Software · head to head
Chargebee vs Recurly
Recurly
Software
The subscription management platform built for growth
- From
- $29/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Chargebee priced as a percentage of billing, 0.80 percent on pay-as-you-go or 0.65 percent plus $99 a month on the committed plan, so the fee rises with revenue; Recurly starter is $249 a month plus 0.9 percent of billing volume above the first $40K, so the cost rises with revenue rather than with usage
- They diverge on capability: Chargebee covers Subscription management, Recurly covers Subscription billing.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Chargebee and Recurly actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price ($29/month), pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Chargebee
- Subscription management
- Recurring billing
- Revenue recognition
- Dunning management
- Checkout pages
- Salesforce
- NetSuite
Only in Recurly
- Subscription billing
- Revenue recovery
- Payment gateway optimization
- Analytics
- API
- Braintree
Both cover
- Stripe
- PayPal
- SOC 2
- PCI DSS
- Web support
- Api support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Chargebee
- Subscription billingnot Recurly
- Revenue operationsnot Recurly
- Pricing experimentationnot Recurly
Recurly
- Subscription billing and recurring invoicingnot Chargebee
- Dunning and failed payment recoverynot Chargebee
- Trials, plan changes and promotionsnot Chargebee
- Revenue recognition through the RevRec add-onnot Chargebee
- Shopify-native subscriptions with subscribe and savenot Chargebee
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Chargebee
- Priced as a percentage of billing, 0.80 percent on pay-as-you-go or 0.65 percent plus $99 a month on the committed plan, so the fee rises with revenue
- Split into four separate product lines, Billing, CPQ, RevRec and Growth, each with its own tiers and most quote-only
- CPQ Lite is free only for the first 50 quotes
- Revenue recognition pricing is demo-only
- Enterprise Plus requires an annual commitment
Recurly
- Starter is $249 a month plus 0.9 percent of billing volume above the first $40K, so the cost rises with revenue rather than with usage
- All-Access is quoted at under 1 percent of billing volume with a $1M minimum, putting it out of reach of smaller merchants
- Only one dunning campaign on Starter; multiple campaigns need All-Access
- SSO, multicurrency and payments orchestration are All-Access only
- Revenue recognition and the Engage churn tooling are separate add-ons at $850 and $1,600 a month
Pricing, plan by plan
Chargebee
$29/month- StarterFree
- First $250K revenue free
- Basic billing
- Invoicing
- Performance$599/month
- Revenue recognition
- Advanced analytics
- Multi-currency
Recurly
$29/month- CoreFree
- Basic billing
- Revenue recovery
- Analytics
Which should you pick?
Choose Chargebee if
- You need subscription management.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want recurring billing.
Choose Recurly if
- You need subscription billing.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want revenue recovery.
Questions people ask
- Is Chargebee or Recurly better?
- Neither clearly leads. Chargebee starts at $29/month and Recurly at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Chargebee or Recurly?
- Chargebee starts at $29/month and Recurly at $29/month.
- Does Chargebee or Recurly run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- What is Chargebee best used for?
- Chargebee is most often used for subscription billing, revenue operations, pricing experimentation. Of those, subscription billing and revenue operations are not what Recurly is typically brought in for.
- What can Chargebee do that Recurly cannot?
- Chargebee covers Subscription management, Recurring billing, Revenue recognition, Dunning management. Recurly covers Subscription billing, Revenue recovery, Payment gateway optimization, Analytics. Both handle Stripe, PayPal, SOC 2, PCI DSS.