Does Lago charge the card?

No. It meters and invoices. Stripe, Adyen, or another gateway still moves the money.

Why not Invoice Ninja?

Invoice Ninja and Akaunting are books. Chargebee is recurring plans and usage. Different job.

Medium

Lago / Kill Bill

Subscriptions you host. Lago is AGPL-3.0 usage billing; Kill Bill is Apache-2.0 subscriptions — Chargebee without the billing seat.

The problem

Chargebee is a hosted billing OS: plans, invoices, dunning, and a meter. Lago is AGPL-3.0 usage and subscription billing you can self-host. Kill Bill is Apache-2.0 if you want that lineage. Lago does not take the card — you still attach a payment processor. Some Lago features sit behind a premium edition; this page is the AGPL core.

Replaces

Chargebee

Replace Chargebee

Estimated SaaS saved

$2,400

per year, small team, before lock-in

Start on Railway

Akaunting / Invoice Ninja if this is books, not subscription billing

Sponsor this stack Tip jar

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.

The stack

Lago
AGPL-3.0 usage and subscription billing (github.com/getlago/lago)
Kill Bill
Apache-2.0 subscription billing if you want that stack

Cost table

You stop paying	Typical / year	Self-host instead
Chargebee (small team)	$2,400	Lago or Kill Bill

Agent setup prompt

Replace Chargebee with Lago (preferred) or Kill Bill.

- Lago: official compose, Postgres + Redis, persist data. Kill Bill if you already know that API.
- Create one plan and one test invoice. Attach a payment processor you already have. Do not claim Lago premium features as the OSS path.
- Write AGENT_PROMPT.md.

Also as markdown: /stacks/lago-billing.md

FAQ

Does Lago charge the card?: No. It meters and invoices. Stripe, Adyen, or another gateway still moves the money.
Why not Invoice Ninja?: Invoice Ninja and Akaunting are books. Chargebee is recurring plans and usage. Different job.