The 5 Best Togai Alternatives and Competitors in 2024

Zapier recently changed its pricing from subscriptions to pay-per-task. Intercom, too, made this change for one of their products recently.

Usage-based pricing is on the roll. Community-led companies are adopting it rapidly. 

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Although usage-based billing is loved by customers, it is complex for businesses. As your competitors start adopting this pricing model, you will need customizable usage-based pricing to maintain your edge and drive conversions. 

While you are in the process of choosing billing software that handles complex billing scenarios with end-to-end automation, we believe Togai falls short in some areas:

• Togai integrates with only over 30 datasources.
• The customer portal has basic features.
• Usage-based billing needs event schemas and usage meters set up.
• The contract builder lacks advanced features.

In this blog, we explore some of the top Togai alternatives and why they might be a better fit for your needs.

The Best 5 Togai Alternatives in 2024

Togai has been around to solve complex usage-based billing problems. But here is a list of the top 5 Togai alternatives that are also doing the same but in a better way. 

1. Zenskar

Zenskar supports subscription-based, usage-based, and hybrid billing for prepaid and postpaid billing, with zero coding requirements and end-to-end automation. Users can automate from contracts and invoices to payment reminders and reconciliation and everything in between. 

But how do they do it? They provide seamless datasource integration for connecting with databases and connector integration for connecting with APIs, covering over 200 options, allowing you to create every invoice accurately.

Zenskar allows you to create simpler customer contracts via its simple editor. On the other hand, to create complex contracts, Zenskar comes with a graphical data model (that allows you to design complex pricing models with simple pricing nodes) and a drag-and-drop builder interface (to arrange these nodes into a logical workflow).

For example, SquadStack, an AI-driven sales outsourcing platform, faced pricing complexities with an in-house billing system. It involved usage-based billing with varied rates, multiple campaign structures, slab-based pricing, and a complex credit rollover system. 

By using Zenskar's advanced contract builder, they were able to handle their unique billing requirements and experiment with pricing. This approach allowed their engineers to save 120 hours/quarter, and the finance team saved 180 hours a month. 

Another key feature of Zenskar is its decoupling approach to metering, billing, and contracts. This means billing and metering are independent systems, and will not impact each other. 

Zenskar provides integration with important tools like HubSpot, Quickbooks, Stripe, Zoho Books, and Dealhub, among others, and also custom integrations upon request. It also has an in-built communication module that removes the need for email integration. 

With Zenskar, you can either let it take care of your metering, or manage your metering yourself and only provide the necessary billing data. 

Features

• Usage tracking
• Drag-and-drop contract builder
• Credit notes 
• Entitlement Management
• Automated payment communications
• Multiple payment gateways 
• Dunning sequences
• No-code and SQL-based data aggregation options
• Real-time revenue recognition
• Real-time and predictive analytics

Table of comparison

Why switch from Togai?

• Togai only provides integration with over 30 data sources which is lesser than Zenskar.  

• The customer portal offers basic features. 

• Calculating usage-based billing requires configuring event schemas and usage meters. 

• Contract builder does not come with advanced features like Zenskar.

Pros

• Automates invoicing, payment collections, and revenue reporting.
• Manages complex pricing plans and billing models without extra engineering.
• Modifies subscriptions seamlessly without canceling or creating new ones.
• Monitors payments across multiple gateways easily.
• Uses a graphical data model for nuanced billing plans.
• Integrates with your tech stack, CRM, and payment platforms like Stripe and Adyen.

Pricing

Contact our team here to learn all about our pricing plans.

Reviews

Yembo, an AI-powered platform for virtual surveys and inspections for home service companies, automated the entire invoicing process with Zenskar. With this approach, they were able to:

• Save 90% of the time on billing and revenue recognition.
• Reduce revenue leakage by 100%.
• Collected 50% of revenue a month earlier.

Here are a couple of G2 reviews for Zenskar:

‍Curious to learn more? Book a demo and we’ll show you how Zenskar can simplify and automate your billing process.

2. Maxio

Maxio helps businesses with complex billing needs such as metered, tiered, and event-based billing – supporting both prepaid and postpaid options. It offers a flexible contract builder and simplifies product catalog management by enabling quick customizations. 

Maxio also allows you to include add-ons and upsells, multiple currencies, and scalable usage-based packages in your contracts, creating more flexible and customized pricing options for your clients. 

However, with all this, Maxio is specifically built to serve B2B SaaS companies and is not a great fit for other industries. It struggles with complex pricing needs like hybrid tiered or percentage-based models.

Also, some of the users have felt their data ingestion process to be tiresome.  

Related reading: Zenskar vs. Maxio

Key features

• Custom contract 
• Automated invoicing
• Custom dashboard views
• Self-service billing portals
• Advanced reporting options
• Advanced Revenue Management
• Platform integration with Hubspot, Stripe, Salesforce, Quickbooks, and many other tools

Pricing

Maxio is one of the more expensive billing platforms as the pricing starts at $5000 per year.

3. Chargebee 

‍Chargebee solves billing and invoicing problems for B2B SaaS, e-commerce, e-learning, and other industries. Chargebee automates the entire billing process and provides excellent revenue analytics capabilities.  

Chargebee is a great tool but only for handling simple usage-based pricing. However, it falls short when it comes to managing more complex pricing models, such as pay-as-you-go, metered pricing, event-based pricing, or hybrid pricing. Implementing such complex pricing will require engineering effort for capturing usage data to push through APIs. 

Some of the Chargebee users have strongly reported customer support issues.  

Related reading: Zenskar vs. Chargebee

Features

• Entitlement management 
• Billing automation
• Deferred revenue reporting
• Customer portal
• Contracts term management
• Multiple currencies supported

Chargebee’s pricing

Starter- $0/ month

Performance- $599/ month

Enterprise- Contact the team

4. Stripe Billing

‍Stripe billing supports various billing models, including recurring, usage-based, tiered, and flat-fee plus overages with end-to-end automation. It allows users to create flexible contracts and provides integration with over 125 platforms. 

Stripe Billing’s end-to-end software allows businesses to manage accounts, view financial reports, and handle customer subscriptions through a user-friendly dashboard.

Stripe Billing only allows you to use one gateway: Stripe Payments. This lack of integration with PayPal, RazorPay, or Adyen limits options for your clients and may not meet some of your customers' regional requirements.

Many features are only accessible through coding into a website or commerce solution, which can be a barrier for some users.

Related reading: Zenskar vs. Stripe

Features

• 135+ currencies support
• Financial reconciliation and reporting
• SQL-based reporting
• Entitlements management
• Credit notes
• Automatic tax calculation

Stripe Billing’s pricing

Contact the team for the pricing quotes. 

However, starting July 10, 2024, there will be changes in its pricing (read the full post):  

5. Billsby

Billsby is a user-friendly tool that can handle subscriptions, usage-based, and advanced billing needs for your business. Users can set overage caps, offer free units, and even implement revenue-sharing billing models. 

Billsby also allows you to perform manual usage adjustments., It ensures that businesses can adapt to individual customer needs. 

Features

• Unlimited custom fields
• Unlimited feature Tags
• Automated dunning
• Automated invoicing
• Advanced reporting and insights
• advanced billing logic and API integration

Billsby’s pricing

Free- $0/ month

Core- $45/ month

Plus- $135/ month

How to choose the best Togai alternative?

To choose the best Togai alternative for your business, you must know your needs and requirements specifically. 

For example, if your business usage pricing is not that complex and requires basic billing needs then as we mentioned, Chargebee could be a good alternative. But if your billing is complex and pricing varies, then a tool like Zenskar is a wise choice as it supports almost every complex pricing. 

While we will say that billing functionality is the primary need that you should look out for, you must also not forget:

1. Pricing of the tool

Analyze if it fits your budget, or if it doesn’t, is it worth the investment? ‍

2. Customer support

Any billing software comes with a learning curve, and if the customer support service is not active and helpful, the tool will only create more troubles than solutions. 

3. Integrations

If your billing system does not have the necessary integrations that are required for advanced functionality or scaling needs in the future, it’s a sure-no. 

‍4. Ease of use 

The tool should be easy to use, period.

‍5. Data and analytics reporting

The software needs to provide all important and actionable insights for better decision-making. 

If you still need some help, here is the ultimate table of comparison of all five Togai alternatives: 

Why do companies choose Zenskar over Togai?

Some key areas where Togai lacks, and Zenskar wins are:

Usage-Data Billing

For calculating complex pricing (for usage billing), Togai requires configuring event schemas and usage meters. For example:

For this configuration, you need to send the usage data to Togai every time. 

However, with Zenskar, you do not need to configure an event schema for datasources. You can transform usage data into billing inputs - with or without code. Although, for raw metrics, event schema configuration is necessary.

The process looks like this:

Step 1: Send usage data from any existing datasources

For ingestion, Zenskar supports a high throughput of 50k events/second to support large volumes of data accurately. You can easily send usage data from any existing data sources using our connectors. Zenskar supports integration via APIs, CSV uploads, and direct datasource connectors, providing enough flexibility to match your data ingestion needs.

‍Step 2: Transform Usage Data into Billing Inputs.

• Visual Query Builder: For non-technical users to create filters, custom attributes, and aggregates, without any code.
• SQL Query Builder: For engineering and product teams to create advanced queries, using code.

Step 3: Create complex pricing models based on usage data with our workflow builder.

You can make Zenskar the source of truth for your usage data or continue with your existing metering setup, send usage aggregates, or invoice line items to Zenskar.

‍Step 4: Monitor Usage Data and Trends (via Analytics)

Step 5: Send Usage Reports

Step 6: Customer Portal

Talking about: Customer Portal

Togai provides the ability to check, view, and manage the price plans for their clients. They can also view usage and cost metrics in real-time and the billing details including the invoices. 

At Zenskar, along with these features we also provide the ability to update pricing plans, purchase credits, and prepaid top-ups, and pause or cancel subscriptions via the customer portal.

Along with all this, you can customize these portal components to perfectly fit the needs of your business. You have the flexibility to choose exactly what you display, whether it's detailed invoices, usage insights, billing specifics, and more. It also allows you to customize portal appearance - add logos and headlines to match the portal with your brand colors.

Integrations

Togai does not provide integration with Netsuite, Shopify, Google Sheets, Zoho Books, or Dealhub. It does not provide special sales tax integrations such as Anrok, Stripe Tax, Avalara

Zenskar provides integration with >200 data sources and for CRM, CPQ, ERP, Payments, and Sales Tax tools- Netsuite, Shopify, Google Sheets, Zoho Books, Dealhub, Anrok, Stripe Tax, and Avalara. 

Contract builder

With Togai, you get flexible rules and contract templates to create complex pricing contracts. 

But Zenskar, take it one step ahead. 

 Zenskar contract builder comes with:

• A graphical data model enables the design of intricate and complex pricing models using straightforward pricing nodes. As for simpler and more common contracts, Zenskar's simple editor does the job with a diverse range of functionalities on top of it.

• An intuitive drag-and-drop builder interface to organize these nodes into a cohesive workflow. This approach allows you to easily customize your pricing and terms in your contracts. 

‍See for yourself why businesses prefer Zenskar to Togai. Schedule a demo now!