Recurly vs Stripe Billing
billing & subscriptions head-to-head for ERP teams: evidenced capabilities, published pricing, and which ERPs each actually integrates with.
| Starting price | Percentage of billing volume, with tiered plans plus paid add-ons | Percentage of billing volume (pay-as-you-go), with annual commitment plans available |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Company size | SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise | SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Stated ERP integrations | NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero | NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero |
| Vendor | Recurly | Stripe |
Our take
Where Recurly leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 10 of the 25 capabilities where they differ (led by discounts, coupons, and promotional pricing and pci-compliant payment handling).
Where Stripe Billing leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 15 of the 25 capabilities where they differ (led by mid-cycle upgrades/downgrades with proration and high-throughput usage-event ingestion).
Where they differ
The 25 capabilities (of 58 in the billing & subscriptions taxonomy) where the evidence separates them, biggest gaps first. “Not evidenced” means our research found no public documentation of this capability — the vendor may still offer it. Confirm on a demo.
| Capability | ||
|---|---|---|
| Discounts, coupons, and promotional pricingPricing & Product Catalog | Core strength Coupons and promotions | Not evidenced |
| Mid-cycle upgrades/downgrades with prorationSubscription & Contract Lifecycle Management | Not evidenced | Core strength Automatic prorations |
| High-throughput usage-event ingestionUsage-Based Billing & Metering | Not evidenced | Core strength Event metering up to ~100K events/second |
| Rate cards and consumption tiersUsage-Based Billing & Metering | Not evidenced | Core strength |
| E-invoicing supportInvoicing & Billing Operations | Not evidenced | Core strength |
| Card account updaterPayments & Collections | Not evidenced | Core strength Automatic card-updater for expired cards |
| PCI-compliant payment handlingTax & Global Compliance | Core strength Recurly.js PCI-compliant hosted payment forms | Not evidenced |
| Multi-product / bundled subscriptionsSubscription & Contract Lifecycle Management | Supported Multiple subscriptions per account | Not evidenced |
| Usage mediation and aggregationUsage-Based Billing & Metering | Not evidenced | Supported Metronome-powered usage pricing |
| Real-time rating and chargingUsage-Based Billing & Metering | Not evidenced | Supported |
| Automated cash applicationPayments & Collections | Not evidenced | Supported Automatic invoice reconciliation |
| Third-party tax engine integrationTax & Global Compliance | Supported Avalara AvaTax and Vertex | Not evidenced |
| Revenue forecastingAnalytics & SaaS Metrics | Supported Real-time analytics and forecasting | Not evidenced |
| CRM integrationPlatform, APIs & Integrations | Supported Salesforce CRM integration | Not evidenced |
| iPaaS / marketplace connector ecosystemPlatform, APIs & Integrations | Not evidenced | Supported Accounting apps in the Stripe App Marketplace for QBO/Xero/Sage |
| Flat-rate, tiered, and volume pricingPricing & Product Catalog | Supported Flexible plan creation | Core strength 15+ built-in pricing models |
| Usage-based and consumption pricingPricing & Product Catalog | Supported | Core strength |
| Hybrid pricing (recurring + usage + one-time)Pricing & Product Catalog | Supported | Core strength Combine usage charges with recurring fees |
| Pause, resume, and cancellation handlingSubscription & Contract Lifecycle Management | Supported Cancel-save flows | Core strength Subscription pause and resume |
| Credit and debit note issuanceInvoicing & Billing Operations | Supported Manual/automatic charges and credits | Core strength |
| Multi-gateway payment orchestrationPayments & Collections | Core strength 30+ supported payment gateways | Supported Multiprocessor support: bill on Stripe, collect off Stripe |
| Broad payment method coveragePayments & Collections | Supported Cards, PayPal, Apple Pay | Core strength 100+ payment methods |
| MRR/ARR and recurring-revenue trackingAnalytics & SaaS Metrics | Core strength | Supported Billing analytics and benchmarks |
| Churn and retention analyticsAnalytics & SaaS Metrics | Core strength | Supported Revenue recovery analytics, cancellation surveys |
| Event-driven webhooksPlatform, APIs & Integrations | Core strength | Supported |
Both grade identically on the other 33 capabilities — see each product's full profile: Recurly, Stripe Billing.
Recurly vs Stripe Billing — FAQs
Is Recurly or Stripe Billing better for ERP integration?
Both state integrations with NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero. Always verify the connector against your ERP version with a reference customer.
Which is cheaper, Recurly or Stripe Billing?
Neither publishes a list price — both quote. Ask each for the all-in first-year cost at your seat count, as one number, and compare those.
Get pricing for both
Tell us your ERP, seat count and must-haves and we'll come back with an independent view of what Recurly and Stripe Billing should each cost you — and whether a third option belongs on your shortlist.