Ordway Subscription Billing, Revenue Recognition, and Metrics Reporting
Zuora was the best subscription billing platform on the market in 2015 — but that was 10 years ago! A new generation of billing platforms has emerged that are AI-native and designed to support modern pricing strategies based on consumption and outcomes.
Ordway is a modern billing and revenue platform designed for today’s AI-native products. Ordway supports the latest GTM and monetization strategies including consumption-based pricing, product-led growth (PLG), and self-service buying experiences.
Get Free Demo Today!
See the industry’s most flexible subscription billing platform in action.
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”With Zuora, we found that it was hard to get support from them. They didn’t want to deal with the complexities that we had on our side and just wanted us to fit into their solution. But, Ordway has been fantastic and has supported us every step of the way,”
Conor O’DonoghueHead of Finance at Ocrolus
Four Reasons
to Consider Zuora Alternatives
1. More Flexibility
No consultants required
Zuora was designed for large enterprise Global 2000 companies. Like an ERP application, it requires months of training to learn and a specialized team to administer. Outdated technology makes it less flexible to customize and configure for your specific use cases. Don’t make the rest of the business wait on the billing system to launch new products or pricing changes. Ordway’s modern billing architecture is designed for fast-moving, early-stage companies with ambitious growth plans.
2. Higher Touch Support
You don’t have to be Fortune 500 to be important
Zuora only cares about its large customers – the Fortune 500 accounts that generate $1M per year in ARR. One of the most common complaints from small and midsized customers is that it is challenging to get support from Zuora. At Ordway, every customer is important! We prioritize even early-stage startups because we know their potential to grow quickly. Our CEO and CTO are actively involved in Quarterly Business Reviews and customer success plans.
3. Rapid Implementation
Go live in weeks – not years
Zuora implementations take a year or longer with an army of consultants camped out in your finance department, billing $250 per hour. After the implementation, you need to hire one or more full-time staff to administer the system day-to-day. Ordway implementations average 45-60 days and can be even shorter for companies who are ready to move faster. No outside consultants are required. No FTEs need to be hired.
4. Better Pricing
Budget friendly for high growth companies
Zuora pricing starts at $100K per year. Zuora’s top investor metric is the number of customers with > $250K ACV. Expect regular price increases at renewals and aggressive cross-selling campaigns to get you to buy their latest product to raise your ACV by about $250K. Ordway offers competitive pricing that will fit within your budget and scale modestly as you grow.
The Best Zuora Alternative
Subscription Management
Automate the full lifecycle experience for customers on subscriptions, including:
- New Customer Acquisition – Self-service product selection and online checkout
- Monetization Strategies – Price on user count, feature tiers, locations, revenues
- Grow Accounts – Self-service upgrades, user adds, and renewal opt-ins
Learn more about Ordway’s subscription management capabilities.
Usage Based Billing
Ordway provides native support for usage-based pricing models. No clunky integrations.
- Pricing metrics – API calls, GB data transferred, hours of use
- Discount models – Linear, tiered, or volume discount schedules
- Capacity contracts – Prepaid credits, monthly minimums, spend commitments
Learn more about Ordway’s usage-based billing capabilities.
Revenue Recognition
Comply with ASC 606 and IFRS 15 revenue recognition for customer contracts
- Deferred revenue – Schedules for recurring revenue subscriptions
- Revenue subledger – Journal entries for revenue, invoices, unbilled AR
- Accounting/ERP – Sync with Netsuite, Sage Intacct, Quickbooks, Xero
Learn more about Ordway’s revenue recognition capabilities.
TRUSTED BY
Ordway is the Industry’s Leading Billing
and
Revenue Automation Platform
The highest average review score across online review sites
Zuora FAQs
What does Zuora do?
Zuora is a SaaS application that provides subscription management and recurring billing capabilities. Many large Fortune 500 companies use Zuora to invoice and collect payments for their B2C and B2B subscription offerings, such as streaming media, SaaS, cloud, IoT, and direct-to-consumer. Zuora acquired Leeyo, a revenue recognition software application, to comply with ASC 606 and IFRS 15 accounting requirements for customer contracts.
Who owns Zuora?
Zuora went public in 2018 and traded on the NYSE under the ZUO ticker symbol until 2024 when it was taken private. The company was acquired by private equity fund SilverLake and GIC, a sovereign wealth fund from Singapore for $1.7B.
What are some common problems with Zuora?
Zuora has the reputation of being a powerful billing system but also one that is complex to implement and manage. Customers typically have to engage third-party consulting firms to perform the initial rollout. At least one, if not multiple, FTEs are required to manage the system on a day-to-day basis. Zuora is also known to be more expensive than many of the other recurring billing applications on the market.
Who are Zuora's competitors?
Competitors of Zuora in the subscription billing software sector include Ordway, Aria Systems, Chargebee, SAP, and BillingPlatform. There are over 50 software vendors that offer subscription management and recurring billing software applications. The key differences between the vendors are the customers they target and the complexity of billing calculations they can perform. Many subscription billing software vendors also offer capabilities such as Configure, Price, and Quote (CPQ), revenue recognition, and metrics reporting.
What is the best Zuora alternative?
Ordway was founded by Sameer Gulati, one of Zuora’s first product managers. During his time at Zuora he grew frustrated with the rigid architecture of the application and the limited focus on just “subscription” business models. Gulati founded Ordway to offer finance leaders a much more flexible platform for billing and revenue management.
Ordway is the Best Zuora Alternative
Lower costs. Increase flexibility. Move faster.
Get Free Demo Today!
See the industry’s most flexible subscription billing platform in action.
