Adyen vs Recurly

Adyen is a global payments company founded in Amsterdam in 2006 by Pieter van der Does and Arnout Schuijff, and listed on Euronext Amsterdam since 2018. Adyen runs its own acquiring, processing and risk stack in one system, so a merchant gets one contract and one report for card payments, local payment methods and in-store terminals across many countries. Customers include Uber, Microsoft, eBay and OpenAI.

The platform covers online checkout through Drop-in and Components SDKs, point-of-sale terminals, Tap to Pay on phones, RevenueProtect fraud scoring, network tokenization, payouts, and Adyen for Platforms for marketplaces that onboard and pay sub-merchants. Pricing is published and usage-based: a fixed $0.13 processing fee per transaction plus a payment method fee, such as Interchange++ plus 0.60% for Visa and Mastercard. There are no setup or monthly fees, though a minimum invoice can apply depending on industry.

Adyen fits large retailers, travel and mobility companies, and marketplaces processing high volumes across several regions, where unified data and acquiring margins matter. It is a poor fit for small shops: onboarding is sales-led, integration needs developers, and support is tuned for enterprise accounts. Stripe is easier for startups and SaaS billing, PayPal brings consumer wallet reach, and Square suits small in-person sellers.

Adyen keeps growing: H1 2026 net revenue was about EUR 1.3 billion, up 19% year on year, and in July 2026 it completed the acquisitions of Talon.One (loyalty and promotions) and Orb (usage-based billing).

Recurly is a subscription billing and management platform founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco. It is best known among consumer, media and subscription box businesses for revenue recovery: intelligent retry logic and dunning campaigns that recover a large share of failed card payments before they turn into involuntary churn.

The platform manages plans, add-ons, trials, coupons, gift subscriptions and promotions, supports one-time and usage-based charges, and can run on several payment gateways at the same time, so businesses are not tied to one processor. Subscription analytics cover MRR, churn, cohorts and retention, and revenue recognition helps finance teams with ASC 606 reporting. Integrations connect Recurly to Salesforce, NetSuite and QuickBooks. The Starter plan combines a monthly fee with a small percentage of billing volume and a 90-day free trial, while All-Access is custom-priced for larger businesses.

Recurly suits established consumer and media subscription companies with high transaction volumes, multiple gateways and a meaningful failed payment problem. Its revenue-based fees and implementation effort make it less attractive for early SaaS startups, which usually start on Stripe Billing or Paddle, and parts of the interface feel dated. Chargebee is the closest competitor with stronger B2B SaaS features, Zuora targets complex enterprise billing, and Maxio serves B2B companies that need finance-grade reporting.