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Why RightRev? Zuora Revenue vs RightRev Full Comparison

January 12, 2024
“RightRev

Accounting teams face more complex revenue recognition processes as modern commerce like self-serve, consumption, bundles, etc. makes revenue streams more complicated and disjointed. Manual revenue reporting across multiple accounting periods takes significant effort and organizational resources—that’s why businesses should instead utilize robust revenue recognition software to automate revenue recognition. 

Zuora and RightRev are two leading financial operations platforms for automated revenue recognition. Which should you choose to liberate your finance teams from the hassle of manual revenue management?

Each platform is built to handle revenue recognition processes, but they boast different approaches that distinguish them from one another. So, let’s unpack Zuora vs RightRev, comparing their reputations, features, and more to help you decide on the best revenue accounting software for your business. 

Understanding Revenue Recognition and Management

Revenue recognition is a Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (GAAP) that dictates when revenue should be recorded. In essence, it stipulates that businesses must recognize revenue when it was realized and earned—not necessarily when payment is received. 

To power your company’s revenue recognition and management efforts, you’ll need a revenue automation platform that can effectively trace every dollar back to its source and attribute it to the correct accounting period with customizable accounting rules. Likewise, it should provide insights into subscription contracts, contract modifications, deferred revenue, and other key figures to help you visualize your financial position and better manage your revenue streams.

Other aspects to look out for when choosing revenue recognition software include:

  • On a base level, compliance with ASC 606 (a key compliance standard governing the revenue recognition process) 

  • Ease of implementation and how much time you’ll have to commit to configuring your revenue recognition rules

  • Adaptability to future use cases and scaling efforts

  • Features such as automated revenue schedules, performance obligation management, contract modification management, SSP allocations, journal entries into the ERP, robust revenue reporting, and more

  • Ability to handle your transaction data volume without disrupting business

  • Quality of customer success and technical support

Introducing RightRev

RightRev was founded by Jagan Reddy, “one of the Godfathers of revenue recognition” software. Before RightRev, Jagan started one of the first revenue automation solutions, LeeYo RevPro, and scaled the solution to over 200 customers before it was acquired by Zuora in 2017

However, Jagan wasn’t satisfied to rest on his achievements. He believed there was still a better way to achieve revenue accounting automation. So, with a plan to expedite revenue recognition automation and provide accountants with real-time access to critical revenue information, RightRev was born

Some of the founding principles and features Jagan made sure to incorporate into RightRev include:

  • Enhanced processing speed: When Jagan started RightRev, he made it his mission to develop a solution to process revenue and contract data and handle high transaction volumes faster than its competitors. RightRev understands the need for revenue data to not only be reliable, but available in real-time.

  • ASC 606 compliance: ASC 606 is the foundation of modern revenue recognition, so ensuring compliance was a must for RightRev from the start.

  • Simplify complex revenue recognition: Modern revenue streams are no longer straight-forward and can be difficult to track. Likewise, entire revenue lifecycles can unfold across months or even years, with contract changes happening at any point throughout the contract lifespan. RightRev can simplify these processes and recognize revenue across various complex use cases, including usage, credit drawdown, percentage of completion, ramp discounts, project milestones, product bundles, free trials, buy-now-pay-later, and more.

  • Robust reporting: In addition to standard reports like Deferred Revenue Analysis, Revenue Waterfall reports, Deferred Revenue Rollforward, and Remaining Performance Obligations, RightRev also offers advanced analytics allowing users to slice and dice their revenue data across thousands of data points. 

  • Supreme scalability: RightRev’s industry-leading data processing capabilities make it the perfect choice for medium-sized businesses, corporate enterprises, and expanding organizations. On the other hand, this processing power may be beyond the needs of some simpler SaaS and eCommerce companies.

Introducing Zuora Revenue

Zuora was founded about 15 years ago with the aim of simplifying subscription-based business models across a variety of different sectors. It’s focused on helping companies maintain and nurture digital relationships with their customers and offers a suite of digital tools to aid in that goal.

When it comes to revenue recognition, the platform offers:

  • ASC 606 compliance: Zuora helps companies maintain ASC 606 compliance.

  • Enterprise-level customers: Zuora is trusted by various large multinational corporations for revenue management. In fact, its association with big companies has it listed as an enterprise-grade tool on G2 reviews. So, it may not be ideal for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and organizations in the early stages of scaling. 

  • Customizable rules-based recognition: Similar to RightRev, Zuora lets you create custom rules that automatically recognize revenue. However, to create custom rules in Zuora, it can require custom code to accommodate non-out-of-the box configuration. This degree of customization can mean a lengthier implementation process. With RightRev, user-defined revenue rules are highly configurable right out-of-the-box.  

Comparison

Still trying to decide which platform best suits your revenue recognition needs? Consider how RightRev and Zuora compare across these key areas:

  • Revenue recognition and reporting: Both Zuora and RightRev offer rules-based revenue recognition and reporting capabilities, but RightRev is more suited for easier implementation and out-of-the-box capabilities. RightRev’s standard reports give you complete visibility into contract and revenue metrics with minimal effort.  RightRev’s revenue metrics are available nearly immediately for reporting purposes and can layer in anything else a customer feeds into its Revenue Contracts.
  • Processing speed: RightRev was built with Enterprise scalability in mind. RightRev’s faster data processing means you can close the books faster and your revenue insights can be visible in real time. RightRev proved to successfully process nearly a billion accounting records within minutes- performance unmatched by any other solution!


  • Integrations: RighRev functions seamlessly as a standalone revenue recognition platform and a Salesforce app. Zuora likewise features standalone compatibility, but its Salesforce offering has been plagued by various operational glitches and syncing issues since its implementation. 


  • Customer support and user experience (UX): RightRev offers a more intuitive plug-and-play style product that doesn’t require as much time-consuming configuration and customization. Likewise, reviews about Zuora’s support indicate it’s not necessarily the most timely with customer support and issue resolution. Meanwhile, RightRev’s focus on customer success is a compelling reason many have chosen to move away from Zuora Revenue and over to RightRev.

User Feedback and Reviews

Speaking of reviews, other customers’ opinions are often the best way to learn just how useful a platform may be to your company. On G2 reviews, RightRev scores slightly higher than Zuora, but that only tells half the story.

Zuora has solid customer testimonials, and clients like Gainsight who say it’s helped reduce their time to close the books and average audit time. On the other hand, some reviews raise concerns about the complexity and reliability of Zuora’s user interface (UI), the robustness (or lack thereof) of its reporting, and how long it can take to accomplish (what should be) simple tasks.

Alternatively, RightRev boasts positive reviews from partners such as Docebo, Drata, and Epicor. They praise its keen customer support, adaptability, scalability, and smooth integration into existing tech stacks. 

One of the standout features of RightRev is its ability to handle revenue recognition in compliance with the ASC 606 and IFRS 15 standards. This is a critical aspect of any revenue recognition software, and RightRev does an excellent job in this area. The software is also highly configurable, allowing users to tailor the solution to their specific business needs.

RightRev’s user interface is straightforward and intuitive, making it easy to navigate and use. The software also offers excellent reporting capabilities, allowing users to generate a wide range of financial reports with just a few clicks.

Scalability and Flexibility

With perhaps the fastest data processing speeds of any revenue recognition tool on the market, RightRev handles high volume data quicker and with fewer hiccups than other tools. This allows RightRev customers to close their month-end revenue books in minutes! By generating over 160+ revenue metrics in real-time, as transactions occur, the month-end close process is significantly simplified. Additionally, RightRev can process hundreds of millions of revenue transactions in under 10 minutes! RightRev has stress-tested its system and proved to handle large volumes of data without disruption of performance.

One aspect that’s certain for both RightRev and Zuora is their support for different business models. Whether you’re looking to recognize revenue for a subscription business, usage or consumption, or a hybrid, RightRev and Zuora can solve for those use cases. 

To ensure your revenue management strategy works for your company today and into the future, select an automation platform that supports your current needs and ability to scale. Likewise, make sure it empowers you to choose between different revenue models in case you ever want to restructure your revenue strategy.

Zuora vs RightRev: The Final Verdict

Both Zuora and RightRev can simplify revenue recognition processes for modern businesses. As an enterprise-grade platform with a high entry cost, Zuora can be a solid choice for larger businesses with highly diverse tech stacks. 

On the other hand, RightRev’s enhanced processing speeds and unlimited scalability make it the perfect platform for growing, mid-sized and large Enterprise businesses.  RightRev boasts customers from tens of millions in annual revenue to billions in annual revenue like Snowflake, CDK Global, and Epicor.

When debating between Zuora vs RightRev, consider which can support your preferred business model and adjust to meet any future changes to your pricing plan. Also, consider the effectiveness of their customer support and success departments—implementing new automation software can be confusing, and you’ll want all the help you can get along the way. We recommend RightRev for any business hoping to get the most out of its revenue recognition platform. To understand additional feature-based differences like contract modification comparability by period, month-end close process, error notices, and the ability to ingest zero-dollar lines, request to speak with a revenue recognition expert at RightRev today.

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