# The best Stripe Billing alternatives (2026)

URL: https://www.paydude.io/resources/stripe-billing-alternatives
Type: Guide
Published: 2026-11-04 · Updated: 2026-11-04
Summary: Stripe Billing adds 0.7% on top of 2.9% + 30¢. Compare 8 alternatives, from Chargebee and Recurly to processors that include subscriptions at no extra fee.

## Summary

Stripe Billing costs 0.7% of billing volume on top of Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ processing fee, so every renewal is charged twice: once to move the money and once to run the subscription. There are two kinds of alternative: billing software that sits on top of a processor, such as Chargebee, Recurly, Maxio and Lago, and processors that include subscriptions in the card rate, such as Paydude, Braintree, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy. Billing software replaces the 0.7% with its own fee and leaves processing untouched, so it rarely saves money; Chargebee's Flow plan, for example, is 0.80% at lower volumes. At $50,000 a month and a $50 average plan, Stripe plus Billing costs $2,100 a month against $1,550 on Paydude, which charges +0% for subscriptions. Stay on Stripe Billing if you rely on its usage-based metering, its integrations or Stripe Tax, or if you have negotiated a lower rate.

Stripe Billing is the part of Stripe that runs subscriptions: plans, invoices, proration, retries for failed payments and the customer portal. It is good software. It is also **priced separately from processing**, at 0.7% of billing volume on the pay-as-you-go plan, so a SaaS business on Stripe pays 2.9% + 30¢ to take the card and another 0.7% to have charged it on a schedule.

This guide is about that billing layer specifically. If you want the wider picture of what a subscription business pays across processing, billing and tax, start with [Stripe alternatives for SaaS](https://www.paydude.io/resources/stripe-alternatives-for-saas); if you want every kind of processor, see the [best Stripe alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-stripe-alternatives). We are one of the options below, and we have tried to be plain about when we are the wrong one.

## Stripe Billing alternatives at a glance

**Published standard rates for domestic online card payments, November 2026. Negotiated rates can differ.**

| Provider | Type | Subscription fee | Fee on a $100 renewal | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Stripe + Stripe Billing | Processor + billing add-on | 0.7% of billing volume | $3.90 | The baseline: broad features, everything in one account |
| Paydude | Processor, billing included | +0% | $2.85 | US SaaS that wants a Stripe-style API without the Billing fee |
| Braintree | Processor, billing included | No separate fee listed | $3.18 | PayPal and Venmo at checkout |
| Paddle | Merchant of record | Included in 5% + 50¢ | $5.50 | Software sold worldwide, tax handled for you |
| Lemon Squeezy | Merchant of record | Included in 5% + 50¢ | $5.50 | Indie software and digital products, tax handled |
| Chargebee | Billing software on a processor | 0.80%, or $99/month + 0.65% above ~$66k/month | $4.00 on Stripe | Complex plans, multiple gateways, finance workflows |
| Recurly | Billing software on a processor | $249/month incl. first $40k, then 0.9% | Processor fee + plan | Consumer subscriptions where churn recovery matters most |
| Maxio | Billing software on a processor | $599/month up to $100k billings | Processor fee + plan | B2B SaaS finance teams: invoicing, revenue reporting |
| Lago | Open-source billing software | Free self-hosted; Cloud by quote | Processor fee only | Usage-based pricing, teams willing to host it |

> **Check rates before you decide:** Billing platforms change their plans often: Chargebee replaced its Starter and Performance plans with a single Flow plan in 2026. Figures here are from each provider's pricing page in November 2026. The $100 renewal column for Chargebee assumes Stripe is the processor underneath.

## Fees at different ticket sizes

**Fee per subscription renewal on a domestic card at published rates, November 2026. Paydude is shown at its standard tier. Chargebee uses its 0.80% Flow rate with Stripe processing underneath. Recurly and Maxio charge a monthly plan rather than a per-renewal fee, and Lago Cloud is by quote, so they are left out.**

| Pricing | $10 renewal | $25 renewal | $50 renewal | $100 renewal | $500 renewal |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Stripe + Stripe Billing (2.9% + 30¢ + 0.7%) | $0.66 | $1.20 | $2.10 | $3.90 | $18.30 |
| Paydude (2.6% + 25¢, +0% for subscriptions) | $0.51 | $0.90 | $1.55 | $2.85 | $13.25 |
| Stripe + Chargebee Flow (2.9% + 30¢ + 0.80%) | $0.67 | $1.23 | $2.15 | $4.00 | $18.80 |
| Braintree (2.89% + 29¢) | $0.58 | $1.01 | $1.74 | $3.18 | $14.74 |
| Paddle, Lemon Squeezy (5% + 50¢) | $1.00 | $1.75 | $3.00 | $5.50 | $25.50 |

## The two kinds of Stripe Billing alternative

**Billing software on top of a processor** (Chargebee, Recurly, Maxio, Lago) replaces Stripe Billing but not Stripe. You connect it to a payment gateway, often Stripe itself, and it handles plans, invoices and dunning. You stop paying 0.7% to Stripe and start paying the billing vendor instead; the 2.9% + 30¢ does not move. These tools win on features, not price.

**Processors with subscriptions included** (Paydude, Braintree, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy) replace both. The recurring logic is part of payments, so a renewal costs the same as any other charge. Paddle and Lemon Squeezy go further and act as [merchant of record](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-a-merchant-of-record), handling sales tax and VAT for a higher rate.

## What it costs at $10k, $50k and $250k a month

**Monthly cost at a $50 average plan, published rates, November 2026, with the yearly totals for Stripe + Billing and Paydude in the last two columns. Paydude uses its 2.55% + 20¢ tier at $250,000 a month. Excludes tax tooling, dispute fees and premium-card surcharges. Paddle includes sales tax and VAT handling; the others do not.**

| Monthly recurring volume | Renewals at $50 | Stripe + Billing | Stripe + Chargebee Flow | Paydude | Paddle | Stripe + Billing per year | Paydude per year |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $10,000 | 200 | $420 | $430 | $310 | $600 | $5,040 | $3,720 |
| $50,000 | 1,000 | $2,100 | $2,150 | $1,550 | $3,000 | $25,200 | $18,600 |
| $250,000 | 5,000 | $10,500 | $10,474 | $7,375 | $15,000 | $126,000 | $88,500 |

The working, at $50,000: Stripe is $1,450 (2.9%) plus $300 (1,000 × 30¢) plus $350 for Billing, or $2,100. Chargebee on Stripe is the same $1,750 of processing plus $400 at 0.80%. Paydude is $1,300 (2.6%) plus $250 (1,000 × 25¢), with subscriptions at +0%. At $250,000 a month Paydude's 2.55% + 20¢ tier applies ($6,375 + $1,000), and Chargebee's $99 + 0.65% pricing takes over ($1,724).

Against Stripe plus Billing, that is $1,320 a year saved at $10,000 a month, $6,600 at $50,000 and $37,500 at $250,000. Swapping Stripe Billing for Chargebee, by contrast, costs slightly more until roughly $66,000 a month and saves a little above it, because the processing bill is unchanged.

## Chargebee vs Stripe Billing: the billing fee alone

**Billing-layer fee only, at published list prices, November 2026. Card processing is charged on top in every column.**

| Monthly billing volume | Stripe Billing (0.7%) | Chargebee Flow | Recurly Starter | Maxio Grow |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $10,000 | $70 | $80 | $249 | $599 |
| $50,000 | $350 | $400 | $339 | $599 |
| $250,000 | $1,750 | $1,724 | $2,139 | Quote (Scale) |

On price alone, the specialist billing platforms are close to Stripe Billing or more expensive. The case for them is capability: multiple gateways, more flexible quoting and invoicing, revenue reporting, and not tying your subscription data to one processor.

## 1. Paydude — best for removing the subscription fee

Paydude is a payments API for software businesses with subscriptions and invoices at **+0%**: a renewal is billed at the ordinary card rate of 2.6% + 25¢, falling to 2.55% + 20¢ above $100,000 a month and 2.5% + 15¢ above $1M. The API will feel familiar from Stripe — customers, payment methods, payment intents, refunds and signed webhooks, with typed SDKs, an open sandbox and an MCP server for coding agents. ACH is 0.6% (75¢ minimum, $3 cap), which suits larger annual plans.

Saved cards migrate from Stripe at no cost; subscription schedules are recreated against the imported cards. See [how to switch from Stripe](https://www.paydude.io/resources/how-to-switch-from-stripe) and [Paydude vs Stripe](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-vs-stripe).

**Choose it when** you are a US-focused SaaS business paying both Stripe's processing and Billing fees and want one lower rate for both. **Skip it when** you need a merchant of record to file sales tax and VAT for you, card issuing, or in-person hardware.

## 2. Braintree — best for PayPal and Venmo at checkout

Braintree, PayPal's developer platform, includes recurring billing in its gateway: plans, add-ons, discounts and proration, and its published pricing lists no separate subscription fee. At 2.89% + 29¢ its card rate is a hair under Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, so the saving is the 0.7% Billing fee you no longer pay: at $50,000 a month and a $50 average plan, Braintree costs $1,735 a month against $2,100 for Stripe plus Billing and $1,550 on Paydude. Its subscription tooling is simpler than Stripe Billing's, so complex usage pricing is mostly yours to calculate. See [Paydude vs Braintree](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-vs-braintree) and [best Braintree alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-braintree-alternatives).

**Choose it when** many customers want to pay with PayPal or Venmo. **Skip it when** card cost matters most: Paydude is cheaper at every plan size, 51¢ against Braintree's 58¢ on a $10 renewal.

## 3. Paddle — best when you want tax handled too

Paddle is a merchant of record: it becomes the legal seller, runs the subscription, and collects and remits sales tax and VAT worldwide, all for 5% + 50¢. That is more than Stripe plus Billing, but the fair comparison is Stripe plus Billing plus Stripe Tax plus the registrations and filings you would otherwise do yourself. See [best Paddle alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-paddle-alternatives).

**Choose it when** you sell software into many countries and do not want to register for tax yourself. **Skip it when** most of your revenue is domestic and tax exposure is small, where you would pay the higher rate for work you do not need done.

## 4. Lemon Squeezy — best for indie software and digital products

Lemon Squeezy is also a merchant of record at 5% + 50¢, aimed at smaller creators and indie software, with checkout, licence keys and subscriptions included. Stripe acquired it in 2024, so it is an alternative to Stripe Billing rather than to Stripe the company. See [best Lemon Squeezy alternatives](https://www.paydude.io/resources/best-lemon-squeezy-alternatives).

**Choose it when** you are a solo founder or small team selling globally and want tax off your plate. **Skip it when** you have meaningful volume and handle your own tax, where 5% + 50¢ is the most expensive way to bill.

## 5. Chargebee — best for complex plans across gateways

Chargebee is subscription billing software that connects to Stripe, Braintree and other gateways. Its Flow plan has no base fee and charges 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume, switching to $99 a month plus 0.65% once that is cheaper (around $66,000 a month); Enterprise is priced by quote. It is strong on quoting, invoicing, dunning and finance workflows.

**Choose it when** you need billing that is independent of any one processor, or features Stripe Billing lacks. **Skip it when** the goal is lowering cost: below about $66,000 a month it costs more than Stripe Billing, and your card fees stay the same.

## 6. Recurly — best for consumer subscription retention

Recurly's Starter plan is $249 a month including the first $40,000 of monthly billings, then 0.9% of billing volume; All-Access is for $1M or more of billing volume and priced by quote. It is known for subscription retention and failed-payment recovery, which matters most for consumer subscriptions where [involuntary churn](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-involuntary-churn) is a large share of losses.

**Choose it when** recovering failed renewals is worth more to you than the platform fee. **Skip it when** you bill under about $35,000 a month, where the $249 floor is more than Stripe Billing's 0.7%.

## 7. Maxio — best for B2B SaaS finance teams

Maxio, formed from Chargify and SaaSOptics, is aimed at B2B SaaS finance: invoicing, contracts and revenue reporting. Its Grow plan is $599 a month for up to $100,000 of monthly billings, and Scale above that is by quote. A flat fee rather than a percentage means it gets cheaper relative to Stripe Billing as you approach $100,000 a month.

**Choose it when** a finance team needs SaaS metrics and revenue reporting alongside billing. **Skip it when** you are early stage, where $599 a month is more than Stripe Billing would charge on anything under about $85,000 a month.

## 8. Lago — best open-source option for usage-based billing

Lago is open-source billing built around usage-based and hybrid pricing. The open-source edition is free to self-host under the AGPL-3.0 licence; Lago Cloud and Premium features are priced by quote. Self-hosting removes the percentage fee entirely, but you take on hosting, upgrades and on-call for the system that sends every invoice. If you are weighing that, read [building a subscription system](https://www.paydude.io/resources/building-a-subscription-system) first.

**Choose it when** you have engineers to run it and usage-based pricing that outgrows simpler tools. **Skip it when** you have no one to own billing infrastructure; a missed upgrade or outage there is lost revenue.

## When to stay on Stripe Billing

Stay if you depend on Stripe Billing's usage-based metering, its hosted customer portal, Stripe Tax, or an integration that only exists for Stripe, or if your volume is high enough that Stripe has agreed a rate below list. At small volumes the 0.7% is a modest sum — $70 a month at $10,000 — and not worth a migration on its own. The case for moving gets stronger as recurring revenue grows, because the fee grows with it.

## How to choose

1. Find your current Billing fee on your Stripe invoice and work out your all-in [effective rate](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-an-effective-rate): processing, Billing, Tax and disputes, divided by volume.
2. Decide who owns sales tax. If you want someone else to file it, you are choosing between merchants of record such as Paddle and Lemon Squeezy.
3. If you mainly want lower cost, change processor rather than billing layer: billing software replaces the 0.7% but not the 2.9% + 30¢.
4. If you mainly want features, compare billing platforms on the plans, proration and dunning you actually use, and price them at your real volume.
5. Plan the move: saved cards come across through Stripe's card export, but subscription schedules have to be recreated. See [how to switch from Stripe](https://www.paydude.io/resources/how-to-switch-from-stripe).

*[Interactive calculator: https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/paydude-vs-stripe-fee-calculator]*

For the single-provider figures, use the [Stripe fee calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/stripe-fee-calculator) or the [SaaS payment processing calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/payment-processing-for-saas). Our [pricing explainer](https://www.paydude.io/resources/paydude-pricing-explained) covers the tiers in detail.

## Sources

- Stripe Billing pricing page (stripe.com/billing/pricing), checked November 2026
- Stripe pricing page (stripe.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- Chargebee pricing page (chargebee.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- Recurly pricing page (recurly.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- Maxio pricing page (maxio.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- Lago pricing page (getlago.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- Paddle pricing page (paddle.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- Lemon Squeezy pricing page (lemonsqueezy.com/pricing), checked November 2026
- PayPal Braintree fees page (paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees), checked November 2026
- Paydude pricing page (paydude.io/pricing), checked November 2026

**Subscriptions at +0%** Stripe's style of API from 2.6% + 25¢, no billing fee on renewals, and free card migration from Stripe. — [See how Paydude compares](https://www.paydude.io/stripe-alternative)

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does Stripe Billing cost?

Stripe Billing's pay-as-you-go price is 0.7% of billing volume, charged on top of Stripe's card processing fee of 2.9% + 30¢. Billing volume includes recurring charges processed on and off Stripe but excludes one-off invoices. On $50,000 a month of recurring revenue, Billing alone is $350 a month, or $4,200 a year.

### Is Chargebee cheaper than Stripe Billing?

Usually not by much. Chargebee's Flow plan charges 0.80% of monthly invoicing volume with no base fee, which is more than Stripe Billing's 0.7%, until about $66,000 a month, after which it becomes $99 a month plus 0.65%. At $250,000 a month that is $1,724 against Stripe Billing's $1,750. Chargebee also does not replace your processor, so you still pay card fees on top. People choose Chargebee for its features, not to save money.

### Can I use Chargebee or Recurly with Stripe?

Yes. Billing platforms such as Chargebee and Recurly connect to Stripe as a payment gateway. They take over plans, invoices and dunning, while Stripe keeps processing the cards at its usual rate. You stop paying Stripe Billing's 0.7%, but you start paying the billing platform's own fee instead.

### Is there a subscription platform with no billing fee?

Yes. Some processors include subscriptions in the card rate. Paydude charges 2.6% + 25¢ with +0% for subscriptions and invoices, and Braintree's published pricing lists no separate recurring-billing fee. Self-hosting the open-source edition of Lago is also free, though you then run and maintain it yourself.

### Will switching billing software lower my Stripe processing fees?

No. Billing software such as Chargebee, Recurly, Maxio or Lago replaces only the 0.7% Billing fee. Your cards are still processed by Stripe or another gateway at that gateway's rate. To reduce the processing cost as well, you have to change processor, or negotiate with Stripe.