Subscription & Recurring Billing Systems
We design and build complete subscription systems: from pricing model to automated invoicing, including trial management, dunning, revenue recognition, and MRR analytics. Your recurring revenue engine, well engineered.
Recurring billing is the backbone of every subscription business
A poorly implemented subscription system loses money in ways that are not always obvious. Failed payments that are not retried correctly, miscalculated prorations on plan changes, trial periods that do not convert because automated communication is missing, and involuntary churn from expired cards that could be recovered with intelligent dunning. Every percentage point improvement in payment retention translates directly into additional MRR.
The subscription model has evolved far beyond simple monthly charges. Modern businesses need to support freemium with conversion to paid plans, tiered pricing with different features and limits, usage-based billing (pay-per-use, metered billing) where cost is calculated based on actual consumption, and hybrid models combining a base fee with variable usage charges. Each model has its own technical complexities in invoicing, prorations, and reporting.
Subscription lifecycle management is just as important as the charge itself. A good system automatically handles trials with conversion to paid, upgrades and downgrades with correct prorations, pauses and cancellations with retention offers, payment method changes, invoicing with local tax compliance, and revenue recognition reports for accounting. Tutti without manual intervention from your team.
At Soamee we have built subscription systems for projects like GolfyApp, where we implemented a trial-to-paid flow that achieves a 95% conversion rate thanks to progressive onboarding and automated communication. We also worked with PEMAV, where we integrated RevenueCat to manage in-app subscriptions on iOS and Android with a single backend. Each project has taught us that billing is not just another module: it is the financial engine of the business.
Recurring revenue
Trial to paid (GolfyApp)
Intelligent dunning
Revenue analytics
Subscription models we implement
From freemium to usage-based billing, each model with its own technical architecture and optimized invoicing logic.
Freemium
Free plan with limited features serving as an acquisition funnel. Feature flags per plan to control access to premium functionality. Configurable usage limits (number of projects, storage, users). Contextual upgrade mechanisms that show the value of paid plans at the right moment. Activation tracking to identify free users with high conversion probability and apply personalized communication.
Tiered (by plan)
Multiple plans with different feature levels and prices (Starter, Pro, Enterprise). Granular feature flags controlling access per plan. Upgrade and downgrade management with automatic prorations. Immediate or end-of-period plan changes based on your policy. Annual plans with discount vs monthly. Optional add-ons (extra users, storage, integrations) billed separately from the base plan.
Usage-based
Billing based on actual service consumption: API calls, messages sent, GB stored, active users, transactions processed. Real-time metering that records usage with precision. Configurable thresholds with user alerts when approaching limits. Tiered pricing (first 1,000 free, 0.01 per additional) or flat per-unit rate. Post-usage billing or prepaid credits.
Hybrid
Combination of monthly base fee plus variable usage charges. The most flexible model and the one that best aligns customer cost with value received. Example: base plan at 49 euros/month including 10,000 API calls, plus 0.005 euros per additional call. Ideal for APIs, communication platforms, infrastructure services, and any product where usage varies significantly between customers.
Per-seat
Pricing based on the number of active users or licenses. Auto-detection of new users with proportional automatic billing. Invitation management, user activation and deactivation. Volume discounts (from 10 users, 20% discount). Differentiation between user types (admin, editor, viewer) with different prices. The most common model in B2B SaaS for its simplicity and predictability.
Trial management
Trial periods with full or limited access to premium features. Trial with or without credit card based on your conversion strategy. Automated emails during the trial: welcome, key feature activation, end-of-trial reminder, special conversion offer. Automatic trial extension for active users who have not converted. Detailed behavior tracking during trial to optimize conversion.
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Beyond collecting payments: dunning, revenue recognition, analytics, and self-service portal.
Dunning & payment recovery
Intelligent retry system for failed payments. Automatic retries at optimized schedules (not all on the same day and time). User notifications via email and push before suspending service. Automatic expired card updates via Stripe Card Account Updater or your bank. Recovery metrics: how many failed payments are recovered at each retry. Good dunning can recover 40-60% of initially failed payments.
Revenue recognition
Revenue recognition compliant with ASC 606 / IFRS 15 so your finance team has accurate data. Deferred revenue for annually prepaid subscriptions. Correct proration calculations on upgrades and downgrades. Export to accounting systems (QuickBooks, Xero). Reporting of MRR, ARR, expansion, contraction, and churn broken down by cohort, plan, and acquisition source.
Self-service portal
Portal where your customers manage their subscription without contacting support: change plans, update payment methods, download invoices, pause or cancel subscriptions. Cancellation flow with reason survey and personalized retention offers (discount, temporary pause, downgrade). Stripe self-service billing portal or custom implementation based on your needs.
Subscription analytics
Real-time SaaS metrics dashboard: MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), churn rate (voluntary and involuntary), LTV (Lifetime Value), CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV/CAC ratio, expansion revenue, net revenue retention. Breakdown by plan, cohort, acquisition source, and segment. Automatic alerts when metrics deviate from targets. Export to BI tools.
Subscription systems in production
Real projects with recurring billing generating revenue.
GolfyApp
Golf app with a subscription system achieving a 95% trial-to-paid conversion rate. Progressive onboarding that activates premium features during the trial, automated communication with emails and push notifications at key moments, and personalized retention offers in the cancellation flow. Integration with RevenueCat and Stripe Billing.
95% trial-to-paid conversionPEMAV
Platform with in-app subscriptions managed by RevenueCat. A single backend to manage iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) subscriptions with real-time state synchronization. Grace period management, store-side payment retries, and unified revenue analytics across both platforms.
RevenueCat iOS + AndroidRecurring billing tech stack
Specialized tools for subscriptions and recurring revenue management.
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Domande frequenti about subscriptions and billing
Which subscription model is best for my business?
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How do you reduce involuntary churn from failed payments?
How does RevenueCat work for in-app subscriptions?
How much does it cost to implement a subscription system?
Let's build your recurring revenue engine
We help you design the subscription model, implement billing, and optimize your business conversion and retention.