Churnkey and Stunning are two of the most popular dunning tools for SaaS. Both help you recover failed payments, but they take different approaches. Let's break down what sets them apart.
The quick comparison
| Feature | Churnkey | Stunning |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Churn reduction (cancel flows + dunning) | Payment recovery (dunning focused) |
| Pricing model | Percentage of recovered/saved revenue | Flat monthly fee |
| SMS support | No | Yes |
| Cancel flows | Yes (core feature) | No |
| Smart retries | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | SaaS fighting voluntary churn | SaaS focused on payment recovery |
What Churnkey does well
Churnkey started as a cancel flow tool and expanded into dunning. Their strength is the combination: they help you reduce both voluntary churn (customers who want to leave) and involuntary churn (failed payments).
The cancel flow builder is genuinely good. When a customer clicks "cancel," they see a customized flow that might offer a discount, pause, or downgrade. Many customers change their mind. Churnkey claims to save 20-40% of cancellation attempts.
On the dunning side, Churnkey offers smart retries and email sequences. The retries analyze error codes and pick optimal times to retry. Emails are customizable and can be personalized based on customer data.
The analytics are solid too. You can see recovery rates, churn trends, and the ROI of your retention efforts in one dashboard.
What Churnkey struggles with
No SMS. This is a significant gap in 2026. Email open rates are 20-25%. SMS is 90%+. For dunning specifically, SMS can add 15-25% to your recovery rate. Churnkey doesn't offer it.
Percentage-based pricing. Churnkey takes a cut of what you save or recover. As you scale, this gets expensive. A SaaS doing $500K MRR could easily pay $2-5K/month for Churnkey. The ROI might still be there, but the absolute cost is high.
Complexity. Churnkey does a lot: cancel flows, dunning, analytics, surveys. If you just need dunning, you're paying for features you won't use.
What Stunning does well
Stunning is laser-focused on one thing: recovering failed payments. No cancel flows, no surveys, just dunning done right.
The big differentiator is SMS. Stunning sends text messages as part of the dunning sequence, and it makes a real difference. When someone doesn't open your emails, a text cuts through. Recovery rates are noticeably higher with SMS in the mix.
Pricing is flat monthly based on your customer count, not a percentage of revenue. For growing SaaS, this is often cheaper than percentage-based tools. You know exactly what you'll pay.
Setup is simple. Connect your Stripe account, configure your sequence, and you're live. No complex integrations or long onboarding.
What Stunning struggles with
No cancel flows. If you're fighting voluntary churn too, Stunning won't help. You'll need another tool for that.
Less sophisticated analytics. Stunning gives you the basics — recovery rate, failure rate, email performance — but it's not as deep as Churnkey's analytics dashboard.
Smaller ecosystem. Churnkey has been around longer and has more integrations, case studies, and community knowledge. Stunning is newer and leaner.
The pricing breakdown
Churnkey: Takes a percentage of recovered/saved revenue. Typically 3-7% depending on volume. On $10K of recovered MRR, you'd pay $300-700.
Stunning: Flat monthly fee based on customers. Roughly $50-300/month for most SaaS. You keep 100% of what you recover.
For smaller SaaS (< $50K MRR), the cost is similar. For larger SaaS, the percentage model gets expensive fast.
Who should pick Churnkey
Churnkey makes sense if:
- You have significant voluntary churn and want cancel flows
- You want an all-in-one churn reduction platform
- Budget isn't your primary concern
- You don't need SMS for dunning
Typical Churnkey customer: Series A+ SaaS with dedicated growth team, fighting churn on multiple fronts.
Who should pick Stunning
Stunning makes sense if:
- Your main problem is failed payments, not voluntary cancellations
- You want SMS in your dunning sequence
- You prefer predictable, flat-rate pricing
- You want a simple, focused tool
Typical Stunning customer: Bootstrapped or seed-stage SaaS, optimizing payment recovery before tackling cancel flows.
What about Rekko?
Both Churnkey and Stunning are solid tools, but neither is perfect.
Churnkey lacks SMS — a real gap for dunning. Stunning lacks cancel flows — fine if you don't need them.
Rekko combines the best of both: email + SMS dunning with flat-rate pricing. No cancel flows (yet), but for pure payment recovery, the multi-channel approach consistently outperforms email-only tools.
If dunning is your priority and you want SMS without paying percentage fees, check out Rekko as an alternative.
The bottom line
Pick Churnkey if you need cancel flows and can stomach percentage pricing. The all-in-one approach saves you from juggling multiple tools.
Pick Stunning if you want focused dunning with SMS at predictable prices. The simplicity is a feature, not a limitation.
Consider Rekko if you want the multi-channel dunning of Stunning with competitive flat-rate pricing built specifically for Stripe.
The right choice depends on your specific churn profile. If voluntary churn is your main enemy, Churnkey's cancel flows matter. If involuntary churn is the problem, SMS-enabled dunning will give you the biggest lift.