Compare · England and Wales
Five ways to chase an invoice. Four of them leave the work with you.
There is no shortage of things to buy when you are owed money. There is a shortage of things that actually do the chasing. This is the honest version of each option, including where we are the wrong answer.
Everything, on one line each
What each option actually is.
| Option | What it actually is | Price | Do they do it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaser Compact tier. Their done-for-you is a separate £324 add-on on top, so £523 combined | Software you operate yourself | £199/mo | No |
| Satago Reminders and credit reports, sent from your own email. The chasing is still your job | Software you operate yourself | £45 to £200/mo | No |
| Paidnice Priced by invoice volume. Automates the sending, never the deciding | Software you operate yourself | £49 to £599/mo | No |
| Reminders in your accounting software Check yours and switch it on before you buy anything from anybody, us included | Automated nudges from the system you already pay for | Typically included | No |
| Debt collection agency Published domestic rates run from 5% to 25%. International work is quoted as high as 40% | Old debt, on commission, once chasing has failed | From about 5% | Yes |
| Outsourced credit control Roughly £6,750 + VAT a year on a £900,000 turnover, on one published estimate | A person, priced against your turnover | About 0.75% of turnover | Yes |
| Employing a credit controller UK average across 1,155 live listings, before National Insurance, pension, holiday and a desk | A salary, and a job that is not full-time at your size | £32,898 a year | Yes |
| Solicitor, letter before action Two firms' published fixed fees. Court fees are separate and set by HMCTS | Reserved legal work, charged per letter | £75 to £255 + VAT | Yes |
| Hound Day three to the county court, and the 8% is capped at £1,000 an invoice | The whole ladder, done for you | £199/mo + 8% | Yes |
Prices checked 6 August 2026. They are somebody else's to change, so if you find one out of date please tell us and we will correct it.
The real decision
You are not choosing between brands. You are choosing who does the work.
- Agencies Debt collection agency They are not really alternatives. They are stages. Credit control is what you do from day three so a debt never reaches an agency, and an agency is what you do when it did anyway.
- Software Credit control software Software removes the typing. It leaves you the deciding, the approving, the phoning and the escalating, which is where the time and the discomfort actually live.
- Solicitors Using a solicitor A solicitor is a rung, not an alternative. Credit control is what makes the rung credible when you reach it, and what usually means you do not have to.
- Employing somebody Hiring a credit controller A credit controller is excellent value at forty hours a week and terrible value at two. Most trades have about two hours a week of the work and no sensible way to buy it.
Named products
If you are already looking at one of these.
Their prices, their words
Every figure on these pages comes from the vendor's own published pricing on the date shown, and every page says plainly what the product is better at than we are. If we have something wrong, tell us and we will fix it rather than argue about it.
- Chaser Chaser At £199 Chaser gives you the software and your team operates it. At £199 we operate it. Chaser's own done-for-you service is a £324 add-on on top of a software tier, which is £523 combined with Compact.
- Satago Satago Satago is priced from £45 and it is a tool with data attached. The reminders go from your own email, which means the chasing, the judgement and the escalation all remain yours.
- Paidnice Paidnice Paidnice starts at about £49 and is priced by how many invoices you send. It automates the mechanical half of credit control very well, and leaves the judgement, the phone calls and the escalation exactly where they were.
Start
Or skip the reading and hand us the worst one.
Debt Rescue is a 60-day trial on a single stuck invoice, nothing charged up front, and nothing charged at all if we recover nothing. It is a cheaper way to find out than any comparison table.