The Best Billing Software for Monthly Base Subscriptions Plus Usage Metering
The Best Billing Software for Monthly Base Subscriptions Plus Usage Metering
The Best Billing Software for Monthly Base Subscriptions Plus Usage Metering
The Best Billing Software for Monthly Base Subscriptions Plus Usage Metering
The Best Billing Software for Monthly Base Subscriptions Plus Usage Metering
Team Flexprice
Editorial
Most billing platforms can meter usage. Far fewer keep a monthly base fee and a meter on one plan, and that's the test that picks the best billing software for software products that combine monthly base subscriptions with usage metering. Below are five platforms judged on it, starting with ours. I work on Flexprice, so discount our entry and check the criteria yourself.
Key Takeaways
The real test is whether both charges attach to one plan object. Two subscriptions stitched by customer ID means manual reconciliation every month.
Proration touches the fixed half only. A mid-cycle upgrade credits the unused base fee, while usage bills on the events that happened.
Stripe's own comparison page marks prepaid credits and drawdown as unsupported on Billing Meters, so a base fee plus a credit balance needs a second system.
Pricing basis splits the field: Stripe Billing takes 0.7% of billing volume and Chargebee 0.80%, while Flexprice charges a flat plan fee from $0. Adyen acquired Orb for $335M, closing 1 July 2026.
Which billing software runs a base fee and a meter on one plan?
Five platforms handle both charge types. Here's what each one is and where it stops.
1. Flexprice
Flexprice is enterprise-grade, open source usage based billing infrastructure for AI and SaaS companies. It can be deployed in your own VPC, on-prem, or on Flexprice's managed cloud.
All three deployments run the same engine: inside your own virtual private cloud on AWS, Azure or GCP, inside your own data centre in any geography, or fully managed by us. For a base fee plus a meter specifically, both charges attach to a single plan object, each with its own billing timing, so the platform fee bills in advance and consumption bills in arrears without a second subscription. Proration applies to the fixed charge and leaves usage alone. Pricing changes are configuration edits rather than deploys, which is what lets a product team move a rate or an allowance without a release.
Key features:
Pricing Models puts a Flat Fee charge and usage-based charges on one plan, with advance or arrears set per charge.
Usage Metering takes one event name, one aggregation and one property per metered charge, ingests 60K+ events per second under 60ms P99, and shows every event in a debugger.
Billing and Invoicing merges the recurring line, metered lines, proration and credits into one draft invoice you review before finalizing.
Credits and Wallets covers included allowances, rollover, deduction order and auto top-ups at a threshold.
Flat plans: Basic free at 100K events a month, Build $500 at 1M, Scale $1,000 at 5M, monthly or yearly with 20% off yearly. Never a share of revenue.
G2 rating: 4.8 out of 5.
"If billing doesn't work, we don't make money. Flexprice lets us focus on the core business instead of building billing as a second product." - Shubhendu Shishir, Head of Engineering, Simplismart
Most billing platforms can meter usage. Far fewer keep a monthly base fee and a meter on one plan, and that's the test that picks the best billing software for software products that combine monthly base subscriptions with usage metering. Below are five platforms judged on it, starting with ours. I work on Flexprice, so discount our entry and check the criteria yourself.
Key Takeaways
The real test is whether both charges attach to one plan object. Two subscriptions stitched by customer ID means manual reconciliation every month.
Proration touches the fixed half only. A mid-cycle upgrade credits the unused base fee, while usage bills on the events that happened.
Stripe's own comparison page marks prepaid credits and drawdown as unsupported on Billing Meters, so a base fee plus a credit balance needs a second system.
Pricing basis splits the field: Stripe Billing takes 0.7% of billing volume and Chargebee 0.80%, while Flexprice charges a flat plan fee from $0. Adyen acquired Orb for $335M, closing 1 July 2026.
Which billing software runs a base fee and a meter on one plan?
Five platforms handle both charge types. Here's what each one is and where it stops.
1. Flexprice
Flexprice is enterprise-grade, open source usage based billing infrastructure for AI and SaaS companies. It can be deployed in your own VPC, on-prem, or on Flexprice's managed cloud.
All three deployments run the same engine: inside your own virtual private cloud on AWS, Azure or GCP, inside your own data centre in any geography, or fully managed by us. For a base fee plus a meter specifically, both charges attach to a single plan object, each with its own billing timing, so the platform fee bills in advance and consumption bills in arrears without a second subscription. Proration applies to the fixed charge and leaves usage alone. Pricing changes are configuration edits rather than deploys, which is what lets a product team move a rate or an allowance without a release.
Key features:
Pricing Models puts a Flat Fee charge and usage-based charges on one plan, with advance or arrears set per charge.
Usage Metering takes one event name, one aggregation and one property per metered charge, ingests 60K+ events per second under 60ms P99, and shows every event in a debugger.
Billing and Invoicing merges the recurring line, metered lines, proration and credits into one draft invoice you review before finalizing.
Credits and Wallets covers included allowances, rollover, deduction order and auto top-ups at a threshold.
Flat plans: Basic free at 100K events a month, Build $500 at 1M, Scale $1,000 at 5M, monthly or yearly with 20% off yearly. Never a share of revenue.
G2 rating: 4.8 out of 5.
"If billing doesn't work, we don't make money. Flexprice lets us focus on the core business instead of building billing as a second product." - Shubhendu Shishir, Head of Engineering, Simplismart
Launch Your Usage Based Billing in Days and Not Weeks
Launch Your Usage Based Billing in Days and Not Weeks
2. Stripe Billing
Stripe Billing is built around subscriptions and payments, with a Meters product carrying a 100M events per month allowance, priced at 0.7% of billing volume.
Where it stops: built around subscriptions and payments, and usually paired with a separate metering vendor for usage-based products. Flexprice is the metering and billing layer itself, and isn't tied to any payment gateway. Its own comparison page marks prepaid credits, enterprise minimums and ramp schedules as unsupported on Billing Meters, so the base fee and the meter can end up in two systems.
3. Chargebee
Chargebee is subscription management software that layered usage-based charges on top of a plan-based billing core, priced at 0.80% of monthly billing value or $99 a month plus 0.65%.
Where it stops: subscription management software built for plan-based and per-seat billing, hosted only. Flexprice is metering-first infrastructure built for usage-based and hybrid pricing. The pricing basis also means your bill grows with your revenue rather than your event volume.
4. Orb
Orb is a usage-based billing engine that ingests raw events and rates them against pricing contracts, with hosted rollups its docs put above 500,000 events per second. Adyen acquired it for $335M and the deal closed on 1 July 2026.
Where it stops: closed source and vendor-hosted. Flexprice is open source and deploys inside your own VPC or on-prem, so usage and revenue data never has to leave your infrastructure. Pricing is quote-only across three tiers with no free tier, and its docs carry no entitlement primitive, so gating a feature by plan stays in your code.
5. Lago
Lago is an open source billing platform, self-hostable under AGPL-3.0, that meters events inside the same engine that invoices.
Where it stops: Lago is also open source and self-hostable. The difference is enterprise scale: Flexprice is built for real-time metering at high event volume, with deployment across any VPC and any geography. Lago Premium also gates prepaid credits, entitlements, the customer portal and RBAC. Its invoiced wallet balance updates when an invoice is finalized, with a separate ongoing balance refreshing about every minute.
How do these platforms compare on base plus usage?
Platform | Both charges on one plan | Billing timing per charge | Prepaid credits | Entitlements | Pricing basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Flexprice | Yes, one plan object | Advance or arrears per charge | In the AGPL-3.0 build | In the AGPL-3.0 build | Flat plan fee, free to 100K events/mo |
Stripe Billing | Subscription plus Meters | Per price | Marked unsupported | No feature-level gating | 0.7% of billing volume |
Chargebee | Plan with usage added on | Per charge | No true credit wallet | Outside the product | 0.80% of billing value |
Orb | Yes | Per price | Yes | None in docs | Quote only, no free tier |
Lago | Yes | Per charge | Lago Premium only | Lago Premium only | Free self-hosted, Premium quote-only |
How do you choose the right one?
Run the model you actually sell through a trial account before you sign. Work through these in order:
Attach both charges to one plan. If the platform needs a second subscription to hold the meter, it failed the test that matters most.
Set billing timing per charge. The base fee bills in advance, usage bills in arrears. A platform that sets timing per plan forces you to invoice usage against an estimate.
Run an upgrade on day 12 of a 30-day cycle. Proration bugs stay invisible on a clean month boundary. Check that usage wasn't credited back.
Check what happens at the allowance. Charging the payment method, deducting credits and blocking usage are three different behaviours, and you need the one your pricing page promises.
Check what the price is a function of. A percentage of billing volume compounds as you grow, a flat plan fee doesn't.
One honest limit: a flat monthly fee with no meter doesn't need this much billing infrastructure. On Flexprice, prepaid credits and wallets, the customer portal and Pricing Experiments start on Scale, and SOC 2 Type 2, SAML SSO and on-premise deployment sit on Mission Critical.
Where should you start?
Build the plan you're actually selling, then look at the invoice it produces. Start free on Flexprice, or send your engineers to the docs. Once you've picked a platform, the configuration order is in our hybrid pricing implementation guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you add usage metering to an existing subscription plan?
Add a metered charge to the plan the customer already sits on. Each one needs an event name, an aggregation method, and a property to aggregate on. Needing a second subscription to hold the meter means the platform failed the one-plan test.
Does proration apply to usage charges as well as the base fee?
No. Proration touches the fixed component only. Usage bills on the events that actually happened, so there's nothing to prorate.
Can a base fee plus usage plan run on a self-serve pricing page?
Yes. The meter, the included allowance and the overage behaviour have to be readable before signup, and the invoice has to show quantity and rate behind each usage line.
Which billing vendors support a base fee plus usage on one plan?
Judge them on whether both charges sit on one plan object and land on one invoice. Flexprice, Orb and Lago do it on one plan; Stripe Billing pairs a subscription with Meters, and Chargebee adds usage on top of a plan-based core.
2. Stripe Billing
Stripe Billing is built around subscriptions and payments, with a Meters product carrying a 100M events per month allowance, priced at 0.7% of billing volume.
Where it stops: built around subscriptions and payments, and usually paired with a separate metering vendor for usage-based products. Flexprice is the metering and billing layer itself, and isn't tied to any payment gateway. Its own comparison page marks prepaid credits, enterprise minimums and ramp schedules as unsupported on Billing Meters, so the base fee and the meter can end up in two systems.
3. Chargebee
Chargebee is subscription management software that layered usage-based charges on top of a plan-based billing core, priced at 0.80% of monthly billing value or $99 a month plus 0.65%.
Where it stops: subscription management software built for plan-based and per-seat billing, hosted only. Flexprice is metering-first infrastructure built for usage-based and hybrid pricing. The pricing basis also means your bill grows with your revenue rather than your event volume.
4. Orb
Orb is a usage-based billing engine that ingests raw events and rates them against pricing contracts, with hosted rollups its docs put above 500,000 events per second. Adyen acquired it for $335M and the deal closed on 1 July 2026.
Where it stops: closed source and vendor-hosted. Flexprice is open source and deploys inside your own VPC or on-prem, so usage and revenue data never has to leave your infrastructure. Pricing is quote-only across three tiers with no free tier, and its docs carry no entitlement primitive, so gating a feature by plan stays in your code.
5. Lago
Lago is an open source billing platform, self-hostable under AGPL-3.0, that meters events inside the same engine that invoices.
Where it stops: Lago is also open source and self-hostable. The difference is enterprise scale: Flexprice is built for real-time metering at high event volume, with deployment across any VPC and any geography. Lago Premium also gates prepaid credits, entitlements, the customer portal and RBAC. Its invoiced wallet balance updates when an invoice is finalized, with a separate ongoing balance refreshing about every minute.
How do these platforms compare on base plus usage?
Platform | Both charges on one plan | Billing timing per charge | Prepaid credits | Entitlements | Pricing basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Flexprice | Yes, one plan object | Advance or arrears per charge | In the AGPL-3.0 build | In the AGPL-3.0 build | Flat plan fee, free to 100K events/mo |
Stripe Billing | Subscription plus Meters | Per price | Marked unsupported | No feature-level gating | 0.7% of billing volume |
Chargebee | Plan with usage added on | Per charge | No true credit wallet | Outside the product | 0.80% of billing value |
Orb | Yes | Per price | Yes | None in docs | Quote only, no free tier |
Lago | Yes | Per charge | Lago Premium only | Lago Premium only | Free self-hosted, Premium quote-only |
How do you choose the right one?
Run the model you actually sell through a trial account before you sign. Work through these in order:
Attach both charges to one plan. If the platform needs a second subscription to hold the meter, it failed the test that matters most.
Set billing timing per charge. The base fee bills in advance, usage bills in arrears. A platform that sets timing per plan forces you to invoice usage against an estimate.
Run an upgrade on day 12 of a 30-day cycle. Proration bugs stay invisible on a clean month boundary. Check that usage wasn't credited back.
Check what happens at the allowance. Charging the payment method, deducting credits and blocking usage are three different behaviours, and you need the one your pricing page promises.
Check what the price is a function of. A percentage of billing volume compounds as you grow, a flat plan fee doesn't.
One honest limit: a flat monthly fee with no meter doesn't need this much billing infrastructure. On Flexprice, prepaid credits and wallets, the customer portal and Pricing Experiments start on Scale, and SOC 2 Type 2, SAML SSO and on-premise deployment sit on Mission Critical.
Where should you start?
Build the plan you're actually selling, then look at the invoice it produces. Start free on Flexprice, or send your engineers to the docs. Once you've picked a platform, the configuration order is in our hybrid pricing implementation guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you add usage metering to an existing subscription plan?
Add a metered charge to the plan the customer already sits on. Each one needs an event name, an aggregation method, and a property to aggregate on. Needing a second subscription to hold the meter means the platform failed the one-plan test.
Does proration apply to usage charges as well as the base fee?
No. Proration touches the fixed component only. Usage bills on the events that actually happened, so there's nothing to prorate.
Can a base fee plus usage plan run on a self-serve pricing page?
Yes. The meter, the included allowance and the overage behaviour have to be readable before signup, and the invoice has to show quantity and rate behind each usage line.
Which billing vendors support a base fee plus usage on one plan?
Judge them on whether both charges sit on one plan object and land on one invoice. Flexprice, Orb and Lago do it on one plan; Stripe Billing pairs a subscription with Meters, and Chargebee adds usage on top of a plan-based core.
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