Software · head to head
Recurly vs Zuora
Recurly
Software
The subscription management platform built for growth
- From
- $29/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: 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; Zuora pricing is by quote only: the pricing page names no edition, no rate, no minimum and no cost driver, and offers only a link to sales
- They diverge on capability: Recurly covers Revenue recovery, Zuora covers Revenue recognition.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Recurly and Zuora 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 Recurly
- Revenue recovery
- Payment gateway optimization
- API
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Braintree
- SOC 2
- PCI DSS
Only in Zuora
- Revenue recognition
- Payment orchestration
- Quote-to-cash
- Salesforce
- NetSuite
- SAP
- SOC 1/2
- ISO 27001
Both cover
- Subscription billing
- Analytics
- Web support
- Api support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Recurly
- Subscription billing and recurring invoicingnot Zuora
- Dunning and failed payment recoverynot Zuora
- Trials, plan changes and promotionsnot Zuora
- Revenue recognition through the RevRec add-onnot Zuora
- Shopify-native subscriptions with subscribe and savenot Zuora
Zuora
- Managing subscription billing and recurring invoicing at enterprise scalenot Recurly
- Handling usage based and tiered pricing modelsnot Recurly
- Revenue recognition and subscription reportingnot Recurly
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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
Zuora
- Pricing is by quote only: the pricing page names no edition, no rate, no minimum and no cost driver, and offers only a link to sales
Pricing, plan by plan
Recurly
$29/month- CoreFree
- Basic billing
- Revenue recovery
- Analytics
Zuora
$29/month- LaunchFree
- Up to $100K revenue
- Core billing
- Basic reporting
- ScaleFree
- Custom pricing
- Advanced billing
- Revenue automation
Which should you pick?
Choose Recurly if
- You need revenue recovery.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want payment gateway optimization.
Choose Zuora if
- You need revenue recognition.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want payment orchestration.
Questions people ask
- Is Recurly or Zuora better?
- Neither clearly leads. Recurly starts at $29/month and Zuora at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Recurly or Zuora?
- Recurly starts at $29/month and Zuora at $29/month.
- Does Recurly or Zuora run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- What is Recurly best used for?
- Recurly is most often used for subscription billing and recurring invoicing, dunning and failed payment recovery, trials, plan changes and promotions, revenue recognition through the revrec add-on. Of those, subscription billing and recurring invoicing and dunning and failed payment recovery are not what Zuora is typically brought in for.
- What can Recurly do that Zuora cannot?
- Recurly covers Revenue recovery, Payment gateway optimization, API, Stripe. Zuora covers Revenue recognition, Payment orchestration, Quote-to-cash, Salesforce. Both handle Subscription billing, Analytics, Web support, Api support.