Growing businesses that are reevaluating their billing systems in order to better support their increased customer bases and evolving product and service offerings have to start with this question: Is on-premise or cloud-based billing the better choice for our business?

At Gotransverse, we believe cloud-based billing solutions are the better fit for most businesses that want to stay competitive in this rapidly changing, consumer-centric market. To explain why, let’s work through some of the differences between the two options.

Setup

We’ll start with the most basic difference. Cloud-based software is hosted by the software vendor and clients access it through their web browser, while on-premise software is hosted locally on computers and servers the company owns and maintains. So, from a practical standpoint, what does that mean? Well, there are a lot of ramifications of choosing on-premise servers over cloud-based systems, but one of the biggest is the cost (in money and time) of purchasing and maintaining the servers — and upgrading them as the business grows. With an on-premise system, the business is responsible for all of that, while cloud-based billing systems leave the burden of maintenance on the vendor’s shoulders.

Flexibility

While on-premise billing solutions may effectively support a business’ needs at the time of implementation, they aren’t designed for change. Every modification requires anywhere from small to significant investments in time from experts on the billing solution. Making these changes to on-premise systems can take up to a year, significantly delaying the launch of new products and services and putting companies at risk of missing their opportunities to serve customers in new and innovative ways.

Cloud-based systems, on the other hand, are designed specifically to support a business’ every pivot. They’re easy to configure (and reconfigure) and can be configured from a variety of different people in different departments. And they’re agile enough to allow companies to track trends and respond quickly to customer needs, capitalizing on new opportunities in the market.

Growth

For businesses whose goals include growth (i.e., most businesses), elastic scalability is another benefit of a native cloud-based solution. On-premises systems require manual intervention — purchasing and installing new servers as the client base expands. (And then, when demand dips again, you’re stuck paying for unused capacity.) But cloud-based systems offer elasticity, making it easy to add or remove capacity quickly based on demand, at a marginal cost. This means there’s no boundary to growth — and no need to waste money on unused volume.

These growth advantages become even more important when businesses are growing internationally. While on-premises solutions may be built to manage multiple currencies, taxes, languages, and payment methods, scaling to new countries often requires adding servers in new regions. But with cloud-based solutions, adding capacity is seamless, making it easy for businesses to manage the complexity of currencies, taxes, languages, and localized payment methods around the globe.

Integration

Businesses today use a wide range of systems to streamline operations and ensure smooth customer journeys, and it’s paramount that those systems play well together. Unfortunately, on-premise solutions tend to only integrate well with other solutions that are on the same platform. So when off-platform solutions are needed, they require manual data transfer — another significant drain on time and budget.

Cloud-based solutions, on the other hand, are built to work in tandem with other systems — your CRM, ERP, tax payment gateway, CPQ, and more will integrate smoothly, enabling automated workflows and seamless data transfer between platforms.

Overall, cloud-base software solutions offer greater agility and flexibility than on-premise solutions, empowering businesses to meet customer needs and achieve their loftiest goals. The Gotransverse native cloud-based billing solution helps our clients streamline operations, introduce new products, and create rapid growth. We invite you to take a tour of our platform today, and then call us to schedule your complimentary, personalized demo.