If you've been researching payment recovery tools for your SaaS, you've probably run into ProfitWell Retain. It had a strong reputation for years, especially among founders who also used ProfitWell Metrics. Then Paddle acquired ProfitWell in 2022, and things changed.
Today, ProfitWell Retain is part of Paddle's stack. New signups are generally routed into Paddle Billing, which works if you want to switch to Paddle as your merchant of record. If you're still on Stripe, and most SaaS teams are, the picture is messier. That's where Rekko comes in as a focused, flat-fee alternative built for Stripe subscriptions.
This piece is an honest head-to-head. We'll cover pricing models, setup, Stripe integration depth, channel coverage, and reporting, then help you decide which fits your stack.
Quick summary
| Factor | ProfitWell Retain (Paddle) | Rekko |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Revenue share on recovered payments | Flat monthly fee |
| Works on Stripe | Limited for new customers | Yes, Stripe-native |
| Channels | Email and SMS | |
| Setup time | Hours to days | Around 5 minutes |
| Ideal fit | Paddle Billing users | Stripe SaaS, $10K to $500K MRR |
The pricing question: revenue share vs flat fee
ProfitWell Retain has historically used a performance-based model. You pay a percentage of recovered revenue, commonly cited between 25% and 35%. The pitch sounds risk-free: no upfront cost, you only pay when they recover money.
In practice, operators have pushed back on this for a few reasons.
First, the math gets expensive fast. If you recover $20K a month through dunning, a 30% revenue share is $6K a month. That's more than most tools charge for a year of service.
Second, attribution is fuzzy. Revenue share tools usually count any recovery during the retry window, even if the customer would have updated their card on their own. You end up paying for recoveries you'd have captured anyway.
Rekko takes the opposite approach. Flat pricing, starting at $29/mo for the Starter plan and $129/mo for Pro. You keep 100% of what you recover. If your dunning sequence pulls in $15K in a month, your cost is still $29 to $129. The ROI math is trivial to calculate.
For context, the industry benchmark for involuntary churn is roughly 9% of MRR. If you're at $100K MRR, you're leaking around $9K/mo to failed payments. Recovering even half of that with a flat-fee tool means your effective cost is well under 1%.
Stripe integration depth
This is where the Paddle acquisition complicates things.
ProfitWell Retain was originally built for Stripe. Post-acquisition, Paddle's focus has been on Paddle Billing, their merchant of record product. For new customers, the message is increasingly "use Paddle Billing and Retain is bundled in." If you want Retain as a standalone Stripe tool, availability depends on grandfathering and sales conversations.
Rekko connects to Stripe via OAuth in about 5 minutes. It subscribes to the invoice.payment_failed webhook in real time, creates a FailedPayment record, and triggers your active sequence. No migration, no switching billing platforms, no merchant of record changes. Your Stripe stays your Stripe.
If you're already invested in Paddle Billing, Retain bundled in is genuinely convenient. If you're on Stripe and plan to stay there, Rekko is the cleaner fit.
Channels: email only vs email plus SMS
Retain's core recovery channel is email. They do this well, with card update links, pre-dunning for expiring cards, and branded templates. Email-only dunning typically recovers 40% to 55% of failed payments when done right.
Rekko runs email and SMS in the same sequence. You can fire a polite email on day 1, a short SMS reminder on day 3, another email on day 5, and a final SMS before Stripe's last retry. Operators who add SMS to their dunning flow typically see recovery rates climb into the 60% to 80% range. That lift comes from the fact that SMS open rates hover around 95%, versus 20% to 30% for email.
The trade-off: SMS costs more per message and requires opt-in compliance. Rekko handles the opt-out logic automatically, storing records in the OptOut table and skipping any customer who has unsubscribed.
Setup and maintenance
Retain's setup depends on your billing context. Inside Paddle Billing, it's essentially on-by-default with some template customization. As a Stripe-connected tool, historically it required more onboarding, including data sync and sometimes a sales call.
Rekko is self-serve. Sign up, connect Stripe, pick a sequence template, and you're live. The default templates are tuned for SaaS recovery out of the box, so most teams go from zero to active dunning in under 30 minutes.
Ongoing maintenance is also minimal. You edit sequence steps, tweak copy with {{customer_name}}, {{amount}}, and {{payment_link}} variables, and that's about it. No monthly reconciliation, no sales-side check-ins.
Reporting and analytics
Retain's reporting is strong when paired with ProfitWell Metrics. You get MRR recovery tracking, cohort views, and attribution breakdowns. For teams already living in the Paddle/ProfitWell dashboard, the unified view is genuinely useful.
Rekko's reporting is focused. You see which failed payments came in, which sequences fired, delivery status per message (pending, sent, delivered, failed, skipped), and dollar amounts recovered. It's less elaborate than Retain's suite, but it answers the only question most operators actually care about: how much revenue did this tool bring back this month?
If you need advanced cohort analytics, you'll probably want a dedicated analytics tool anyway. If you just need clear ROI on your dunning spend, Rekko's dashboard is sufficient.
When to pick each
Pick ProfitWell Retain (via Paddle) if
- You've already committed to Paddle Billing as your merchant of record
- You want dunning bundled into a broader billing platform
- You're comfortable with revenue-share pricing
- You rely on ProfitWell Metrics and want the unified dashboard
Pick Rekko if
- You're on Stripe and staying there
- You want predictable, flat pricing regardless of recovery volume
- You want SMS in your dunning sequence, not just email
- You need to be live this afternoon, not next week
- You're between $10K and $500K MRR and hate surprise invoices
A realistic comparison scenario
Imagine you're a $150K MRR SaaS losing 9% to failed payments. That's $13.5K/mo at risk.
With ProfitWell Retain on a 30% revenue share, recovering 60% of that ($8.1K) costs you $2,430/mo.
With Rekko Pro at $129/mo, recovering 70% (thanks to added SMS) pulls in $9.45K and costs you $129/mo plus SMS usage. Even at 500 SMS messages, you're well under $200 total.
The math isn't subtle. Flat pricing wins once you're past a few thousand in monthly recovered revenue.
The bottom line
ProfitWell Retain was a great Stripe dunning tool. Post-Paddle, it's become part of a broader billing platform, and if that's the direction you're heading, it still makes sense.
For Stripe-native SaaS teams who want focused payment recovery, fast setup, flat pricing, and email plus SMS in one tool, Rekko is the simpler choice. You don't migrate anything, you don't pay a revenue cut, and you see ROI within the first billing cycle.
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