OpenBRM

OpenBRM is a billing and subscription platform for telecom operators, ISPs, MVNOs, SaaS companies and enterprises. It is best suited to teams that need usage rating and communications inventory alongside customer billing. Its broad scope is a strength for those operators, but the self-hosted package puts responsibility for running the system on the customer or a third party.

Overview

OpenBRM combines billing, subscription management, rating, inventory, a storefront and CRM. That makes it a strong fit for communications businesses handling both recurring services and metered usage, particularly when SIMs, modems or IP pools are part of operations. For a business that needs only straightforward subscription billing, much of that operational breadth may be unnecessary.

The complete self-hosted package has no licence fee. Saralam Technologies develops and supports OpenBRM and offers implementation, integration and custom development services. The maker also offers hosted SaaS trials, but the hosted option has custom pricing. With a self-hosted installation, the customer or a third party operates the product and controls its data; no security certifications or compliance attestations are stated.

Key features

Billing brings recurring subscriptions, one-off charges, prepaid balances and rated usage onto customer-cycle invoices delivered by email or PDF. That combination suits providers whose bills include both fixed fees and changing consumption. Automated retries and email and SMS notifications add useful payment follow-up, though the platform’s many billing components may be overkill for a small catalogue of fixed subscriptions.

Subscription operations cover activation, cancellation, upgrades, downgrades and plan changes, with provisioning hooks. The inventory manager tracks SIMs, MSISDNs, modems and IP pools, a particularly relevant pairing for communications providers managing services and their associated equipment or network resources.

The ecommerce storefront supports selling subscriptions with recurring billing and payment processing. OpenBRM also has a CRM for quotes, support tickets, bulk SMS and email notifications, and automatic customer reminders. These functions bring sales and customer-service tasks into the same system as billing, although teams seeking only a payment component may not need them.

For usage rating, OpenBRM integrates OpenRate. The site says the engine processes around 1,000 CDRs per second and accepts delimited, fixed-length, binary, TAP and ASN.1 formats. Those format options are relevant to telecom rating workloads; the stated throughput is the maker’s claim, not a guarantee for a particular deployment.

Default payment gateways include Authorize.Net, PaymentsGateway, PayPal, FirstData, DIBS, PayWay and Chase Paymentech. Additional integrations include Westpac, Nedbank, eWAY, Ezidebit, PayFast and EasyPay, as well as vTiger, SugarCRM, SuiteCRM, KashFlow, Joomla and RADIUSdesk. GUI functions are exposed through SOAP and REST APIs. The listed stack—Java 17, Grails 6.2.2, Spring Boot 2.7, PostgreSQL 18 and Tomcat—will matter most to teams assessing implementation and ongoing technical ownership.

Pricing

Self-hosted OpenBRM — free. This is the complete platform, including the OpenRate rating engine and ecommerce component, with no licence fee. It suits organizations prepared to operate a self-hosted installation and take responsibility for its data and upkeep. The price removes licensing as a cost, not the work of running the system.

Hosted SaaS trial — free. The trial provides the full system in a browser with sample data loaded.

Platforms

OpenBRM is listed for API, Linux, macOS, web and Windows, as well as self-hosted deployment. The complete package is self-hosted; the page does not state an operating-system support matrix, so organizations should confirm compatibility with their intended environment before committing to deployment.

Who it's for

OpenBRM is most compelling for telecom operators, ISPs and MVNOs that need rated usage, subscription lifecycle operations and communications inventory in one system. SaaS businesses and enterprises can also benefit if they need its mix of billing modes, storefront and CRM. It is a weaker fit for teams that want a narrowly focused subscription service without the responsibility of managing a self-hosted package.

Pros and cons

Pros: One platform combines recurring and usage billing, prepaid balances, subscription operations, inventory, storefront and CRM, which can reduce the need to join up separate operational tools.

Pros: The self-hosted package carries no licence fee and includes the rating engine and ecommerce component.

Pros: OpenRate accepts several CDR formats, while the broad payment integrations and SOAP and REST APIs give providers multiple routes for payments and system connections.

Cons: Self-hosting means the customer or a third party operates the installation and controls its data, a meaningful operational commitment.

Cons: The hosted trial uses sample data and has no stated duration; the hosted service’s ongoing cost is custom pricing.

Cons: No security certifications or compliance attestations are stated, which may be a concern for organizations that require them.

Alternatives

Dunning Management Software is a useful category to explore when payment recovery, rather than OpenBRM’s broader billing and operator toolkit, is the main requirement.

UniBee offers a self-hosted, customizable open-source plan at free, with manual setup and community support, making it a fit for teams comfortable with that setup model. NovaBilling is another self-hosted option: its free Community plan includes all features, unlimited tenants and customers, six payment providers and GitHub community support.

Pabbly Subscriptions may suit a smaller operation willing to work within a free-plan cap of 50 customers, revenue limits and exclusions for team members and the affiliate module. Quitlo is the more focused choice for payment recovery: its Performance plan charges 15% of recovered MRR and includes recovery calls, structured Slack summaries and Stripe integration. SubJolt is for cancellation flows rather than end-to-end billing; its free Starter plan is capped at 50 cancel sessions a month and excludes gateway save actions.

Airwallex Billing is worth considering when global invoicing or usage-based billing by successful transaction is the priority; its listed usage-based charge is $0.50 as a one-time purchase. Lago offers a self-hosted AGPLv3 open-source plan at free, while its Premium plan has custom pricing for cloud or self-hosted deployment.

Verdict

Choose OpenBRM if your organization needs telecom-oriented usage rating, communications inventory and subscription billing together, and can take on self-hosting. Its no-licence-fee package includes substantial operational range, but teams seeking a simple hosted subscription tool—or a published hosted price and stated security attestations—should look elsewhere.