Recurly is a mature subscription management platform with deep revenue recovery and analytics. Commet is a newer, opinionated billing platform that acts as Merchant of Record and treats usage-based billing as a first-class primitive.
They solve overlapping problems from different starting points.
TL;DR
| Recurly | Commet | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Subscription management | Consumption-based billing + MoR |
| Maturity | 15+ years, thousands of customers | Newer, focused platform |
| Merchant of Record | No (you are the seller) | Yes (Commet is the seller) |
| Tax handling | Via integrations (Avalara, Vertex) | Built-in (MoR handles it) |
| Usage-based billing | Supported (add-on metering) | First-class (metered, credits, balance) |
| Revenue recognition | Yes (built-in) | No |
| LATAM support | Currency support, no local focus | LATAM-first with 9+ local currencies |
| Pricing | Custom pricing for growth plans | 4.5% + $0.40 per transaction |
Two Starting Points
Recurly: subscription lifecycle
Recurly started as a subscription billing platform and has spent over a decade refining the subscription lifecycle. Plan creation, trial management, upgrades, downgrades, pauses, cancellations, dunning, revenue recovery, and analytics are all deeply built out.
If your billing model is primarily subscriptions with predictable recurring charges, Recurly has seen every edge case. Their revenue recovery tooling (intelligent retries, account updater, backup payment methods) is among the best in the industry, which Recurly claims can recover a significant percentage of otherwise-lost revenue.
Commet: consumption first
Commet treats consumption as the starting point for billing. Plans have features. Features have consumption models. Your application checks what a customer can do before they do it.
Subscriptions exist in Commet, but they are containers for consumption rules rather than the core primitive. This distinction matters when your product charges by API calls, tokens, compute time, or seats.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Recurly | Commet |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription management | Comprehensive (15+ years) | Yes |
| Usage-based billing | Metered add-ons | Metered + credits + balance |
| Real-time entitlements | No | Yes |
| Credit systems | Account credits (monetary) | First-class consumption credits |
| Revenue recovery | Advanced (intelligent retries, account updater) | Basic retry logic |
| Revenue recognition | Built-in (ASC 606) | No |
| Merchant of Record | No | Yes |
| Tax handling | Third-party (Avalara, Vertex) | Included |
| Checkout | Recurly.js hosted fields | Embeddable in your app |
| Customer portal | Not included | Embeddable |
| Analytics | Built-in (MRR, churn, LTV) | Dashboard metrics |
| Webhooks required | Yes | No |
Recurly has more subscription management features and better revenue tooling. Commet has stronger usage-based billing and removes the compliance burden entirely.
Tax and Compliance
Recurly integrates with tax providers like Avalara and Vertex. You configure the integration, and Recurly calculates tax on invoices. But you remain the legal seller. Tax registration, filing, and remittance are your responsibility. If you sell in the EU, you handle VAT MOSS. If you sell in the US, you handle nexus in each state.
Commet is the Merchant of Record. Commet is the legal seller. Tax calculation, collection, remittance, and compliance are fully handled. You do not register for tax, you do not file returns, you do not manage nexus.
For a company selling globally, the difference is not just convenience. It is the difference between needing a tax team and not needing one.
Consumption Billing Depth
Recurly supports metered billing as an add-on to subscriptions. You create a metered add-on, report usage via API, and Recurly includes the charges on the next invoice. It works, but metering is a secondary concern to the subscription itself.
Commet offers three distinct consumption models:
- Metered: included allowance with overage at period end
- Credits: prepaid blocks consumed per action
- Balance: dollar wallet with real-time deductions
Each model is a first-class billing primitive with its own invoicing logic, entitlement behavior, and customer-facing experience. If your product is an AI API charging per token, Commet's balance model lets customers deposit funds and consume them in real time, with per-token pricing from a synced model catalog.
Revenue Recognition
This is one area where Recurly clearly leads. Recurly includes ASC 606-compliant revenue recognition, helping finance teams defer and recognize revenue correctly across subscription periods. For companies approaching an audit or preparing for an IPO, this matters.
Commet does not include revenue recognition tooling today. If this is a requirement, you would need a separate solution.
Pricing
Recurly offers a Core plan starting at $199/mo for smaller businesses. Professional and Enterprise plans require contacting sales for custom pricing. They offer a 3-month free trial with up to $40K/mo in processing.
Commet charges 4.5% + $0.40 per transaction. No monthly fee, no minimum commitment. This includes payment processing (Stripe), tax handling, and all MoR services.
For a company processing $50K/month: Commet costs roughly $2,650/month all-in. With Recurly, your cost is Recurly's platform fee + Stripe's processing fees (2.9% + $0.30) + Avalara fees. The totals can be comparable, but with Recurly you manage three vendor relationships instead of one.
When to Choose Recurly
- Your billing is primarily flat-rate subscriptions with predictable charges
- Revenue recovery (intelligent retries, account updater) is critical to your business
- You need ASC 606 revenue recognition built into your billing platform
- Your finance team needs detailed subscription analytics (MRR, churn cohorts, LTV)
- You are a mid-market or enterprise company with a team to handle tax compliance
When to Choose Commet
- Your product charges based on usage, credits, or consumption
- You want a Merchant of Record so tax, compliance, and disputes are handled for you
- You need real-time entitlement checks in your application code
- You sell to LATAM customers and need local currency pricing in ARS, BRL, CLP, COP, and more
- You want checkout and customer portal embedded in your product
- You are a startup or small team that wants to pay per transaction with no platform fee
Final Thought
Recurly is the more complete subscription platform with mature tooling for the subscription lifecycle. Commet is the more complete billing stack for consumption-based products, with MoR removing the compliance burden entirely.
If your billing is subscriptions and you have the team to handle tax compliance, Recurly's maturity is hard to match. If your billing involves usage and you want one vendor for payments, tax, and compliance, Commet handles the full stack. See also how Commet compares to Stripe, Paddle, and Chargebee.