The best subscription billing software in Australia in 2026

Key takeaways

• Airwallex and Stripe Billing fold subscription billing into a broader payments platform, while Chargebee, Recurly and Maxio are dedicated billing specialists built for deeper pricing-model flexibility.

• Australians now spend A$26.5 billion a year on subscriptions, so picking a billing platform that handles failed payments, plan changes and tax correctly matters more than ever.

• Airwallex is a strong fit for Australian businesses billing customers overseas, because subscription billing sits alongside multi-currency accounts, FX and payment acceptance in the same platform.

The best subscription billing software automates recurring charges, dunning and plan changes so your team isn't stitching this together manually as you grow. 

Finding the right subscription billing software is important, with the market size still considerable in 2026. Research from ING found that 78% of Australians hold at least one subscription, and the average Australian spends A$1,637 per year on them¹. 

This comparison covers seven platforms Australian businesses can choose between: Airwallex, Chargebee, Stripe Billing, GoCardless, Zoho Billing, Recurly and Maxio. We’ll take you through how subscription billing software works, the features to look for, and break down how each platform works so you can decide what’s right for your business.

What is subscription billing software and how does it work?

Subscription billing software automates the billing tasks that break down once you're managing more than a handful of recurring customers. It replaces manual invoicing with a system that charges customers on schedule, adjusts for plan changes, chases failed payments and reports on revenue in real time.

Most subscription billing platforms automate:

• Recurring charges: Billing customers automatically on a set schedule (weekly, monthly, annual) without manual invoice creation.

• Plan changes and proration: Calculating partial charges when a customer upgrades, downgrades or cancels mid-cycle.

• Failed payment recovery: Retrying declined cards and emailing customers automatically, known as dunning.

• Revenue reporting: Tracking monthly recurring revenue (MRR), churn and active subscriptions from a single dashboard,

A payment gateway just moves money from customer to merchant for a single transaction. Subscription billing software manages the entire customer lifecycle – the schedule, the plan, the retries and the reporting – sitting on top of that payment layer. 

Some platforms in this comparison, like GoCardless, focus mainly on the payment collection side; others, like Airwallex and Chargebee, run the full lifecycle end to end.

The best subscription billing platforms compared

In-depth: features of the best subscription billing platforms

Airwallex

Airwallex is an all-in-one financial platform, with Subscription Management sitting alongside multi-currency Global Accounts, FX and payment acceptance. The base tier Explore account gives you access to all of these, so an Australian business billing customers overseas can collect, hold and convert revenue without adding a separate payment service provider.

Fees

Subscription Management costs 0.50% per successful transaction, on top of the underlying business account plan: Explore is A$29/month, or A$0/month if you deposit A$5,000 or more per month or hold a A$10,000 minimum balance; the next tier, Grow, is A$99/month; will give you access to the wider Bill Pay and Expense Management suite. Card acceptance is 1.65% + A$0.30 for domestic cards and 3.45% + A$0.30 for international cards.

Pros

• Bundles subscription billing with global collections

• Competitive and transparent FX margin of of 0.50–1% above interbank rates 

• No forced annual contract

• Regulated under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL No. 487221)

• Access multiple financial products under the one platform – Global Accounts, FX, checkout tools, Yield, and more

Cons

• Best suited to businesses that also want the broader business account and FX toolset – a business that only wants standalone billing gets more platform than it needs. 

• Bill Pay and Expense Management available on higher tier plans

Chargebee

Chargebee is a dedicated billing platform built for flexible pricing models, from flat-fee SaaS plans to complex usage-based and hybrid contracts. It's a choice for SaaS businesses that need to run several pricing models side by side without custom development work.

Fees

The Flow plan is dependent on invoicing volume, starting at US$0/month plus 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume, up to a roughly US$66,000 breakeven point, then steps to US$99/month plus 0.65% above that. Enterprise pricing is custom-quoted.

Pros

• Deep pricing-model flexibility across flat, tiered, usage and hybrid models

• More than 40 payment gateway integrations, including support for BECS Direct Debit

• Smart dunning is included on the Flow plan

Cons

• NetSuite and several enterprise integrations cost extra

• Revenue recognition is a separate paid module

Stripe Billing

Stripe Billing runs on the same infrastructure as Stripe's payment processing, so subscription management, invoicing and card acceptance sit in one dashboard. It may be an option for businesses already using Stripe for payments that want billing on the same rails rather than a separate vendor.

Fees

Pay-as-you-go pricing is 0.7% of billing volume. Annual contracts, paid monthly, start from A$930/month for up to A$150,000 in monthly billing volume, rising to A$8,600/month for up to A$1.5 million (0.67% applies above each tier). Card processing is billed separately at 1.7% + A$0.30 domestic and 3.5% + A$0.30 international.

Pros

• Tightly integrated with Stripe's payment processing and machine-learning-based Smart Retries

• Automations, quotes and multi-phase subscription schedules are included on every plan.

Cons

• Card processing is a separate line item on top of the billing fee

• Usage-based billing beyond basic meters requires Metronome, a separate Stripe product

• Advanced workflows generally need developer resources to configure

GoCardless

GoCardless is built around bank-to-bank Direct Debit collection rather than full subscription plan management, which makes it a low-cost option for recurring collections specifically. Businesses typically pair it with a separate subscription or invoicing tool for plan management.

Fees

The Standard plan costs 1% + A$0.40 per transaction, capped at A$4 for domestic and 2% + A$0.40 for international. Advanced costs 1.25% + A$0.40, capped at A$5 domestic (2.25% + A$0.40 international). Custom pricing is volume-based.

Pros

• Low per-transaction fees with a fixed cap regardless of payment size

• Designed for BECS Direct Debit recurring collection

• Regulated as an AFSL holder in Australia (AFSL No. 478976)

Cons

• No card acceptance – it's bank-to-bank debit only

• Not a full subscription or invoicing management platform on its own

Zoho Billing

Zoho Billing sits inside the wider Zoho ecosystem, which makes it a natural fit for businesses already running Zoho Books or Zoho CRM. With Zoho Billing, you can tailor pricing tiers, billing frequencies, offer add-ons, and bill in multiple currencies.

Fees

Premium is A$93.50 per organisation per month, billed monthly, which includes subscription billing, usage-based billing and dunning management. Enterprise is custom-quoted. Both SMB tiers are GST-inclusive.

Pros

• Native integration with Zoho Books and Zoho CRM

• Offer free trials, pricing tiers, customise billing frequencies, and offer freemium plans

Cons

• Subscription billing, usage-based billing and dunning are all locked behind the Premium tier

• For non-Zoho stacks, confirm whether the integrations you need are native or require a connector

• Narrower global payment method coverage than other competitors

Recurly

Recurly positions its platform around subscription growth, churn prevention and recurring revenue, with tools for retention and payment recovery. It suits subscription-first businesses with a meaningful volume of recurring, card-based payments to protect.

Fees

Starter is US$249/month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first US$40,000 of monthly billings included at no extra charge. The next tiers require a custom quote and are designed for businesses with more than $1 million in billing volume – pricing is indicated to be as low as <1% of billing volume. 

Pros

• Machine learning-powered dunning is a genuine differentiator for recovering failed payments

• Flexible support for multiple pricing models, including hybrid and multicurrency billing on the All-Access tier.

Cons

• Entry pricing is high relative to Australian-based alternatives

• Fewer payment gateway options than Chargebee or Stripe

Maxio

Maxio combines billing, revenue recognition and SaaS metrics for B2B SaaS finance teams managing subscription and contract-based revenue. It offers subscription management, usage-based billing, invoicing, payment processing, and more.

Fees

The Grow plan is US$599/month for up to US$100,000 in monthly billings. Scale is custom-quoted for higher volume.

Pros

• Automated revenue recognition and dunning management

• Unlimited users included at no extra charge on every plan.

• Designed for B2B subscription models

Cons

• Built for contract-based B2B billing rather than simple SMB subscriptions

• Entry price is high for a smaller subscription business

Features to look for in subscription billing software

The right feature set depends on how complex your pricing is and how many of your customers pay from overseas – but three capabilities matter across almost every business shopping in this category.

Automated dunning and payment recovery

Failed payments are one of the biggest silent drains on recurring revenue, and manually chasing them doesn't scale past a handful of customers. Look for automatic retry logic combined with customer emails and reminders, so declined cards get resolved without a person having to intervene on every failure. Airwallex Billing includes built-in retry logic and reminders as standard, reducing involuntary churn without extra configuration.

Multi-currency and local payment method support

If any portion of your subscriber base pays from outside Australia, the billing platform needs to support the currencies and local payment methods those customers actually use – not just accept a foreign card at a poor exchange rate. Airwallex pairs billing with Global Accounts and FX and international transfers, so revenue collected overseas can be held or converted at interbank rates with a transparent margin rather than routed through a separate FX provider.

Usage-based and hybrid pricing flexibility

Flat-fee subscriptions are only part of the picture for many SaaS and platform businesses today – metered, tiered and hybrid pricing models are increasingly standard. A platform needs to meter consumption accurately and bill against it without manual reconciliation. Airwallex's usage-based billing processes usage data and meters consumption in real time, so pay-as-you-go and hybrid pricing models run on the same infrastructure as standard subscriptions.

Why businesses choose Airwallex for subscription billing

Airwallex brings subscription billing, invoicing and usage-based billing into the same platform as multi-currency business accounts and FX – so growing Australian businesses aren't stitching together a billing tool, a payment gateway and a separate FX provider to get paid.

• Subscription billing, invoicing and usage-based billing in the same platform as multi-currency accounts and FX

• Collect from customers via 160+ payment methods across 130+ currencies

• Build the right pricing model for your customers with simple and hybrid pricing, discounts, free trials, and more

• Protect your revenue with built-in retry logic and reminders to reduce churn

• Stay on top of your revenue with real-time reporting and analytics

If your subscription business bills customers in more than one country, it's worth seeing how billing, collections and FX work together in one account. See Airwallex Subscription Management.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best app for invoicing in Australia?

There is no single best invoicing app for every Australian business. For one-off invoicing, choose an accounting platform that fits your bookkeeping needs. For businesses that need invoicing alongside multi-currency collections and subscription billing, Airwallex Invoicing provides that broader workflow; invoicing alone does not manage recurring plans, proration or dunning.

Which payment gateway is best for subscriptions?

A payment gateway and a subscription billing platform solve different problems: a gateway processes the transaction, while a subscription billing platform manages the recurring schedule, plan changes and failed payment recovery around it. Airwallex and Stripe combine billing with payment acceptance, while Chargebee integrates with payment gateways such as Stripe and GoCardless.

What software can I use to manage my subscriptions?

The right platform depends on your pricing complexity, currency mix and existing tools. For Australian businesses, software such as Chargebee, Airwallex, GoCardless, and Stripe stand out as leading options. 

What is the best free subscription management app?

Genuinely free subscription billing is rare – most platforms' free or lowest tiers, including Zoho Billing's Standard plan, cover one-off invoicing rather than full subscription management. Free-tier limits change frequently, so this should be confirmed against each platform's current pricing page before publishing or relying on it.

Sources

1. https://newsroom.ing.com.au/australias-love-for-subscriptions-adds-up-to-26-5-billion-annually/

2. https://www.airwallex.com/en-au/pricing

3. https://www.airwallex.com/en-au/billing/subscription-management

4. https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/

5. https://stripe.com/au/billing/pricing

6. https://gocardless.com/en-au/pricing/

7. https://www.zoho.com/au/billing/kb/payment-gateways/razorpay-per-transaction-fee.html 

8. https://www.zoho.com/au/billing/pricing/

9. https://recurly.com/pricing/

10. https://www.maxio.com/pricing