Recurly vs. Stripe Payments

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Recurly
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Recurly is a subscription billing platform and manages customer communications via email, business performance monitoring, and account changes. A merchant bank account is required to work with Recurly. A payment gateway is part of the product but it integrates with other gateways, such as PayPal, to give shoppers a more comprehensive suite of payment options.
$249
per month
Stripe Payments
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Stripe is a payment gateway software solution which supports a range of payment related needs such as subscription management and recurrent billing via Stripe Billing, integration with third party payment services via the Stripe Connect API, assistance starting an Internet business which accepts payements via Stripe Atlas, fraud prevention via Stripe Radar, and payment analytics via Stripe Sigma. Additional features and modules include Stripe Issuing, which allows users to create,…
$0.02
per charge
Pricing
RecurlyStripe Payments
Editions & Modules
Starter
$249
per month
Professional
Get a custom quote
per month
Elite
Get a custom quote
per month
Sigma
$0.02
per charge
Radar
$0.05
per screened transaction
Issuing
$0.10
per virtual card
Terminal
2.7% + 0.05
per successful charge
Integrated
2.9% + 0.30
per successful charge
Atlass
$500
one-time fee
Premium Support
1,800
per month
Customized
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
RecurlyStripe Payments
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFor startups and SMBs looking to launch today and grow their subscription business fast, the Starter plan (formerly Core) is available with no monthly platform fee plus no payment volume fee for first $40,000 USD per month in first 3 months for new customers only.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
RecurlyStripe Payments
Features
RecurlyStripe Payments
Payment Gateways
Comparison of Payment Gateways features of Product A and Product B
Recurly
-
Ratings
Stripe Payments
7.9
Ratings
8% above category average
Fraud Detection00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
API or SDK00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Recurring Payment Support00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Billing and Invoicing Support00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Global Support00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Payment Form Acceptance00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
User Ratings
RecurlyStripe Payments
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
RecurlyStripe Payments
Likelihood to Recommend
Recurly is great for tracking transactions and reviewing payment method declines. The platform is extremely helpful when dealing with scenarios where someone believes they have been fraudulently charged for the product. Recurly allows for transaction filtering, which is very helpful when trying to find possibly fraudulent charges very easy. If expecting precise, detailed information about a card decline, Recurly would not be very helpful.
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We had a client who wanted a QR to use in their marketing, which enabled their clients to donate to us. It was so useful to be able to set it up, and we can track the views and donations received using this code. Another client with issues with our website wanted to set up a monthly subscription, so I sent her a payment link, which worked brilliantly. For clients that want to make one-time donations, it also lets the client choose the amount. The only scenario where we haven't been able to help is when clients want to change the card associated with the payment - whilst we understand it is for security/gdpr, it means they have to cancel and set up something new, which poses the danger that we may lose them as a customer.
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Pros
  • Recurly is very easy to use. Their UI is very clean and intuitive, so my staff has no problem understanding how to handle payments in Recurly. They just released a new UI, which is currently in Beta, but does an even better job making the user experience great.
  • Recurly really helps reduce the time involved in collecting payment from a client. They have a dunning process which detects when a transaction has failed, and automatically re-tries running the payment several times before giving up. Recurly gives you full flexibility on how the dunning process works, including the ability to send your client payment declined notifications every few days to inspire them to update their payment info.
  • Recurly just added a new feature which can automatically update credit card information from clients whose card has expired. They ping the credit card company (visa, MC, AMEX, Discover) to retrieve new card information for cards who have just gone past their expiration dates. This is extremely handy, and has reduced the number of times we've had to contact our client to get updated billing information.
  • Recurly has excellent customer service. You can chat with an agent and receive an instant reply to your questions. I love this.
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  • They are reliable. I can count on everything going smoothly with transactions.
  • They are accurate. I don’t run into problems with collecting the proper amounts or being overcharged for fees.
  • They have good customer service. If I have a question about the customer portal or a problem with a customer, they help me resolve these issues.
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Cons
  • I would like it if an agent accessed Recurly for any reason that it tracks it using the agent's name or login information.
  • The time stamp on refunds processed can be confusing as it sometimes shows midnight when we don't, as such, I would like to see a change in that.
  • Would like if the report for transitioned showed who completed the transition.
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  • No automatic tax support. This is the biggest one for us. For customers that need to process complex tax situations like collection VAT or GST, Stripe allows you to create tax rates, but your software team must build out the software to support proper collection. I hope Stripe provides built-in support for taxes better in the future.
  • Processing rates are slightly higher than some more legacy payment gateway/merchant account solutions, but we believe this is worth it for the level of service Stripe provides.
  • As payment worldwide requirements are complex and differ from use case to use case, while the documentation and support is great, sometimes support is needed in order to understand the areas of the API that will be necessary for a specific use case.
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Likelihood to Renew
I believe we would continue to use Recurly because they have shown that they are continually improving their software, and they listen to their customers
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Stripe is the leader in the industry when it comes to any type of industry. All that is needed is a plan and then implementing that plan either with a developer, or through the help of Stripe's customer service team to assist in getting you setup. The ease of use time it takes to get up and running is second to none
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Usability
Apart from a lot of scope, which it has for improvement, like analytics, api's, customer service, downtimes. It still provides a lot of value, it is helpful for us in Business crtical areas, managing subscriptions and creating and launching coupons, ease of usability, camparatively lower maintainence are some valid reasons to prefer Recurly.
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Stripe offers a very easy-to-navigate platform with many different functions. From linking it to our website and accounting platform to tracking our payments, being able to issue a refund quickly if required, and setting up QR codes and payment links for subscriptions or one-time donations, it really covers so many aspects that we need and use on a weekly and monthly basis.
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Support Rating
They have always been quick to respond and help. I love their chat feature at the bottom right-hand corner of the platform.
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Stripe's support is nearly perfect – great attention to detail, fast response times, and a willingness to really dig into issues and get to the bottom of them. In the five years we've been using Stripe, the only negative thing I can say about their customer support is that it seems like there has been a slight shift to less technical front-line support agents, which means it's more likely your issue will have to be escalated before you get more information. This, however, has happened as Stripe rolled out more real-time support features like call and chat, and that really isn't workable if you're escalating everything right off the bat. It's absolutely an acceptable trade-off.
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Implementation Rating
We implemented Recurly ourself both for client, backend and bi in a weeks time
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It took less than an hour to have everything setup and running
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Alternatives Considered
We did try to custom build a recurring option in these tools that we've tried, but Recurly offers a different level of support on our ever growing customers who either fit into our normal subscription business/billing model and those who do not. It allows us to see what's going on in our side of the business without digging through a lot of codes and reports.
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Stripe is easier to use and offers better support and rates. My favorite part with Stripe is probably their ready-to-use plug-in that's offered for me. We have multiple eCommerce stores and we rely on our payment process going smoothly. The plug-in from Stripe is free, constantly updated, secure, and very easy to implement.
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Return on Investment
  • If you have considered spending a little and saving a lot of time, then Recurly is a great fit. We are a small team and we handle a lot of subscriptions and also get good insights into how our business is doing. So in a way Recurly is helping us a lot.
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  • It makes getting money from your clients really easy
  • It gives your clients the guarantee that their payment information is totally secure and confidentially used and kept
  • It is very easy to integrate with online assets of the company
  • In a couple of occasions, some companies have wanted me to use Stripe for them to pay me, and I have had a couple of hiccups. This was more related to the way that these companies set up the Stripe integration of my account to their platform. In both cases, the integration has not been possible and to this date, I still do not know why with exactitude.
  • As I said before, the commissions kept by Stripe could be lower, and shared with the CC companies, rather than having us clients pay for all of o it.
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ScreenShots

Recurly Screenshots

Screenshot of payments with smart routing to improve transaction success rates and conversions by offering a variety of payment methods, such as credit cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH.Screenshot of the flexible ways to configure subscription billings workflows, and automate recurring invoicing based on the subscription parameters.Screenshot of automated dunning communications to increase collection effectiveness. Configurable across period and timing, if the payment is past due or declined, selected and personalized dunning campaign launch.Screenshot of the features to set up and test different products, plans, and pricing options, plus promotional tools like free trials, coupons, and gift subscriptions and cards to attract more customers.Screenshot of Recurly analytics, which provides a 360° view into the health of a subscription business's plan performance, churn trends, campaigns results, financial metrics. These inform decisions for business growth.