Whether your business sells subscriptions to consumers or to other businesses, you need a subscription management solution that helps you create pricing plans and packages, set up billing, collect payments, mitigate churn, and glean customer insights via comprehensive analytics.
Recurly is one of the top subscription management services in the industry, offering all of the above services and more. Below, we explore Recurly — including what it offers, what sets it apart from the crowd, and how much it costs — and compare it to some of its top competitors in the industry.
By the end of this article, you’ll be better prepared to decide if Recurly or one of its competitors is the best way for your company to manage subscriptions and payments.
Recurly: What is it, and is it worth your time and money?
Recurly is an all-in-one subscription management and billing system that helps businesses of any size acquire, bill, manage, and retain paying subscribers. Its thorough automation ensures billing and invoicing go smoothly month over month, and its robust analytics tool helps customers identify trends and opportunities, proactively handle churn, and regain revenue from involuntary customer loss.
While Recurly lacks its own built-in billing and payment processing system, it syncs with more than 20 third-party payment providers that give its customers flexibility to accept a variety of payments, including Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo, and many more.
What does Recurly have that competitors don’t?
Plenty of features and built-in perks set Recurly apart from the competition:
- Enterprise-grade scalability that includes robust acquisition features including free trials, promotional coupons, gift cards, and more
- Native syncing with multiple payment methods gives customers maximum flexibility.
- Robust reporting features are more in-depth than many other competitors’.
- Recurly offers multiple modes of customer service and support, including a comprehensive self-service support tool, ongoing developer documentation, accessible training videos, and customer service via chat, email, and phone.
- Recurly’s plans support both B2C businesses and B2B businesses in a variety of industries.
Pricing
Recurly has three plans and pricing tiers:
- Starter: Costs $0 for 12 months for new customers (with certain terms and conditions). After the first 12 months, the price increases to $249 per month. Ideal for less mature subscription businesses and startups.
- Professional: Custom pricing. Ideal for midsize businesses working on growing their subscriber base and revenue.
- Elite: Custom pricing. Ideal for large enterprises with multiple subscriptions and large customer bases.
Key features
- Support for multiple and customized pricing models.
- Fully automated invoicing with 20+ payment gateways and access to 10+ payment methods.
- Multi-currency support (140+ local currencies) and multilingual functionality (30+ languages).
- Pre-built reporting and analytics.
- Proven churn management with intelligent retries, expired card management, dunning campaigns, and more.
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Top Recurly competitors
Naturally, Recurly isn’t the only player in the world of subscription management services. While it’s a solid choice for plenty of businesses (as suggested by its high user ratings on third-party review sites like TrustRadius, Gartner, and G2), differences in cost, scalability, and features might cause you to look elsewhere. Let’s explore three more of the top options in the subscription management market.
Zuora: Best alternative for resellers
Like Recurly, Zuora’s software helps its customers manage subscriptions and bill subscribers. Although Zuora’s plans do support mid-tier businesses, enterprises are its primary target. In many ways, the software operates like an ERP system: The Zuora Platform hosts Zuora’s suite of billing and subscription tools, which include modules like Zuora Billing, Zuora Payments, Zuora Revenue, and Zuora CPQ.
Unlike Recurly, Zuora offers a partner program, allowing its partners to get discounts on services, free training, and marketing funds. If you sell to consumers, Zuora may not be the best choice based on its propensity towards B2B organizations. Similarly, if you’re part of a startup or small business, Zuora isn’t a good fit for you: Its features are too complex, and its pricing is likely well out of your budget.
What Zuora has that Recurly doesn’t:
- Enterprise-focused software.
- Double the number of payment methods (20 to Recurly’s 10), and payment gateways (40 to Recurly’s 20).
- Zuora created the Subscribed Institute, a think tank comprised of executives from 600+ global companies. The institute works with academics and other experts in the field to produce leading industry-related research.
What Recurly has that Zuora doesn’t:
- Fast time to market.
- Plans for small and midsize businesses as well as enterprises.
Pricing
Zuora doesn’t list its pricing information online. Additionally, it doesn’t offer a free trial. If you’re interested in the service, you’ll need to get in touch with a sales representative directly to schedule a demo and request a custom quote.
Key features
- Comprehensive support for one-time, consumption, and recurring pricing models.
- Global e-invoicing and tax compliance via native integrations with third-party tools.
- Payment fraud protection (via Microsoft).
- Automated revenue management (ARM).
- Subscription quoting.
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Consider choosing Zuora over Recurly if . . .
- You have room in your budget for a pricier product.
- You’re part of an enterprise selling subscriptions primarily to other businesses.
- You need complex software that can keep up with your large corporation.
Chargebee: Best alternative for new, small businesses
If you’re looking for a subscription management and billing service that can guide you through establishing your business and customer base, Chargebee could be a good fit.
Although Chargebee has an enterprise-tier plan, its primary audience is startups and small businesses that are only just starting to build up a solid pool of subscribers. Its entry-level plan is commitment-free and doesn’t cost a cent until you’ve cumulatively billed customers $250K USD. On third-party review sites, users also call out Chargebee’s ease of use, from its user-friendly dashboard and intuitive UX to its fast setup time.
As much as it focuses on small businesses, Chargebee also offers support for global businesses with subscribing customers in 150+ countries.
What Chargebee has that Recurly doesn’t:
- 30+ payment gateways (compared to Recurly’s 20+).
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android users.
What Recurly has that Chargebee doesn’t:
- Straightforward pricing models and user-friendly website design.
- Thorough third-party integrations and APIs.
- US-based customer support.
Pricing
Chargebee and Recurly have similar plans and pricing structures that support multiple business sizes:
- Starter: $0 per month for up to $250K of cumulative billing. Fee of 0.75% charged on all billing over $250K (fee charged monthly). No annual commitment required. Ideal for small subscription-based businesses.
- Performance: $599 per month for up to $100K of billing per month. Fee of 0.75% charged on all billing after $100K limit is reached. Annual commitment required (discount available for upfront payment). Ideal for growing companies.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Ideal for enterprises.
Key features
- Multi-currency support with multilingual options.
- End-to-end churn management.
- Flexible billing cycles, customizable pricing plans, and value-based options.
- Custom workflow builds and in-depth automation.
- Detailed, customer-specific transaction failure insights.
- Monthly revenue journal entries that sync with your GL.
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Consider choosing Chargebee over Recurly if . . .
- You’ve just launched (or are just about to launch) a business and need guidance getting set up.
- Your business is growing, but you’re not necessarily aiming for enterprise status.
- You’re willing to wade through a complex website and confusing pricing structure to find the right plan for your needs.
Stripe: Best single-gateway provider
In contrast to other products on our list, Stripe is a payment processing tool that integrates with third-party subscription management solutions (including Recurly). If you’re looking for thorough subscription management services, you’ll want to look at an option like Chargebee, Zuora, or Recurly instead — but if accepting payments in person and online is your primary concern while managing subscriptions is secondary, Stripe could be a good option.
That said, Stripe still has plenty of recurring billing features that support subscription-based businesses, especially small businesses that rely on more than subscriptions to make money. For instance, it’s easy to set up automatic recurring payments and reduce lost revenue with automated failed payment reminders.
In other words, if you’re looking for a payment processor with some subscription management features, not a subscription management service with multiple payment processing options, Stripe could work for your business. On the other hand, if you want thorough subscription management, Zuora, Chargebee, and Recurly all integrate with Stripe and should meet your needs better.
What Stripe has that Recurly doesn’t:
- Built-in payment acceptance.
- ACH payment acceptance with every plan, not just top-tier plans.
What Recurly has that Stripe doesn’t:
- Multiple payment gateways (including Stripe) with gateway routing and failover
- Comprehensive subscription management features, including in-depth reporting and analytics.
Pricing
Stripe doesn’t have a monthly base fee. Instead, as a payment processing service, it charges transaction fees that start at 2.9% plus $0.30 for every successful domestic card charge.
Large companies can create custom Stripe packages with thorough features and custom pricing.
Key features
- Flexible billing logic with support for free trials, prorations, and coupons.
- Automatic failed payment notifications.
- Built-in global currency acceptance (135+ currencies) and local payment methods, including cards, bank transfers, ACH payments, SEPA direct debit, and more.
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Consider choosing Stripe over Recurly if . . .
- You’re looking for a payment processor first and a subscription management service second.
- Your revenue stems from a variety of sources, not just subscriptions.
Is Recurly worth it?
If you’re looking for an all-in-one billing and subscription management service with reasonable pricing, solid US-based customer service, and DTC expertise — then yes, Recurly is worth every penny.
Luckily for customers, Recurly advertises a free trial. Signing up for a trial is the best way to figure out if Recurly’s features, interface, and pricing are worth it for your business, or if a Recurly competitor is a better choice.
Do you need Recurly or a Recurly alternative?
For subscription-based businesses, having the right billing and subscription management service is invaluable. But which product or service is the right one for you?
Ultimately, the right billing and subscription-management service for your organization depends on factors like your business’s industry and size, plus your budget, customer base, and required features.
For businesses that want to proactively handle churn, integrate their preferred third-party apps, and spend only what they need and no more, Recurly is a good choice. But if Recurly doesn’t seem like the right fit for you, we recommend trying Chargebee to build a customer base, Stripe to primarily accept payments (recurring and otherwise), and Zuora to manage complex enterprise-level customer subscriptions.