An indie SaaS founder watches her Stripe dashboard: 15 subscriptions failed this month due to expired cards, insufficient funds, and bank declines. Stripe's built-in retry logic recovered 5. The other 10 customers — representing $490/mo in MRR — silently churned. She didn't even know they were at risk until they were gone.
Failed payments cause 20-40% of all SaaS churn. It's called 'involuntary churn' — customers who wanted to stay but couldn't because their payment failed. Stripe and Braintree have basic retry logic, but it's dumb: retry every X days, send a generic email, hope for the best. Smart dunning — personalized email sequences, optimal retry timing based on failure reason, and in-app notifications — can recover 50-70% of failed payments.
Churnkey ($100+/mo) dominates for SaaS with cancel flows and dunning. Stunning.co ($49-299/mo) is Stripe-focused dunning. Baremetrics Recover ($58+/mo) bundles dunning with analytics. But for the Shopify subscription merchants — and there are hundreds of thousands running subscriptions via Recharge, Skio, or Loop — the options are limited. The gap is a Shopify-native dunning tool at $29-49/mo: smart payment retry timing, branded email sequences, SMS follow-up, and payment update links. Target Shopify subscription businesses that don't use Stripe directly.
💰 Revenue Blueprint
Three-tier value ladder to monetize from day one
Up to $5K MRR, email sequences, smart retry, payment update links
Up to $25K MRR, SMS follow-up, in-cart recovery, analytics dashboard
Unlimited MRR, custom sequences, API access, multiple stores, priority support
📊 Market Evidence
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
| Competitor | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Churnkey | $100+/mo | Cancel flows + dunning. Well-reviewed. SaaS focus. Smart retry logic. |
| Stunning.co | $49-299/mo | Dunning focus. Stripe integration. Established player. |
| ProsperStack | $199+/mo | Cancel flows + dunning. Higher price point. |
| Baremetrics Recover | $58+/mo | Part of Baremetrics suite. Good analytics integration. |
| Churn Buster | $100+/mo | E-commerce box focus. Dunning + cancel flows. |
| Gravy | Performance-based | Human follow-up team. Unique approach. Higher cost. |
| Chargebee Retention | Part of Chargebee | Built into billing platform. Pre-dunning + smart retry. |
Cancel flows + dunning. Well-reviewed. SaaS focus. Smart retry logic.
Dunning focus. Stripe integration. Established player.
Cancel flows + dunning. Higher price point.
Part of Baremetrics suite. Good analytics integration.
E-commerce box focus. Dunning + cancel flows.
Human follow-up team. Unique approach. Higher cost.
Built into billing platform. Pre-dunning + smart retry.
🛠️ Recommended Tech Stack
Suggested tools and technologies to build this idea
Why this stack: Deep Shopify subscription integration (Recharge, Skio, Loop). Smart retry timing based on decline codes. Branded email sequences.
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
🚀 Start Building
Copy a prompt into your favorite AI coding tool and start building this idea right now.
Build a SaaS product called "Subscription Dunning Recovery". ## Product Overview Smart failed payment recovery for Shopify subscription apps - recover churned revenue without transaction fees ## Problem Subscription businesses lose 2-9% of MRR to failed payments. Dunning is time-consuming and native billing tools have basic retry logic. ## Solution Build Subscription Dunning Recovery ## Target Audience indie hackers, small businesses, and solopreneurs ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors Churnkey, Stunning.co, ProsperStack, Baremetrics Recover, Churn Buster, Gravy, Chargebee Retention ## Key Risks to Address Standard market entry risks ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.