Every subscription platform ships with some form of automatic dunning these days. Stripe has Smart Retries baked into Stripe Billing. Recurly has its own retry and dunning workflow inside its platform. Both promise to recover failed payments without you lifting a finger.
The honest question isn't whether these built-in tools work. It's whether they work well enough on their own, or whether you should layer a focused dunning tool on top. This article walks through how each built-in system actually behaves, realistic recovery rate benchmarks, and where standalone tools start earning their cost.
Side by side
| Factor | Stripe Smart Retries | Recurly Dunning | Standalone dunning (e.g. Rekko) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built into billing platform | Yes | Yes | No, layers on top |
| Cost | Included in Stripe | Included in Recurly | $29 to $500/mo |
| Email sequences | Basic via Stripe Billing | Yes, configurable | Yes, fully customizable |
| SMS sequences | No | Limited | Yes |
| Pre-authenticated links | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Typical recovery rate | 25% to 30% | 35% to 50% | 60% to 80% |
| Customization depth | Minimal | Moderate | High |
How Stripe Smart Retries works
Stripe Smart Retries is the machine learning retry logic built into Stripe Billing. When a subscription charge fails, Stripe doesn't just pick a fixed retry schedule. It looks at signals like issuer patterns, historical success on similar declines, time of day, and customer behavior, then picks a retry window it thinks has the best chance of success.
Stripe Billing also supports:
- Automatic email reminders via Stripe's built-in email system (if enabled)
- Customer portal links for payment method updates
- Configurable retry schedules (up to 4 retries by default)
- Subscription cancellation after the retry window ends
In practice, Smart Retries does what it says. Operators who enable it and nothing else typically see around 25% to 30% of failed payments recovered. That's meaningful, and it's included in Stripe's standard fees, so it's essentially free money.
The limitations show up when you look at what's missing:
- Email customization is thin. The default Stripe emails are functional but generic, and they're hard to make feel like your brand.
- No SMS. Stripe won't text your customers, and SMS has open rates around 95% vs 20% to 30% for email.
- Cadence control is limited. You can change retry timing, but you can't easily build a multi-step communication sequence with branching logic.
- No pre-authenticated links by default. Customers have to log in to the Stripe-hosted portal to update cards, which adds friction.
For many SaaS, Smart Retries is a good starting point but not the ending point.
How Recurly's built-in dunning works
Recurly takes a more configurable approach. Dunning is a core part of Recurly's subscription platform, not an add-on. You get:
- Multi-step dunning campaigns with configurable email sequences
- Retry strategies (aggressive, moderate, conservative)
- Customer notification templates with branding
- Some SMS support at higher tiers
- Pre-authenticated update flows in Recurly's hosted pages
Recurly's recovery rates tend to land higher than Stripe Smart Retries out of the box, typically 35% to 50% in our read of operator reports. Part of this is better email control, part of it is more retry strategy flexibility, and part of it is that Recurly customers are usually further along in configuring their dunning than Stripe customers who just toggled Smart Retries on.
The trade-off is cost and complexity. Recurly is a full billing platform with custom pricing, implementation services, and a much larger surface area than Stripe Billing. If you're already on Recurly, using its dunning is a no-brainer. If you're on Stripe, migrating to Recurly just for better dunning would be a very expensive solve.
The recovery rate gap that matters
Here are realistic benchmarks worth having in your head:
| Approach | Typical recovery rate |
|---|---|
| No dunning at all | 10% to 15% |
| Stripe Smart Retries only | 25% to 30% |
| Recurly dunning (well configured) | 35% to 50% |
| Standalone email-only dunning | 45% to 60% |
| Standalone email plus SMS dunning | 60% to 80% |
The gap between 25% (Smart Retries alone) and 70% (a good email plus SMS sequence) is the difference between recovering $2.25K and $6.3K a month on a $100K MRR business losing 9% to failed payments. That's $48K a year in recovered revenue that never hits your account if you stay at built-in only.
Why does the gap exist? A few reasons:
- Multi-channel wins. Email open rates are 20% to 30%. SMS open rates are around 95%. Adding SMS to the sequence catches customers who never saw the email.
- Copy and timing matter. Generic "your payment failed" emails underperform tailored sequences that feel human.
- Friction kills recovery. A customer who clicks a pre-authenticated link and lands on a one-field update form converts better than one who has to log in through a portal.
- Speed matters. Real-time reaction to
invoice.payment_failedwebhooks means you're in the customer's inbox within an hour, not on Stripe's default 3-day retry schedule.
When built-in is enough
There are legitimate cases where you shouldn't bother adding a standalone dunning tool.
- You're under $10K MRR. The math on a $29 to $100/mo tool is fine, but honestly, turning on Smart Retries and writing a decent default email through Stripe is probably all you need. Come back when you're bigger.
- You have low failed payment volume. If you're getting 3 failed payments a month, no tool is going to change your life.
- You're a lifestyle business without optimization bandwidth. Adding any tool means maintaining it. If you're not going to tune the sequence, built-in is fine.
- You're already on Recurly and happy with it. Recurly's dunning is reasonable. If it's working, don't add layers.
When standalone wins
Add a standalone dunning tool if any of these are true:
- You're between $20K and $2M MRR
- You're on Stripe and staying on Stripe
- Your current recovery rate feels low and you've already enabled Smart Retries
- You want SMS in your recovery flow
- You want full control over email copy, timing, and branching
- You want pre-authenticated update links as the default experience
- You want a dashboard that clearly shows "this is how much revenue this tool recovered"
Where Rekko fits
Rekko is a focused Stripe dunning tool. It doesn't replace Stripe Billing. It layers on top of Stripe, connects via OAuth in about 5 minutes, and handles the email plus SMS recovery sequences that Stripe's built-in tooling can't do well.
You still get Smart Retries underneath (Stripe will still run its retry logic). Rekko adds the communication layer around those retries: pre-authenticated update links via email, SMS reminders for customers who ignore email, variable-driven templates tuned for SaaS, and an opt-out management system that stays compliant.
Pricing is flat: $29/mo for Starter, $49/mo for Essential, $129/mo for Pro. SMS is pay-per-use on top. For most SMB to mid-market SaaS, the tool pays for itself within the first week of use.
| 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 |
Final call
Stripe Smart Retries and Recurly's built-in dunning are both worth using if you already have them. They're free (or bundled), they work, and they recover real revenue. The mistake is treating them as the end of the work.
If you're on Stripe and serious about cutting involuntary churn, adding a focused dunning tool on top of Smart Retries is one of the highest-ROI moves you can make. Email plus SMS sequences, pre-authenticated links, and real-time webhook reaction are the pieces that push recovery rates from 25% into the 60% to 80% range.
Start your 14-day free trial, no credit card required. See how Rekko stacks up against other options on our Stripe Billing comparison or Recurly alternative pages.