Lago is an open source, self-hostable usage-based billing platform — a Stripe Billing and Chargebee alternative that meters product events, runs flexible pricing models, and generates invoices while you keep full control of your billing data.

What is Lago?

Lago is an open source billing platform for usage-based and subscription pricing. It sits between your product and your revenue: it ingests usage events, turns them into billable metrics, applies your pricing model, generates invoices, and hands payment collection off to a gateway you choose.

What is Lago best for?

Teams whose pricing is tied to consumption — API calls, tokens, compute, seats, or any custom metric — and who need billing logic they control rather than a fixed SaaS product. It fits companies that want to iterate on pricing without rebuilding their billing stack, and those who need to self-host for data-control or compliance reasons.

What can Lago do?

Meter usage in real time with event ingestion, idempotency by transaction ID, and batch processing
Run flexible pricing: per-unit, graduated, volume, package, percentage, prepaid credits, and minimum commitments
Generate invoices with multiple currencies, taxes, and credit notes
Manage entitlements, wallets, credit grants, and usage alerts
Collect payments through Stripe, Adyen, GoCardless, and other gateways
Integrate via REST API, Python and JavaScript/TypeScript SDKs, webhooks, and an MCP server

Is Lago free?

Yes — the core platform is free and open source under AGPLv3, and you can self-host it at no license cost. Lago also offers a paid Premium edition (available on Lago Cloud or self-hosted) that adds features like usage alerts, prepaid credits, an AI billing assistant, and support. Premium pricing isn’t published; the team quotes it after a demo.

Where does Lago fall short?

Premium features are gated. Some capabilities — advanced entitlements, real-time alerts, prepaid credits, and premium support — live behind the paid edition, so the free self-hosted version isn’t the full product.
It only bills — it doesn’t process payments. Lago is a billing engine, not a payment processor; you still connect Stripe, Adyen, or GoCardless to actually move money.
AGPLv3 has strings. If you modify Lago and offer it to others over a network, the license requires you to publish your changes — a real consideration for companies that want to embed and heavily customize it.

What does Lago replace?

Lago is an open source alternative to Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Recurly, and Zuora. It covers the same metering, subscription, and invoicing job, but you self-host the engine, keep your billing data, and pay your chosen gateway only for payment processing rather than a percentage of revenue to a billing vendor.

FAQ

Is Lago open source? Yes. The core platform is licensed under AGPLv3, and the code is public on GitHub. The Agent SDKs and MCP server are MIT-licensed. A paid Premium edition adds extra features on top.

Can I self-host Lago for free? Yes — self-hosting the open source edition is free via Docker Compose or Helm; you only pay for your own infrastructure and your payment gateway’s fees.

Is Lago a good Stripe Billing alternative? For usage-heavy pricing where you want control and no revenue-based fees, yes. If you’re already all-in on Stripe and want the simplest hosted setup, Stripe Billing is less to run — but you give up self-hosting and open code.

What do I need to run Lago? A server with Docker (or Kubernetes via Helm), PostgreSQL, Redis, and ClickHouse for analytics. Workers for events, billing, payments, invoices, and webhooks can scale independently.