Choosing a billing platform is one of the highest-leverage infrastructure decisions for SaaS and AI companies. Here's how the top four platforms compare for usage-based billing in 2026.
| Feature | Stripe Billing | Lago | Orb | Metronome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | % of volume | Free (self-host) / Cloud | Starts ~$1K/mo | Custom enterprise |
| Open Source | No | Yes (MIT) | No | No |
| Real-time Metering | Basic | Yes | Yes | Yes (best-in-class) |
| Usage-Based Rating | Simple tiers | Complex models | Declarative pricing | Enterprise-grade |
| Event Throughput | Moderate | High (self-host dependent) | High | Very high (billions/mo) |
| Multi-dimensional Pricing | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Revenue Recognition | Basic (Revenue Recognition add-on) | Limited | Growing | Yes |
| Best For | Startups, simple billing | Teams wanting control | Price experimentation | Enterprise at scale |
| Notable Customers | Millions of startups | Growing mid-market | AI/ML companies | OpenAI, Databricks |
| Integration Effort | Days | Weeks | 1-2 weeks | Weeks to months |
📖 Read our full Stripe Billing review
📖 Read our full Metronome review
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Metronome and Orb are purpose-built for usage-based billing with real-time metering and complex rating. Lago offers similar capabilities as open-source. Stripe Billing works for simple metered billing but struggles with complex pricing models at scale.
Lago's core is MIT-licensed and free to self-host. They also offer a paid cloud-hosted version. Self-hosting saves on licensing but requires DevOps investment for running the infrastructure.
Consider migrating when you need real-time usage rating, complex multi-dimensional pricing, high event throughput (>10M events/month), or when Stripe's billing logic forces you to build workarounds in application code.
Yes — this is the most common architecture. Use Metronome, Orb, or Lago for metering, rating, and invoicing, then route payments through Stripe. This gives you Stripe's payment infrastructure with a dedicated billing engine.
Stripe Billing: 0.5-0.8% of billing volume. Metronome: custom enterprise pricing (typically $50K+/year). Orb: starts ~$1K/month. Lago: free self-hosted, cloud pricing varies. Factor in engineering time — Stripe is cheapest to start, most expensive to customize.