Chaser is a well-known name in accounts receivable automation. It's been around since 2013, raised a solid Series A, and built a loyal customer base among UK and international B2B teams. If you're an agency or services business chasing overdue invoices, Chaser is probably already on your shortlist.
But Chaser and subscription payment recovery tools like Rekko solve different problems, even though they both involve sending reminders about unpaid money. Confusing the two is a common mistake that can cost you months of lost recovery.
This article walks through what Chaser actually does, where it shines, and where a Stripe-native subscription dunning tool is the better call.
The short version
| Factor | Chaser | Rekko |
|---|---|---|
| Core use case | B2B invoice chasing (AR) | SaaS subscription payment recovery |
| Trigger | Overdue invoice in accounting software | Failed Stripe charge |
| Integrations | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite | Stripe |
| Channels | Email, SMS, letters, phone calls | Email and SMS |
| Pricing | From around $40/mo, scales with invoice volume | Flat from $29/mo |
| Best for | Agencies, services, wholesalers | Stripe-based SaaS |
What Chaser is actually built for
Chaser automates the "where's our payment?" conversation. You connect it to Xero, QuickBooks, or another accounting system. It watches your accounts receivable. When an invoice passes its due date, Chaser starts sending reminders on your behalf, using your email signature and tone.
The core workflow looks like this:
- You raise an invoice in Xero for $4,000, net 30
- Day 31 hits, client hasn't paid
- Chaser sends a polite nudge
- Day 37, firmer reminder
- Day 45, escalation with payment terms attached
- Day 60, handoff to collections if needed
Chaser also offers credit control services, debtor insights, and even a collections product for invoices that go truly delinquent. For a consultancy, a marketing agency, or a wholesaler, this is exactly the workflow you need.
Where Chaser stops making sense
Now consider a SaaS subscription scenario.
A customer subscribed to your $99/mo plan six months ago. Their card expires. Stripe tries to charge it, fails, and fires an invoice.payment_failed webhook. You have about 7 to 21 days (depending on your Stripe retry schedule) before that customer churns automatically.
Chaser can't see this. There's no overdue invoice in your accounting system yet. The failed charge lives entirely inside Stripe. Your accounting software probably only sees the payment after it succeeds, not when it fails.
Even if you could wire Chaser to watch Stripe, the shape of the problem is different:
- Volume: SaaS dunning means lots of small recoveries ($30 to $500 each), not a few large invoices
- Urgency: You have days, not weeks, before Stripe auto-cancels the subscription
- Customer context: The "debtor" isn't a deadbeat client, it's usually a good customer with an expired card
- Recovery action: You need the customer to update their card, not pay a wire transfer
This is why subscription businesses reach for Stripe-native dunning tools.
What Stripe-native dunning looks like
Rekko is built around the Stripe failed payment flow. When Stripe tells you a charge failed, Rekko picks it up in real time, creates a FailedPayment record, and fires a recovery sequence.
A typical sequence looks like:
- Hour 1: Friendly email with a pre-authenticated link to update the payment method (no login needed)
- Day 2: SMS reminder ("Hey {{customer_name}}, your card on file didn't work for your {{account_name}} subscription")
- Day 4: Email with more context on what happens if the card isn't updated
- Day 6: Final SMS before Stripe's last retry attempt
Industry data puts Stripe's built-in Smart Retries at around 25% to 30% recovery. Adding email-only dunning pushes that to 40% to 55%. Email plus SMS sequences from focused tools often land in the 60% to 80% range.
For SaaS, those percentage points translate into real MRR. A $200K MRR business losing 9% to failed payments ($18K) can recover an additional $5K to $9K/mo just by moving from built-in retries to a multi-channel sequence.
Pricing side-by-side
Chaser's pricing scales with the number of invoices you chase per month. Entry plans start around $40/mo for small volumes, with mid-tier plans in the $120 to $300 range. They also offer managed credit control as an add-on service.
Rekko uses flat SaaS pricing:
| Plan | Price | Stripe Accounts | Emails | SMS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29/mo | 1 | 1,000 | Pay-per-use |
| Essential | $49/mo | 3 | 5,000 | Pay-per-use |
| Pro | $129/mo | Unlimited | 20,000 | Pay-per-use |
Both are reasonably priced for what they do. The point isn't "one is cheaper"; it's that they're pricing for different workloads.
When Chaser is the right call
Use Chaser if any of these describe you:
- You bill clients with manual invoices through Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage
- Your average invoice is more than a few hundred dollars
- You're an agency, consultancy, law firm, accounting firm, or wholesaler
- You need letters, phone calls, or managed collections as escalation options
- Most of your cash flow problems come from late payers, not expired cards
Chaser does this category well. Don't reach for a subscription dunning tool to chase one-off invoices. It's the wrong shape.
When subscription dunning wins
Use Rekko (or a similar Stripe-native tool) if:
- You run a SaaS or subscription business on Stripe
- Most failed payments are due to expired cards, insufficient funds, or temporary bank declines
- You care about recovering revenue before Stripe's retry schedule ends
- You want email and SMS sequences that trigger in real time off Stripe webhooks
- Your customer "debtors" are active subscribers, not clients in arrears
What about hybrid businesses?
Some businesses do both: they run a SaaS product on Stripe and also send occasional consulting invoices through Xero. In that case, the honest answer is you probably need both tools. Chaser handles the manual invoices, Rekko handles the failed subscription charges. Trying to force one tool to do both leaves gaps on at least one side.
Common mistake: using Chaser for SaaS subscriptions
We've seen SaaS founders attempt to wire Chaser into their Stripe setup through Zapier or manual CSV imports. It technically works, but it's slow. By the time a failed Stripe charge makes it into your accounting software as an overdue line item, you're already days into Stripe's retry window. You need something that reacts to webhooks in real time.
The bottom line
Chaser is a solid product. It's just built for a different job than SaaS subscription recovery. If you're chasing B2B invoices, go with Chaser. If you're recovering failed Stripe charges, use a dunning tool built for that.
Rekko connects to Stripe in about 5 minutes, runs email and SMS sequences off real-time webhooks, and charges a flat fee regardless of how much you recover. For SaaS operators who've been patching together workflows with tools designed for AR, it's the cleaner fit.
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