Chargebee vs Zuora: Comparison for UK Businesses

Chargebee is a popular subscription management service which helps businesses in the UK acquire and retain subscribers, and manage recurring billing. Zuora also offers similar services in subscription management, along with some additional options which may best suit large and established businesses.

But which is best for your business - Chargebee or Zuora? Read our Zuora vs Chargebee head-to-head comparison to help you decide.

We cover Chargebee and Zuora subscription billing services, plans and pricing - and also introduce Wise Business.

Check out Wise if you need to manage your business finances globally. It's another useful tool to handle everyday ingoings and outgoings, automated recurring payments and international payments at mid-market rate currency conversion. More on that later.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Chargebee vs Zuora - Comparison overview

We’ll dig into how Chargebee compares to Zuora in more detail later - but first let’s look at available features. As you’ll see, both providers offer similar services, with Zuora tending to appeal more to bigger businesses, and Chargebee having a more varied roster of company sizes.

What’s the difference between Zuora and Chargebee?

While Zuora and Chargebee both offer overlapping subscription management services, they’re not the same. You’ll want to compare them both to pick the right one for your business.

Comparing Zuora vs. Chargebee is quite tricky when it comes to pricing, without getting quotes from each service for your own particular needs. As both providers can tailor make plans and offer a free trial, you should be able to talk to sales team members to understand a bit more about how the prices may stack up, based on your business requirements, making a comparison pretty straightforward.

You can then select a free trial to test out the service without needing to immediately pay ongoing charges.

Chargebee review

Chargebee operates in subscription and recurring billing management, and its target customers sit in sectors like SaaS, education, ecommerce, media and publishing, and OTT/video.

Chargebee also offers a free trial to all customers, followed by a ‘Flow’ pricing model based on monthly invoicing volume - with prices starting from $0 + 0.80%.² There are also custom packages available for large and established businesses.

Here’s a summary of the key Chargebee products available for businesses of all sizes:

• Subscription management - to retain customers and provide different payment methods
• Billing and invoicing - including billing automation, billing for agents and billing for AI
• Receivables - run AI-powered collections integrated with billing tools
• RevRec - GAAP compliant revenue recognition
• Payments and accounting - including global payments, payments intelligence and integration with other tools where needed
• CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) tools - helping sales teams create accurate subscription proposals
• Reporting and analysis - delivered through interactive dashboards.

Is Chargebee a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is the interface that allows businesses to process customer payments and receive payouts. For example, when taking a card payment online or getting paid every month for a subscription through a bank transfer.

Chargebee is not a payment gateway in itself. To use Chargebee to take customer payments you’ll also need a payment gateway and merchant account, which could be provided by the same company (PayPal, for example).

Chargebee integrates with well known payment processors such as Stripe, Braintree and PayPal, allowing you to continue to use the specific provider you prefer for your own business.

Is Chargebee safe?

Chargebee is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, making it safe to use to or above normal industry standards.⁴

It has 99.9% uptime,⁵ and follows all industry requirements and standards in terms of security, privacy, tax and compliance.

Chargebee pricing

Chargebee's pricing is primarily based on monthly volume of invoicing transactions, with prices for its ‘Flow’ plan starting at $0 + 0.80%.² You can use its slider tool to estimate your monthly costs, based on your company’s predicted invoicing volume.

There is also custom pricing available for enterprises.

Zuora reviews

Zuora offers an extremely wide range of products and services, with a focus on subscriptions and recurring billing, and plenty of adjacent products which can support businesses in these areas.

Zuora offers products to businesses of all sizes, but it may be best suited to larger and enterprise level companies which need tailor made solutions.

Some of the areas in which Zuora offers services include:

• Billing and pricing services, including integration with many payment gateways
• Subscription management including acquisition and retention
• Revenue recognition
• CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) tools - helping sales teams create accurate subscription proposals
• Invoicing and tax compliance support
• Payments tools - including payment optimisation
• Paywall operation including AI paywall service
• Metered data for usage pricing
• Analytics, reporting and tools to review and drive business performance.

We mentioned earlier that Zuora isn’t active on Trustpilot - but it does have a feature on TrustRadius which gives them a 8.5 out of 10 rating from 286 reviews.⁶

Is Zuora a payment gateway?

Zuora is not a payment gateway. To use Zuora you’ll also need an account with a payment gateway, and a merchant account - which could be part of the same thing, or a separate provider account, depending on the circumstances.

Zuora offers integrations to over 40 payment gateways to get paid by customers in multiple currencies using a range of payment methods.⁷ You can also integrate with low or no code options, which means there’s little technological expertise demanded to get your service set up.

Is Zuora safe?

Zuora is safe to use for customers in the UK. It’s a trusted, established business which has been around since 2007, and which has been built with global security in mind.

Zuora has enterprise grade security practices and standards in place, and a dedicated engineering team to improve and audit security on an ongoing basis.

Zuora pricing

While it’s available for all, Zuora may be best suited to large and well established businesses which have complicated needs. Its pricing is offered on a custom basis, based on the specific needs of your business.

If you’re unsure about whether or not Zuora’s services or costs will match your business needs, you can book a free trial and have a conversation with a sales representative. They can take you through the options available to you based on your company’s size, scale and type.

Zuora vs Chargebee fees - Which is cheaper?

Whether Zuora vs Chargebee wins for you on fees will depend on your specific needs and turnover volume.

Zuora doesn’t disclose any pricing information until you talk to a sales force team member - this allows you to get a personal quote for the services you need from their broad product range. However, it does make it trickier to compare providers when you’re in the research stage of finding new products and services.

While Chargebee does have some disclosed pricing and has a handy tool for estimating monthly costs based on predicted invoicing volume, it also offers custom packages. This might mean that you’re best off getting a price and package proposal from each, to compare and ensure you’re getting the very best deal on the table.

Read more: Multi-Currency Payment Gateways: The Complete Guide for UK Businesses

Manage everyday payments and go global the smart way, with Wise Business

If you're interested in either Chargebee or Zuora, Wise Business may also be worth considering. Wise is not a subscription billing platform, but it helps businesses manage and automate payments, create invoices, and enables global financial visibility. If you’re growing a business, especially internationally, check out Wise Business as a convenient, cost-effective and flexible option to receive foreign currency payments for your business.

Wise offers local and SWIFT account details (only with Wise Business Advanced for a one-time fee of £50) for select countries and currencies. This means you can get paid from customers directly or through PSPs and marketplace sites like Stripe or Amazon.

Take global payments and then hold your funds with Wise Business - accounts support 40+ currencies for holding and exchange, with no monthly fees. Then, when you convert between currencies - either in your account, to make a withdrawal, or to send money to others - you get mid-market rates with low fees from 0.24%.

And it doesn’t stop there.

With Wise Business, you can:

• 🌍 Send money to 70+ countries and pay overseas invoices at the mid-market exchange rate with low, transparent fees and no hidden exchange rate markups (product availability varies by region)
• 📥 Receive payments in 24 currencies and counting
• 💵 Get local account details for 8+ currencies, including USD and EUR, to let your customers pay in a currency they know and trust - convenience for them and peace of mind for you
• 💰 Hold money in 40+ currencies
• 🔁 Convert currencies anytime at the mid-market exchange rate with low, transparent fees
• ⚡ Use the batch payments tool to create and send up to 1,000 payments in a single transfer
• 👥 Run payroll and make international payments for up to 1,000 employees all over the world - including paying suppliers using local payment methods like ACH, SEPA, and Faster Payments
• 💳 Get business debit cards with 0.5% cashback for you and your team to keep track of team expenses and spend all over the world, with real-time visibility and categorisation. See full cashback terms and conditions
• 🏢 Manage cash in 55+ currencies across international offices from a single business account and move money between business accounts in seconds (exact speeds can vary depending on individual circumstances and may not be the same for all transactions)
• 🧾 Connect and sync every business transaction to your favourite accounting software, including Xero, Quickbooks, and more
• 🔐 Create your own payment approvals process to manage your team better with customised access for different team members, roles and permissions
• 📑 Create custom professional invoices and schedule invoice payments for future dates
• 📈 Earn variable returns on GBP, USD and EUR with Wise Interest (Growth not guaranteed. Your balance will go down in the event of a government default or interest rates going negative.)
• 🔗 Create payment links and QR codes to get paid easily (Card payment acceptance for new Wise Business customers is currently unavailable. Payment methods subject to eligibility and availability.)
• ⚙️ Automate payouts with the Wise API (comes with 24/7 customer support, a sandbox account to test integrations, API tokens, and clear documents on how to implement and make the most of our API)

Make the wise choice when selecting a business account for your domestic and global needs.

Be Smart, Get Wise.

Register for Wise Business ✍️

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After reading this guide, you should have all the essential info you need to weigh up both Zuora and Chargebee, and see which may be the best fit for your business needs.

And don’t forget to check out Wise Business as a handy alternative for comparison, especially if you’re looking for a cost-effective way to send and receive international payments in multiple currencies.

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Sources used in this article:

1. Zuora - Zuora Free Trial
2. Chargebee - Plans and Pricing
3. Trustpilot - Chargebee
4. Chargebee - PCI DSS Compliance
5. Chargebee - Checkout Experience
6. TrustRadius - Zuora Reviews & Insights
7. Zuora - Recurring Payment Solutions

Sources last checked 28-Aug-2026