--- title: "Fungies as a Chargebee alternative · Fungies" description: "Fungies vs Chargebee: a merchant of record against a billing layer. Compare who carries tax liability, what a gateway costs on top, payouts and dunning." image: "https://fungies.io/og-image.jpg" canonical: "https://fungies.io/alternatives/chargebee/" --- Chargebee alternative # Chargebee bills for you. It does not sell for you. Their own docs put it plainly: Chargebee sits between your app and your payment gateway, does not handle settlements or payouts, and is not your merchant of record. The VAT returns stay yours. That is the comparison, not the rate. [Start free](https://app.fungies.io/register) [Book a demo](https://calendly.com/duke-vuh/fungies-io-demo-clone) No upfront costs. No credit card required. Already selling with Fungies [![Leadsin.io](/logos/clients/leadsin.png)](/customer-story/hosted-checkout-solution-for-leadsin-io-a-saas-business "Leadsin.io — read the story")[![RenderAI](/logos/clients/renderai.png) ](/customer-story/helping-renderai-reduce-their-ai-saas-payment-integration-from-days-to-just-a-couple-of-minutes "RenderAI — read the story")[![SuperScale](/logos/clients/superscale.png) ](/customer-story/nimblebits-revenue-boost-with-a-web-store-solution "SuperScale — read the story")[![FreeVocals](/logos/clients/freevocals.png) ](/customer-story/freevocals-com-and-fungies-io-a-seamless-solution-for-digital-e-commerce "FreeVocals — read the story")![STATSCORE](/logos/clients/statscore.png)![SimFabric](/logos/clients/simfabric.png)![BotRix](/logos/clients/botrix.png)![Enhance AI](/logos/clients/enhance-ai.png)![The Humanize AI](/logos/clients/humanize-ai.png)![Kenerate AI](/logos/clients/kenerate.png) The short answer Chargebee is a strong subscription billing platform and the comparison people make with us is not quite the right one. They are explicit in their documentation that they are not a payment gateway, do not touch settlements or payouts, and are not the merchant of record — they integrate one, Reach, for customers who want that. So the real question is not whether 0.75% beats 5% + 50¢. It is what the whole stack costs once you add the gateway fees Chargebee never sees, the merchant account you have to hold, and the tax registrations, filings and audit exposure that stay in your name. If you already run all of that and want better billing on top, Chargebee is an excellent purchase. If you wanted to stop running it, they are not the product for that. Comparison of Fungies with Chargebee. ![Subscription management in Fungies showing plans, renewals, dunning and revenue.](/_astro/subscriptions.CS4yi8pK_1kMw30.webp?dpl=dpl_8EZJmbvb3ugYq7WK1KgC21BX19Zp) Subscription billing, with the tax and the liability included. ## Fungies and Chargebee, side by side Fungies Chargebee 01 Merchant of Record ✓ Yes — we are the legal seller and we file. No. Their docs define the term and place Chargebee outside it. 02 Who owes the VAT ✓ Us, across 150+ countries and all 27 EU member states. You. They calculate and support multi-region tax; the registrations and returns are yours. 03 What you pay them ✓ 5% + 50¢ per sale, all in. Negotiable at higher sales volume. Free to $250K cumulative billing, then 0.75%. Performance is $599/mo on an annual commitment. 04 What you pay on top ✓ Nothing. Processing, tax and fraud are inside the rate. Your gateway's full rate. Their docs confirm they levy no processing fee themselves. 05 Do you need a merchant account ✓ No. You sell through ours. Yes. Their FAQ says you need a gateway and merchant account to get paid. 06 Getting paid ✓ Daily by default, into your own connected account. Not their concern — the gateway settles to you directly on its own schedule. 07 Chargebacks ✓ We answer them. No per-dispute fee. Yours to answer, at your gateway's fee. Chargebee records them and charges nothing. 08 Recovering failed payments ✓ Dunning, smart retries and abandoned checkout emails included from the first sale. Smart Dunning starts at the Performance plan. The free tier caps custom retries at five. 09 Storefront ✓ Store builder, hosting and your own domain included, plus hosted, overlay and embedded checkout. Hosted checkout, pricing tables and a self-serve portal. Custom domain is enabled on request. 10 Games ✓ Steam key delivery, web stores for mobile in-app purchases, in-game items and currency packs. B2B and usage-based SaaS focus. No games tooling. Chargebee now also sells Chargebee Pay, embedded processing run through Adyen for pre-qualified customers in the US, UK and selected European countries. It gives them a payments product; it does not make them a merchant of record, and the tax position is unchanged. Its rates are not published. Where we describe what Chargebee does not do, we mean the billing platform as documented, not a judgement on its quality. Chargebee figures from [Chargebee pricing ↗](https://www.chargebee.com/pricing/) [Chargebee: is Chargebee a gateway? ↗](https://www.chargebee.com/docs/payments/2.0/kb/billing/is-chargebee-a-gateway) [Chargebee on merchant of record support ↗](https://www.chargebee.com/docs/payments/2.0/kb/billing/does-chargebee-support-mor) checked 2 August 2026. Their pricing can change. ## What the stack actually costs 01 ### Their fee is not the fee Chargebee's documentation is unusually clear that they do not levy a processing fee on any transaction, because the money never passes through them. So the 0.75% is what you pay for billing software, and underneath it sits your gateway's full rate: roughly 2.9% plus a fixed fee domestically, plus an international card surcharge, plus a currency conversion charge, plus per-dispute fees. Add those and the comparison against a single all-in 5% + 50¢ looks very different from the comparison against 0.75%. 02 ### The tax registrations stay in your name This is the whole difference and it is not a fee. Chargebee supports multi-region tax calculation, and calculation is the easy part. Someone still has to register for VAT in each jurisdiction where you cross a threshold, file the returns on each local calendar, hold the evidence, and answer the audit. With Chargebee that someone is you or your accountant. With us it is us, because we are the legal seller and it is our liability rather than a service we perform for you. 03 ### Dunning is not in the free tier Smart Dunning is documented as available from the Performance plan, which is $599 a month on an annual commitment. Below that you get custom retries capped at five attempts that you configure yourself, against up to twelve adaptive attempts on the paid tier. Failed renewals are the single largest recoverable leak in a subscription business, so the free tier is free in a specific way. Our dunning, smart retries and abandoned checkout emails work from your first sale. 04 ### Nobody has to underwrite you twice Chargebee requires you to obtain your own gateway and merchant account, which means your own underwriting, your own risk review and your own exposure to being deplatformed by an acquirer who has decided your category looks risky this quarter. Selling through our merchant account removes that step, which is worth most to exactly the businesses that find underwriting hardest. 05 ### One bill, one dashboard, one support thread The billing platform, the gateway, the tax engine and the fraud tool are four vendors, four contracts and four places to look when a renewal fails. That is a real operating cost even when each individual piece is good. We are one, which is a smaller and less flexible answer, and for most teams under a certain size a better one. The other side of the argument ## When Chargebee is the better call No provider wins every case, and a comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth your time. Here is where Chargebee is the better answer. ### You want to keep your own merchant account If you have negotiated interchange, or hold banking relationships that a merchant of record would sit in front of, Chargebee lets you keep all of it and add billing on top. We cannot — being the seller of record is the entire point of what we do, and it means your customer's card statement says our name. ### You need multi-gateway routing Their coverage runs to more than forty gateways across 150+ countries with no single-gateway lock-in, letting you route by market or switch processors without rebuilding billing. A merchant of record is structurally incapable of offering that, because the merchant of record is the processor. ### Enterprise procurement is asking for certifications They publish SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS Level 1 and ISO 27001:2022. SOC 1 in particular matters when a customer's auditors need assurance over controls affecting financial reporting. If your deals stall on a security questionnaire, that set is hard to argue with. ### You bill complex usage or need revenue recognition Custom usage metering and aggregation, hybrid plans, CPQ for Salesforce and HubSpot, and ASC 606 revenue recognition with journal entry mapping and multi-entity support. That is a finance stack rather than a checkout, and if you need it, you need it. Their startup programme also bills your first $1M free if you are in a partner accelerator or VC portfolio and have raised under $5M. ## What sellers say once they have switched [★★★★★ 4.8/5 from 10 reviews on G2 →](https://www.g2.com/products/fungies-io/reviews) [Vadim Finayev Head of Growth, Leadsin.io “We work with quite a few merchants of record, but none comes close to the support and speed of implementation of Fungies. If you want a payment partner that actually gives you the feeling they want to work with you — rather than leaving you on read for three days or randomly restricting your account — you are in the right place.” Read the story →](/customer-story/hosted-checkout-solution-for-leadsin-io-a-saas-business) [David Elliott Creative Director, Freevocals.com “I researched the options and Fungies was the best fit for functionality and customisation within a store builder you can connect to your own domain. Taking a small percentage of sales, instead of charging a subscription for every environment and plugin, is refreshing.” Read the story →](/customer-story/freevocals-com-and-fungies-io-a-seamless-solution-for-digital-e-commerce) [Elnura Abdimanap Kyzy Founder, TextToVideo.bot “The platform is user-friendly, integrates easily with APIs and webhooks, and simplifies managing digital products and subscriptions. We were up and running quickly and support has been responsive throughout. Fungies is clearly tailored to the needs of SaaS businesses.” Read the story →](/customer-story/how-fungies-enabled-texttovideo-bot-to-integrate-payments-in-minutes) [Francisco Magnone Rienzi Founder, Renderai.app “Fungies has been a great partner — fast setup, competitive pricing, and real humans providing quick answers. They are constantly rolling out new features, and I am excited to see what is next.” Read the story →](/customer-story/helping-renderai-reduce-their-ai-saas-payment-integration-from-days-to-just-a-couple-of-minutes) Pricing 5% + 50¢ per sale, and nothing else Negotiable at higher sales volume. [See full pricing →](/pricing) [Start free →](https://app.fungies.io/register) ## No monthly fee. No minimum. No card to get started. One rate covers the whole stack. There is no tier that unlocks tax filing and no add-on for the store builder. - ✓ Payment processing - ✓ Tax calculation and filing - ✓ Fraud screening - ✓ Chargeback handling - ✓ Store builder and hosting - ✓ Every platform feature ## Teams who made the move [All customer stories →](/case-studies-customers) [ SaaS Miami, Florida, USA ### Leadsin.io A hosted checkout with no payment infrastructure to build A lead generation platform started taking monthly and yearly subscriptions without standing up any payment infrastructure of its own. Zero tax registrations of their own Read the story →](/customer-story/hosted-checkout-solution-for-leadsin-io-a-saas-business)[ SaaS United Arab Emirates ### Viewbot.tv Merchant of Record billing, live in one session The engagement platform for Twitch and Kick streamers moved its whole subscription business onto a checkout that matches its own dark theme. 1 session from first API call to live payments Read the story →](/customer-story/viewbot-customizable-checkout-merchant-of-record-payment)[ AI SaaS Uruguay ### RenderAI From days of integration to a couple of minutes An AI image platform replaced a slow manual payment process with three subscription tiers and an overlay checkout. Minutes to replace a days-long integration Read the story →](/customer-story/helping-renderai-reduce-their-ai-saas-payment-integration-from-days-to-just-a-couple-of-minutes) ## Fungies and Chargebee, asked plainly ### Is Chargebee a merchant of record? ### So is Chargebee cheaper than Fungies? ### Do I still have to file VAT with Chargebee? ### What is Chargebee Pay, and does it change the answer? ### Can I use both? ### Where did these figures come from? ## Compare us with the others - [01 ### Paddle Same headline rate, daily payouts instead of monthly, and a storefront in the box. Compare →](/alternatives/paddle) - [02 ### Stripe One rate covering tax, subscriptions, and a storefront, instead of three line items. Compare →](/alternatives/stripe) - [03 ### Lemon Squeezy A flat rate with no surcharges for selling abroad or billing monthly. Compare →](/alternatives/lemon-squeezy) - [04 ### Dodo Payments A lower headline that adds surcharges. Ours is flat, with disputes absorbed. Compare →](/alternatives/dodo-payments) - [05 ### Creem Cheaper per sale. Read their docs on chargebacks and payouts before deciding. Compare →](/alternatives/creem) - [06 ### Gumroad Half the commission, and AI products are welcome here. Compare →](/alternatives/gumroad) - [07 ### FastSpring Their rate is quote-only. Ours is on the pricing page. Compare what is published. Compare →](/alternatives/fastspring) - [08 ### Xsolla Their 5% is 5% plus cost of channel. Ours is the whole number. Compare →](/alternatives/xsolla) - [09 ### Cleverbridge Enterprise merchant of record, sales-gated. Start selling today instead. Compare →](/alternatives/cleverbridge) - [10 ### Nexway Enterprise merchant of record that lists early-stage businesses as limited support. Compare →](/alternatives/nexway) ## Work out which problem you have If it is billing logic, buy Chargebee and keep your gateway. If it is tax registrations, chargebacks and being the seller, that is the part we take, and you can test it without moving anything. [Start free](https://app.fungies.io/register) [Book a demo](https://calendly.com/duke-vuh/fungies-io-demo-clone) No upfront costs. No credit card required. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://fungies.io/#organization","name":"Fungies","legalName":"Fungies Inc.","url":"https://fungies.io/","description":"Merchant of Record for SaaS, games, and digital products. Fungies handles global payments, VAT and sales tax, and checkout. 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Elsewhere they state that Chargebee is not a payment gateway, does not handle fund settlements or payouts, and does not levy a processing fee. We are the merchant of record ourselves, which is why the tax liability moves."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"So is Chargebee cheaper than Fungies?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"As software, much cheaper — free up to $250K of cumulative billing, then 0.75%. As a way to get paid, it is not a like-for-like number, because their fee excludes payment processing entirely. To compare properly, add your gateway's percentage and fixed fee, its international card surcharge, its currency conversion charge and its per-dispute fee, then add whatever your tax registrations and filings cost you in fees and time. For a lot of businesses that total lands near or above an all-in 5% + 50¢, and for some, particularly at scale with mostly domestic cards, it lands well below."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Do I still have to file VAT with Chargebee?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes. Chargebee calculates multi-region sales tax for you, which is genuinely useful, but you remain the seller. Registration in each jurisdiction where you pass a threshold, the filings, the evidence and any audit stay with you. With us they do not exist on your side, because the sale is legally ours."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is Chargebee Pay, and does it change the answer?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It is their own embedded payment processing, run through Adyen, available to pre-qualified Chargebee Billing customers registered in the United States, United Kingdom and selected European countries. It means Chargebee can be your processor as well as your biller, with payouts on roughly T+2 for cards. It does not make them your merchant of record and it does not move the tax liability. Its rates are not published, and it carries a documented $15 fee per customer-initiated chargeback and a recommended chargeback reserve of 20 to 40% of monthly processing volume."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can I use both?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Some businesses do, running enterprise contracts through their own merchant account and Chargebee while selling self-serve through a merchant of record. It is more moving parts than most teams want, but if your enterprise and self-serve motions are genuinely different businesses, it is a reasonable architecture rather than a hedge."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Where did these figures come from?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Chargebee's pricing page and their own documentation on gateways, merchant of record support, dunning and Chargebee Pay, all read on 2 August 2026 and linked under the table above. Their pricing changes and their Enterprise tier is quote-only; if their pages and this one disagree, theirs are correct."}}]}]} ```