Migrate from Paddle Classic to Paddle Billing
Understand what Paddle Billing is, how it compares to Paddle Classic, and learn more about how the migration process works.
If you signed up for Paddle before August 8, 2023 then you have Paddle Classic. We released a new version of Paddle called Paddle Billing. It's built on the Paddle platform, but includes a totally new API, webhooks, JavaScript library, and pages in the Paddle Billing web app.
This guide is for Paddle Classic customers who want to move to Paddle Billing. It explains what Paddle Billing is, how it compares to Paddle Classic, and what you'll need to do if you want to migrate.
What's Paddle Billing?
Paddle Billing is a new set of billing and recurring revenue management features designed for modern SaaS and digital product businesses. It gives you new ways to increase your revenue, retain customers, and scale your operations compared to Paddle Classic. You can think of it as an entirely new version of Paddle.
It shares the same world-class merchant of record foundations as Paddle Classic, meaning it comes with everything you need for payments and tax. Fraud prevention, global tax calculation and remittance, plug and play payment methods, a high performance checkout experience, and access to over 200 countries and territories comes as standard with Paddle Billing.
What can you do with Paddle Billing?
Paddle Billing is a reimagining of how you work with the Paddle platform, offering you more ways to maximize revenue and grow your sales volume.
Integrated invoicing and hybrid billing
Sell through a checkout or issue invoices — all from the same integrated platform. Offer solutions for all stages of customer growth, transitioning scaling customers to enterprise plans paid by bank transfer.
Flexible ways to sell digital products and subscriptions
Paddle Billing comes with a product catalog designed for flexibility, as well as support for multi-product subscriptions. Build complex offerings with plans and addons on the same subscription.
True localization
Take your price localization strategy to the next level with new features that let you price for willingness-to-pay and purchasing power. Plus, get greater control over which currencies your prices are automatically converted into.
Developer first experience
Paddle Billing is API-first, and we use our public endpoints to power the Paddle dashboard. We designed Paddle Billing with DX in mind, with a new unified API, webhooks, and SDKs that put consistency and modern standards first.
Seamless integration with Retain
Never think about dunning again. Paddle Retain combines world-class subscription expertise with algorithms that use millions of data points to automatically reduce churn through payment failures and increase customer lifetime value.
Regular updates
Rebuilt from the ground up and designed with modern SaaS and digital product businesses in mind, our platform is evolving faster than ever before. Changes are properly versioned, so you can opt in to features in your own time.
How do you get Paddle Billing?
All Paddle Classic customers can activate Paddle Billing to get access to the new API, webhooks, and pages in the Paddle dashboard. Paddle Billing has a separate set of data, so you won't lose any data in Paddle Classic when you turn on Paddle Billing. It doesn't cost anything until you start running transactions through it.
Once activated, your Paddle Classic integration continues to work as before. To move to Paddle Billing, you need to build an integration with our new platform and migrate your Classic data.
Here's how the process works at a high level:
Activate Paddle Billing and build an integration.
Turn on Paddle Billing for your account, then build an integration using our new API, webhooks, and Paddle.js v2. We've built SDKs for Go, Node.js, PHP, and Python, plus a Next.js starter kit to speed up the process. There's a new version of Laravel Cashier, too.
Start transacting through Paddle Billing.
When you're ready, start selling using Paddle Billing. Create and manage new subscriptions using Paddle Billing, while running existing subscriptions through Paddle Classic.
Migrate Classic subscriptions to Billing.
Request a migration and let our team port your existing customers and subscriptions from Paddle Classic to Paddle Billing. Webhooks occur when records are migrated, so you're kept in-the-loop.
Turn off your Classic integration.
You're done. You can remove Paddle Classic from your stack and use Paddle Billing.
What happens to your Paddle Classic data and integration?
Paddle Billing and Paddle Classic have separate sets of data. Once you've activated Paddle Billing, you get access to a toggle that lets you switch between your Paddle Classic and Paddle Billing data.
Paddle Classic and Paddle Billing share core settings, but data is separate. This means:
- Your Paddle Classic data is safe. Nothing happens to existing subscriptions or other data in Paddle Classic.
- Your Paddle Classic integration isn't affected. Customers can still make purchases using your existing integration.
- You get a new set of data for Paddle Billing, but no data is migrated automatically. Pages for customers, products, subscriptions, and other entities in Paddle Billing are empty initially. This data still exists in Paddle Classic.
Your existing integration will continue to work as before. Existing customer and subscription data isn't ported automatically or changed in any way. For example, customers can continue to buy items using your existing integration, and subscriptions in Paddle Classic aren't created in Paddle Billing.
Next steps
If you want to migrate, we're here to help throughout the process. To start, continue reading our migration guides. Our guides walk you through:
- What's new or changed in Paddle Billing, in detail.
- How data in Paddle Classic maps to data in Paddle Billing.
- Technical differences between Paddle Classic and Paddle Billing.
- How to build an integration and plan for a migration.