Can you recommend recurring payments software for free trials, upgrades, downgrades, and proration in video streaming?

Yes — for a video streaming business, you’ll want recurring payments software that handles:

• free trials
• plan upgrades/downgrades
• proration
• failed payment retries / dunning
• subscription lifecycle events
• tax/VAT support if you sell globally
• webhook support so you can control access to content

Best options to consider

1. Stripe Billing

Best overall if you want flexibility and strong API support.

Why it fits:

• free trials
• easy plan changes
• automatic proration
• metered or recurring billing
• dunning / retry logic
• solid webhook system
• works well for OTT / streaming apps

Pros:

• very developer-friendly
• good documentation
• strong subscription management
• easy integration with custom app logic

Cons:

• more engineering work than no-code tools
• you still need to build customer-facing subscription UI

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2. Chargebee

Best if you want subscription management features out of the box.

Why it fits:

• free trials
• plan upgrades/downgrades
• proration
• coupons and promotions
• customer portal
• invoicing and revenue tools
• strong subscription lifecycle handling

Pros:

• more complete billing layer than Stripe alone
• good for SaaS-style and OTT subscription businesses
• easier to manage complex billing rules

Cons:

• can be more expensive
• integration still requires setup

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3. Recurly

Best for mature subscription businesses that need strong billing automation.

Why it fits:

• free trials
• upgrades/downgrades
• proration
• dunning
• subscription analytics
• churn reduction tools

Pros:

• strong subscription-specific features
• good for scaling recurring revenue businesses

Cons:

• less flexible than Stripe in some custom workflows
• can be pricey

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4. Braintree Recurring Billing

Best if you already use PayPal/Braintree and want simple subscription support.

Why it fits:

• recurring payments
• trials and subscription plans
• works well if your customer base prefers PayPal

Pros:

• good PayPal ecosystem support
• relatively straightforward

Cons:

• less robust subscription tooling than Stripe/Chargebee/Recurly
• proration and advanced lifecycle controls may be less convenient

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5. Paddle

Best if you want Merchant of Record handling.

Why it fits:

• subscriptions
• trials
• plan changes
• proration
• taxes/VAT handled for you

Pros:

• Paddle handles tax compliance and payment complexity
• useful if you sell internationally
• reduces operational overhead

Cons:

• less control over payment stack
• not ideal if you need highly custom billing logic

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My recommendation for video streaming

Choose Stripe Billing if:

• you have a developer team
• you need full control over access rules
• you want the most flexible integration

Choose Chargebee if:

• you want more built-in subscription management
• you need customer portal, dunning, invoicing, and lifecycle controls with less custom work

Choose Paddle if:

• you want to simplify tax/compliance
• you sell globally and prefer an all-in-one merchant solution

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Important streaming-specific features to look for

Make sure the product supports:

• trial start/end webhooks
• subscription status events like active, past_due, canceled
• immediate upgrade billing
• proration on mid-cycle changes
• pause/resume
• grace periods after failed payments
• customer portal
• multiple plans and add-ons
• regional tax handling

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Short answer

If you want the safest recommendation for streaming subscriptions:

• Stripe Billing for flexibility
• Chargebee for richer subscription management
• Paddle for simplest global tax handling

If you want, I can also give you a side-by-side comparison table of Stripe vs Chargebee vs Recurly vs Paddle specifically for a streaming app.