Is Lago or Ory better?

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

Which is cheaper, Lago or Ory?

Lago starts at Free and Ory at Free.

Does Lago or Ory run on more platforms?

Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC. Ory runs on web, api.

Can I use Lago for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Lago best used for?

Lago is most often used for building usage-based billing for high-volume apis and infrastructure, implementing metered billing for ai and tokenized services, creating subscription and hybrid pricing models, managing multi-currency billing for global companies. Of those, building usage-based billing for high-volume apis and infrastructure and implementing metered billing for ai and tokenized services are not what Ory is typically brought in for.

What can Lago do that Ory cannot?

Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits. Ory covers Authentication APIs, Permissions engine, Machine-to-machine tokens, B2B organizations.

Accounting · head to head

Lago vs Ory

Lago

Accounting

Open-source billing infrastructure for usage-based models

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Ory

Cybersecurity

Open-source identity, authentication, and permissions infrastructure

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Lago free tier limited to 10,000 entities per month with 5M event cap; Ory production and Growth plans are billed annually ($770/year and $9,350/year), which is a larger upfront commitment than monthly-only competitors.
They diverge on capability: Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Ory covers Authentication APIs.
Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lago and Ory actually diverge.

Attributes where Lago and Ory differ
Attribute	Lago	Ory
Pricing model	Freemium with optional paid tiers	usage-based
Platforms	Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC	web, api
Category	Accounting	Cybersecurity

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Lago

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

Only in Ory

Authentication APIs
Permissions engine
Machine-to-machine tokens
B2B organizations
SAML SSO
Multi-region deployments

What people use each for

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

Lago

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

Ory

Adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new productnot Lago
Implementing fine-grained permission checksnot Lago
Supporting B2B organizations and multi-tenancynot Lago
Building machine-to-machine authentication for microservicesnot Lago

Where each one falls short

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

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

Ory

Production and Growth plans are billed annually ($770/year and $9,350/year), which is a larger upfront commitment than monthly-only competitors.
SAML SSO and multi-region deployments are reserved for the custom-priced Enterprise tier.
Usage-based pricing across aDAU, M2M tokens, and permission checks makes cost estimation more complex than flat per-MAU billing.

Pricing, plan by plan

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)

Ory

Free

DeveloperFree
- Community support
- No production environments
Production$64/month
- $21 monthly credit included
- 1 production environment
- 3 staging environments
Growth$779/month
- $255 monthly credit included
- 2 production environments
- B2B organizations (max 3)

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Ory if

You need authentication apis.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api.
You also want permissions engine.

Ory review

Questions people ask

Is Lago or Ory better?: Neither clearly leads. Lago starts at Free and Ory at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lago or Ory?: Lago starts at Free and Ory at Free.
Does Lago or Ory run on more platforms?: Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC. Ory runs on web, api.
Can I use Lago for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Lago best used for?: Lago is most often used for building usage-based billing for high-volume apis and infrastructure, implementing metered billing for ai and tokenized services, creating subscription and hybrid pricing models, managing multi-currency billing for global companies. Of those, building usage-based billing for high-volume apis and infrastructure and implementing metered billing for ai and tokenized services are not what Ory is typically brought in for.
What can Lago do that Ory cannot?: Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits. Ory covers Authentication APIs, Permissions engine, Machine-to-machine tokens, B2B organizations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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

Ory: What does Ory cost?

Ory has a free Developer tier, a Production plan at $770/year including a $21 monthly credit, a Growth plan at $9,350/year including a $255 monthly credit, and custom Enterprise pricing.

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

Ory: How is usage metered?

Beyond the included credit, Ory charges per average daily active user (aDAU), per machine-to-machine token, and per permission check, with lower per-unit rates on the Growth plan.

Source

Lago: Does Lago support multiple currencies?

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

Source

Ory: What payment methods are supported?

Ory accepts credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Amex) and bank transfer, processed via Stripe.

Source

Lago vs Ory

Lago

Ory

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Lago

Only in Ory

What people use each for

Lago

Ory

Where each one falls short

Lago

Ory

Pricing, plan by plan

Lago

Ory

Which should you pick?

Choose Lago if

Choose Ory if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Lago

More on Ory

Keep looking

Other head to heads