Lago vs UniBee
Lago
getlago.comUniBee
unibee.devSide by side
| Figure | Lago | UniBee |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 5 |
| Spec score · Subscription Management Software | 8.6 (#6) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Spec score · Dunning Management Software | 8.5 (#13) | 8.5 (#14) |
| Spec score · Subscription Billing Software | 8.4 (#21) | 8.5 (#19) |
| Company size | LinkedIn lists Lago as a privately held IT services company with 11–50 employees. | LinkedIn lists UniBee as privately held with 2–10 employees. |
| Deployment | Lago Premium is offered as cloud or self-hosted deployment, and Lago says it can be run on-premises or in a VPC. | Customers can use a fully managed cloud deployment or self-host the open-source billing engine; the Advanced plan also offers on-prem deployment. |
| Entitlements | Premium includes entitlement management for controlling feature access from billing. | Entitlements can be assigned to plans or customers and checked through real-time API calls. |
| Invoicing | Lago generates invoices, manages invoices, supports credit notes, invoice previews and receipts. | The system generates invoices automatically, supports custom templates and taxes, and can email or produce PDF invoices. |
| License | The Lago platform code is distributed under the AGPLv3 license; separate Agent SDK and MCP repositories use MIT licensing. | The standalone UniBee deployment, API and portals are licensed under GNU AGPLv3. |
| Pricing models | The platform supports consumption pricing, prepaid credits, usage allowances, subscriptions and hybrid plans. | Supported models include flat-rate, tiered, volume, usage-based, per-seat, add-ons and free trials. |
| Product | Lago is an open-source billing platform for usage-based, subscription, prepaid, and hybrid pricing that connects product usage and commercial terms to customer invoices. | UniBee is an open-source, gateway-agnostic subscription billing platform with a free self-hosted edition and a managed cloud option. |
| Rating on Capterra | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. | 5.0 out of 5 from 3 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. | 5 out of 5 from 6 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. | 5.0 out of 5 from 3 reviews |
| Support | Lago Premium includes platform support, business-hours incident management, and implementation guidance; 24x7 incident management and an assigned solution engineer are listed as on-demand add-ons. | The Starter plan includes community-level support, Business includes dedicated technical support, and Open-source support is via the community only. |
| Usage metering | It ingests raw usage events, aggregates them and converts them into billable charges in real time. | Usage can be metered in real time for metrics such as tokens, API calls, events and credits. |
| What it does | Lago is an open-source platform for usage-based, subscription, prepaid and hybrid billing that connects product usage and commercial terms to invoices. | UniBee is an open-source, gateway-agnostic subscription billing platform with self-hosted and managed-cloud deployment. |
Plans
Lago
- Open sourceFree
- Open SourceFree
- Open-source self-hostedFree
- Lago PremiumPriced on request
- PremiumPriced on request
UniBee
- Open-sourceFree
- Open-sourceFree
- Starter$99 a month
- Business$399 a month
- AdvancedPriced on request
In their own words
Lago
Lago is an open-source billing platform that connects product usage and commercial terms with customer invoices. It supports usage-based, subscription, prepaid, and hybrid pricing, plus quotes, order forms, prepaid credits, entitlements, quotas, subscription and usage charges, and itemized invoices. For AI products, Lago can meter input, output, and cached tokens separately and assign usage to customers for billing. Applications can connect through a REST API, official JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and Go SDKs, or signed webhooks. Listed AI integrations include OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Gemini, and Mistral; payment and finance integrations include Adyen, Stripe, NetSuite, and Xero. The Open source plan is free, licensed under AGPLv3 and self-hosted. Lago Premium is available as cloud or self-hosted deployment, including on-premises or in a VPC, but pricing is provided after contacting Lago. Lago states it is SOC 2 Type II certified and describes single sign-on, role-based access controls, and audit logs. Premium includes platform support, business-hours incident management, and implementation guidance.
UniBee
UniBee is an open-source subscription billing platform offered as self-hosted software or a managed cloud service. It handles one-time purchases, recurring charges, usage-based billing, tiered prices, promotions, and flexible billing frequencies. Its metering can track measures such as API calls, storage, compute time, or custom metrics and bill against actual use. Subscription tools cover plan changes, pauses, upgrades, downgrades, trials, add-ons, and lifecycle automation. UniBee can generate invoices, customize templates, handle taxes, and send invoices by email or make them available as PDFs. Payment options include gateways such as Stripe and PayPal, with routing and fallback options. The service lists more than 25 integrations and analytics for MRR, ARR, churn, and customer lifetime value. Open-source is free but self-hosted, requires manual setup, and has community support. Starter costs $99 a month; Business costs $399 a month. Advanced offers cloud or on-prem deployment, with pricing available by conversation.