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Self-Hosting Lago: Open-Source Billing Platform

Lago is an open-source metering and billing platform. Usage-based billing, subscriptions, invoicing — for SaaS and API companies.

lagobillingsaasfinance

What Is Lago?


Lago is an open-source billing platform designed for usage-based pricing. It handles metering, pricing, invoicing, and payments.


Features


Metering

  • Ingest usage events via API
  • Real-time usage tracking
  • Multiple metering dimensions
  • Aggregation types: count, sum, max, unique count

    • Pricing Models

  • Per-unit pricing
  • Graduated pricing (tier-based)
  • Package pricing
  • Percentage-based
  • Volume pricing

    • Billing

  • Automated invoice generation
  • Subscription management
  • Add-ons and one-time charges
  • Credits and coupons
  • Multi-currency support

    • Payments

  • Stripe integration
  • GoCardless integration
  • Adyen integration
  • Payment retry logic

    • Lago vs Stripe Billing vs Chargebee


  • Lago: Open-source, self-hosted, usage-based focused
  • Stripe Billing: SaaS, tight Stripe integration, simpler
  • Chargebee: Enterprise, subscription-focused, expensive

    • When to Use Lago


  • Usage-based or hybrid pricing
  • Need for custom metering logic
  • Multi-dimensional pricing
  • Want to self-host billing data

    • Deployment


    1. Deploy Lago on TinyPod

    2. Define billable metrics

    3. Create pricing plans

    4. Ingest usage events

    5. Lago generates invoices automatically


    Resources: 2 CPU, 2 GB RAM with PostgreSQL and Redis.


    Lago handles the hardest part of SaaS billing: usage metering and pricing flexibility. Self-hosting means your billing data stays under your control.