprise-grade solutions... $100K+ total cost of ownership” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Paddle
28%
8 of 29 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**Why to avoid:** High transaction fees (can be on the higher side), limited payment link functionality” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Recurly
28%
11 of 40 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Who should avoid: Virtually any small business. Recurly is built for mid-market revenue optimization, not SMBs.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Chargebee
16%
10 of 61 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Recurly, Zuora, and paid Chargebee tiers are the ones most small businesses should actively avoid” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 165 links across 90 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

solidgate.com
vendor site · Solidgate8 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
whop.com
vendor site · Whop7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
younium.com
vendor site · Younium6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
g2.com
5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
chargebee.com
vendor site · Chargebee5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow4 answers · 6 citations · 1 model
learn.g2.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
recurly.com
vendor site · Recurly4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
stripe.com
vendor site · Stripe4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
attrock.com
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
kreante.co
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
ledgerup.ai
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model

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.

solidgate.com/blog/best-subscription-billing-software
8 answers · 2 models
whop.com/blog/subscription-billing-software
7 answers · 2 models
younium.com/blog/subscription-billing-platforms
6 answers · 2 models
guideflow.com/blog/subscription-billing-software
4 answers · 1 model
learn.g2.com/best-subscription-management-software
4 answers · 1 model
chargebee.com/pricing
3 answers · 1 model
g2.com/discussions/best-billing-platforms-for-subscription-based-companies
3 answers · 1 model
kreante.co/post/subscription-billing-platforms-2026-shortlist
3 answers · 1 model
ledgerup.ai/resources/best-subscription-billing-software-2026
3 answers · 1 model
recurly.com/pricing
3 answers · 1 model

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best subscription billing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which recurring billing and subscription management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top subscription billing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best subscription billing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a subscription billing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which subscription billing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Chargebee
Three alternativesHyperline, Stripe Billing, SubscriptionFlow
Chargebee, Stripe BillingChanged
Three alternativesFastSpring, Recurly, Zuora
Chargebee, Stripe Billing
One alternativeRecurly
against: Orb, ZuoraStripe Billing
Two alternativesChargify, Wave
no first choiceagainst: Paddle, Zoho Billing
GPT-5.4 miniStripe Billing
Two alternativesChargebee, Recurly
against: Maxio, ZuoraChargebeeChanged
Two alternativesPaddle, Recurly
Stripe Billing
Three alternativesChargebee, Paddle, Recurly
against: ZuoraStripe Billing
One alternativeZoho Billing
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Recurly, Stripe Billing
Gemini 3.5 FlashStripe Billing
Three alternativesChargebee, Paddle, Zoho Billing
against: MaxioChargebee, Stripe BillingChanged
Two alternativesPaddle, Zoho Billing
Paddle
Two alternativesLemon Squeezy, Stripe Billing
against: ChargebeeLemon Squeezy
Four alternativesChargebee, Paddle, Stripe Billing, Zoho Billing
Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Three alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Stripe Billing
against: Zuoraagainst: Authorize.Net, Chargebee, FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Zuora
Perplexity SonarChargebee, Stripe Billing
Two alternativesMaxio, Younium
Zoho BillingChanged
Three alternativesChargebee, QuickBooks Online, Stripe Billing
Stripe Billing
Four alternativesChargebee, Paddle, Recurly, Zoho Billing/Subscriptions
Zoho Billing
Two alternativesBillsby, Pabbly Subscription Billing
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe, Zuora
Grok 4.1 FastStripe Billing
Three alternativesChargebee, Recurly, Zoho Billing
against: MaxioStripe BillingHeld
Two alternativesChargebee, Zoho Subscriptions/Billing
Chargebee, Stripe Billing
Three alternativesPaddle, Recurly, Zoho Subscriptions
Stripe Billing
Four alternativesBillsby, Chargebee, Lemon Squeezy, Zoho Subscriptions
Chargebee, Stripe Billing
Two alternativesRecurly, Zoho Subscriptions
against: Zuoraagainst: Bill.com, Bold, Chargebee, FastSpring, HubSpot, Maxio, Paddle, Recharge Payments, Recurly, Seal Subscriptions, Zuora
Mistral SmallStripe Billing
Four alternativesChargebee, Hyperline, Maxio, Zoho Billing
ChargebeeChanged
Two alternativesMaxio, Recurly
against: SubscriptionFlow, Zoho SubscriptionsStripe Billing
Six alternativesBillsby, Chargebee, FreshBooks, Maxio, Wave, Zoho Billing
Stripe Billing, Wave
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Zoho Invoice
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, ExpressVPN, FastSpring, HubSpot, Monday.com, Pika, Recharge, Recurly, Stripe Billing, VidIQ, Zuora
DeepSeek V4 FlashStripe Billing
Four alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Zoho Billing
ChargebeeChanged
Two alternativesPaddle, Stripe Billing
against: Maxio, RecurlyChargebee, Stripe Billing
Two alternativesPaddle, Zoho Billing
against: Maxio, Recurly, ZuoraZoho Billing
Two alternativesBillsby, Wave
against: Chargebee, Stripe BillingChargebee, Stripe Billing
Two alternativesMaxio, Recurly
against: Zuoraagainst: Bill.com, Billsby, Chargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Zuora
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceWhopChanged
Two alternativesSubscriptionFlow, Zoho Billing
Zoho Billing
Four alternativesChargebee, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Whop
Zoho Subscriptions
Two alternativesBillsby, Whop
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Zuora
Qwen 3.7 FlashChargebee
Three alternativesHyperline, Recurly, Stripe Billing
Zoho SubscriptionsChanged
Two alternativesMaxio, Stripe Invoicing
Stripe Billing
Three alternativesChargebee, Lago, Zoho Billing
against: Maxio, YouniumStripe Billing
Four alternativesBillsby, RevenueCat, Wave, Zoho Subscriptions
Chargebee, Recurly, Zoho Subscriptions
One alternativeStripe Billing
against: Billsby, Chargebee, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, SAP Subscription Billing, SubscriptionFlow, Zuora
Kimi K2Stripe Billing
Two alternativesChargebee, Recurly
Stripe BillingHeld
Two alternativesChargebee, Recurly
Chargebee, Stripe Billing
Three alternativesPaddle, Recurly, Zoho Billing
Stripe Billing
Two alternativesChargebee, Whop
against: RecurlyStripe Billing
Two alternativesChargebee, Recurly
against: CardPointe/CardConnect, Epos Now, Global Payments, Maxio, Nuvei, Recurly, Zuora
GLM 4.7 FlashXChargebee
Six alternativesBillsby, OneBill, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Younium
ChargebeeHeld
Three alternativesOneBill, Stripe Billing, Zoho Billing
Stripe Billing
Seven alternativesChargebee, Lemon Squeezy, Outseta, Paddle, Recurly, ThriveCart, Zoho Billing
Billsby
Three alternativesChargebee, Stripe Billing, Zoho Billing
no first choice
Four alternativesChargebee, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Whop
against: Braintree, Cashfree Subscriptions, Maxio, Paddle, Razorpay Subscriptions, Recurly, Shopify, Zuora
MiniMax M2.5Stripe Billing
Two alternativesChargebee, Recurly
Maxio, WhopChanged
One alternativeYounium
Recurly, Zoho Billing
Five alternativesBillsby, Chargebee, Stripe Billing, Wave, Whop
Billsby, Chargebee
Two alternativesStripe Billing, Zoho Subscriptions
no first choiceagainst: Paddle, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The 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.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:44yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:01yes55 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:31yes1221 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:43yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:49yes07 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:57yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:13yes016 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:59yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:01yes047 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:50yes023 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:54yes019 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:46yes017 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:20no06 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:28yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:37yes1626 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:27yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:08yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:19yes08 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:04yes021 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:55yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:23yes043 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:16yes026 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:58yes037 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:21yes011 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:56yes67 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:09yes39 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:34yes2028 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:58yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:22yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 05:03yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:48yes020 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:49yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:18yes028 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:59yes024 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:00yes025 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:14yes015 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:03no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:08yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:38yes1627 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:56yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:40yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:16yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:15yes024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:06yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 05:07yes040 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 22:56yes021 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:34yes077 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:12yes016 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:39no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:08no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:20yes1727 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:08yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:14yes012 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:58no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:38yes047 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:58yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:21no024 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:20yes031 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:06yes0103 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 22:54yes013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:26yes149 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:25yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:10yes2725 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:00yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:51yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:49yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:56yes097 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:45yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:07yes042 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:33yes055 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:39yes0132 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:36yes024 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
Adyen
Bold
Bold for Shopify
CardPointe/CardConnect
Cashfree Subscriptions
Epos Now
ExpressVPN
Global Payments
PayPal Invoicing
Pika
Polaris
Razorpay Subscriptions
Square Billing
Stripe Invoicing
UniBee
Zoho Billing/Subscriptions
Zoho Subscriptions/Billing
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in revenue operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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