Lemon Squeezy vs Recurly
Lemon Squeezy and Recurly are both payments & billing tools. Lemon Squeezy is aimed at freelancers and developers, while Recurly is aimed at enterprise.
Lemon Squeezy
Merchant of record for digital products
Recurly
Subscription management for growing brands
| Pricing | Paid | Paid · $249 |
| Starting price | Not published | $249/mo |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | — | 90 days |
| Built for | Freelancers, Developers | Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | US · 2021 | US · 2009 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Lemon Squeezy if
Indie hackers, solo developers and small SaaS who want payments plus tax handled with minimal setup.
- Simple setup for solo developers
- Tax and compliance handled
- License keys built in for desktop software
Look elsewhere if: Marketplaces or larger SaaS needing invoicing depth (Paddle) or lowest fees (Polar).
Choose Recurly if
Consumer and media subscription businesses.
- Strong failed payment recovery
- Good for consumer subscriptions
- Gateway flexibility
Look elsewhere if: Early SaaS (Stripe Billing).
Lemon Squeezy vs Recurly pricing
Lemon Squeezy
- Standard5% + 50¢/per transactionMerchant of record, no monthly fee
- Additional fees+1.5%International cards and PayPal; +0.5% subscription payments
Recurly
- Starter$249/mo+0.9% of billing volume; first $40K/mo included
- All-AccessCustom<1% of billing volume; $1M volume minimum
- All-Access for ShopifyCustomRecurly integrated into Shopify
Lemon Squeezy · Key features
- Merchant of record with global tax handling
- Hosted checkout and overlay with localized pricing
- Subscriptions, usage-based billing and customer portal
- License keys with activation and validation API
- Affiliates, discounts and email marketing
- SDKs for Next.js and Laravel, webhooks and Zapier
Cons
- Fees higher than direct Stripe
- Roadmap tied to Stripe's plans
- Less enterprise billing depth than Paddle
Recurly · Key features
- Subscription plans and promotions
- Revenue recovery and smart retries
- Multi-gateway support
- Subscription analytics
- Revenue recognition
- Gift and trial management
Cons
- Revenue-based fees
- Less popular with SaaS startups
- Implementation effort
Lemon Squeezy vs Recurly: FAQ
Do Lemon Squeezy and Recurly have a free plan?
Lemon Squeezy has no free plan. Recurly has no free plan, a 90-day free trial.