Recurly

Subscription management that works

Subscription billing platform with dunning management, revenue recognition, and usage-based billing.

Our take

Recurly sits between Stripe Billing (developer-first, part of a broader payment platform) and Chargebee (subscription management focused, similar positioning) for subscription SaaS and B2C subscription businesses. The core strength is dunning management: automated, rule-based retry sequences that recover failed payments — Recurly claims 70%+ recovery rates on declined charges, which is a direct revenue impact. Revenue recognition (ASC 606/IFRS 15) is built-in, reducing the need for custom accounting logic. At $249/month Starter for up to $40K MRR, the cost is 0.6% of revenue — cheaper than Chargebee's percentage-based pricing as you scale. The limitation: Recurly's UI is less polished than Chargebee's, and its payment gateway is not as integrated as Stripe Billing (which benefits from Stripe's full infrastructure). Teams choosing between Recurly and Chargebee often pick based on gateway preference — Recurly if you're not on Stripe, Chargebee if you are.

Product roadmap

Recurly is expanding its Revenue Intelligence features (ML-powered churn prediction, cohort analytics), building out B2B subscription capabilities (multi-seat, usage-based billing), and deepening ERP integrations. The usage-based billing trend is driving most new feature investment.