Stripe Billing vs Recurly vs a Custom Billing Layer: What a Growing Company Pays in 2026

Short answer: for a company billing about $100,000 a month, Stripe Billing's pay-as-you-go plan costs about $700 a month ($8,400 a year) and a build will not beat it on fees; at about $400,000 a month Stripe costs about $2,800 a month ($33,600 a year) and Recurly Starter about $3,489 ($41,868 a year), and a custom billing layer of $15,000 to $50,000 starts to compete once your pricing rules stop fitting a plan. All vendor figures below were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 21 October 2026.

If you want a band for your own billing flow first, the AI development cost calculator gives one in about a minute.

Published prices, side by side

Want the number for your own scope? Send a short brief: what takes your team the most manual time, which systems are involved, roughly how many people touch it. A senior engineer replies within two working days with a band and the questions we would ask on a call. No call needed. Or get a range in a minute from the AI development cost calculator.

How to read these numbers. Subscription prices are the vendors' published list prices on the date shown, before taxes, overages, add-ons and seat growth. The custom-build figures are KUMO's published bands for the build only: hosting, model usage, third-party fees and ongoing engineering ($5,000 to $10,000 per month if you have no engineers) sit on top, and we say so wherever a total is compared. A standard tool is the right answer when your workflow fits it; configuration is enough when the gap is small; a custom build is justified only by a specific complexity named on this page, not by preference.

Two cautions about reading this table. Stripe's page prices four monthly tiers but does not state which price goes with which volume cap, so the table gives the range only. Recurly's page does not say whether the 0.9% applies to the first $40K, so the totals below assume it applies only above that amount; the real invoice may differ.

What it costs a year at three billing volumes

Billing volume is the money you invoice through the system each month. These totals are KUMO's arithmetic on the published prices above and cover the billing fee only, not card processing.

At $400,000 a month, three years of Stripe's percentage is $100,800. That is more than the top of the Starter band, so a build can pay for itself on fees alone at that volume. At $100,000 a month it cannot: three years of Stripe is $25,200, and a custom layer has to be justified by something other than the fee.

What moves the number

1. Billing volume. Both vendors charge a percentage, so the fee grows with every sale. A build costs the same at $100,000 a month and at $1,000,000.
2. Pricing shape. A flat monthly plan fits any tool. Per-seat plus usage plus a negotiated annual commitment plus credits is where plan limits turn into workarounds.
3. Contracts and approvals. Custom invoices that need sign-off, purchase-order matching or milestone billing are the usual reason finance teams keep a spreadsheet beside the billing tool.
4. Integrations. Accounting, tax, CRM and a customer portal each add wiring. On a platform you pay for it in connectors; in a build you pay for it once in scope.
5. Who owns the data. With a custom layer, plans, invoices and history sit in your own database and cloud account, which matters at audit time and when you change processors.
6. Who maintains it. A billing engine that nobody on your team understands is a risk whether it is a platform configuration or code. Budget for the maintainer, not only the build.

Three quotes for the same brief

Ask for the same written brief from three places and compare like with like. Write the brief as: how many plans you sell, how usage is metered, what a customer sees on an invoice, which approvals sit in front of an invoice, which systems must receive the data, and how many invoices you send a month.

1. A platform setup quote: the vendor or a certified partner configures plans and connectors. Ask what happens to anything the plan cannot express.
2. A freelancer quote: fastest to start, so ask who maintains it in month six and where the code lives.
3. A studio quote: a defined first production version with the code in your account. Ask for the scope list, the handover, and what the monthly cost is after launch.

The three answers usually differ less on price than on what is left out, so compare the scope lists first. Staff augmentation vs agency vs freelancer covers how those three behave in practice.

When a platform is enough, and when to build

Stay on Stripe Billing or Recurly when your plans are a short list, invoices are standard and finance is happy with the reports as they come. Price a custom layer when two or more of these are true: the percentage fee passes $20,000 a year, pricing rules need code to express, invoices need an approval step, finance exports to a spreadsheet every month to fix totals, or a customer portal needs data the platform does not expose. No-code vs custom app development covers the wider trade-off, and build vs buy for a support agent shows the same fee-versus-build arithmetic in a different place.

A common middle path keeps Stripe for taking payments and replaces only the billing logic around it. The card fee stays with Stripe either way, and the custom layer owns plans, usage rules, invoices and approvals.

What a custom billing layer includes at KUMO

KUMO builds workflow software and portals for 10 to 100 person companies without engineers of their own. A Starter Build ($15,000 to $50,000) is a launched first production version: your plans and usage rules, invoice generation and approval, a connection to your payment processor, roles and an audit trail, deployment into your own cloud account, and a handover another engineer can continue from. Larger scopes with several integrations or a customer portal are $50,000 to $100,000, and ongoing engineering is $5,000 to $10,000 per month, or less once stable.

KUMO's founders built Volopay's first production version as its founding engineers, which is adjacent proof here: a payments and approvals product, not a billing engine. For the services behind this, see AI workflow automation and custom software development.

To get a band for your own billing flow, book a free 30-minute call with an engineer. Bring your plan list and one real invoice with the names removed.

FAQ

How much does Stripe Billing cost? Stripe's pricing page lists pay as you go at 0.7% of Billing volume, and monthly plans of $620, $1,500, $2,950 and $5,750 with volume caps up to $1,000,000 a month. Card processing is a separate 2.9% + 30¢ per successful charge. Read 21 October 2026.

How much does Recurly cost? Recurly lists Starter at $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of billings each month included at no charge. Its All-Access plan is "as low as" under 1% of billing volume with a $1M billing volume minimum. Read 21 October 2026.

Is it cheaper to build my own subscription billing than to use Stripe Billing? Not at low volume. At $100,000 a month, Stripe's fee is about $8,400 a year. At $400,000 a month it is about $33,600 a year, which is when a $15,000 to $50,000 build can compete, especially if your pricing rules need workarounds today.

What is the difference between Stripe Billing and Stripe Payments? Billing manages plans, invoices and usage. Payments takes the card or bank charge. They are priced separately, which is why a custom billing layer can still run on Stripe for the payment itself.

How long does a custom billing system take to build? A first production version typically takes 2 to 3 months from a senior team, with larger scopes taking longer.

Can I move off Recurly or Stripe Billing later? Yes, but plan the data move early: customers, subscriptions, invoice history and tax records all have to match. A staged cutover, one plan at a time, keeps invoices going out while it happens.

Last verified 21 October 2026. Stripe prices from stripe.com/billing/pricing and Recurly prices from recurly.com/pricing, both read on that date. Yearly totals are KUMO's arithmetic on those published prices. KUMO bands are KUMO's published prices.

The numbers in one file. The Build vs Buy Price Book, October 2026 has the published prices of 40 business tools read in October 2026, what they cost a 40-person company, and the four tests that say whether a custom build is worth it. Download the PDF (8 pages, free, no form).