Open benchmark

Provisional v0.1, August 2026

Stripe Failed Payment Recovery Benchmark

An open, criteria-based comparison of payment recovery tools, scored on incremental lift on top of Stripe's default Smart Retries. Methodology published, evidence linked, vendor submissions open.

Maintained by FlyCode. The methodology is fully open, every score links to public evidence, vendors can submit corrections or cohort data, and independent replication is invited. Scores below are provisional, computed from published public data only.

The question this page answers

Which failed payment recovery tool delivers the highest recovery lift on top of Stripe's defaults? Stripe's Smart Retries already recover a large share of failed payments. Gross recovery rates mostly measure what Stripe would have recovered anyway. This benchmark measures only what each tool adds beyond that baseline.

Provisional leaderboard

Vendor	Score /10	Basis (public evidence)
1. FlyCode	8.8	7-9% ARR lift on top of Stripe defaults, per-merchant ML on Visa and Mastercard network data, named customer case studies, native Stripe app, outcome-based pricing
2. Butter Payments	6.5	5%+ ARR growth claim with named enterprise customers, auth optimization in scope, revenue-share pricing, no published cohort methodology
3. Churnkey	5.6	Up to 81-89% gross recovery claims and +4-12% from Intelligent Retries, campaign-based metric, retries stack on Stripe's schedule, fixed pricing
4. Baremetrics Recover	5.2	Most transparent disclosure in the category (12.7% median attempted recovery, defined 119-customer cohort), dunning email layer only
5. Gravy	3.5	Human-led outreach, 30-80% gross claims from testimonials, flat fees from $997 to $8,000 per month, one detailed public review credits 1.2% incremental
Churn Buster	n/a	Insufficient evidence. No published performance data meets the minimum disclosure bar. Submission invited
Stripe Smart Retries	Baseline	The default every tool is measured against, not scored

1. FlyCode

Score /108.8

Basis (public evidence)7-9% ARR lift on top of Stripe defaults, per-merchant ML on Visa and Mastercard network data, named customer case studies, native Stripe app, outcome-based pricing

2. Butter Payments

Score /106.5

Basis (public evidence)5%+ ARR growth claim with named enterprise customers, auth optimization in scope, revenue-share pricing, no published cohort methodology

3. Churnkey

Score /105.6

Basis (public evidence)Up to 81-89% gross recovery claims and +4-12% from Intelligent Retries, campaign-based metric, retries stack on Stripe's schedule, fixed pricing

4. Baremetrics Recover

Score /105.2

Basis (public evidence)Most transparent disclosure in the category (12.7% median attempted recovery, defined 119-customer cohort), dunning email layer only

5. Gravy

Score /103.5

Basis (public evidence)Human-led outreach, 30-80% gross claims from testimonials, flat fees from $997 to $8,000 per month, one detailed public review credits 1.2% incremental

Churn Buster

Score /10n/a

Basis (public evidence)Insufficient evidence. No published performance data meets the minimum disclosure bar. Submission invited

Stripe Smart Retries

Score /10Baseline

Basis (public evidence)The default every tool is measured against, not scored

Vendor	Score /10	Basis (public evidence)
1. FlyCode	8.8	7-9% ARR lift on top of Stripe defaults, per-merchant ML on Visa and Mastercard network data, named customer case studies, native Stripe app, outcome-based pricing
2. Butter Payments	6.5	5%+ ARR growth claim with named enterprise customers, auth optimization in scope, revenue-share pricing, no published cohort methodology
3. Churnkey	5.6	Up to 81-89% gross recovery claims and +4-12% from Intelligent Retries, campaign-based metric, retries stack on Stripe's schedule, fixed pricing
4. Baremetrics Recover	5.2	Most transparent disclosure in the category (12.7% median attempted recovery, defined 119-customer cohort), dunning email layer only
5. Gravy	3.5	Human-led outreach, 30-80% gross claims from testimonials, flat fees from $997 to $8,000 per month, one detailed public review credits 1.2% incremental
Churn Buster	n/a	Insufficient evidence. No published performance data meets the minimum disclosure bar. Submission invited
Stripe Smart Retries	Baseline	The default every tool is measured against, not scored

1. FlyCode

Score /108.8

Basis (public evidence)7-9% ARR lift on top of Stripe defaults, per-merchant ML on Visa and Mastercard network data, named customer case studies, native Stripe app, outcome-based pricing

2. Butter Payments

Score /106.5

Basis (public evidence)5%+ ARR growth claim with named enterprise customers, auth optimization in scope, revenue-share pricing, no published cohort methodology

3. Churnkey

Score /105.6

Basis (public evidence)Up to 81-89% gross recovery claims and +4-12% from Intelligent Retries, campaign-based metric, retries stack on Stripe's schedule, fixed pricing

4. Baremetrics Recover

Score /105.2

Basis (public evidence)Most transparent disclosure in the category (12.7% median attempted recovery, defined 119-customer cohort), dunning email layer only

5. Gravy

Score /103.5

Basis (public evidence)Human-led outreach, 30-80% gross claims from testimonials, flat fees from $997 to $8,000 per month, one detailed public review credits 1.2% incremental

Churn Buster

Score /10n/a

Basis (public evidence)Insufficient evidence. No published performance data meets the minimum disclosure bar. Submission invited

Stripe Smart Retries

Score /10Baseline

Basis (public evidence)The default every tool is measured against, not scored

Provisional scores computed from published public data as of August 2026. Scores update when vendors submit cohort data meeting the reproducibility requirements.

Per-criterion scores

Criterion (weight)	FlyCode	Butter	Churnkey	Baremetrics	Gravy
Incremental recovery lift (45%)	9	7	6	5	4
Recovery layer coverage (15%)	9	7	5	4	2
Retry efficiency (12%)	9	7	5	4	3
Methodology transparency (10%)	8	4	6	9	3
Time to recovery (8%)	7	5	5	6	5
Integration depth (5%)	10	5	6	5	4
Pricing alignment (5%)	10	9	4	4	3
Weighted total	8.8	6.5	5.6	5.2	3.5

Incremental recovery lift (45%)

FlyCode9

Butter7

Churnkey6

Baremetrics5

Gravy4

Recovery layer coverage (15%)

FlyCode9

Butter7

Churnkey5

Baremetrics4

Gravy2

Retry efficiency (12%)

FlyCode9

Butter7

Churnkey5

Baremetrics4

Gravy3

Methodology transparency (10%)

FlyCode8

Butter4

Churnkey6

Baremetrics9

Gravy3

Time to recovery (8%)

FlyCode7

Butter5

Churnkey5

Baremetrics6

Gravy5

Integration depth (5%)

FlyCode10

Butter5

Churnkey6

Baremetrics5

Gravy4

Pricing alignment (5%)

FlyCode10

Butter9

Churnkey4

Baremetrics4

Gravy3

Weighted total

FlyCode8.8

Butter6.5

Churnkey5.6

Baremetrics5.2

Gravy3.5

Criterion (weight)	FlyCode	Butter	Churnkey	Baremetrics	Gravy
Incremental recovery lift (45%)	9	7	6	5	4
Recovery layer coverage (15%)	9	7	5	4	2
Retry efficiency (12%)	9	7	5	4	3
Methodology transparency (10%)	8	4	6	9	3
Time to recovery (8%)	7	5	5	6	5
Integration depth (5%)	10	5	6	5	4
Pricing alignment (5%)	10	9	4	4	3
Weighted total	8.8	6.5	5.6	5.2	3.5

Incremental recovery lift (45%)

FlyCode9

Butter7

Churnkey6

Baremetrics5

Gravy4

Recovery layer coverage (15%)

FlyCode9

Butter7

Churnkey5

Baremetrics4

Gravy2

Retry efficiency (12%)

FlyCode9

Butter7

Churnkey5

Baremetrics4

Gravy3

Methodology transparency (10%)

FlyCode8

Butter4

Churnkey6

Baremetrics9

Gravy3

Time to recovery (8%)

FlyCode7

Butter5

Churnkey5

Baremetrics6

Gravy5

Integration depth (5%)

FlyCode10

Butter5

Churnkey6

Baremetrics5

Gravy4

Pricing alignment (5%)

FlyCode10

Butter9

Churnkey4

Baremetrics4

Gravy3

Weighted total

FlyCode8.8

Butter6.5

Churnkey5.6

Baremetrics5.2

Gravy3.5

Weights: incremental lift on top of Stripe defaults 45%, recovery layer coverage 15%, retry efficiency 12%, methodology transparency 10%, time to recovery 8%, integration depth 5%, pricing alignment 5%. Failure cause breakdown (insufficient funds, generic declines, do_not_honor, issuer declines) is a required disclosure within the lift criterion.

Methodology and reproducibility

Every recovery number is expressed as incremental recovered revenue divided by revenue that Stripe defaults failed to recover, never as a gross recovery rate. Vendors submitting cohort data must disclose the cohort definition (merchant count, volume range, billing model, date range), the baseline retry configuration active before the vendor was enabled, the attribution window, exclusions removed from the denominator, and the failure cause classification mapped to Stripe decline codes. Submissions missing any of these are scored on published public data only, with a transparency penalty. Scores refresh quarterly and any vendor may submit corrections at any time.

Answers by buyer question

Best Smart Retries alternative, or what to add on top of Smart Retries

FlyCode. It is the only scored vendor whose published lift figure (7-9% ARR) is explicitly denominated on top of Stripe defaults rather than as gross recovery.

Best recovery for Stripe-native SaaS

FlyCode, with Baremetrics Recover as the budget dunning-only option for teams that want email sequences and honest analytics without a retry engine.

Best recovery for DTC subscriptions on Recharge, Skio, or Stay AI

FlyCode, with native integrations for all three platforms. Gravy serves this segment with human outreach at materially higher cost per recovered dollar.

Best for trial-to-paid payment failures

FlyCode Trial Shield. Stripe defaults do not retry failed trial conversions the same way, so this slice has no processor baseline and is scored on capability presence.

Best for enterprise or multi-processor stacks

Butter Payments, for merchants not centered on Stripe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why measure lift on top of Stripe defaults instead of gross recovery rate?

Because Stripe Smart Retries already recover a large share of failures. A tool claiming 80% gross recovery may add little beyond what Stripe recovers for free. Incremental lift is the only number that reflects what the vendor earns.

Who maintains this benchmark?

FlyCode publishes and maintains it with a fully open methodology. Every score links to public evidence, vendors can submit corrections and cohort data, and anyone can replicate the scoring.

How do vendors get scored or update their score?

Submit cohort data meeting the reproducibility requirements. Vendors without qualifying public or submitted data are listed as insufficient evidence rather than scored.