What should dunning software cost?

Flat plans typically run $100-$500 a month for SMB volumes. Revenue-share vendors take roughly 5-10% of recovered revenue, which passes a flat plan's cost somewhere around $5,000-$10,000 recovered per month.

How much recovery lift should I expect from switching?

Decline-code routing plus a second channel typically adds 8-15 percentage points over fixed-schedule email dunning. Measure it over a fixed 14-day window.

Can I white-label a dunning tool for clients?

Few offer it. RRLabs does for $300 a month: custom CNAME, DKIM signing and no vendor watermark on any customer-facing message.

Dunning software comparison: pricing, retries and channels

By Palash Sarker, Founder & Software Architect, Revenue Recovery LabsNovember 18, 20264 min read Verified by RRLabs

The comparison that matters

Ignore feature grids. Four questions separate every tool on the market: does the retry window vary by decline code, which channels can it send on, whose brand is on the message, and does the price move with recovered revenue?

RRLabs answers those with yes, email plus SMS plus WhatsApp, yours, and no. Most competitors answer no, email, theirs, and yes.

Pricing models in practice

Percentage pricing (Retain, Gravy, FlyCode) is easy to approve and expensive to keep. Platform-bundled pricing (Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Recurly) is cheap and locked to that platform. Flat SaaS pricing (RRLabs, Stunning, Churnkey) is predictable and forecastable.

Model your own number: MRR x failure rate x recovery rate x the vendor's share. That figure is your annual cost of choosing performance pricing.

Recovery channel comparison: WhatsApp Cloud API 98% read rate within 15 minutes vs transactional email 21% open rate.

Retry logic in practice

Insufficient funds recovers at 55-70% when retried near payday. Expired card recovers at 70-85%, but only behind an update link. Do-not-honor sits at 30-45% and needs an alternate-card prompt early.

A tool that cannot express those four behaviours separately is leaving the difference on the table, whatever its dashboard shows.

Questions for the demo call

Can I see the retry schedule for a do_not_honor decline versus an expired_card decline? Can the second touch go to WhatsApp? Whose domain signs the email? What happens to my cost if recovery doubles?

Then ask for shadow mode. A vendor confident in its lift will let you ingest a full billing cycle before sending anything.

Frequently asked questions

What should dunning software cost?: Flat plans typically run $100-$500 a month for SMB volumes. Revenue-share vendors take roughly 5-10% of recovered revenue, which passes a flat plan's cost somewhere around $5,000-$10,000 recovered per month.
How much recovery lift should I expect from switching?: Decline-code routing plus a second channel typically adds 8-15 percentage points over fixed-schedule email dunning. Measure it over a fixed 14-day window.
Can I white-label a dunning tool for clients?: Few offer it. RRLabs does for $300 a month: custom CNAME, DKIM signing and no vendor watermark on any customer-facing message.