Best Dunning Software for SaaS: 10 Tools Compared (2026)

Failed payments cost SaaS businesses up to $118.5 billion per year globally. That's revenue lost not because customers chose to leave, but because a credit card expired, a bank flagged a charge, or a payment processor hit a temporary glitch. Dunning software exists to recover that revenue automatically.

But choosing the right dunning management software is harder than it should be. Some tools only retry payments. Others bundle dunning with full billing platforms you don't need. Pricing is often hidden behind "contact sales" buttons. And most comparison articles are written by the very companies selling these tools.

As a founder building MRRSaver, I've spent months evaluating every dunning solution on the market. This guide compares 10 dunning software tools for SaaS, with transparent pricing, honest feature breakdowns, and clear recommendations based on your company stage.

What Is Dunning Software and Why Do You Need It?

Dunning software automates the entire automated dunning process: detecting failed payments, retrying charges at optimal times, notifying customers through email and SMS, and providing self-service payment update pages. Instead of manually tracking failed invoices and sending one-off emails, a dunning management system handles everything in the background.

The numbers make the case clearly. Involuntary churn from failed payments accounts for 20-40% of total SaaS churn. Without automated dunning software, you're leaving 5-15% of your recurring revenue on the table every month. A good dunning system recovers 30-70% of those failed payments, often paying for itself many times over.

Most SaaS founders start with Stripe's built-in retries and assume that's enough. It's not. Stripe limits you to 3 custom retries, email-only notifications, and basic templates. Dedicated dunning solutions offer smarter retry logic, multi-channel outreach, and significantly higher recovery rates.

The 10 Best Dunning Software Tools for SaaS in 2026

Here's a detailed comparison of the best dunning solutions available for SaaS businesses in 2026. Each tool is evaluated on features, pricing, best-for use case, and limitations.

1. MRRSaver

MRRSaver is a revenue retention platform built specifically for SaaS founders using Stripe. It goes beyond traditional dunning by combining payment recovery with cancel flows and customer reactivation in a single tool. Connect your Stripe account in one click, and MRRSaver starts recovering failed payments automatically with smart retries and multi-channel dunning emails.

Key features:

• Smart payment retries with decline-code awareness
• Automated dunning email sequences
• Self-service card update pages
• Cancel flow automation (coming soon)
• One-click Stripe integration, zero code changes

Pricing: $49/mo (Starter, up to $10K MRR), $99/mo (Growth, up to $50K MRR), $199/mo (Scale, up to $200K MRR). 7-day free trial on all plans.

Best for: SaaS founders on Stripe who want affordable, all-in-one revenue retention without enterprise pricing.

2. Churn Buster

Churn Buster is one of the most established dunning SaaS tools on the market. It focuses on failed payment recovery through smart retries and customizable email campaigns. The platform supports Stripe, Braintree, and Shopify integrations, making it a versatile choice for subscription businesses across different payment processors.

Key features:

• Decline-code-aware smart retries
• Custom email campaign builder
• Recovery analytics dashboard
• 14-day free trial

Pricing: From $249/mo, scaling with transaction volume.

Best for: Mid-market SaaS companies that need a proven, dedicated dunning service with strong email customization.

3. Churnkey

Churnkey is a full retention platform that combines payment recovery with cancel flows, reactivation campaigns, and customer health tracking. Its dunning management system uses AI-adaptive retry logic and decline-code-aware strategies. Churnkey also offers A/B testing for cancel flow offers, making it one of the most feature-rich dunning solutions available.

Key features:

• AI-powered precision retries (claims 10% ARR lift)
• Cancel flow builder with A/B testing
• Customer health scoring and timelines
• Reactivation campaigns

Pricing: From $300/mo (Starter), $840/mo (Core), $990/mo (Intelligence).

Best for: Funded SaaS companies wanting a complete retention suite with both voluntary and involuntary churn prevention.

4. Baremetrics Recover

Baremetrics Recover is a dunning add-on to the Baremetrics analytics platform. It offers email dunning, in-app reminders, and paywalls for customers with failed payments. If you're already using Baremetrics for SaaS analytics, Recover is a convenient way to add automated dunning without adopting a separate tool.

Key features:

• Email dunning campaigns with customizable templates
• In-app payment reminders and paywalls
• ROI guarantee on recovery
• Integrated with Baremetrics analytics dashboard

Pricing: Add-on from ~$129/mo (requires Baremetrics subscription, which starts at $108/mo).

Best for: Teams already using Baremetrics for SaaS analytics who want to add dunning without a separate tool.

5. Stunning

Stunning is a Stripe-focused dunning tool that offers smart retries over a 21-day window, plus email, SMS, and in-app notifications. It charges a flat monthly fee based on your MRR rather than taking a percentage of recovered revenue. Stunning claims its customers recover 10 to 30 times more than they pay for the service.

Key features:

• Smart retries over a 21-day recovery window
• Email, SMS, and in-app communication channels
• Real-time recovery analytics
• Customizable customer-facing payment pages

Pricing: Flat monthly fee based on MRR (pricing not publicly listed, contact for details).

Best for: Stripe-only SaaS businesses wanting multi-channel dunning with flat-fee pricing.

6. Stripe Smart Retries (Built-In)

Stripe's built-in dunning comes free with Stripe Billing. Smart Retries use machine learning to determine the best time to retry a failed payment. You also get basic email templates for notifying customers about payment issues. It's the bare minimum for SaaS dunning, but it's free and already integrated.

Key features:

• ML-powered Smart Retries (up to 8 attempts over 2 weeks)
• Basic email notification templates
• Configurable subscription behavior after failure

Pricing: Free (included with Stripe Billing at 2.7% + 30c per transaction).

Best for: Pre-revenue or early-stage SaaS that hasn't invested in a dedicated dunning tool yet.

7. ProsperStack

ProsperStack focuses primarily on voluntary churn prevention through cancel flows, exit surveys, and retention offers. While it includes some payment recovery features, its strength is in understanding why customers cancel and presenting them with targeted offers to stay. It's a retention-first platform rather than a dedicated dunning solution.

Key features:

• Cancel flow builder with A/B testing
• Exit surveys and churn reason tracking
• Segmented retention offers (discounts, pauses, plan changes)

Pricing: From $200/mo.

Best for: SaaS companies primarily focused on reducing voluntary churn through cancel flow optimization.

8. Chargebee Smart Dunning

Chargebee is a full subscription billing platform that includes Smart Dunning as part of its higher-tier plans. The dunning management system supports up to 12 retries, error-code-aware logic, and distinct handling for hard vs. soft declines. However, Smart Dunning is only available on the Performance plan at $599/mo, making it an expensive option if you only need dunning.

Key features:

• Up to 12 smart retries with error-code logic
• Hard vs. soft decline differentiation
• Full subscription management and billing platform

Pricing: Free Starter tier (up to $250K billing), $599/mo Performance tier (required for Smart Dunning). Plus 0.75% overage fees.

Best for: Companies that need a full billing platform with integrated dunning, not just a standalone dunning tool.

9. Recurly

Recurly is an enterprise subscription management platform with advanced dunning capabilities. It supports multiple dunning campaigns per customer cohort, customizable templates, and a dunning effectiveness dashboard. Recurly claims a 25% average recovery rate across its platform and offers specialized handling for different payment failure types.

Key features:

• Multiple dunning campaigns per customer segment
• Dunning effectiveness dashboard and analytics
• Full subscription lifecycle management

Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing (contact sales). Typically $1,000+/mo.

Best for: Enterprise SaaS companies with complex billing needs and the budget for a full platform commitment.

10. Paddle Retain

Paddle Retain (formerly ProfitWell Retain) is bundled with Paddle's merchant-of-record billing platform. It offers a sophisticated retry algorithm, cancel flow automation, and supports Apple Pay and Google Pay for frictionless payment updates. However, you need to use Paddle as your entire billing infrastructure, which takes a 5% cut of all revenue.

Key features:

• Advanced retry algorithm with ML optimization
• Cancel flow automation with retention offers
• Apple Pay and Google Pay support for payment updates
• Auto-translated dunning messages for global customers

Pricing: Included with Paddle Billing (~5% + per-transaction fees). Retain is free for Paddle customers.

Best for: SaaS companies already using Paddle as their merchant of record. Not practical to adopt just for dunning.

How to Choose the Right Dunning Software for Your SaaS

The best dunning management software for your business depends on three factors: your current MRR, your payment processor, and whether you need just payment recovery or a broader retention platform. Here's a simple framework:

Early Stage ($0-$10K MRR)

Start with Stripe's built-in Smart Retries. When you're seeing enough failed payments to justify a dedicated tool, move to MRRSaver ($49/mo) for smart retries, dunning emails, and card update pages without breaking the bank.

Growth Stage ($10K-$100K MRR)

At this stage, every percentage point of recovered revenue matters. MRRSaver ($99/mo) or Churn Buster ($249/mo) give you dedicated automated dunning with smart retries, multi-channel notifications, and analytics. If you also need cancel flow prevention, consider MRRSaver or Churnkey.

Scale Stage ($100K+ MRR)

You need advanced features like A/B testing, segmented dunning campaigns, and deep analytics. Churnkey ($300-$990/mo) is the most feature-rich SaaS dunning option. If you need a full billing platform, Chargebee or Recurly include dunning as part of their enterprise offerings.

Key Features to Look for in Dunning Management Software

Not all dunning solutions are created equal. When evaluating dunning management systems, look for these capabilities:

• Smart retry logic. The tool should differentiate between soft declines (retry automatically) and hard declines (notify customer immediately). Decline-code-aware retries recover significantly more than blind retries.
• Multi-channel notifications. Email is table stakes. SMS boosts recovery by up to 40%. In-app notifications catch active users. The best dunning tools support all three channels.
• Self-service payment update pages. Customers should be able to update their card in one click from a dunning email, without logging in or navigating through settings.
• Recovery analytics. Track recovery rates by decline code, revenue saved, and time-to-recovery. Without analytics, you're flying blind.
• Easy integration. The dunning tool should integrate with your payment processor in minutes, not days. Avoid tools that require engineering resources to set up.
• Pre-dunning notifications. Proactively alerting customers before their card expires prevents failures in the first place. Not all tools offer this.

Dedicated Dunning Software vs. Built-In Billing Platform Dunning

One of the biggest decisions is whether to use a standalone dunning service or a billing platform with built-in dunning. Each approach has trade-offs.

Dedicated dunning tools (MRRSaver, Churn Buster, Churnkey, Stunning) specialize in payment recovery. They typically offer smarter retry logic, better email customization, multi-channel support, and deeper recovery analytics. They layer on top of your existing payment processor, so you keep using Stripe as-is.

Billing platforms with dunning (Chargebee, Recurly, Paddle) include dunning as one feature among many. They're a good fit if you also need advanced billing features like usage-based pricing, multi-currency support, or tax automation. But if you only need dunning, you're paying for a lot of features you won't use.

For most SaaS founders on Stripe, a dedicated dunning tool is the better value. You get purpose-built recovery features at a fraction of the cost of a full billing platform migration.

How to Calculate Your Dunning Software ROI

The math on dunning software is straightforward. Here's a simple framework to estimate the ROI of any automated dunning process:

1. Calculate monthly failed revenue. Take your MRR and multiply by your payment failure rate (typically 5-10%). Example: $50K MRR x 7% = $3,500/mo in failed payments.
2. Estimate recovery. A good dunning system recovers 40-70% of failed payments. Conservative estimate: $3,500 x 50% = $1,750/mo recovered.
3. Subtract tool cost. At $99/mo for dunning software, your net ROI is $1,651/mo. That's a 17x return on investment.

At almost any MRR level above $5K, dedicated dunning software pays for itself within the first month. The question isn't whether you can afford it. It's whether you can afford not to use it.

Choose the Right Dunning Software and Stop Losing Revenue

Dunning software is one of the highest-ROI investments a SaaS founder can make. Every failed payment you recover is pure retained revenue with zero customer acquisition cost. The right dunning solution runs on autopilot, recovering revenue 24/7 while you focus on building your product.

If you're on Stripe and want an affordable, all-in-one dunning solution that also handles cancel flows and customer reactivation, try MRRSaver free for 7 days. Connect your Stripe account in one click and start recovering failed payments today.