Lago
Open-source metering and usage-based billing platform
About Lago
Lago is an open-source billing infrastructure platform that gives teams full transparency, control, and flexibility to manage and scale any pricing model. It handles usage metering, subscription management, automated invoicing, and payment orchestration, serving as an alternative to Stripe Billing or Chargebee.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Fully open-source with transparent codebase and no revenue percentage fees
- Handles high-volume event processing at up to 15,000 events per second
- No-code UI makes it easy to build and iterate on complex pricing models
- Flexible deployment options with both self-hosted and cloud versions
- Trusted by major companies like PayPal, Synthesia, and Mistral.ai
Cons
- Premium and Enterprise pricing is not publicly listed, requiring sales contact
- Self-hosting requires managing PostgreSQL and Redis infrastructure
- Smaller community compared to established billing platforms like Stripe Billing
- Some users report communication challenges with the support team
Key Features
Usage Metering
Track API calls, data usage, and feature access with event-based architecture processing up to 15,000 events per second
Flexible Pricing Models
Build recurring, pay-as-you-go, hybrid, or usage-based pricing models with a no-code UI
Automated Invoicing
Generate accurate invoices automatically from metered usage data with compliance support
Subscription Management
Manage subscription lifecycles including upgrades, downgrades, and prorations
Prepaid Credits
Support prepaid credit systems for usage-based billing with real-time balance tracking
Coupons & Discounts
Apply percentage or fixed-amount coupons and promotional discounts to subscriptions
Payment Orchestration
Integrate with payment providers like Stripe, GoCardless, and Adyen for automated collection
Revenue Analytics
Monitor revenue metrics, subscription growth, and billing performance with built-in dashboards
Pricing
- Self-hosted deployment
- Core billing features
- Usage metering
- Invoicing
- Community support
- Cloud or self-hosted
- Premium features
- Priority support
- Advanced integrations
- Usage-based pricing components
- Everything in Premium
- Dedicated support
- Custom SLAs
- Advanced security
- Onboarding assistance
Best For
Usage-Based SaaS Billing
Track API calls, compute hours, or data transfer and bill customers based on actual consumption
Hybrid Pricing Models
Combine flat-rate subscriptions with metered usage components for flexible pricing strategies
Developer Platform Monetization
Meter API usage and infrastructure consumption to build developer-friendly billing
Enterprise Billing Infrastructure
Replace expensive billing SaaS with self-hosted infrastructure for full control over billing logic
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Featured In
7 Best Subscription Billing & Revenue Tools for SaaS Companies (2026)
Best for engineering-led SaaS teams building usage-based pricing who want full billing control without revenue percentage fees — the open-source model pays for itself at scale.
Stripe Alternatives for SaaS Companies Selling in Europe (2026)
Best for usage-based SaaS that needs billing precision beyond Stripe's capabilities — open-source metering engine with EU data residency, but requires technical capacity to deploy and maintain.
Best Tools to Pair With Stripe for SaaS Billing Workflows (2026)
Best for engineering-led SaaS with usage-based pricing and a preference for open source.