Software · head to head
Chargebee vs BlackLine
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Chargebee priced as a percentage of billing, 0.80 percent on pay-as-you-go or 0.65 percent plus $99 a month on the committed plan, so the fee rises with revenue; BlackLine listed on UK G-Cloud 13 at £1,150 to £2,160 per user per year for the public sector, with no free trial offered, per BlackLine's Finance Operations Management Solution pricing document
- They diverge on capability: Chargebee covers Subscription management, BlackLine covers Account reconciliation.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Chargebee and BlackLine actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price ($29/month), pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Chargebee
- Subscription management
- Recurring billing
- Revenue recognition
- Dunning management
- Checkout pages
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Salesforce
Only in BlackLine
- Account reconciliation
- Journal entries
- Task management
- Variance analysis
- Financial close
- SAP
- Oracle
- SOC 1/2
Both cover
- NetSuite
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Chargebee
- Subscription billingnot BlackLine
- Revenue operationsnot BlackLine
- Pricing experimentationnot BlackLine
BlackLine
- Financial closenot Chargebee
- Reconciliationnot Chargebee
- Continuous accountingnot Chargebee
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Chargebee
- Priced as a percentage of billing, 0.80 percent on pay-as-you-go or 0.65 percent plus $99 a month on the committed plan, so the fee rises with revenue
- Split into four separate product lines, Billing, CPQ, RevRec and Growth, each with its own tiers and most quote-only
- CPQ Lite is free only for the first 50 quotes
- Revenue recognition pricing is demo-only
- Enterprise Plus requires an annual commitment
BlackLine
- Listed on UK G-Cloud 13 at £1,150 to £2,160 per user per year for the public sector, with no free trial offered, per BlackLine's Finance Operations Management Solution pricing document
Pricing, plan by plan
Chargebee
$29/month- StarterFree
- First $250K revenue free
- Basic billing
- Invoicing
- Performance$599/month
- Revenue recognition
- Advanced analytics
- Multi-currency
BlackLine
$29/month- EnterpriseFree
- Custom pricing
- Account reconciliation
- Task management
Which should you pick?
Choose Chargebee if
- You need subscription management.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want recurring billing.
Questions people ask
- Is Chargebee or BlackLine better?
- Neither clearly leads. Chargebee starts at $29/month and BlackLine at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Chargebee or BlackLine?
- Chargebee starts at $29/month and BlackLine at $29/month.
- Does Chargebee or BlackLine run on more platforms?
- Chargebee runs on Web, Api. BlackLine runs on Web.
- What is Chargebee best used for?
- Chargebee is most often used for subscription billing, revenue operations, pricing experimentation. Of those, subscription billing and revenue operations are not what BlackLine is typically brought in for.
- What can Chargebee do that BlackLine cannot?
- Chargebee covers Subscription management, Recurring billing, Revenue recognition, Dunning management. BlackLine covers Account reconciliation, Journal entries, Task management, Variance analysis. Both handle NetSuite, Web support.