Before You Choose Recurly: Fees, Features & Business Insights

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All mentions of rate and fee costs are estimations based on publicly available information and client feedback. Actual costs may vary based on a variety of factors unique to your business.

Recurly

Rating
A
4.8/5
full starfull starfull starfull starempty star

Pros and Cons of Recurly

Pros

Multiple payment gateways
Recurring billing automation
Comprehensive fraud protection
Excellent customer support
Robust API integration

Cons

Higher cost tiers
Sessions time-out quickly
Advanced features costly
Minimal CRM integration
Limited report customization

Overview

In this review of Recurly, we provide an overview of the company’s subscription billing and credit card processing services. We cover their offerings, including automated recurring billing, revenue optimization tools, and reporting features. The review also looks at which businesses—particularly those with subscription models—may benefit most from these services. In addition, we examine customer feedback to highlight common themes and concerns, as well as the company’s pricing, contract terms, and key features. By the end, you’ll know whether Recurly is the right choice for your subscription billing and payment processing needs.

About Recurly

Screen Capture of Recurly Homepage
Recurly Homepage

Recurly is a recurring billing service designed to help merchant accounts manage repeating payments and subscription billing. Recurly offers its own payment gateway and integrates with a number of third-party merchant account providers including Amazon Payments, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.Net, Worldpay, and TSYS, but it does not provide its own merchant accounts, point-of-sale equipment, or mobile card processing. In other words, Recurly can be thought of as a third-party billing management service that merchants may use in conjunction with their existing merchant accounts. They also offer data reporting and analytics for their services.

In 2022, Recurly bought revenue recognition and forecasting company LeapRev.

Products & Merchant Services

Payment Gateways and Payment Methods

Recurly supports a variety of payment gateways and methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets. This enables businesses to accept global payments and broaden their market reach.

Plan Flexibility and Customization

Recurly offers extensive customization options for creating subscription plans. Businesses can tailor billing frequencies, pricing models, and promotional codes to suit their specific requirements.

Dunning Management

The dunning management feature aims to recover revenue from failed transactions and payment declines. Recurly’s system automatically notifies customers and retries the payment.

Revenue Recognition and Reporting

Recurly provides tools for revenue recognition and financial reporting that adhere to accounting standards. This makes it easier for businesses to track and report revenue, manage financials, and forecast growth.

Fraud Management

Recurly prioritizes security with various fraud prevention mechanisms. These tools analyze transaction data to identify and prevent suspicious activities.

Analytics and Insights

Recurly’s analytics dashboard offers detailed insights into key business metrics such as churn rates, lifetime value, and subscription growth, enabling businesses to make informed, data-driven decisions.

Integrations

Recurly supports multiple API integrations, allowing it to work seamlessly with other enterprise software solutions. This enhances its utility for businesses already using CRM, accounting, or other software.

Customer Reviews & Sentiment

Clean Complaint Record

Our investigation reveals no significant negative Recurly reviews on key consumer protection websites, suggesting the company maintains a strong reputation. The only noteworthy incident involves a 2012 hardware outage, which led to the loss of some billing information for a limited number of clients. This event appears to have been an isolated incident and does not seem to have had a lasting impact on Recurly’s reputation. If you have any personal experiences or reviews about Recurly, please share them in the comments below.

Recurly Lawsuits

To date, there are no known outstanding class-action lawsuits or FTC complaints filed against Recurly. For those seeking to address any concerns with Recurly in a non-litigious manner, reporting to relevant supervisory organizations is an advisable course of action.

Industry Scores & User Ratings

Online Ratings Summary
PaymentPop5
BBB RatingN/A

PaymentPop Rating for Recurly

Negative Feedback

There are no negative reviews published about Recurly on the PaymentPop website.

Positive Feedback

Platinum Payments gave us a setup that didn’t require constant follow-ups or adjustments. Everything was explained clearly upfront, and the transition was smooth from start to finish. Since then, our processing has been stable and billing has remained consistent.

Recurly BBB Rating

The Better Business Bureau currently assigns Recurly an “F” and is not showing accreditation for the company. The BBB has 3 complaints related to Recurly in the past 36 months. 2 of the complaints were resolved to the satisfaction of the client, while 1 was either resolved to the dissatisfaction of the client or received no final response. The company has not received any informal reviews from merchants, although these reviews are typically not subject to BBB verification.

An “A” Performance Overall

In light of the company’s clean complaint record, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to an “A” at this time. Readers should note, however, that there are good reasons to be skeptical of the BBB’s rating system.

Processing Rates & Fees

Three Pricing Plans

Recurly provides three distinct pricing options for its services: Starter, Professional, and Elite. The Starter plan is initially free for the first year, then transitions to $249 monthly. Pricing details for the Professional and Elite plans are not disclosed on the Recurly website.

Given that Recurly operates as a third-party service, its fees are additional to the charges associated with a business’s existing merchant account. To minimize expenses, it’s advisable for merchants to combine Recurly’s services with a cost-effective payment processor.

No Long-Term Commitments

Recurly’s services are provided on a flexible, month-to-month basis without imposing monthly minimum fees, early termination fees, PCI compliance fees, or other common charges. The “Starter” plan caters to businesses needing to process credit card subscription payments. In contrast, the “Professional” plan offers additional features such as ACH payments, invoicing, integration with QuickBooks Online and Salesforce, multi-currency support, gift card support, and fraud management tools. Recurly’s pricing information indicates that certain fees are separate from those incurred through a client’s credit card processor, including transaction and cancellation fees.

Absence of Contract Complaints

Public feedback does not include complaints about Recurly’s pricing or contract terms, and the fees for its comprehensive features are competitively low. However, for businesses that already have recurring billing capabilities through their merchant account providers, the additional cost for Recurly’s expanded tools may not be justifiable. Recurly is ideally suited for businesses specifically looking for advanced recurring billing features. Such businesses could benefit from securing competitive rates with a merchant account provider and then integrating Recurly’s payment gateway, rather than the reverse approach of starting with a Recurly-compatible payment gateway.

Recurly pricing rates
Recurly’s pricing tier

Employee Reviews & Sales Practices

No Independent Sales Agents

Recurly markets itself primarily through traditional advertising methods and through strategic partnerships. The company does not appear to hire outside independent sales agents or engage in telemarketing, and we have not located any Recurly reviews that accuse the company’s sales representatives of deception or nondisclosure.

No Misleading Advertising

In addition, Recurly does not list any misleading rate quotes or teaser offers on its website. In light of these factors, we have awarded it an “A” rating in this category.

Recurly Competitors

Compare Recurly to competitors that earned top marks.

Bottom Line

Recurly is rated as a robust recurring billing credit card processing option for merchants, offering a comprehensive solution for subscription-based businesses. With its low-commitment pricing model, Recurly provides a host of advanced features that often surpass those available through traditional payment gateways. This makes it an excellent choice for mid-size and large subscription-style businesses seeking a competitively priced, feature-rich recurring billing platform. Recurly’s extensive capabilities cater to businesses that require more sophisticated billing solutions than those offered by their existing providers. These features include customizable billing schedules, detailed analytics, and automated dunning processes, which collectively enhance operational efficiency and customer retention.

However, it’s worth noting that Recurly may not be the ideal fit for smaller businesses that only need a basic recurring billing setup. For such businesses, the extensive feature set and associated costs may be unnecessary and overly complex. Smaller enterprises might find simpler and more cost-effective alternatives better suited to their needs. Recurly stands out as a solid option for larger subscription-based enterprises looking for a powerful and flexible recurring billing solution, while smaller businesses should consider their specific requirements before opting for this service.

Read Actual User Reviews

All user reviews have been moved to our partner, PaymentPop.com

Contact Recurly

Contact & Customer Support
Co-founder and CEODan Burkhart
Headquarters201 Spear Street, Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94105
Sales Inquiries(415) 558-6837
Additional Support ChannelsLive Chat
Websiterecurly.com