Full feature comparison between Paddle Classic and Paddle Billing
Get a detailed breakdown of how features in Paddle Billing compare to Paddle Classic.
Paddle Billing has parity with most features in Paddle Classic, with improvements across the board.
This guide is a detailed comparison of features in Paddle Classic and Paddle Billing, presented in a series of tables. You can use it to understand exactly how Paddle Classic and Paddle Billing compare.
Platform
Built on the same world-class merchant of record foundations as Paddle Classic, Paddle Billing comes with everything you need for payments and tax.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Set product prices in 31 currencies. | Included | Included |
| Sell in over 200 countries and territories. | Included | Included |
| Self-serve customer portal. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Intelligent payment routing for the best chance of success. | Included | Included |
| Turn on digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal in minutes. | Included | Included |
| No third-party merchant accounts required. | Included | Included |
| Accept local payment methods. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Let customers pay by bank transfer — no local bank account required. | Included | Included |
| Fraud and illegitimate chargeback protection. | Included | Included |
| Automatic global tax collection and remittance. | Included | Included |
| Paddle takes on full liability for sales tax for all payments. | Included | Included |
| Fully SOC 2 compliant. Tooltip | Included | Included |
Hold your balance in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and AUD. | Included | Included |
Get payouts in over ten currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, CNY and others. Tooltip | Included | Included |
Technical
Paddle Billing is a complete reimagining of Paddle as a developer-first platform for SaaS businesses.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to a sandbox account for testing. | Included | Included |
| API accepts and responds with JSON data. | Not included | Included |
| API returns standard HTTP success and error responses. | Not included | Included |
| API conforms to REST principles. | Not included | Included |
| Complete access to your data using the API. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Store custom data against all entities. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Webhook payloads mirror API responses. | Not included | Included |
| Standardized webhook signature verification, with SDK helper methods. | Not included | Included |
| Consistent, performant pagination across list endpoints. | Not included | Included |
Supports sideloading entities in GET requests. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Comprehensive reference documentation. | Included | Included |
| Real world examples for all API operations, webhooks, and Paddle.js events. | Not included | Included |
| Public Postman collection. | Included | Included |
| Public OpenAPI specification file. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Hand-crafted SDKs for web platforms. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Desktop SDKs. Tooltip | Included | Not included |
| TypeScript support for Paddle.js. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
Customers
Customer information is centralized in a single, lightweight customer entity that's specific to your Paddle Billing account and can be related to multiple subscriptions and transactions.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Collect and store customer, address, and business information. | Included | Included |
| Automatic handling of countries under international sanctions. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Access to all customer, address, and business information using the API. | Not included | Included |
| Collect customer marketing consent at checkout. | Included | Included |
| Paddle Audience functionality in Paddle.js. Tooltip | Included | Not included |
| Store multiple addresses and businesses per customer. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Team discovery highlights customers across the same company. Tooltip | Included | Not included |
| Set business contacts to receive copies of invoices and emails from Paddle. | Not included | Included |
Product catalog
Paddle Billing comes with a product catalog that's designed to give you flexible ways to offer digital products and subscriptions.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Sell one-time products. | Included | Included |
| Sell recurring subscriptions. | Included | Included |
| Override prices for a product. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Create multiple prices per product. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Set trial periods for subscriptions. | Included | Included |
| Automatic currency conversion. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Localize prices by country. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Model basic recurring, good-better-best, per-seat and metered billing plans. | Included | Included |
| Bill for products that aren't in your catalog. | Not included | Included |
| Offer recurring and non-recurring discounts. | Not included | Included |
| Discount by percentage or flat amount per transaction. | Included | Included |
| Discount per-unit on a transaction. | Not included | Included |
| Restrict the number of redemptions for a discount. | Included | Included |
| Set discount expiry dates. | Included | Included |
| Set a discount to recur for a limited number of billing periods. | Not included | Included |
| Create discounts without coupon codes. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
Checkout
We brought everything you liked about Paddle Checkout in Paddle Classic to Paddle Billing, including fully optimized payment workflows, intelligent payment routing, and field validation.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Easy-to-implement JavaScript library (Paddle.js). Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Import Paddle.js as a module and work with TypeScript definitions. | Not included | Included |
| Build custom workflows with events for all parts of the checkout lifecycle. | Included | Included |
| Authenticate using client-side tokens. | Not included | Included |
| Use HTML data attributes to open checkouts. | Included | Included |
| Dynamically update items and apply discounts to opened checkouts. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Checkout translated into 18 languages. | Included | Included |
| Short purchase journey, optimized for conversion. | Included | Included |
| Present customers with a one-page checkout experience. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Prefill customer, address, and business information. | Included | Included |
| Real-time card and email address verification. | Included | Included |
| Let customers save payment methods and securely present them for repeat purchases. | Not included | Included |
| Supports browser or password manager autofill. | Included | Included |
| Create a fully responsive overlay checkout with a few lines of HTML and JavaScript. | Included | Included |
| Includes support for dark mode. | Included | Included |
| Build embedded checkout experiences using inline checkout. | Included | Included |
| Present multi-product subscriptions and complex billing scenarios. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Supports 3DS2, with data stored in a fully PCI-1-compliant vault. | Included | Included |
| Recover abandoned checkouts with automated follow-up emails. | Included | Included |
Invoices
Conquer upmarket and downmarket with Paddle Billing, with integrated invoicing that lets you draft and send invoices to customers with no data duplication.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Let customers pay by bank transfer. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Draft and send invoices. | Included | Included |
| No data duplication — bill any customer for any product. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Automatically create subscriptions for issued invoices. | Not included | Included |
| Automatically generate invoices for subscription renewals, upgrades, and other changes. | Not included | Included |
| Offer a hybrid billing motion, moving customers between payment by checkout to billing by invoice. | Not included | Included |
| Paddle handles invoice reconciliation for you. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Generate internationally compliant invoice documents. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Set purchase order number, payment terms, and other billing information. | Included | Included |
| Add billing contacts who automatically receive invoices for a business. | Not included | Included |
| Offer payment by checkout for smaller charges, like adding users mid cycle. | Not included | Included |
| Issue refunds. | Included | Included |
| Generate credit notes for refunds and credits. | Not included | Included |
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are a first-class entity in Paddle Billing, holding all the details of a recurring billing relationship for a customer.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Create subscriptions that recur weekly, monthly, annually, or a custom period. | Included | Included |
| Create subscriptions with a trial period. | Included | Included |
| Create card not present free trials. Tooltip | Not included | Not included |
| Bill for multiple recurring products on a subscription. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Collect for subscriptions automatically by card, digital wallet, or local payment methods. | Included | Included |
| Add billing workflows using the Paddle-hosted customer portal. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Bill subscriptions by invoice (bank transfer). Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Extend or cut short a trial. | Not included | Included |
| Upgrade, downgrade, and add or remove recurring items on a trial. | Not included | Included |
| Change subscription currency. | Not included | Included |
| Change billing dates for a subscription. | Included | Included |
| Upgrade or downgrade a subscription term length (for example, monthly to annual). | Included | Included |
| Upgrade or downgrade a subscription plan (for example, basic to pro). | Included | Included |
| Bill for one-time and recurring addons. | Included | Included |
| Update payment details for a subscription. | Included | Included |
| Switch a subscription to billing by invoice. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Pause and resume a subscription. | Included | Included |
| Set a resume date against a paused subscription. | Not included | Included |
| Cancel a subscription. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Bill products that aren't in your catalog to a subscription. | Not included | Included |
| Automatic calculation of prorated charges or credits for subscription changes. | Included | Included |
| Bill for subscription changes now or on the next billing period. | Included | Included |
| Choose to make changes to a subscription without billing for them. | Not included | Included |
| Preview updates to subscriptions. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Reminder emails before subscriptions renew. | Included | Included |
Provisioning and fulfillment
Paddle Billing includes webhooks, a unified event stream, and comprehensive documentation that you can use to build your own fulfillment workflows. Paddle-led fulfillment — including product delivery and license key generation — has been deprecated.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Webhooks for all parts of the subscription lifecycle. | Included | Included |
| Unified event stream that you can poll. | Not included | Included |
| Product delivery by Paddle. Tooltip | Included | Not included |
| License key generation and activation. Tooltip | Included | Not included |
| Full access to transaction data. | Not included | Included |
| Send test webhooks using sample or customized data. | Included | Included |
| Test complex workflows involving multiple webhooks using sample data. | Not included | Included |
Dunning and retention tools
Paddle Billing seamlessly integrates with Paddle Retain, taking care of payment recovery for you. Retain includes retention tools like Cancellation Flows and Term Optimization that help you reduce churn and increase customer lifetime value.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment recovery emails when payment fails. Tooltip | Included | Included |
| Automatic payment retries (dunning). | Included | Included |
| Automatically optimized retry schedule. Tooltip | Not included* | Included |
| Pause or cancel past due subscriptions where dunning exhausted. | Included | Included |
| In-app payment recovery notifications, powered by Paddle Retain. | Not included* | Included |
| Payment recovery by SMS, powered by Paddle Retain. | Not included* | Included |
| In-app notifications before payment methods expire, powered by Paddle Retain. | Not included* | Included |
| One-click form to update payment details on your website, powered by Paddle Retain. | Not included* | Included |
| Build cancellation workflows and salvage offers that reduce churn, powered by Paddle Retain Cancellation Flows. | Not included | Included |
| Proactively upgrade engaged customers on monthly plans to annual plans, powered by Paddle Retain Term Optimization. | Not included | Included |
Paddle Retain Payment Recovery is also available for Paddle Classic. Features with an asterisk are available for Classic when integrated with Retain. Cancellation Flows and Term Optimization are only available for Paddle Billing.
Finance and reporting
Paddle Billing includes reports for transactions, refunds and chargebacks, and product catalog. For subscription data, it's fully integrated with ProfitWell Metrics, which includes key performance information and powerful benchmarking tools to see how well your business compares to others in your industry.
| Classic | Billing + Retain | |
|---|---|---|
| Complete access to your data using the API. Tooltip | Not included | Included |
| Pull reports for refunds and chargebacks. | Included | Included |
| Pull reports on your sales data. | Included | Included |
| Pull reports on products and prices. | Included | Included |
| Pull reports on your account balance. | Included | Not included |
| Pull reports on your subscription data. Tooltip | Included | Not included |
| Use ProfitWell Metrics to report on delinquent churn, customer lifetime value, and revenue per customer. | Included | Included |
| View cash flow data from one-time payments alongside recurring revenue in ProfitWell Metrics. | Not included | Included |