Replace / Chargebee
Replace Chargebee with Lago / Kill Bill
The best open-source alternative to Chargebee is Lago or Kill Bill, self-hosted on Railway. Subscriptions you host. Lago is AGPL-3.0 usage billing; Kill Bill is Apache-2.0 subscriptions — Chargebee without the billing seat.
Estimated save $2,400 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Chargebee compares
| Chargebee | Lago / Kill Bill | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Lago
AGPL-3.0 usage and subscription billing (github.com/getlago/lago)
- Kill Bill
Apache-2.0 subscription billing if you want that stack
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The Lago / Kill Bill licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Chargebee seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Chargebee?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Lago / Kill Bill stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Chargebee links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Lago / Kill Bill stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Lago (API + workers + Postgres + Redis) or Kill Bill + a database. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Invoices-only stays on /stacks/invoice-ninja-books.
- What does this replace?
- Chargebee. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $2,400 a year.
Related pages
Stack of the Week
Get one stack a week that replaces a SaaS bill.