Chargebee and Recurly are the two leading gateway-agnostic billing platforms — both sit on top of a processor you bring, both publish entry pricing, and the cheaper one flips twice as you grow. Below roughly $31K/month, Chargebee's pure percentage wins; between $31K and $84K, Recurly's $40K free allowance wins; above $84K, Chargebee's committed variant pulls back ahead.
Pricing Head to Head
Published 2026 pricing, billing layer only (gateway processing fees apply separately to both):
| Chargebee (Flow) | Recurly (Starter) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price shape | 0.80% of billing value, no platform fee — or $99/month + 0.65% committed | $249/month + 0.9% of billing volume, first $40K/month free |
| At $25K/month | $200 (pay-as-you-go) | $249 (flat, under allowance) |
| At $50K/month | $400 (PAYG) / $424 (committed) | $249 + 0.9% × $10K = $339 |
| At $100K/month | $800 (PAYG) / $749 (committed) | $249 + 0.9% × $60K = $789 |
| At $250K/month | $2,000 (PAYG) / $1,724 (committed) | $249 + 0.9% × $210K = $2,139 |
| Scale tier | Enterprise Plus, quote-only | All-Access, <1% billed annually, $1M volume minimum |
| Trial | Startup program (application) | 90-day free trial published |
The table already hints at the shape of the answer: Chargebee's pure percentage against Recurly's flat fee plus percentage-above-an-allowance. The next section makes it exact.
The Crossover Math, Worked Out
Three comparisons, three crossover points. (All figures use each vendor's cheapest available variant at the given volume.)
Chargebee pay-as-you-go (0.80%) vs Recurly Starter ($249 + 0.9% above $40K). Below $40K/month, Recurly is a flat $249 while Chargebee charges 0.8% — so Chargebee wins wherever 0.008 × volume < $249, i.e., below roughly $31,000/month. Above the allowance, solving 0.008B = 249 + 0.009(B − 40,000) gives B ≈ $111,000/month. So on the pay-as-you-go variant: Chargebee cheaper below $31K, Recurly cheaper from $31K to $111K, Chargebee cheaper above $111K.
Chargebee committed ($99 + 0.65%) vs Recurly Starter. Solving 99 + 0.0065B = 249 + 0.009(B − 40,000) gives B ≈ $84,000/month. Below it, Recurly's allowance wins; above it, the committed rate wins.
Putting it together — cheapest billing layer by volume:
- Under ~$31K/month: Chargebee pay-as-you-go (no platform fee at all)
- ~$31K–$84K/month: Recurly Starter (the $40K allowance does the work)
- Above ~$84K/month: Chargebee committed ($99 + 0.65%)
At $100K/month the three options land within about $50 of each other ($749 committed Chargebee, $789 Recurly, $800 pay-as-you-go Chargebee) — close enough that features, not fees, should decide. And remember the structural caveat both vendors share: gateway processing is a separate, identical line item either way, so it cancels out of the comparison.
One more wrinkle worth knowing: Recurly's ladder has a gap between Starter (open-ended) and All-Access (which requires $1M in billing volume), where pricing becomes a sales conversation. Chargebee's ladder goes from self-serve Flow straight to quote-only Enterprise Plus. Neither publishes a clean mid-market step — model the custom-quote risk if you sit between $300K and $1M in monthly volume.
Feature Comparison
| Area | Chargebee | Recurly |
|---|---|---|
| Gateway model | Agnostic, 40+ gateways | Agnostic, 20+ gateways |
| Usage-based billing | First-class: 100M events/month included, real-time limits, token/credit/outcome models | Supported, but subscriptions-first; metering is less central |
| Pricing models | Flat, per-seat, tiered, volume, usage, hybrid | Flexible plans and pricing, coupons, proration |
| Revenue recognition | RevRec product (ASC 606/IFRS 15), separate price | RevRec add-on from ~$850/month |
| Multi-currency | 100+ currencies, gateway choice per market | Multicurrency (stronger on All-Access) |
| E-invoicing | PEPPOL across 10 countries | Standard invoicing; confirm regional mandates |
| Shopify | Via integrations | All-Access for Shopify (native) |
| Analytics | Usage and revenue analytics included | Standard reporting; custom on All-Access |
Read our full Chargebee review and Recurly review for the detailed breakdowns.
Dunning and Recovery Compared
This is where the two platforms' personalities show most clearly:
Chargebee includes both basic and smart dunning on the Flow plan — configurable retry logic ships with the base price, no tier-gating for the core recovery tooling. Its dunning is part of a broader billing-operations suite: the same platform handling your metering and invoicing handles the retries.
Recurly tiers its recovery tooling deliberately. Starter gets static retry logic and one dunning campaign. The machine-learning-powered Intelligent Retries, multiple dunning campaigns for testing and optimization, and AI-driven churn analytics arrive with All-Access — which carries the $1M volume floor. In other words, Recurly's famous retention depth is real, but on the entry tier you get the standard version of it.
The practical read: at entry-level pricing, Chargebee includes smarter dunning out of the box, while Recurly reserves its best recovery tooling for scale customers. If failed-payment recovery is your primary buying criterion and you bill under $1M/month, compare Chargebee's included smart dunning against Recurly's Starter static retries carefully — the brand reputations here were built at different tiers. Our dunning management guide explains what each retry approach is actually worth.
Add-ons and the Full-Stack Price
Neither vendor's headline price is the whole quote once sales, success, or finance teams get involved:
Chargebee sells CPQ (quoting), RevRec (revenue recognition), and Growth (pricing experiments and retention) as separate products — all require Billing underneath, all priced separately. CPQ Lite is free for the first 50 quotes, which softens the entry, but a business that needs quoting plus revenue recognition is buying three products.
Recurly sells Engage (subscriber lifecycle messaging) from ~$1,600/month billed annually and RevRec from ~$850/month billed annually — about $2,450/month in add-ons before the billing-layer fee for a business that needs both.
Neither stack is "cheaper" in the abstract; the full-stack price depends on which add-ons you actually need. Get the complete quote — billing layer plus every add-on your teams will use in year one — before comparing. This is the step most evaluations skip and most renewals regret.
Who Should Pick Which
Pick Chargebee if: your pricing is usage-based, hybrid, or likely to change (its metering and price-book flexibility are the best in class here); you bill globally across currencies and want per-market gateway choice; finance needs ASC 606 revenue recognition with audit-grade records; you sit above ~$84K/month where the committed variant wins the math; you want smart dunning included at the entry tier.
Pick Recurly if: you run a consumer or high-volume subscription business where retention is the P&L lever; you bill $31K–$84K/month where the $40K allowance makes it the cheapest option; you are on Shopify and want the native All-Access variant; you prefer published entry pricing and a 90-day trial over a sales-led evaluation; your billing is subscriptions-first rather than metering-first.
The honest summary from practitioners: if your roadmap is global B2B expansion with evolving pricing, Chargebee's bets track yours. If it is consumer retention at scale, Recurly's do. Businesses that are neither — simple flat subscriptions — are usually better served by Stripe Billing or Zoho Billing at a lower total cost; see the cheapest way to bill subscriptions.
- Pricing (Sept 2026): Chargebee Flow at 0.80% (or $99 + 0.65% committed) vs Recurly Starter at $249 + 0.9% above a $40K/month free allowance. Gateway processing is separate for both.
- Crossover volumes: Chargebee pay-as-you-go cheapest under ~$31K/month; Recurly cheapest ~$31K–$84K; Chargebee committed cheapest above ~$84K.
- Both are gateway-agnostic — processor choice and processing fees cancel out of the comparison.
- Dunning: Chargebee includes smart dunning on the base plan; Recurly's intelligent retries and multi-campaign testing are gated to All-Access ($1M volume floor).
- Add-ons stack on both sides — quote the full stack (CPQ/RevRec/Growth vs Engage/RevRec), not the headline price.
- Fit summary: Chargebee for evolving/global B2B billing; Recurly for consumer retention at scale.
FAQs
Which is cheaper, Chargebee or Recurly?
It depends on volume: below ~$31K/month Chargebee's pay-as-you-go (0.80%, no fee) is cheapest; from ~$31K to ~$84K Recurly Starter ($249 + 0.9% above a $40K allowance) is cheapest; above ~$84K Chargebee's committed variant ($99 + 0.65%) wins. At $100K/month they land within ~$50 of each other.
Do Chargebee and Recurly process payments?
Neither does. Both are billing layers that connect to payment gateways you supply (Chargebee: 40+; Recurly: 20+). You pay the gateway's transaction fees separately — a line item that applies identically to both.
Which has better dunning, Chargebee or Recurly?
Chargebee includes smart dunning on its base Flow plan. Recurly's entry tier has static retries and one dunning campaign; its machine-learning Intelligent Retries and multiple campaigns require All-Access. At entry pricing, Chargebee's included recovery tooling is stronger; at scale, Recurly's retention suite is deeper.
Can I switch from Recurly to Chargebee (or vice versa)?
Yes, in both directions. Either migration moves subscriptions, price books, and payment-method tokens through a secure vault-to-vault transfer, typically with a parallel run. Budget weeks to a quarter; our migration guide covers the mechanics.
Which is better for usage-based billing?
Chargebee — its metering (100M events/month included, real-time limits, token/credit/outcome models) is first-class. Recurly handles subscriptions well but metering is less central to the platform.
Which is better for a Shopify subscription business?
Recurly has the edge with All-Access for Shopify, a native variant of its scale tier. Chargebee connects to Shopify through integrations but has no Shopify-native tier.
Conclusion
Chargebee vs Recurly is the closest comparison in subscription billing — two gateway-agnostic platforms, both with published entry pricing, separated by cost curves that cross twice and by genuine differences in focus. Run your volume through the crossover math above, then decide on fit: evolving, usage-heavy, global B2B billing points to Chargebee; retention-driven consumer subscriptions point to Recurly.
Whichever direction you lean, read the full Chargebee review and Recurly review, study how dunning actually recovers revenue, and quote the full add-on stack before signing anything annual.
Sources: Crossover math via Dodo Payments' Chargebee vs Recurly (Flow 0.80% / $99 + 0.65% / $66K crossover; Recurly Starter $249 + 0.9% with $40K allowance; All-Access <1% with $1M minimum; Engage ~$1,600/mo) and Baremetrics' Chargebee vs Recurly (volume-band analysis, $749/$789/$800 at $100K/month; 40+ vs 20+ gateways; 100+ vs 140+ currencies). Figures verified September 2026 — check the vendor's current pricing page before signing.