With $443B in estimated costs from failed payments, finding the right solution to recover lost revenue for your business demands understanding the full scope of your problem. But the impact of maintaining a seamless customer experience can’t be ignored either.

Two prominent players in this field – ProfitWell and Butter – offer distinct approaches to recovering lost funds for subscription businesses and preventing accidental churn. By understanding each tactic, you can settle on the best choice for your company.

In this article, we’ll explore what each platform brings to the table and highlight their respective pros and cons to help you make an informed decision for your business.

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What is ProfitWell?

ProfitWell is a well-established player in the payments technology industry. They offer a range of services aimed at optimizing revenue and reducing churn for subscription-based businesses. At its core, ProfitWell specializes in data analytics, providing merchants with reports and visualizations for clearer customer and revenue insights.

Today, the company serves over 5,000 subscription companies, such as Autodesk, Atlassian, and Meetup.

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What services does ProfitWell offer?

ProfitWell provides a suite of products for its customers to manage their business data, such as:

• ProfitWell Metrics: Accurate, real-time subscription analytics that analyzes customer acquisition, retention, and engagement. Easily integrates with CRMs, marketing automation, and customer support tools.
• Price Intelligently: A software built to ensure your pricing strategy is data-driven and provides value for added growth.‍
• Retain™: A payment recovery tool for retrying failed payments and communicating payment failures to customers via emails and in-app reminders.

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After being acquired by Paddle, ProfitWell has expanded its offering to include:

• Paddle Billing: An all-in-one billing solution for SaaS merchants, handling payments, tax, subscription management, and more.

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As ProfitWell’s only payment recovery product, Retain™ incorporates a data-driven approach with a personalized communication tool to prompt customers for updated payment details.

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Pros of using ProfitWell:

• Subscription Metrics: ProfitWell offers a comprehensive set of metrics to help businesses understand their subscription performance, such as MRR, customer churn, and LTV.
• Price Optimization: ProfitWell’s Price Intelligently helps businesses optimize their pricing strategies to maximize revenue while retaining customers.‍
• Email Communication: Retain's email communication strategies may be effective for businesses looking to engage customers directly in payment recovery efforts.

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Cons of using ProfitWell:

• Limited Customization: ProfitWell's approach does not offer in-depth customization of customer communications or control over the payment recovery process.‍
• Black Box Approach: With so many products tied together, ProfitWell customers can expect a “one-size-fits-all” approach without much room for modification. To best navigate this, ProfitWell leans on its Account Managers to help explain the hidden details to your failed payments.

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What is Butter?

Butter is a payments technology platform that focuses exclusively on solving the challenge of failed payment recovery through algorithmic machine learning. Unlike competitors, Butter is dedicated to perfecting this specific aspect of payments technology – saving an average of 5%  total ARR.

Butter is the only solution in the market, 100% focused on recovering failed payments. 

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What services does Butter offer?

To best support our customers, our team is focused on a specialized set of services:

• Algorithmic Payment Recovery: Butter's proprietary machine learning algorithms consider 128 different variables – such as bank, currency, and time of initial failure – to create custom retry schedules for each payment. Our approach ensures the most effective and tailored payment recovery strategies for businesses.
• Customized Communication Approach: We empower businesses to manage their customer communication, ensuring a seamless and unobtrusive experience. Rather than bothering customers with unnecessary notifications, Butter works its magic in the background.
• Scalability and Adaptability: Our algorithms continuously evolve to accommodate new market dynamics and pricing plans, making it an ideal choice for businesses seeking to grow or adapt swiftly. No “one size fits all” or “set it and forget it” tactics here.

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Pros of using Butter:

• Singular Focus: Our dedication to solving the problem of failed payment recovery sets us apart from competitors who offer a range of services. We are currently the only solution on the market that is only 100% focused on solving failed payment recovery through algorithmic machine learning.
• Advanced Algorithms: Butter's machine learning models offer advanced and customized retry strategies, ensuring maximum payment recovery to boost your ARR.‍
• Multiple ML Models: Our team of data scientists uses over a dozen different models at once to see what performs best for your business.

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Cons of using Butter:

• Limited Direct Customer Communication: While Butter's approach reduces friction with customers, it may not be suitable for businesses looking to outsource direct communication with customers.

See which solution works best for your failed payments

Ultimately, the choice between ProfitWell and Butter depends on your specific business needs and priorities. Here’s how it breaks down across a few key features:

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Ready to see if Butter is the right fit for your business? Contact us today to get started with a free payment assessment to explore what’s working and identify areas for improvement.

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