Most credit control tools run a timed free trial of 10 to 32 days, some run none, and one runs a free action allowance with no expiry. The trial terms below were checked against each vendor's own material in August and September 2026.
The useful comparison is not the day count. It is what one cycle of your payment terms can actually complete before the clock runs out, so the table measures each trial against an invoice on 30-day terms.
| Tool | Trial terms | Card required | On 30-day terms, the trial covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paidnice | No clock. Free to sign up, first 20 actions free | No | Setup, the full cycle, and the first overdue chases, unhurried |
| Statey | 32 days | No | One cycle, if you configure on day one |
| Credit Hound | Free trial, duration unpublished | No | Unknowable until you ask the length |
| Chaser | 10 days, then a demo before you can buy | Not stated | Setup and drafts; the invoice is not yet due at expiry |
| Satago | No trial stated | n/a | Nothing self-serve to run |
Two mid-market platforms sit outside the table for the same reason. Kolleno publishes no trial and is quote-led. Upflow's free Discover tier is analytics only, carries no collection automation, and the vendor's own wording is that it is not a trial. Terms checked August to September 2026; verify before you buy, because trial policies change more often than pricing does.
Credit control runs on your customers' payment terms, and payment terms are longer than most trials. An invoice on 30-day terms that goes out on day one of a 10-day trial is still three weeks from being due when the trial ends.
So a timed trial tests setup speed and interface feel, and rarely tests the product's actual job, which is what happens to an overdue invoice over weeks. Teams compress the test by pointing the tool at invoices that are already overdue, which works, but turns week one into a live-fire exercise on real customers before the settings are right.
The alternative model is an allowance instead of a clock: the tool is free until it has done a set amount of real work. Nothing expires while you are still deciding, and the meter only moves when something actually sends.
The settings below decide how the tool behaves toward your customers. They deserve unhurried attention, because a chase sequence with the wrong tone or the wrong recipient costs goodwill you cannot refund.
Paidnice has no trial clock. Signing up is free, no credit card is required, and the first 20 actions are free with no time limit. Until the allowance is used, nothing about the account expires.
That shape exists for exactly the settings work above. Connect Xero or QuickBooks Online, build your groups, write the sequences, and let policies run in draft while you read what each one would have sent. The allowance only counts the work Paidnice actually performs, so a fortnight spent getting the wording right costs nothing.
Run your first policy in draft against last month's overdue list and read the queue like a customer would. The two changes almost everyone makes after that reading are softening the first reminder and moving its send time earlier in the day.
When you do go live, the plans start at £49 a month for 150 invoices, with unlimited users on Pro, and there are no contracts or lock-ins. What each tier costs is on the pricing page, and how the wider market prices is its own comparison.
Three questions to answer before any tool starts billing you, whatever its trial model.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Did money arrive that was previously stuck? | A reminder sequence that produced no payment on genuinely overdue invoices is not doing its one job. |
| What did support do when you asked something hard? | Trial-period support is the vendor at their best. If the answer took days now, budget for worse later. |
| What happens to your data if you stop? | Ask for the retention period and the export route before you start, not after. |
For choosing between the tools themselves rather than their trials, the wider field is compared in credit control software by turnover, seats and cost, and the small-business end in credit control software for UK small businesses.
Which credit control trials need a credit card?
Paidnice, Statey and Credit Hound state that no card is needed. The rest do not publish the answer, so ask before you sign up rather than discovering it at the paywall.
Should a trial run on live ledger data or a sandbox?
Live data, with policies in draft mode. The tool then reads your real invoices and contacts while nothing sends until you approve it, which is the only test that predicts production behaviour.
Will my customers get emails during the trial?
Only if you take policies out of draft. Keep everything queuing for approval while you tune the wording, then go live deliberately on a small set of invoices.
How long should a credit control trial last?
Long enough to cover one real chase cycle, which on 30-day terms is five to six weeks from invoice to first overdue reminder. A 10-day clock cannot cover that; an action-based allowance can.
What does an action mean in Paidnice's free allowance?
An action is a piece of work Paidnice performs, such as sending a reminder. The first 20 are free with no expiry, so the allowance is spent on real chasing rather than on setup time.
What happens when the free actions run out?
You pick a plan, from £49 a month for 150 invoices. There is no contract and no lock-in, so stopping later is as easy as starting.
Paidnice is accounts receivable automation that enforces your payment terms, trusted by thousands of businesses on Xero and QuickBooks. Credit control and debtor management, run for you.
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