Recurly vs Paddle

Side-by-side — pricing, strengths, tradeoffs, and fit.

Recurly

Subscription management for ambitious brands

Paddle

The complete payments infrastructure for SaaS

At a glance

Open SourceFree Tier
● Established·From $249/mo + 0.9% of billing volume
· Not enough data·From 5% + 50¢ per checkout transaction

Overview

One-liner

Subscription management for ambitious brands

One-liner

The complete payments infrastructure for SaaS

Maturity

Established

Maturity

Not enough data

Open source

✓ Yes

Open source

✕ No

Pricing

Free tier

✓ Available

90-day free trial for Starter plan with limited features

Free tier

✕ None

Starts at

$249/mo + 0.9% of billing volume

Starts at

5% + 50¢ per checkout transaction

Model

Flat rate

Model

Usage-based

Enterprise

✕ None

Enterprise

✕ None

Best for

✓ Best for

Subscription businesses needing advanced dunning, revenue recovery, and billing analytics

✓ Best for

SaaS companies wanting a merchant of record to handle global tax and compliance

Not ideal for

✕ Not for

—

✕ Not for

—

Strengths

↑ Strengths

—

↑ Strengths

Acts as merchant of record for global sales tax obligations
Fraud protection: blocks card attacks, fights chargebacks, screens fraudsters
Subscription billing in 20+ currencies with multiple payment methods
Includes free subscription analytics for revenue reporting

Weaknesses

↓ Weaknesses

—

↓ Weaknesses

Standard pricing is not available for low-value products or invoicing requirements
High transaction fees for low-value items
Cannot be used to sell physical products or anything that needs physical delivery
Not for human services unrelated to software, such as pure consulting
Full Recurly profile →Full Paddle profile →