# Recurly — Billing & Invoicing

Recurly by Recurly, Inc. holds a panel rating of 2/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-10-28. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: 1 of 4 dimensions proven.

- Vendor: Recurly, Inc. (https://recurly.com)
- Category: [Billing & Invoicing](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/recurly
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/recurly/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/recurly/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-29 · evaluated 2026-10-28 · oldest source captured 2026-10-26

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Recurly, Inc.
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Default not stated; pages mention the US [S3]
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

The bench scores Recurly, a subscription management and billing service from Recurly, Inc. of San Francisco, strongest on the subscription engine, where scores cluster at 8: five pricing models, usage metering through a Usage API that is not rate-limited, and an entitlements endpoint. Collections and dunning cluster at 7 — SEPA direct debit on all plans with automatic pre-debit notification — and tax handling at 7-8 on VAT ID validation against government registers. The weakest ground is sovereignty at 3-4: the services are stated to be hosted and operated in the United States, and subprocessors are disclosed by category. Invoicing compliance sits at 4 and pricing transparency at 5: we found no public information on structured e-invoices, and above Starter only floors are published. The judges split by one point on tax handling and revenue and handoff — held at 7 for no public information on One-Stop-Shop reporting and on DATEV or data-warehouse exports — and on sovereignty, over whether a few subprocessor providers are named. The SaaS Founder and Tax Adviser entries show 0 throughout.

**Speaks for it:**
- Five pricing models, including ramps of up to twelve intervals, with usage metered through a Usage API that is not rate-limited and entitlements readable through a documented endpoint.
- SEPA direct debit on all plans with the mandatory pre-debit notification handled automatically by email, across the named gateways Adyen, Stripe via Third Party Checkout, GoCardless and Worldpay.
- VAT and tax ID validation against government registers including VIES and HMRC, with revalidation after six months and a documented fallback during VIES downtime.
- Intelligent retries, an Account Updater that continuously attempts collection on overdue accounts, and up to 50 versioned dunning campaigns on Professional and Elite plans.
- Signed webhooks with automatic retries on all plans, and invoice edits syncing automatically to Salesforce, QuickBooks and NetSuite.

**Held against it:**
- The contracting entity is Recurly, Inc. of San Francisco and the services are stated to be hosted and operated in the United States, with subprocessors disclosed by category.
- Starter is computable at "$249 per month + 0.9% of billing volume (first $40K of billings included at no charge each month)", but above it only floors are published — All-Access "As low as <1% of billing volume, billed annually" behind a $1M billing volume minimum, RevRec "As low as $850 Per month, billed annually" — so a full annual cost is not computable from public pages.
- We found no public information on sequential numbering, GoBD-conformant archiving or structured e-invoices such as XRechnung, ZUGFeRD or Peppol.
- We found no public information on a DATEV export, data-warehouse sync or One-Stop-Shop reporting data.
- A plan's pricing model cannot be changed after creation, and usage can be logged only through the API.

**Best for:**
- You run usage-based or tiered subscription pricing and need metering plus entitlements your application can read.
- You collect EUR subscriptions by SEPA direct debit and want the pre-debit notification, retries and dunning handled by the billing system.
- You sell across EU borders and want VAT ID validation against government registers with reverse charge applied at billing time.

**Avoid if:**
- Your requirement is that billing data stay in Europe — the captured pages state the services are hosted and operated in the United States.
- You must compute a full annual cost from public pages — above Starter the figures are floors or contact-sales, and overage sits in the Order Form.
- Your MRR reporting must include usage-based revenue — the MRR report excludes it by convention.
- You plan to export stored payment details to another provider — the terms condition any release on demonstrated PCI compliance.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The SaaS Founder | The Finance Lead | The Billing Engineer | The Service-Business Owner | The Tax Adviser | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Plans, pricing models & subscription lifecycle | 0/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 0/5 | 4/5 |
| Invoices & e-invoicing compliance | 0/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 0/5 | 2/5 |
| Cross-border VAT & tax handling | 0/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 0/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Payment collection, dunning & portability | 0/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 0/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Revenue reporting & accounting handoff | 0/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | 0/5 | 3.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 0/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 0/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 0/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 0/5 | 2.5/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **0/5** | **3/5** | **3.5/5** | **3/5** | **0/5** | **3/5** |

### The judges

- **The SaaS Founder** (v1.0): Runs a twelve-person SaaS that sells to companies in nine EU countries and is about to add a usage-based tier. Wants plans, trials and price changes without a developer sprint, reverse charge that is right without thinking about it, failed cards retried before they turn into churn, and a billing bill that does not grow faster than revenue.
- **The Finance Lead** (v1.0): Closes the month for a software company with eight million euros of recurring revenue. Wants MRR that reconciles with the ledger, deferred revenue scheduled rather than estimated in a spreadsheet, a journal or DATEV export the accountants can book without retyping, and dunning that stops before it reaches a key account.
- **The Billing Engineer** (v1.0): Wires billing into the product and gets paged when a webhook goes missing. Wants a documented API for usage events, idempotent webhooks, entitlements the app can read, a sandbox that behaves like production, and a migration path that moves subscriptions and payment tokens out again if the company outgrows the tool.
- **The Service-Business Owner** (v1.0): Runs an IT service company with two hundred maintenance contracts, hosting packages and monthly retainers, all billed to German businesses. Wants contract terms and price increases handled by the system, SEPA direct debit with mandates, e-invoices that public-sector customers accept, a DATEV export for the tax adviser, and customer data kept in Europe.
- **The Tax Adviser** (v1.0): Advises software and subscription businesses and sees what their billing tools get wrong at the year-end audit. Wants sequential numbering and credit notes instead of edited invoices, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD now that the B2B e-invoice is mandatory, VAT IDs checked before reverse charge is applied, and a merchant of record that says in writing which tax it owes.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen "automated recurring revenue" turn into a tool that takes a percentage of every euro billed and keeps the payment tokens when the customer leaves. Reads "e-invoicing ready" that means a PDF, "global tax compliance" with no word on who is liable, merchant-of-record terms that let the vendor change fees at will, and subprocessor lists that stop at the hosting provider — and asks what leaving would cost.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: 1 of 4 dimensions proven.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Ownership | Not determined | — | — |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | — |
| Subprocessors | US CLOUD Act reach | 0/2 | [S3] |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- DPA: yes [S1]
- DPA available: yes [S2]
- DPA scc: yes [S3]
- Dpf certification: EU-U.S. DPF · UK Extension to EU-U.S. DPF · Swiss-U.S. DPF [S3]
- Dpf dispute resolution: at no cost to you · JAMS [S3]
- Ftc enforcement: yes [S3]
- GDPR controller: yes · yes [S3]
- HIPAA: yes · yes [S3]
- Min age: 13 [S3]
- Pci: yes [S4]
- Security measures: encryption · tokenization [S3]

**Data**
- Deletion: support@recurly.com · yes [S3]
- Export restricted payment info pci: yes [S4]
- GDPR data categories: First and last name · Company name, VAT number · Email address · Mailing address · Telephone number · Username · Account Code (can include email addresses) · Credit card and credit card CVV · Transaction and Billing Data [S3]
- Portability: yes [S3]
- Retention: as long as reasonably necessary / legitimate business need [S3]

**Hosting**
- Region: US [S3]

**Integrations**
- App management webhook config path: Integrations → Webhooks [S14]
- Chat qualified: Qualified · Zendesk · Google Gemini [S3]
- Client library versions: 3.5.0 · 3.5.0 · 3.10.0 · 3.11.0 · 3.10.0 · 3.11.0 · 3.9.0 [S5]
- Dunning webhooks: new_dunning_event · failed_payment · successful_payment · subscription_expired [S12]
- Edit invoice API: put_invoice · yes [S8]
- Edit invoice sync platforms: Salesforce · QuickBooks · NetSuite · Xero [S8]
- Edit invoice webhooks: yes [S8]
- Exports for usage: Subscriptions Add-Ons Export (v2) · Subscriptions Usage Records Export (v2) [S5]
- Google analytics: yes [S3]
- Methods: APIs, webhooks, custom checkout, app store data [S1]
- New usage notification webhook: new_usage_notification [S5]
- Partner decimal handling: rounds to 4th decimal · receives quantity as integer · receives only price, no quantity · rounds to 9th decimal · rounds to 8th decimal · rounds to 2nd decimal, can be altered · rounds to 7th decimal [S5]
- Prebuilt: pre-built integrations: CRM, payments, tax, ERP, and more [S1]
- Recurly js min version: 4.0.5 [S5]
- Ubilling API versions: 2019-10-10 [S5]
- Webhook formats: JSON · XML [S14]
- Webhook payload lightweight: yes · yes [S14]
- Webhook usage attributes: new_subscription_notification · renewed_subscription_notification · updated_subscription_notification · canceled_subscription_notification · reactivated_account · expired_subscription_notification [S5]
- Webhooks admin UI only: no · yes [S14]
- Webhooks auto retries: yes · 10 [S13]
- Webhooks available: yes [S13]
- Webhooks basic auth: yes [S13]
- Webhooks config admin UI only: no · yes [S13]
- Webhooks ip allowlist: yes [S13]
- Webhooks manual retries: yes · yes [S13]
- Webhooks modsecurity note: 990011 [S13]
- Webhooks not standalone: yes [S13]
- Webhooks notification types per endpoint: yes [S13]
- Webhooks payload formats: json · xml · yes [S13]
- Webhooks rails csrf note: disable_csrf_protection_for_webhook_action · rails [S13]
- Webhooks real time: yes [S13]
- Webhooks retry interval formula: 10 + x * 2^(x+5) seconds [S13]
- Webhooks signature verification: recurly-signature · yes [S13]
- Webhooks storage: 15 · yes [S13]
- Webhooks timestamps utc: site_configured · UTC [S13]
- Webhooks viewable in recurly: yes · yes [S14]

**Legal**
- Address: 315 Montgomery Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94104 [S3]
- Aup reference: https://recurly.com/legal/acceptable-use [S4]
- Auto renewal: one-year · 30 [S4]
- Change notice material degradation days: 60 [S4]
- Claims limitation period: 1 [S4]
- Contracting entity: Recurly, Inc. [S4]
- Data ownership: yes [S4]
- Data retention post termination days: 30 [S4]
- Entity: Recurly, Inc. [S1]
- Entity name: Recurly, Inc. [S3]
- EU representative: Ballindamm 39, 20095 Hamburg, Germany · DP-Dock GmbH [S3]
- Governing law: England / London courts if Merchant primarily in Europe, Middle East, or Africa · California / San Francisco [S4]
- Liability cap: fees paid or payable in 12 months preceding claim [S4]
- Not bank: Recurly is not a bank and does not hold merchant or customer funds [S4]
- Notice email: legal@recurly.com [S4]
- Policy last updated: 2026-04-27 [S3]
- Subcontracting: yes · yes [S4]
- Termination material breach cure days: 30 [S4]
- UK representative: 16 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5AH, United Kingdom · DP Data Protection Services UK Ltd [S3]
- Warranty disclaimer: yes [S4]

**Pricing**
- All access: <1% of billing volume · annual · 1000000 [S2]
- All access shopify: <1% of billing volume · percentage of billing volume · annual [S2]
- App management additional cost: Contact Recurly Sales for pricing details · yes [S14]
- Engage: annual · 1600 [S2]
- Free sandbox: free sandbox [S1]
- Invoice terms days: 30 [S4]
- Late fee monthly rate: 1.5 [S4]
- Multiple campaigns plan requirement: Multiple dunning campaigns not available on Starter or Pro plans [S12]
- Refund policy: no [S4]
- Revrec: annual · 850 [S2]
- Starter: 249 · monthly · 0.009 · 40000 [S2]
- Starter trial: 90 · yes [S2]
- Taxes exclusive: no [S4]
- Tpv allowance overage: TPV allowance in Order Form; overage fees beyond allowance [S4]
- Transaction scale: 16000000000 [S1]

**Product**
- Account activities export tracking: Campaign and email delivery tracked via Account Activities export [S12]
- Account updater overdue collection: Account Updater continuously runs on accounts with overdue invoices if active [S12]
- Active subscribers: 100M+ [S1]
- All access included: AI-Powered agents, analytics, insights · Intelligent churn-prevention tools · Multiple dunning campaigns · Advanced plans, pricing, promotions · Payments orchestration across multiple gateways · Custom reporting, additional analytics, and… [S2]
- All access shopify included: Intelligent churn-prevention tools · Customized bundles · Subscribe and save · Prepaid and gift subscriptions · Hybrid subscription support · Cancel-save flows and surveys · Self-serve bulk updater · Analytics and integrations · Hosted sub… [S2]
- App management API webhooks: yes · REST API endpoints to pull mobile app subscription data plus webhooks on subscription lifecycle events [S14]
- Australia abn failure behavior: rejected ABN results in no GST applied [S10]
- Australia abn validation: ABN validity · GST registration · ABR [S10]
- Australia gst: Australia · 10 · Country [S9]
- Australia gst location evidence: 2 [S9]
- Auto cancel only on failed dunning: Auto-cancellation only when invoice fails dunning and settings configured to expire [S12]
- Belarus unp validation: UNP · Belarus government business register [S10]
- Billing flexibility: monthly and annual billing plans supported [S1]
- Billing update retry: Billing detail updates trigger retry on all overdue invoices [S12]
- Brazil tax ids via vertex: Vertex integration · yes [S9]
- Bulk campaign assignment API: yes [S12]
- Bundled subscription campaign rule: Bundled subscriptions use oldest subscription's campaign [S12]
- Bundling discount: yes [S2]
- Campaign priority order: Campaign priority: Account, then Plan, then Default [S12]
- Canada avalara setup: support@recurly.com · yes [S9]
- Canada gst: 5 · Postal code and country [S9]
- Checkout display behavior: yes · yes [S5]
- Chile VAT: Chile · 19 · Country [S9]
- Commerce shopify: native subscription management app for Shopify [S1]
- Company age: 15+ [S1]
- Compass AI: Compass AI: natural-language plan configuration, API snippet customization, anomaly detection [S1]
- Compass AI: yes [S2]
- Compass anomaly detection: detects fraud, declines, and spikes [S1]
- Corrections supported pricing models: Fixed · Tiered · Volume · Stairstep [S5]
- Country specific tax registration numbers: yes · Configuration → Taxes → Tax Settings [S9]
- Credit invoice types: credit · refund · write-off [S7]
- Credit invoices available all plans: yes [S7]
- Credit invoices default cutoff: 2018-05-08 [S7]
- Credit not linked reversal: no [S7]
- Credit payments export API: yes · yes [S7]
- Currencies accepted: 140+ [S1]
- Custom pricing available: yes · yes [S2]
- Custom tax rates: yes [S9]
- Customer tax registration numbers: yes [S9]
- Deactivated campaigns not counted: Deactivated campaigns don't count toward the 50-campaign limit; default cannot be deactivated [S12]
- Decimal usage support limits: 9 · yes [S5]
- Default end of cycle behavior: Default: invoice failed at end of cycle and written off as bad debt; configurable to never auto-fail [S12]
- Description: subscription management and billing software service [S4]
- Dominican rnc validation: RNC · Dominican Republic government business register [S10]
- Dunning analytics automatic only: Dunning version analytics available for automatic payment invoices only [S12]
- Dunning available all plans: yes [S12]
- Dunning cycle types: Three dunning cycle types: automatic invoices, manual invoices, post-trial failures [S12]
- Edit invoice access controls: yes · yes [S8]
- Edit invoice activity logging: yes [S8]
- Edit invoice admin console: yes [S8]
- Edit invoice attributes: bill_to_details · po_number · due_date · customer_notes · terms_and_conditions · vat_reverse_charge_notes [S8]
- Edit invoice available all plans: yes [S8]
- Edit invoice billto tax lock: yes [S8]
- Edit invoice no auto email: no · yes [S8]
- Edit invoice no auto notification: no [S8]
- Edit invoice no retroactive changes: no [S8]
- Edit invoice shipto unsupported: no [S8]
- Enable tax collection flow: Configuration → Taxes · yes · yes [S9]
- Engage included: AI powered propensity to churn model · 1-click billing integration · Personalized offers · Cancel save, upsell, cross sell capabilities · AB testing · Granular segmentation · Low code prompt builder · Advanced analytics · Robust integratio… [S2]
- Engage prompts: personalized in-app subscriber prompts with churn prediction [S1]
- Entitlements endpoint: List Entitlements granted to an Account [S14]
- EU VAT dedicated: yes [S9]
- External products endpoints: List all External Products by Site · Fetch an External Product [S14]

**Subprocessors**
- Categories: Payment processors · Fraud prevention service providers · Ad networks · Analytics service providers · Marketing service providers · Staff augmentation and contract personnel · Hosting service providers · Co-location service providers · Tel… [S3]

**Support**
- Customersuccess: yes [S2]
- Global office hours: yes [S6]
- SLA reference: SLA available at https://recurly.com/legal/sla/ [S4]

95 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/recurly

## Questions

### Is Recurly European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Recurly as Rest of world.

### Where does Recurly store data?

The default storage location for customer data is not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026. The vendor’s pages mention the US as hosting location, per [the vendor’s page captured 26 Oct 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/10371).

### Does Recurly have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Recurly?

As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Chargebee (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/chargebee), [Younium (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/younium) and [Stripe Billing (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/stripe-billing) highest among the other 12 Billing & Invoicing products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Younium](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/younium) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Recurly alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/recurly/alternatives).

## Head-to-head

- [Recurly vs Chargebee](https://whats-best.ai/compare/chargebee-vs-recurly.md)

## What this page leaves out

- 6 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 legal fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://recurly.com/ (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S2] Pricing page: https://recurly.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S3] Privacy policy: https://recurly.com/legal/privacy/ (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S4] Terms of service: https://recurly.com/legal/terms/rsm/ (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S5] Plans, pricing models & subscription lifecycle — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/usage-based-billing (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S6] Plans, pricing models & subscription lifecycle — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/navigate-acquire-pricing-plans-101-pricing-models (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S7] Invoices & e-invoicing compliance — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/credit-invoices (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S8] Invoices & e-invoicing compliance — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/edit-invoice (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S9] Cross-border VAT & tax handling — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/vat-gst-support (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S10] Cross-border VAT & tax handling — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/vat-number-validation (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S11] Payment collection, dunning & portability — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/sepa-direct-debit (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S12] Payment collection, dunning & portability — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/dunning-management (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S13] Revenue reporting & accounting handoff — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/webhooks (checked 2026-10-26)
- [S14] Revenue reporting & accounting handoff — found from sitemap: https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions/docs/api-support-and-webhooks (checked 2026-10-26)

---

Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Recurly — Billing & Invoicing", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-29. https://whats-best.ai/software/billing/recurly

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/994?target=page