Chargeflow vs. ClearSale

ClearSale and Chargeflow address different parts of chargeback loss. ClearSale combines order screening with a fraud-chargeback guarantee on eligible approved orders and plans. Chargeflow automates eligible dispute recovery across reason codes, adds pre-dispute alerts and offers post-purchase screening. Choose Chargeflow when you need a connected recovery and prevention workflow; compare any existing guarantee against its actual exclusions before replacing it.

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Chargeflow vs ClearSale at a Glance

Shopify ratings as checked 2 November 2026.

Chargeflow pricing checked November 2, 2026: Automation 25% of recovered chargebacks; Alerts $29 per deflected chargeback, with volume pricing available; Prevent $0.10 per scan. New customers’ first 1,000 scans are free once, valid for three months after activation; the introductory allowance is available through December 31, 2026. Current Prevent pricing and allowance terms.

Chargeflow Overview

Chargeflow is an AI chargeback platform founded in 2021 by Ariel and Avia Chen. It works with 20,000+ merchants in 90 countries, including Caraway, Huel, Olipop and HexClad, has recovered more than $200M for them and protects $50B+ in transactions. Its products cover the full dispute lifecycle: stop the chargeback before it posts, fight the ones that do, and flag risky orders before they ship.

Belangrijkste kenmerken

• Automation: end-to-end handling of disputes and inquiries with a 100% submission rate, evidence built from 1,000+ data points, ChargeScore® and ChargeResponse®, card-scheme-compliant evidence including Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0, and InquiryAutomation for PayPal, Klarna, Afterpay and eBay.
• Alerts: Visa and Mastercard powered pre-dispute alerts that cut chargebacks by up to 90% and go live within 24 hours.
• Prevent: post-purchase fraud and friendly fraud prevention that checks identity after authorization and before fulfillment, then auto cancels, verifies or approves each order.
• Insights: a free dashboard with ratio threshold notifications and AI recommendations.
• Integrations: 100+ native connections, including Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Braintree and Klarna.
• Security: SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit.

Prijzen

• Automation: 25% of each recovered chargeback, charged only on wins, with no cap and a 4x ROI guarantee.
• Alerts: $29 per deflected chargeback, with better rates above 50 per month and a zero-duplication-charge guarantee.
• Prevent: $0.10 per scanned transaction, first 1,000 scans free once for new customers.
• Insights: free. Enterprise: custom, with a dedicated success manager and SSO.
• No setup fees and no long-term contracts. Full details on the Chargeflow pricing page.

Sterke punten

1. Fights eligible reason codes, so "not received", "not as described" and friendly fraud claims get a response, not just fraud-coded ones.
2. Success-based pricing backed by a 4x ROI guarantee: if a dispute is lost, you pay no Automation recovery fee for it.
3. Alerts resolve disputes before they become chargebacks, which helps keep your Visa and Mastercard ratios below program thresholds.
4. Fast setup through native integrations, with alerts live within 24 hours.

ClearSale Overview

ClearSale was founded in Brazil in 2001 and runs its US business from Miami (Wikipedia). Experian agreed to buy it in October 2024 for an announced value of about $350 million (AJ Bell) and completed the deal on 1 April 2025, the last day ClearSale traded on Brazil's B3 exchange, per Experian's regulatory announcement. ClearSale now brands itself "A Part of Experian."

Belangrijkste kenmerken

• Hybrid order review: per ClearSale, 91.3% of orders are approved automatically, 8.3% get an analyst review and 0.4% get a review with a phone call, across 6,000+ client accounts.
• Chargeback guarantee: "100% coverage for any fraud-related chargebacks" on approved orders, for eligible plans (ClearSale guarantee page).
• ChargebackOps: an analyst-led chargeback management service ClearSale acquired in January 2022. ChargebackOps says its services are designed for Fortune 500 ecommerce companies.
• Other products: Brand Protection, Account Protection and fraud strategy consulting (ClearSale solutions).
• Integrations: 18 named platform plugins and APIs, including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Salesforce and VTEX.

Prijzen

• You pay per approved order; declined orders are not billed (ClearSale pricing).
• The page's meta description says pricing starts at $0.25 per approved order. Growth plans start from $250/month; Custom plans target 50,000+ orders per month.
• ClearSale's fraud protection pricing page lists three approaches: a KPI model, a performance-based model with full reimbursement of fraud chargebacks, and a custom hybrid.
• Typically no setup fees, no long-term contracts, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

Sterke punten

1. Human analysts review gray-zone orders, which helps high-ticket and cross-border sellers approve orders an automated filter might reject.
2. The guarantee shifts fraud chargeback losses on approved orders to ClearSale.
3. Experian ownership adds identity data to its fraud models, per ClearSale.

Beperkingen

1. The guarantee covers fraud-related chargebacks only, and ClearSale's FAQ says only "some pricing models" include it.
2. Under the KPI model, the discount is "not intended to fully cover all chargeback losses," per ClearSale.
3. You pay on every approved order, including the large majority that never become disputes.
4. Prices are published only as starting points, so you need a quote to know your rate.

Feature Comparison

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Pricing Comparison

For a wider view of fee models, see our guide to chargeback guarantees.

What ClearSale's Guarantee Covers, and What It Doesn't

Visa sorts every dispute into four categories: Fraud (10), Authorization (11), Processing Errors (12) and Customer Disputes (13), which include 13.1 "Merchandise/Services Not Received" and 13.3 "Not as Described or Defective" (Visa merchant disputes).

ClearSale describes its standard guarantee as fraud-related; the purchased plan and claim conditions determine coverage. Its guarantee page promises coverage for "fraud-related chargebacks," and its pricing FAQ narrows that to approved orders "that later result in confirmed fraud." Neither page lists reason codes, exclusions, claim deadlines or payout timing.

That leaves three gaps to raise before you sign:

• Customer disputes: a 13.1 or 13.3 chargeback is not fraud, so the guarantee does not apply. Someone still has to fight it.
• Friendly fraud: a real customer who files under a fraud code is a friendly fraud case. Ask ClearSale in writing whether these count as "confirmed fraud."
• Fees: ClearSale says it pays "the entire amount of the chargeback." Its pages do not say whether your processor's dispute fee is included.

Chargeflow treats all four categories the same way: it builds evidence and files responses across eligible reason codes on supported integrations; eligibility, evidence and response deadlines still apply.

Cost Math: A $60, $250 and $1,200 Disputed Order

Illustrative calculation. Recovery is conditional on winning. Retained amounts shown before separate processor fees, goods, shipping and internal work are not net profit.

The table shows what one disputed order costs you under each model. Assumptions: a Stripe-processed US order with Stripe's $15 dispute fee (Stripe pricing), ClearSale's guarantee applying as its pages describe, and Chargeflow's published rates.

Two things stand out. First, ClearSale's cost is not in this table at all: you pay it on every approved order. At the advertised starting rate of $0.25, 8,000 approved orders a month is $2,000 in fees, before a single dispute. Your quoted rate may differ.

Second, the economics depend on recovery probability, refunds, processor fees and the relevant monitoring exposure. On a $60 order, an alert stops the chargeback before it posts, so an eligible exclusion may apply, while the refund, provider fee and any separate fraud report still need to be counted. On a $1,200 order, recovering $900 of a non-fraud dispute is money a fraud-only guarantee would never return.

Why a Reimbursement Does Not Fix Your VAMP Ratio

Monitoring scope: Visa’s count-based VAMP ratio uses TC40 fraud reports plus TC15 disputes divided by TC05 settled card-not-present transactions. In the US, Canada, EU and Asia Pacific, the Excessive Merchant threshold became 150 basis points with a 1,500 monthly count minimum on April 1, 2026, subject to acquirer-portfolio treatment. Eligible pre-dispute and CE3.0 exclusions depend on data-extract timing. A refund or a win does not automatically erase a separate fraud report. Confirm your applicable region and treatment with your acquirer.

A guarantee pays you back. It does not erase the chargeback. Visa's Acquirer Monitoring Program counts fraud reports plus fraud and non-fraud disputes, divided by settled transactions. Per Checkout.com, the merchant "excessive" threshold dropped from 2.2% to 1.5% on 1 April 2026 in most regions, applies once you pass 1,500 counted items a month, and carries an $8 fee per counted dispute or fraud report.

A reimbursement does not itself remove the original dispute or a related fraud report from the monitoring calculation. A merchant can receive reimbursements while still breaching applicable monitoring thresholds.

Pre-dispute alerts work on the count itself. Checkout.com notes that disputes resolved through Rapid Dispute Resolution are excluded from the VAMP ratio. That is why Chargeflow Alerts sit at the center of ratio control. Read our VAMP guide or check your exposure with the VAMP calculator.

Different Jobs: Screening, Alerts and Recovery

Most "ClearSale alternatives" lists compare ClearSale only to other fraud screeners. That misses how chargeback losses actually happen. There are three separate jobs:

1. Screening before shipment: decide which orders to approve. This is ClearSale's core job, and Chargeflow Prevent's.
2. Alerts before a chargeback: refund or resolve a disputed order before it posts, through Ethoca and Verifi. See how CDRN and Ethoca alerts work.
3. Recovery after a chargeback: file evidence and win the money back. This is Chargeflow Automation's job.

Screening also has a hidden cost. Every screen that carries fraud liability declines some good customers. ClearSale's analyst model is built to approve more gray-zone orders, and it claims 99%+ approval rates. Still, ask any screener for approval rates in your vertical, because false declines can cost more than the fraud they prevent.

If fraud screening is working for you, you do not have to replace it. Many merchants keep a screener and add Chargeflow for alerts and recovery on eligible disputes the screener does not cover.

Reviews and Ratings

All ratings as checked 2 November 2026. On G2, Chargeflow holds more reviews (278 versus 205). On the Shopify App Store, Chargeflow has about 8 times as many reviews and a higher average.

Why Chargeflow Is the Best ClearSale Alternative

• Every reason code: fraud, friendly fraud, "not received" and "not as described" disputes all get a response.
• Pay on results: 25% of recovered funds, nothing on losses, a 4x ROI guarantee, and no Automation recovery fee on orders that never dispute; screening and alerts are separate.
• Ratio protection: Visa and Mastercard alerts resolve disputes before they become chargebacks, helping keep you below VAMP and Mastercard ECM thresholds.
• Fast start: 100+ integrations, alerts live within 24 hours, no setup fee or contract.
• Proven at scale: $200M+ recovered for 20,000+ merchants in 90 countries, a free Insights dashboard and SOC 2 Type 2 security.

Veelgestelde vragen

Which Platform Fits Your Business

If you are comparing ClearSale alternatives, use the points below to decide.

Chargeflow is built for the losses a fraud guarantee leaves behind: friendly fraud, delivery disputes and fraud claims that get past any screen. You get alerts that keep your ratios clear, automated responses across eligible reason codes, and a fee only when you win.

Already using a screening service? Chargeflow works alongside it, with no setup fees and no long-term contract.

Get Started Now and start recovering chargebacks with a 4x ROI guarantee.