SaaS billing build vs. buy

After several years building my SaaS, I am firmly in the "build" camp. I did not find a billing solution that would work for me. They are all limited in many ways, often have a very US-centric approach (such as requiring a phone number in the footer of every E-mail sent), place lots of restrictions (E-mail and UI branding), and do not actually magically solve all problems. Specifically, no subscription system solves the whole problem end-to-end, including invoicing (EU, fully compliant, with SAF-T export).

Most also come with a significant cost. Let's take Stripe as an example. They will only process USD if you have a US-based USD account. This is impossible if you are not based in the US, which means currency conversions and associated 2% fee. So, not even taking spread into account, you end up with 2.9% for international payments, 2% for currency conversion, 0.5% for billing.

In my case, I use Braintree subscriptions, but because of their limitations, I will be using Braintree just for charging credit cards, and implementing my own subscription system.

I looked at this many times, and I think third-party billing solutions are great as a gateway drug of sorts: they really are a good solution when you are just starting, but end up expensive and inflexible after you grow to a sustainable MRR.

My advice to my former self would be to go with a third-party subscription billing system (possibly even one that takes over the billing relationship) in the beginning, but once your MRR grows, keep a close eye on how much it costs and then implement your own once it makes business sense.

Hi IHs, I often see founders developing their own in-house billing user interface for allowing users to subscribe and manage their subscriptions. Nowadays, with tools like Stripe's hosted Checkout and Customer Portal, there is no need to spend time on billing when spinning up your MVP.

I was inspired to write this article to help founders navigate the risks of spending too much time on billing challenges and instead focus on their products.

Please let me know if this was helpful and if you need me to write about any other SaaS billing / Stripe Billing related topics. I'd love to help.