Is freee or Lago better?

Neither clearly leads. freee starts at 980/month and Lago at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, freee or Lago?

Lago has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at 980/month for freee and Free for Lago.

Does freee or Lago run on more platforms?

freee runs on Web. Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC.

Can I use Lago for free?

Yes. Lago has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. freee starts at 980/month.

What is freee best used for?

freee is most often used for filing japanese tax documents electronically each year, calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automatically, creating opening documents without visiting tax office, tracking company expenses across departments centrally. Of those, filing japanese tax documents electronically each year and calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automatically are not what Lago is typically brought in for.

What can freee do that Lago cannot?

Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits.

Accounting · head to head

freee vs Lago

freee

Accounting

Japanese integrated cloud accounting software for sole proprietors and corporations

From: 980/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Lago

Accounting

Open-source billing infrastructure for usage-based models

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Lago has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: freee pricing varies significantly across multiple product categories and tiers; Lago free tier limited to 10,000 entities per month with 5M event cap
Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which freee and Lago actually diverge.

Attributes where freee and Lago differ
Attribute	freee	Lago
Starting price	980/month	Free
Pricing model	subscription	Freemium with optional paid tiers
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Web	Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

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 freee

Nothing recorded that Lago does not also cover.

Only in Lago

Real-time usage metering
Multiple pricing models
Automated invoicing
Prepaid credits
Entitlements
Multi-currency support
Payment orchestration
Revenue analytics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

freee

Filing Japanese tax documents electronically each yearnot Lago
Calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automaticallynot Lago
Creating opening documents without visiting tax officenot Lago
Tracking company expenses across departments centrallynot Lago

Lago

Building usage-based billing for high-volume APIs and infrastructurenot freee
Implementing metered billing for AI and tokenized servicesnot freee
Creating subscription and hybrid pricing modelsnot freee
Managing multi-currency billing for global companiesnot freee
Maintaining billing infrastructure without vendor lock-innot freee

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

freee

Pricing varies significantly across multiple product categories and tiers
Some corporate tiers (Advance) reach ¥39,780+/month

Lago

Free tier limited to 10,000 entities per month with 5M event cap
No specific pricing published for Pro annual plan or Scale plan
Self-hosted and on-premise deployments require engineering resources
Community support only on free tier
Scale plan requires annual contracts and sales engagement

Pricing, plan by plan

freee

980/month

freee會計 Starter$980/month
- Individual business owner accounting tier
freee會計 Corporate Solo$2980/month
- Corporate accounting tier
freee人事労務$400/month per employee
- HR and payroll module per-employee pricing
freee勤怠管理$300/month per employee
- Attendance tracking per-employee

Lago

Free

Build (Free)Free
- 10,000 managed entities per month
- 5M usage events per month
- 1K events per second rate limit
Pro$399/month
- 10,000 entities included (graduated pricing to 100K)
- 25M usage events included (to 500M with graduated rates)
- 10K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
Scale$null/custom
- Custom entity and event volumes
- 50K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
- RBAC and SSO (SAML)

Which should you pick?

Choose freee if

Nothing in the data separates freee from Lago on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

freee review

Choose Lago if

You need real-time usage metering.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC.
You also want multiple pricing models.

Lago review

Questions people ask

Is freee or Lago better?: Neither clearly leads. freee starts at 980/month and Lago at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, freee or Lago?: Lago has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at 980/month for freee and Free for Lago.
Does freee or Lago run on more platforms?: freee runs on Web. Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC.
Can I use Lago for free?: Yes. Lago has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. freee starts at 980/month.
What is freee best used for?: freee is most often used for filing japanese tax documents electronically each year, calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automatically, creating opening documents without visiting tax office, tracking company expenses across departments centrally. Of those, filing japanese tax documents electronically each year and calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automatically are not what Lago is typically brought in for.
What can freee do that Lago cannot?: Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

freee: What is freee's accounting software pricing?

Individual business owners start at ¥980/month for Starter, while corporate accounting begins at ¥2,980/month for Solo Corp, with prices extending to ¥39,780+/month for Advance plans.

Source

Lago: Can I use Lago open-source for free?

Yes, Lago is open-source under the AGPLv3 license and can be self-hosted. The cloud-based Build plan is also free with limits of 10,000 entities and 5M events per month.

Source

freee: Does freee charge per employee for HR and payroll?

Yes, freee人事労務 (HR/Payroll) costs ¥400-¥1,100 per employee per month, and freee勤怠管理 (Attendance) costs ¥300 per employee per month.

Source

Lago: What payment providers does Lago integrate with?

Lago integrates with Stripe and Adyen for payment processing. It is not a payment processor itself but orchestrates payments through these providers.

Source

freee: Are there free freee products?

Several freee products are completely free, including freee開業 (Business Opening), freee請求書 (Invoicing), freeeカード (Card), and certain features like payroll rules creation.

Source

Lago: Does Lago support multiple currencies?

Yes, Lago supports multi-currency billing with automatic currency conversion for global businesses.

Source

freee: Does freee offer a free trial?

Freee offers a 30-day free trial for its accounting software and provides annual payment discounts on most plans.

Source

freee vs Lago

freee

Lago

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in freee

Only in Lago

What people use each for

freee

Lago

Where each one falls short

freee

Lago

Pricing, plan by plan

freee

Lago

Which should you pick?

Choose freee if

Choose Lago if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on freee

More on Lago

Keep looking

Other head to heads