Chargebee
Subscription billing and revenue management for recurring businesses
Lago
Open-source metering and usage-based billing API for SaaS
Programmable billing API for usage-based, subscription, and hybrid pricing models. Event-driven architecture that integrates with your existing stack and scales with product-led growth.
Overview
Modern Billing for Product-Led SaaS
Lago is a programmable billing API designed for companies that have outgrown traditional subscription billing platforms. Built with an event-based architecture, Lago enables engineering teams to meter any trackable activity and charge accordingly—supporting usage-based, subscription, and hybrid pricing models without vendor lock-in.
Composable and Privacy-First
Unlike percentage-based billing platforms, Lago offers transparent SaaS pricing for its cloud version and a free self-hosted option under AGPLv3. The open architecture connects seamlessly to payment gateways, CRMs, CPQ tools, and accounting software, ensuring your billing data can remain on your infrastructure. Teams gain full control over usage metering, plan configuration, invoicing, coupons, add-ons, and prepaid credits through an intuitive UI or API.
Built for Scale
Whether you're running self-serve motions or sales-led deals, Lago adapts to complex go-to-market strategies. The platform automatically calculates charges and generates invoices based on plan configurations, unlocking recurring revenue opportunities for pay-as-you-go models and enabling fair pricing that scales with customer usage.
Highlights
Event-based usage metering that charges for any trackable activity
Hybrid pricing support for subscription, usage-based, and combined models
Composable architecture integrating with payment gateways, CRMs, and accounting tools
Self-hosted deployment option with AGPLv3 license for full data control
Pros
- No revenue-share pricing model; transparent SaaS or free self-hosted options
- Event-driven architecture provides flexibility for complex pricing scenarios
- Open-source codebase with active development and bi-weekly releases
- Comprehensive API and client libraries for Go, JavaScript, Python, and Ruby
Considerations
- AGPLv3 license requires derivative works to be open-sourced
- Self-hosted deployment requires Docker infrastructure and maintenance
- Relatively new project (launched June 2022) compared to established vendors
- Default analytics tracking enabled unless manually disabled
Managed products teams compare with
When teams consider Lago, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.
Fit guide
Great for
- Product-led SaaS companies with usage-based or hybrid pricing models
- Engineering teams needing programmable control over billing logic
- Organizations requiring on-premise billing data for compliance or privacy
- Companies seeking alternatives to percentage-based billing platforms
Not ideal when
- Teams without Docker infrastructure or container orchestration experience
- Simple subscription businesses with fixed monthly pricing only
- Organizations unable to comply with AGPLv3 licensing requirements
- Companies preferring fully managed billing with zero infrastructure overhead
How teams use it
API Platform Metering
Charge customers based on API calls, compute time, or data processed with real-time event tracking and automated invoice generation
Freemium to Paid Conversion
Implement prepaid credits and usage thresholds that automatically trigger upgrades when free-tier limits are exceeded
Enterprise Sales-Led Deals
Configure custom hybrid plans combining base subscriptions with usage overages for negotiated enterprise contracts
Multi-Product Billing Consolidation
Unify billing across multiple products and services into single invoices while maintaining granular usage breakdowns
Tech snapshot
Go87%
Shell11%
Dockerfile2%
Procfile1%
Frequently asked questions
What pricing models does Lago support?
Lago supports usage-based, subscription-based, and hybrid pricing models. You can create pay-as-you-go plans, fixed subscriptions, prepaid credits, one-time add-ons, and combinations of these through the UI or API.
How does Lago's pricing compare to Chargebee or Stripe Billing?
Lago does not charge a percentage of revenue. The self-hosted version is free under AGPLv3. The cloud version uses transparent SaaS pricing rather than revenue-share models.
Can I run Lago on my own infrastructure?
Yes. Lago can be self-hosted using Docker Compose. The AGPLv3 license allows you to deploy on your infrastructure, ensuring billing data never leaves your systems.
What integrations does Lago support?
Lago's composable architecture connects to payment gateways, CRMs, CPQ tools, and accounting software. Client libraries are available for Go, JavaScript, Python, and Ruby.
Does Lago track usage on self-hosted instances?
By default, Lago tracks basic actions on self-hosted instances for product updates, but does not collect customer personal information or invoice financial data. Tracking can be fully disabled.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 9,136
- Watchers
- 9,136
- Forks
- 520
LicenseAGPL-3.0
Repo age3 years old
Last commityesterday
Self-hostingSupported
Primary languageGo
Last synced 12 hours ago