Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Lago vs Ottimate

Lago logo

Lago

Accounting

Open-source billing infrastructure for usage-based models

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Ottimate logo

Ottimate

Accounting

Invoice capture and accounts payable automation trained on food and beverage distributor formats

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Lago has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Lago free tier limited to 10,000 entities per month with 5M event cap; Ottimate nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
  • They diverge on capability: Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lago and Ottimate actually diverge.

Attributes where Lago and Ottimate differ
AttributeLagoOttimate
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelFreemium with optional paid tiersquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPCWeb, iOS, Android

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 Lago

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

Only in Ottimate

  • Line-item invoice capture
  • GL coding
  • Approval routing
  • Supplier payments
  • Price change alerts
  • Purchase order matching
  • Digital invoice retrieval

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 Ottimate
  • Implementing metered billing for AI and tokenized servicesnot Ottimate
  • Creating subscription and hybrid pricing modelsnot Ottimate
  • Managing multi-currency billing for global companiesnot Ottimate
  • Maintaining billing infrastructure without vendor lock-innot Ottimate

Ottimate

  • A 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food costnot Lago
  • An operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedulenot Lago
  • A hotel group standardising accounts payable approvals across properties that each have their own general manager sign-off rulesnot Lago
  • A finance team migrating from paper invoice files that needs digital retrieval from supplier portals rather than chasing branches for copiesnot 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

Ottimate

  • Nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
  • The line-item extraction advantage is trained on food and beverage distributor formats, so accuracy on long-tail suppliers, service invoices and one-off vendors falls back to general OCR and needs human review
  • It is an accounts payable layer, not an inventory or recipe costing system, so operators still need Restaurant365 or an equivalent for true plate costing and the value depends on that integration behaving
  • The company has rebranded once already from Plate IQ, and much of the third party comparison material still uses the old name or wrongly attributes it to AvidXchange, which makes independent due diligence unusually hard
  • Payment execution through the platform introduces a dependency on Ottimate for supplier relationships, and moving away later means re-establishing payment details with every vendor rather than simply exporting data

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)

Ottimate

On request
  • Ottimate$undefined/year
    • Quoted by location count and invoice volume
    • Payment rails may carry separate transaction charges
    • Implementation and accounting system integration scoped separately

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 Ottimate if

  • You need line-item invoice capture.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want gl coding.
Ottimate review

Questions people ask

Is Lago or Ottimate better?
Neither clearly leads. Lago starts at Free and Ottimate at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lago or Ottimate?
Lago has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Lago and On request for Ottimate.
Does Lago or Ottimate run on more platforms?
Lago runs on Web, Cloud, Self-hosted, On-premise, VPC. Ottimate runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use Lago for free?
Yes. Lago has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Ottimate starts at On request.
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 Ottimate is typically brought in for.
What can Lago do that Ottimate cannot?
Lago covers Real-time usage metering, Multiple pricing models, Automated invoicing, Prepaid credits. Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture, GL coding, Approval routing, Supplier payments.

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
Ottimate: Is Ottimate owned by AvidXchange?

No. Ottimate is the rebranded Plate IQ and operates as an independent venture-backed company. AvidXchange is a competitor, not the parent.

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
Ottimate: What was it called before?

Plate IQ. The company kept the same product and renamed it Ottimate.

Lago: Does Lago support multiple currencies?

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

Source
Ottimate: Does it work outside restaurants?

It will process any invoice, but the line-item extraction accuracy that justifies the price is tuned to food and beverage distributors. Other industries should test carefully before committing.

Ottimate: Does it replace Restaurant365?

No. It handles invoice capture, approval and payment. Recipe costing and restaurant-specific inventory stay in Restaurant365 or an equivalent.

Share

Related pages

More on Lago

More on Ottimate

Keep looking

Other head to heads