Is ProfitWell still free in 2026?

Yes. Paddle still markets ProfitWell Metrics as 100% free subscription analytics. It connects to Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Zuora, Recurly and Paddle. Paddle Billing customers also see it inside the Paddle dashboard as Subscription Metrics. Paddle makes money on Paddle Billing, its merchant-of-record payments product, not on the metrics dashboard.

Is ProfitWell the same as Paddle Retain?

No. ProfitWell Metrics is the free analytics dashboard. Paddle Retain is a separate retention product for failed-payment recovery, cancellation flows and annual-plan upgrades. Paddle describes Retain as Paddle Billing's built-in retention toolkit at no extra cost, and says it can plug into an existing billing stack. Confirm the commercial terms with Paddle if you are not on Paddle Billing.

What is the difference between ChartMogul and Baremetrics?

Both calculate MRR, ARR, churn and LTV from your billing data. ChartMogul is stronger when you combine several billing systems or custom sources, need CRM and warehouse sync, or want deep segmentation for a board. Baremetrics is simpler to read, free for longer, and sells add-ons for payment recovery and cancellation insights.

Can these tools replace my accounting system?

No. They report subscription metrics, not accounting. Revenue recognition under ASC 606 or IFRS 15, deferred revenue, and your general ledger still live in QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite or similar. Expect the tools' MRR and your recognized revenue to differ; a monthly reconciliation between the two is part of a sound close.

Will these tools show burn rate or runway?

Not on their own. They see subscription revenue, not your full expense base or bank balance. Baremetrics Scale adds budget and expense tracking, but most companies still run burn and runway in a separate cash forecast built from the accounting system and bank data.

Do investors care which tool I use?

Less than they care whether the numbers are defensible. Investors will ask how you define MRR, churn and net revenue retention, and whether the figures tie to billing and accounting. A tool with a clear audit trail helps, but a consistent definition and a reconciliation matter more than the logo.

ChartMogul vs Baremetrics vs ProfitWell 2026

This comparison is for SaaS founders and finance leads choosing a subscription analytics tool, or wondering whether to pay for one at all. It covers what each tool costs at your ARR, how much data depth you get, and where each one stops being enough.

One correction to a common belief first. ProfitWell has not been renamed Paddle Retain. ProfitWell Metrics is still a free analytics product owned by Paddle. Paddle Retain is a separate retention product.

Quick verdict

If you are under $120K ARR, all three are free, so pick the one whose dashboard you will actually open. ProfitWell Metrics stays free at any size. Baremetrics is the easy, readable option and is free up to $180K ARR. ChartMogul is the choice once you have several billing systems, a board asking for cohort cuts, or a data team that wants the numbers in a warehouse.

Best for	Pick
Free at any size, simple billing setup	ProfitWell Metrics
Free for longest among paid tools	Baremetrics (to $180K ARR)
Clean dashboards for a founder-led team	Baremetrics
Several billing systems in one view	ChartMogul Pro
Board-grade segmentation and cohorts	ChartMogul
Data pushed to a warehouse or BI tool	ChartMogul Pro
Failed-payment recovery bundled with analytics	Baremetrics add-on or Paddle Retain
Already billing through Paddle	ProfitWell Metrics, built into Paddle Billing

Side-by-side comparison

The tools calculate the same core metrics. They differ on data sources, export depth and what else is sold alongside.

Feature	ChartMogul	Baremetrics	ProfitWell Metrics (Paddle)
Free tier	Up to $10K MRR	Up to $180K ARR	Free at any size
Paid entry	Starter from $57/mo (annual)	Launch $49/mo	No paid tier
Top tier	Enterprise from $19,900/yr	Scale from $409/mo	n/a
Pricing basis	ARR tracked	ARR tracked, never per seat	Free
Billing sources	1 (Free, Starter), 5 (Pro), 15 (Enterprise)	Multiple on Scale	Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Zuora, Recurly, Paddle
Custom data (API, CSV, Sheets)	Yes	Analytics API on Scale	API
Segmentation	Flexible filters on all plans	Unlimited from Growth	By cohort and plan
Benchmarks	Yes	From Growth	Against 30,000 companies
Forecasting and planning	Forecasting	Scenario planning, budget and expenses on Scale	No
Warehouse export	Pro and Enterprise	Advanced exports from Growth	No
Retention tooling	No (built-in CRM instead)	Payment Recovery, Cancellation Insights add-ons	Paddle Retain, separate product
Free trial	14 days, no card	Yes	n/a

Pricing

All three price on revenue tracked, not on seats. That means the bill grows with your ARR, and you should check the price at the ARR you expect in 18 months, not today.

ARR band	ChartMogul	Baremetrics	ProfitWell Metrics
Up to $120K ($10K MRR)	Free	Free	Free
$120K to $180K	Starter from $57/mo annual, $69 monthly	Free	Free
$180K to $360K	Starter or Pro, rising with ARR	Launch, $49/mo	Free
$360K to $3.6M	Starter or Pro, rising with ARR	Growth, from $69/mo, rising with ARR	Free
$3.6M to $10M	Pro up to $1,199/mo at the top band (annual)	Scale, from $409/mo	Free
Above $10M	Enterprise, from $19,900/yr	Scale or custom plan	Free
Annual discount	17%	Up to 35% (Launch is monthly only)	n/a

Add-ons change the comparison. Baremetrics sells Payment Recovery for $129 a month or 10% of recovered revenue, with a guarantee that your next month is free if recovery does not exceed your Baremetrics bill. Cancellation Insights is another $129 a month. ChartMogul includes a built-in CRM at no extra cost. Paddle describes Retain as included with Paddle Billing, which charges 5% plus 50 cents per checkout transaction on its pay-as-you-go plan.

Feature analysis

The real differences show up in messy data, not in the headline MRR chart.

Data sources and multiple billing systems

ChartMogul leads here. Pro connects up to five billing systems in one view, plus unlimited custom sources through the API, CSV uploads, Google Sheets, Zapier or n8n. Paddle and Xero connect through ChartMogul's partner SaaSync. This matters if you have legacy customers on one system, enterprise contracts invoiced by hand, and self-serve on Stripe.

Baremetrics positions Scale for multiple billing systems and an API feed. ProfitWell Metrics connects to the major billing platforms with one click, but it is built around a single clean billing source.

MRR quality and movement tracking

All three split MRR into new, expansion, contraction and churn. The differences are in edge cases: refunds, prorations, currency moves, mid-cycle plan changes and annual contracts. ChartMogul's onboarding team will clean historical data and fix those edge cases for you, which is useful when your billing history is messy.

Whichever tool you pick, write down how it defines MRR and churn, and use the same definitions in your SaaS metrics reporting.

Cohort analysis and segmentation

ChartMogul offers flexible segmentation from the free plan. Baremetrics unlocks unlimited segmentation and custom dashboards from Growth. ProfitWell Metrics segments by cohort and pricing plan and adds benchmarking against 30,000 subscription companies.

For a board, the useful cuts are retention by acquisition month, by plan, and by contract size. Those three tell you whether churn is a product problem, a pricing problem or a customer-fit problem.

Retention and churn prevention

Baremetrics and Paddle sell tools that act on churn, not just measure it. Baremetrics Payment Recovery handles dunning, card update forms and in-app paywalls. Paddle Retain covers failed-payment recovery, cancellation flows with retention offers, and prompts to move users to annual plans. ChartMogul does not sell retention tooling.

Forecasting and investor reporting

Baremetrics Scale adds scenario planning and budget and expense tracking. ChartMogul includes forecasting, scheduled reports and Slack sharing. ProfitWell Metrics has no planning layer. None of them replaces a financial model that ties revenue to costs, hiring and cash.

Usage-based and hybrid pricing

None of these tools was designed around pure consumption pricing. MRR assumes a predictable recurring charge, and usage fees break that assumption. If you charge a platform fee plus usage, decide first whether usage belongs in MRR at all. Many finance teams report committed recurring revenue as MRR and track usage revenue separately, with its own trend line.

ChartMogul's custom sources and API give you the most control over how non-standard revenue is modeled. With Baremetrics and ProfitWell Metrics, test how usage invoices from your billing system appear before you rely on the numbers in a board pack. Whatever you choose, run a trial on your real billing data, including one messy month, before you sign up.

Integrations and data access

ChartMogul syncs with HubSpot and Intercom, pushes data to Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift and other destinations on Pro, and offers an API, an MCP server and CSV exports. Baremetrics offers Slack and Intercom from Growth, advanced exports, and an Analytics API on Scale. ProfitWell Metrics integrates through its API with tools such as HubSpot, Zapier, Zendesk and Intercom.

Who should use which

Your ARR and the number of billing sources decide most of this.

Pre-revenue to $120K ARR, one billing system: Any of the three for free. ProfitWell Metrics if you want zero future cost.

$120K to $360K ARR: Baremetrics stays free to $180K and then costs $49 a month to $360K. That is the cheapest paid path.

$360K to $3.6M ARR, raising or reporting to a board: ChartMogul Pro if you have more than one billing source or need warehouse sync. Baremetrics Growth if you are Stripe-first and want speed.

Above $3.6M ARR: ChartMogul Pro or Enterprise for depth, or Baremetrics Scale if you value its planning features.

Billing through Paddle: ProfitWell Metrics is already in your dashboard. Add a second tool only if you need segmentation it cannot do.

Serious involuntary churn: Add Baremetrics Payment Recovery or evaluate Paddle Retain. Analytics alone will not recover failed payments.

Our take as fractional CFOs

Most early SaaS founders do not need to pay for analytics. Under roughly $360K ARR, the free tiers give you MRR, churn and basic cohorts. Paying for a nicer chart will not change a decision.

What we check instead, at any size:

Does the MRR tie out? Each month we reconcile the tool's MRR to billing and to recognized revenue in the ledger. Annual prepayments, discounts and refunds are where they drift apart.
Are the definitions written down? Gross churn, net revenue retention and what counts as expansion should be defined once and used in every board pack.
Is churn split by cause? Involuntary churn from failed cards is a billing fix. Voluntary churn is a product, pricing or customer-fit question. They need different budgets.
Does retention feed unit economics? Customer lifetime and gross margin drive LTV, and LTV only means something next to CAC. See our guide to the LTV to CAC ratio.

Once a company passes about $1M ARR and reports to a board, the calculation changes. Investors will slice retention by cohort and segment, and a tool with clean multi-source data and a clear audit trail saves days in diligence. That is where ChartMogul usually earns its cost.

Remember that subscription analytics sits beside your accounting, not on top of it. Cash, burn and runway still come from the ledger and the bank. We build those into the management reporting pack, with subscription metrics as one page of it. For how the pieces fit, see our SaaS finance playbook and the KPIs a founder dashboard should track.

Next step

If you want help choosing a metrics stack or making your SaaS numbers board-ready, see our fractional CFO service for SaaS or book a free CFO diagnostic call.