Chargebee vs Recurly: which subscription billing platform costs less, and for what
Both are percentage-of-volume subscription billing platforms that sit on top of your payment gateway. Chargebee publishes a slider with two options, $0 + 0.80% or $99 + 0.65% of monthly invoicing volume. Recurly's Starter plan is listed at $249 a month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of billings included. On the volumes worked out below, Chargebee is the cheaper of the two, and the real differences are in dunning, gateways and revenue recognition.
By Julian Pryor · Updated 7 Oct 2026
Short answer
Choose Chargebee if you want a price you can read off a slider, a choice of gateways (it lists 40+), usage-based billing on its entry plan, and smart dunning included on Flow. Choose Recurly if you are heading for a $1M monthly billing volume, want its dunning-campaign editor, or need its standalone revenue recognition module, and you are ready to talk to sales for All-Access. Below about $66,000 of monthly invoicing, Chargebee's $0 + 0.80% option is the cheaper of its two; above it, $99 + 0.65% wins.
What each one charges
Chargebee's figures are from chargebee.com/pricing. Recurly's are from recurly.com/pricing, read via a text fetch on 7 Oct 2026; the page is behind a bot check, so there is no screenshot. Stripe Billing is from stripe.com/pricing.
| Item | Chargebee | Recurly | Stripe Billing (reference) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Flow: $0 + 0.80% or $99 + 0.65% of monthly invoicing volume, $66K breakeven | Starter: $249 per month + 0.9% of billing volume, "first $40K of billings included at no charge each month"; 90-day free trial | 0.7% of Billing volume pay-as-you-go, or from $620 a month on a one-year contract |
| Larger plans | Enterprise: "Schedule a demo", no price published | All-Access: "$1M billing volume minimum", pricing by request | Not covered on this page |
| Add-ons | RevRec: "Book a demo and request pricing"; CPQ Lite free for the first 50 quotes | Engage "as low as $1,600 per month billed annually"; RevRec "as low as $850 per month billed annually" | Stripe Tax Complete from $90 a month on a one-year contract, a separate product |
| Payment fees | Paid to your gateway, not listed | Paid to your gateway, not listed | Payments fees are separate (2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card transaction) |
The monthly cost at $20k, $100k and $500k of invoiced volume
The fee formulas turn into dollars like this. Every line excludes gateway fees, tax, and any add-on you buy. Recurly's wording does not say whether the 0.9% applies only above the first $40K or to everything; the table takes the first reading, and the last column shows the other so you can see the spread.
| Monthly invoiced volume | Chargebee $0 + 0.80% | Chargebee $99 + 0.65% | Recurly Starter (0.9% above $40K) | Recurly if 0.9% is on everything | Stripe Billing 0.7% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20,000 | $20,000 × 0.0080 = $160 | $99 + $130 = $229 | $249 (nothing above $40K) | $249 + $180 = $429 | $140 |
| $100,000 | $800 | $99 + $650 = $749 | $249 + (60,000 × 0.009 = $540) = $789 | $249 + $900 = $1,149 | $700 |
| $500,000 | $4,000 | $99 + $3,250 = $3,349 | $249 + (460,000 × 0.009 = $4,140) = $4,389 | $249 + $4,500 = $4,749 | $3,500 |
The cheaper Chargebee option at each volume is $160, $749 and $3,349. Against Recurly Starter on the first reading, that is $89 a month less at $20,000, $40 less at $100,000 ($480 a year) and $1,040 less at $500,000 ($12,480 a year). Chargebee's own breakeven checks out: the $99 base option is paid for by the 0.15-point lower rate once volume reaches $99 ÷ 0.0015 = $66,000 a month.
Stripe Billing's 0.7% is lower than Chargebee at $20,000 and $100,000 and a little higher at $500,000, but it prices the billing layer only, and its from-$620-a-month contract is a starting point, not a quote for your volume. Two limits on these sums. At $500,000 a month you are under Recurly's $1M minimum for All-Access, so the Starter formula is the one that applies to you. And Chargebee's Flow plan lists exclusions (no account hierarchy, no SAML, no approvals on price points), so a company needing those is looking at Enterprise by demo, where no price is published.
Failed payments: retries and dunning as each vendor's docs describe them
Retrying a card and nagging the customer to fix it is the main reason many teams buy a billing platform instead of building one. The documentation of each vendor was read for this section.
| Question | Chargebee | Recurly |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic retry logic | Smart mode labelled "up to 12 retries", driven by the gateway error type; hard declines "need your customers' or your intervention" and are not retried until the payment method is updated | Intelligent retries: "Recurly's machine learning–powered retry engine for declined recurring credit card payments"; docs say "Not included in Starter or Pro"; no more than 20 total transaction attempts or 60 days from invoice creation |
| Manual schedule | Custom mode: "The max number of retries you are allowed to set is 5", with intervals in days such as 1, 4 and 8 | Dunning campaigns: steps you can "add, remove, or modify", each linked to an email template |
| Customer emails | Reminders run independently of retries, "until the invoice is paid or until the dunning period expires" | Template types include Payment Declined, Invoice Past Due, Subscription Expired for Non-Payment and Payment Declined Due to 3DS2 |
| End of the cycle | Choose a final action: subscription cancelled or left active; invoice marked not paid, voided, written off or reversed | By default Recurly marks the invoice failed at the end of the cycle if unpaid, or you can set dunning never to auto-fail |
| Plan note and cycle types | Pricing page lists smart dunning as included on Flow | Dunning cycles split by Payment Declined (automatic invoices), Invoice Past Due (manual) and Post-Trial Payment Declined |
Sources: Chargebee's dunning documentation, Recurly's dunning campaigns page and its intelligent retries page. Stripe's Billing line on its pricing page also lists "Smart Retries and recovery workflow automations." None of these pages publishes a recovery rate, and this page does not offer one either; the figures vendors quote in marketing depend on a customer's mix of cards and decline reasons.
One practical point for a SaaS with a trial: Recurly's docs give post-trial failures their own dunning cycle and email, which is worth having if many of your first charges fail when a trial ends. Chargebee's documentation singles out 3-D Secure failures as hard declines that need the customer to act.
Gateway independence
Chargebee's pricing page promises "Plug-n-play with 40+ payment gateways" and names Adyen, GoCardless, Stripe, Braintree, PayPal Commerce, Checkout.com, BlueSnap, Authorize.net and Mollie among them, plus wallets (PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, Amazon Pay) and direct debit methods (ACH, SEPA, BACS, PAD, BECS, Autogiro). Recurly's payment gateways page lists a shorter set that includes Adyen, Braintree, Checkout.com, GoCardless, Stripe and Worldpay, and its docs describe connecting several gateways to one account with a routing order and failover to a secondary gateway.
The practical result is that neither locks you to a single processor. If your processor sits on Chargebee's list of 40-plus and also on Recurly's shorter one, the gateway is not the deciding factor. Check your processor and your payment methods (direct debit especially) against each vendor's list before anything else.
Revenue recognition, tax and what sits outside the entry plan
Both treat revenue recognition as a separate product. Chargebee's pricing page says to "Book a demo and request pricing" for RevRec, and its documentation describes ASC 606 and IFRS 15 support with Essential and Premium tiers. Recurly's page, as read on 7 Oct 2026, lists RevRec "as low as $850 per month billed annually", and its docs describe a standalone module for merchants who do not need Recurly's billing, with multiple books under ASC 606 or IFRS 15 in the Advanced edition. If a finance team must produce audited revenue schedules, Recurly gives you a published starting price; Chargebee gives you a demo.
For tax, Chargebee's Flow plan lists "Sales tax (US, EU VAT & global taxes)". The Recurly text read did not list tax coverage, so compare tax scope directly with Recurly before you decide, and if you would rather have a vendor act as merchant of record than run billing yourself, Stripe vs Paddle covers that route.
Moving to either platform
- Decide where cards live. Chargebee's docs show a path that keeps Stripe as the gateway: you raise a migration request in Settings, Chargebee imports subscriptions and customers and maps card details, and the customers stay in Stripe because the card belongs to the customer. Recurly's docs say moving stored cards between gateways has to be coordinated through Recurly and both processors.
- Review in a test site first. Chargebee's Stripe migration imports to a TEST site for review, with customer emails altered so nobody gets mail by accident.
- Expect gaps in history. Chargebee's Stripe import covers subscriptions, customers and current-term invoices; Recurly's guidance says historical data cannot be imported and subscription start dates are recorded as the import date.
- Send new signups first, then move existing subscribers in cohorts and cancel the legacy subscription at the end of its billing cycle so nobody is charged twice.
- Re-wire your emails. Switch off the old system's failed-payment emails before turning on the new one's, or customers get two.
Chargebee's pricing page lists "Migration support" and "Billing data portability, incl. payment methods" as part of its plans.
Which to choose
- Chargebee suits SaaS teams invoicing anywhere from $20,000 to $500,000 a month that want a published formula, many gateways, usage-based billing and smart dunning on the entry plan, and are fine requesting a demo for RevRec.
- Recurly suits teams that expect to grow into the $1M monthly volume that All-Access lists as its minimum, or that want a published price for revenue recognition and a campaign-style dunning editor.
- Stay with Stripe Billing if your payments already run through Stripe and 0.7% of Billing volume undercuts both on your numbers. Reconsider when you need several gateways or a revenue recognition product.
Related reading: choosing a billing platform, reducing churn with tools, Stripe alternatives, the billing and subscription category and all comparisons.
Chargebee vs Recurly: common questions
Which is cheaper, Chargebee or Recurly?
At the three volumes worked out on this page, Chargebee Flow is cheaper than Recurly Starter as Recurly describes it. On $20,000 of monthly invoicing, Chargebee costs $160 ($0 + 0.80%) against $249 for Recurly Starter, and on $500,000 it costs $3,349 ($99 + 0.65%) against $4,389. The two are not the same product, so compare what is included as well as the fee.
Does Recurly publish its pricing?
Partly. Recurly's pricing page lists Starter at "$249 per month + 0.9% of billing volume (first $40K of billings included at no charge each month)" with a 90-day free trial, All-Access with a "$1M billing volume minimum" priced by request, Engage "as low as $1,600 per month billed annually" and RevRec "as low as $850 per month billed annually". The page sits behind a bot check, so those lines were read via a text fetch on 7 Oct 2026 and there is no screenshot.
Can I keep Stripe as my payment processor with either one?
Yes. Chargebee lists Stripe among 40+ payment gateways and has documented steps for migrating subscriptions from Stripe while continuing to use Stripe as the gateway. Recurly's documentation lists Stripe among the gateways it supports, alongside Adyen, Braintree, GoCardless and others, and describes connecting several gateways to one account with routing and failover.
Do they retry failed payments for me?
Both have retry logic inside the billing system. Chargebee's documentation describes a Smart mode of up to 12 retries and a Custom mode with a maximum of 5, and its pricing page lists smart dunning on its Flow plan. Recurly's documentation describes dunning campaigns with editable steps, and a separate machine-learning retry feature that its docs say is "Not included in Starter or Pro".
Is Stripe Billing a third option?
It is a useful yardstick. Stripe's pricing page lists Billing at 0.7% of Billing volume on pay-as-you-go, or from $620 a month on a one-year contract. If you already take payments on Stripe, that is the number each of these two has to beat for your invoicing volume, after counting the features you would otherwise build or buy.