Overview
Recurly is a subscription management platform used mostly by consumer and direct-to-consumer subscription businesses. It says it runs 67 million active subscribers and $12 billion in annual payment volume across 140+ currencies.
Starter is $249 a month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40,000 of billings each month free of the percentage. All-Access, the most popular tier, is under 1% of billing volume billed annually and requires at least $1 million in billing volume. Engage (in-app offers) and RevRec (revenue recognition) are sold separately.
Recurly's emphasis is churn: intelligent retries, dunning campaigns, cancel-flow offers and payment orchestration across several gateways. It also offers a native Shopify subscription app. It is not a merchant of record.
When comparing, add the $249 monthly fee to your gateway costs: below $40,000 in monthly billing Recurly's cost is effectively the fixed fee alone. Above that, the 0.9% applies to each additional dollar billed.
Pricing and plans
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $249/mo + 0.9% | First $40K of billings each month have no percentage fee; 1 dunning campaign, 20+ gateways |
| All-Access | <1% of billing volume | Billed annually; $1M billing volume minimum; AI insights, payments orchestration |
| Engage | $1,600/mo | Billed annually; in-app acquisition and retention prompts |
| RevRec | From $850/mo | Billed annually; automated revenue recognition |
What it does
- Subscription billing
- Automated global subscription billing with flexible plans, pricing and promotions.
- Payment recovery
- Dunning campaigns and intelligent retries for failed renewals.
- Payments orchestration
- Route payments across multiple gateways on All-Access.
- Recurly for Shopify
- Native subscription app with skip, swap and cancel self-service.
- RevRec
- Revenue recognition with multi-GAAP support and automated close.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Focus on churn and failed-payment recovery
- Works with 20+ gateways
- Published Starter price with $40K/mo included
- Shopify-native subscription option
Limitations
- $249/mo minimum is high for early products
- All-Access requires $1M billing volume
- Add-ons (Engage, RevRec) are priced separately and billed annually
- Not a merchant of record
Who it suits
Good for
- Consumer subscription services and memberships
- DTC brands selling subscriptions on Shopify
- Businesses where involuntary churn is a key metric
Look elsewhere if
- Early-stage SaaS below a few thousand dollars a month in billing
- Usage-heavy B2B billing (see Orb, Lago, Chargebee)
Alternatives to Recurly
| Tool | From | Free option | Stages |
|---|---|---|---|
| FastSpring Merchant of record for software | — | ||
| Stripe Payments Payment processor (API-first) | Usage-based | ||
| Stripe Billing Subscription billing | Usage-based | ||
| PayPal Braintree Payment processor (gateway and merchant account) | Usage-based | ||
| Razorpay Payment gateway (India, plus US, Singapore, Malaysia) | Usage-based | ||
| Paddle Merchant of record for software | Usage-based |
Questions
How much does Recurly cost?
Starter is $249 a month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40,000 each month free of the percentage. All-Access is under 1% with a $1M minimum.
Does Recurly have a free plan?
No free plan is listed on the pricing page.
Does Recurly process payments?
It connects to 20+ payment gateways that process the cards.
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