Overview

PayWhirl is recurring-billing software for merchants who need to sell subscriptions alongside other payment types. It suits businesses that want several ways to connect billing to a storefront or custom site, but its transaction fees come on top of gateway or processor charges.

Merchants can offer installments, retainers, pre-orders, donations, manual subscriptions and one-time payments as well as recurring plans. Scheduled charges, invoices, emails, retries and dunning are automated, while subscribers can manage payment methods, billing details and subscription changes in a self-service portal, subject to merchant settings. Merchant reports cover MRR and ARR, customer lifetime value, churn, payment timing, geography and growth forecasts.

PayWhirl supports embeddable widgets, hosted payment links, API access, webhooks and custom scripts. It lists integrations with Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Stripe, Square, PayPal, Authorize.Net, Braintree, ShipStation, Mailchimp, Google Analytics and Zapier. It supports over 10 gateways and major credit and debit cards in more than 100 currencies, depending on gateway capabilities.

PayWhirl says card numbers and verification codes are intended to pass directly to payment providers rather than its servers. Its data protection addendum describes it as a processor for merchant subscriber data and says it will not sell that data or use it for unrelated advertising or profiling. Human support is available for setup, gateway configuration, subscriber imports and launch details.

Key features

Flexible billing: Recurring plans, installments, retainers, pre-orders, donations, manual subscriptions and one-time payments accommodate more than a standard subscription catalog.
Automation and recovery: Scheduled billing, invoices, emails, retries and dunning reduce routine follow-up; payment recovery is also supported.
Subscriber controls: The portal lets customers manage billing details and subscription changes, though merchants decide which actions to allow.
Revenue visibility: MRR, ARR, lifetime value, churn, payment calendar, geographic reporting and growth forecasting give merchants several ways to monitor performance.
Multiple connection routes: Widgets, hosted links, APIs, webhooks and custom scripts suit different storefront and custom-site setups. Billing intervals are customizable, and prepaid plans and pause-or-skip options are supported.

Pricing

PayWhirl uses a freemium model. The free plan costs $0 /mo, and paid plans start at $9 /mo. Every paid plan includes a 14-day free trial with the full application. PayWhirl transaction fees are additional to payment gateway or processor fees, so compare total payment costs rather than the monthly subscription alone.

Starter — $0 /mo: 3.0% per transaction, with gateway processing fees still applying. This is the free option for merchants outside the Shopify-specific plan breakdown.
Free — $0 /mo: Shopify app, 3% transaction fee and standard processor fees. It gives Shopify merchants a no-monthly-cost way to start, but the transaction charge remains.
Pro — $9 /mo: Shopify app, 2% transaction fee and standard processor fees. The entry paid Shopify tier lowers the PayWhirl rate compared with Free.
Traction — $29 /mo: Shopify app, 1.5% transaction fee and standard processor fees. It lowers the transaction rate further for merchants whose volume makes that trade-off worthwhile.
Business Pro — $49 /mo: 2.0% per transaction, plus gateway processing fees. Its transaction rate is higher than Traction's despite the higher monthly price, so the plans should be compared by their intended integration and overall costs.
Business Plus — $149 /mo: 1.0% per transaction, plus gateway processing fees. The lower rate may suit businesses able to justify the larger monthly commitment.
Scale — $149 /mo: Shopify app, 0.75% transaction fee and standard processor fees. At the same monthly price as Business Plus, it has the lower stated transaction rate but is the Shopify plan.
Business Ultimate — $249 /mo: 0.5% per transaction, plus gateway processing fees. This is the highest-priced published monthly plan and has the lowest stated fee among the listed non-Shopify business plans.
Enterprise — custom pricing: Volume discounts for businesses processing more than $5,000,000 per year; contact sales. Gateway processing fees still apply.

The plan descriptions give no seat counts, transaction quotas or other usage caps. Fees marked with an asterisk retain that marker in the plan terms; the listed gateway-fee caveat still matters for every plan.

Platforms

PayWhirl is available on web and through API. It is described for merchants using BigCommerce, custom websites and a separate Shopify application. Shopify-specific plans are distinguished from Business plans, so merchants should match the pricing track to their integration.

Who it's for

PayWhirl is a fit for merchants selling both recurring and one-time offers, particularly those who need a mix of checkout methods, billing automation and subscriber self-service. Its range of integration approaches is useful for storefronts and custom sites, while reporting and payment recovery support ongoing subscription operations. Merchants comparing on cost should account for both the monthly plan and per-transaction PayWhirl and processor charges. A business seeking a plan with clearly stated seats or usage allowances will not find those limits in the plan terms summarized here.

Pros and cons

Pro: Broad offer support covers subscriptions, installments, retainers, pre-orders, donations and one-time payments in one billing platform.
Pro: Widgets, hosted links, API, webhooks and scripts give merchants several integration paths, backed by a wide range of named storefront, payment and business integrations.
Pro: Automated retries and dunning, plus a subscriber portal and churn and revenue reporting, address both payment operations and subscription oversight.
Con: PayWhirl transaction fees are charged in addition to gateway or processor fees, which makes headline monthly prices an incomplete measure of cost.
Con: The free plans still carry transaction fees, and the Shopify and Business plan tracks have different fee schedules and descriptions that require a careful fit check.
Con: Customer portal actions depend on merchant settings, so subscribers may not have the same self-service options across merchants.

Alternatives

For broader comparisons, see Subscription Ecommerce Software and Subscription Billing Software.

Seal Subscriptions is worth comparing if a reader wants a low-cost monthly plan with a stated 0% transaction fee: SUPERSALE is $5.95 per month and covers 100 total subscriptions, with a 30-day free trial.
Appstle Subscriptions may suit a merchant seeking a free plan with a stated $500 monthly subscription cap, prepaid and pay-as-you-go subscriptions, and 24/7 human support.
Loop Subscriptions is an alternative for a small operation that values a free plan capped at 50 active subscriptions, a mobile-friendly customer portal, alerts and growth and revenue analytics.
Recurpay is a candidate for development stores: its free development-store plan has no transaction fee and includes analytics, a customer portal and automatic payment recovery.
Subi Subscriptions is another freemium option for readers comparing subscription tools with a free development-store offering.
PayKickstart may suit a buyer looking for a paid platform with all features included, no platform transaction fees and a 14-day trial.
Shopify is an alternative for readers evaluating an ecommerce platform rather than only subscription billing.
Awtomic is an alternative with a paid Professional yearly plan priced at $2491.00 USD per year, billed monthly, with a minimum one-year contract and a 1% per-order fee.

Verdict

Choose PayWhirl if your business needs flexible recurring and one-time billing, several integration routes and automation that covers payment recovery, with reporting and a customer portal alongside. Its strongest case is breadth: it handles varied offer types without limiting the merchant to a single connection method. Look elsewhere if transaction fees layered on gateway costs undermine the economics, or if you need plan terms centered on clearly stated seats and usage limits.

	FastSpring	PayWhirl
Free plan	No	Yes
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Paid from	—	$9/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	api, Web
Free plan	No	Yes
Paid from	—	9 /mo

FastSpring vs PayWhirl

FastSpring

PayWhirl