Recurly Review
Subscription billing and revenue platform priced as a percentage of the volume it processes
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Looking for a Recurly alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is Recurly?
Recurly is a subscription billing and revenue platform. It handles recurring invoicing, dunning and failed-payment recovery, plan and pricing changes, tax, and payment gateway orchestration, and it layers on revenue recognition (RevRec) and lifecycle engagement (Engage) as separate paid products.
It is built for companies that already have real subscription volume rather than early-stage teams testing an idea. Pricing runs on a percentage of the money you process through it, not a flat per-seat fee, so your bill moves with your revenue.
Who it's for
- ✓ Subscription businesses with meaningful billing volume who want dunning, churn tools, and revenue recognition under one vendor
- ✓ Teams that need a Shopify-native subscription setup for physical or digital products
- ✓ Finance teams that want automated revenue recognition (RevRec) alongside billing
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ Very early-stage companies without $40K+ in monthly billing volume, since the percentage fee and $249 base cost more per dollar processed at low volume
- ✗ Teams that want an exact, published price before talking to sales, since All-Access pricing is quote-based
Pros
- + 90-day free trial on the Starter plan, longer than most billing competitors
- + First $40,000 of monthly billing volume processed at no percentage fee on Starter
- + Revenue recognition (RevRec) and lifecycle engagement (Engage) are sold as native add-ons instead of needing a separate vendor
- + Reviewers consistently cite responsive, hands-on support
Cons
- – All-Access pricing is not published, so you need a sales call to get a real number
- – Volume-based pricing means your bill grows with revenue, not just usage of features
- – All-Access effectively requires around $1M in annual billing volume, pricing out smaller subscription businesses
- – Some customers report surprise overage charges from transaction limits and per-transaction fees that weren't clear during the sales process
Recurly pricing
What you pay for
You pay a base fee plus a cut of what you actually bill through Recurly, not a flat per-seat price. Starter is $249/month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40,000 processed free each month. Above that, All-Access drops the flat fee for a sub-1% rate but the exact number isn't published, so you need a sales conversation once your volume gets there.
At about $249/month to start, it sits mid-pack on price in Subscription Billing.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $249/mo | Plus 0.9% of billing volume · First $40K of monthly billings included at no charge · 1 dunning campaign · 10+ payment methods, 20+ gateways |
| All-Access | Custom | Under 1% of billing volume, billed annually · Requires roughly $1M in annual billing volume · AI-powered churn tools and analytics · Multiple dunning campaigns, ACH, multicurrency, SSO |
| All-Access for Shopify | Custom | Same pricing basis as All-Access · Subscribe-and-save, prepaid and gift subscriptions · Cancel-save flows and bulk self-serve updates |
Starter is $249/month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40,000 in monthly billings processed free. All-Access moves to a straight percentage of billing volume (under 1%, billed annually) and generally requires around $1M in yearly volume to qualify. Recurly also sells two add-on products billed separately: Engage (from about $1,600/month, billed annually, priced on prompt volume) and RevRec (from about $850/month, billed annually, priced on billing volume). None of the volume-based rates are published as exact numbers on the pricing page, so a real quote depends on your billing volume and contract terms.
Pricing verified July 7, 2026 · source
How Recurly's pricing compares
Recurly next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recurly | $249/mo | usage-based | Trial (90 days on the Starter plan) | Partly public |
| Chargebee | Free | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Paddle | Custom / quote | usage-based | No | Not disclosed |
| Lemon Squeezy | Usage-based | usage-based | Yes | Public |
| Maxio | $599/mo | tiered | No | Partly public |
| Zuora | Custom / quote | quote-only | No | Not disclosed |
Is Recurly still actively developed?
Last significant update: April 2026. Spring '26 release added Compass Agents (AI-guided subscription operations inside the Recurly UI), dynamic product bundles at Shopify checkout, and new payment infrastructure via Checkout.com and Nuvei with expanded Brazil and LATAM payment method support.
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Recurly FAQ
Is Recurly free?+
No. Recurly has no free plan. The Starter plan starts at $249/month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with a 90-day free trial.
How much does Recurly cost?+
Starter is $249/month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40,000 in monthly billings processed free. All-Access drops the flat fee for a sub-1% rate of billing volume billed annually, but Recurly doesn't publish the exact number and generally expects around $1M in annual volume.
Does Recurly do revenue recognition?+
Yes, through RevRec, a separate product priced from about $850/month billed annually based on billing volume.
Do people complain about Recurly's pricing?+
Some reviewers report surprise overage invoices from transaction limits and per-transaction fees they say weren't made clear during the sales process, on top of general comments that Recurly is expensive for smaller companies.