Maxio review: Pros, cons, & is it worth it? | 2024

Is Maxio the right billing management platform for your SaaS company?

In this blog post, we’ll take a deep dive into Maxio’s offerings. We’ll look at the pros and cons and let you know who should use Maxio and who should stay away from it. 

In this Maxio review, we’ll go over:

• An overview of Maxio as a platform
• Key offerings and its pricing
• Pros and cons
• Who might find it helpful (and who might not) 
• A TL;DR list of Maxio alternatives

Let’s begin.

A review of Maxio: What it does

Maxio is a billing and financial operations platform designed for B2B SaaS businesses. It aims to automate and simplify complex billing processes. Maxio allows companies to focus on growth and innovation rather than chasing payments.

To get a more solid grasp on what Maxio can do, let’s inspect its offerings more closely: 

Maxio features

• Subscription management: Maxio allows businesses to create and manage various subscription plans, including free trials, discounts, coupons, add-ons, and upgrades/downgrades.
• Payment processing: Maxio integrates with many payment gateways, providing a seamless checkout experience. It also accepts various payment methods when handling recurring billing.
• Dunning management: The platform helps recover failed payments. It does so through automated dunning emails and retries.
• Revenue recognition: Maxio automates revenue recognition. It complies with ASC 606 and IFRS 15 accounting standards.
• Analytics and reporting: Maxio provides detailed reports and dashboards to track key SaaS metrics, such as MRR, ARR, churn, LTV, and more.
• Integrations: Maxio connects with your CRM and accounting software for a frictionless workflow.

Maxio pricing 

Use a flexible pricing model determined by your billing volume over a year. You can customize your solution by adding or removing modules.

• Base plan: Starting at $5k a year (up to $500k in annual billings)
• Custom plan: On request

Maxio pros

Let’s examine what users like and hate about using Maxio daily. Let’s start with the pros:

• Complex contract handling: Maxio easily handles intricate billing agreements. Users praise its ability to manage complex contract schedules and bill according to individual terms. 
• Revenue recognition: Maxio users say its revenue recognition features are a standout benefit. The platform simplifies this often complex process, ensuring compliance with accounting standards (GAAP).
• Customizable billing workflows: Maxio can tailor invoicing workflows to suit specific business needs for recurring or usage-based billing. This level of customization is valuable for businesses with unique or evolving billing processes, and users praise it. 
• Reporting and analytics: Maxio's software provides insights into your financial performance. Yet, some users in Maxio reviews find the reporting interface to be less intuitive.

Maxio cons

Maxio reviews show many disgruntled users who aren’t happy with Maxio. Some even go as far as to say it’s one of the worst experiences they’ve ever had with a partner. 

Let’s look at some of the cons and set the record straight:

• Confusing reporting: Some users find Maxio’s interface and data organization difficult to navigate. Generating specific reports or extracting desired insights can be a challenge. This hinders data-driven decision-making.
• Occasional revenue-recognition hiccups: Numerous Maxio reviews reported users experienced issues with accuracy. This happens especially with complex contracts or edge cases.
• Steep learning curve: Users often mention Maxio’s steep learning curve. Its feature set and complex functionalities can be overwhelming, especially for non-technical users. This has led to very long (10-month) onboarding processes, according to some users.
• Unreliable customer support: Many users have expressed dissatisfaction with Maxio's customer support. Some issues include long response times, limited availability, and difficulty reaching support.
• High cost: Maxio's pricing, starting at $5000 per year, is considered expensive. This is especially true for smaller businesses or those with more straightforward billing needs. The value proposition might not be as clear for those who don't use Maxio’s full suite of features.
• Outdated tech and scalability issues: Some users claim Maxio's underlying technology feels obsolete. They've also said it isn't as scalable as other solutions. This is a big problem for growing businesses with increasing billing complexity.
• Other usability woes: A clunky search function, cumbersome tax error correction, and issues merging duplicate accounts are just a few of the additional problems.

Is Maxio right for you?

If you want to know if Maxio is right for you, then you need to identify its strengths and limitations to understand if it fits your company's precise needs truly. 

Here’s a short summary to help you make the right choice:

Who Maxio is good for

• Businesses with complex billing needs: Does your company have intricate contracts? Maxio's features can be valuable, particularly if you're working with diverse pricing models.
• Companies prioritizing revenue recognition: Maxio's strength lies in its revenue recognition capabilities. This makes it a good fit for businesses with stringent financial reporting requirements and those who need to adhere to GAAP standards.
• Teams with finance expertise: Does your team have experience with complex financial software? Would they be okay with a bit of a learning curve? Maxio's comprehensive feature set could be a valuable asset.

Who should avoid Maxio

• Smaller businesses with more straightforward needs: Maxio might be overkill if you have a small business with simple billing. The complexity and cost might not be justified for your current needs.
• Non-technical teams: Does your team lack technical expertise? If so, Maxio's interface and setup could be challenging. You might be better off with a more user-friendly platform like Orb or Recurly.
• Businesses on a tight budget: Maxio's pricing can be a roadblock for companies with limited budgets. More affordable alternatives, such as Orb, are available.
• Companies needing quick and responsive support: Maxio's customer support isn't the best. Users often criticize it for its slow response times and limited availability. If readily available support is crucial for your operations, you might want to explore other options like Orb.  
• Businesses seeking usage-based billing: Maxio can handle usage-based billing. Still, it isn't as intuitive or streamlined as dedicated usage-based billing platforms like Orb.

Maxio alternatives

Here’s a TL;DR list of Maxio alternatives you should consider:

• Orb: The top choice for usage-based billing, Orb is easy to use and provides in-depth invoices.
• Chargebee: User-friendly with transparent pricing, Chargebee is suitable for simple subscription management.
• Recurly: Designed for developers, Recurly is customizable and handles complex subscription scenarios.
• Stripe: A versatile platform that handles payments and subscriptions. A solid option for businesses seeking a unified solution.

For a more detailed look at these, read our full article comparing Maxio with its main competitors. 

Ready to solve billing?

Now that you’ve read our Maxio review, you should be able to determine whether it’s the right billing management platform for you.

If you’ve decided to look for superior options, you should consider Orb as a more suitable alternative for all your billing needs. 

Orb is a powerful billing management platform for highly complex usage-based and hybrid billing models. These are just a few of the fronts on which Orb beats Maxio:

• Better event ingestion and scale: Orb can handle a larger volume of event ingestion than Maxio. This makes it a better choice for organizations with higher transaction volumes and those basing their charges on usage metrics.

• Accurate invoicing: Orb lets companies create invoices with decimal points. This is a vital feature for businesses that use APIs and charge fractions of dollars. These levels of granularity are nowhere to be found with Maxio.

• Unmatched reports and tracking capabilities: Unlike Maxio, Orb gives businesses more detailed tracking. Sophisticated billing insights are also included. This feature gives companies a clearer view of their billing processes and customer usage patterns. 

Still unsure about Orb? Try out our demo and see how we can solve billing for you.