---
title: "Recurly vs TrialValid: pricing and fit"
url: "https://trialvalid.com/comparison/recurly.md"
canonical_url: "https://trialvalid.com/comparison/recurly"
last_updated: "2026-10-29"
type: "guide"
summary: "Recurly compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19."
related: ["https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md", "https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md"]
---

# Recurly vs TrialValid: pricing and fit

> **For AI agents:** the complete index of TrialValid pages is [llms.txt](https://trialvalid.com/llms.txt). Every page is also served as markdown at its URL plus .md.

Recurly compared with TrialValid on starting price, free tier and features. Checked 2026-10-19.

> Recurly is a subscription billing platform with a published Starter price and volume-based higher tiers, while TrialValid only covers the card hold, the trial and the first charge in your own Stripe account. (2026-10-19)

## What each one costs

TrialValid Starter is $29 a month for accounts under $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue, starting with a 14-day trial for $1; larger bands follow your revenue: Growth is $95 a month, Scale $295, Pro $595 and Max $995, and Enterprise from $1,995 a month. Recurly: Starter: $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of monthly billings included at no charge (read 2026-10-19, see the pricing table below).

| At a glance | Recurly |
| --- | --- |
| What it is | A subscription billing platform for direct-to-consumer and recurring revenue businesses, with churn-prevention tools, dunning campaigns, payment gateways, a Shopify product and separate engagement and revenue recognition products. |
| Who it suits | Subscription businesses that want a billing system with dunning, churn tools and multiple payment gateways, from early stage to high volume. |
| Starting price | Starter: $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of monthly billings included at no charge |
| Free tier | There is no free plan, but the page offers a 90-day free trial of Starter and a free sandbox for All-Access. |
| Date checked | 2026-10-19 |

## Recurly pricing

| Plan | Price | Billing basis | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Starter | $249 per month + 0.9% of billing volume | The first $40K of billings each month are included at no charge; offered with a 90-day free trial | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| All-Access | As low as under 1% of billing volume, billed annually | Aimed at a $1M billing volume minimum; request pricing details | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| All-Access for Shopify | As low as under 1% of billing volume, billed annually | Request pricing details; recurring revenue features inside a Shopify store | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| Engage | As low as $1,600 per month, billed annually | Based on prompt volume and capability needs | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| RevRec | As low as $850 per month, billed annually | Based on billing volume | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |

The Recurly prices above come from recurly.com, read on 2026-10-19. Recurly can change them at any time.

## What Recurly is

A subscription billing platform for direct-to-consumer and recurring revenue businesses, with churn-prevention tools, dunning campaigns, payment gateways, a Shopify product and separate engagement and revenue recognition products.

## Feature comparison

| Capability | TrialValid | Recurly | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Card hold at sign-up before a trial starts | yes | not stated | none |
| Trial subscription created in your own Stripe account | yes | not stated | none |
| Capture before the trial ends with retries | yes | not stated | none |
| Exact agreement text stored with time, IP and terms version | yes | not stated | none |
| Statement descriptor rules | yes | not stated | none |
| First-touch attribution per signup | yes | not stated | none |
| Automatic recovery after a failed charge | no | yes | [source](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| Cancel-save flows and surveys | no | yes | [source](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |

## Where TrialValid and Recurly overlap

Recurly runs the billing of a subscription, including invoices, dunning and gateways, and TrialValid only manages the stretch from card hold to first charge. They overlap on payment recovery in a loose way: Recurly lists dunning campaigns, while TrialValid retries the capture before the trial ends and leaves later failures to Stripe. A business that keeps billing in Recurly would use its own trial tools; a business that bills in Stripe would use TrialValid on top.

## When to pick which

### Pick Recurly when

- You want a billing platform that includes dunning campaigns and multiple payment gateways.
- You run a Shopify store and want subscription features inside it.
- You want a published entry price of $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume with a 90-day trial.

### Pick TrialValid when

- Billing already happens in Stripe and you want a card held at sign-up, then captured before the trial closes.
- You prefer a flat plan tied to connected MRR over a percentage of billing volume.
- You want each signup to keep the wording shown to the buyer along with time, IP and terms version.
- You want trials tagged with first-touch attribution and a Slack alert when a high-value one starts.

## Sourced facts

| Fact | Read on | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Starter costs $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| The first $40K of billings each month are included at no charge on Starter. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| The Starter plan is offered with a 90-day free trial. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| Starter lists automated global subscription billing, static churn-prevention tools, one dunning campaign, 10+ payment methods and 20+ payment gateways. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| All-Access is described as ready for scale with a $1M billing volume minimum and a rate as low as under 1% of billing volume billed annually. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| All-Access adds multiple dunning campaigns, intelligent churn-prevention tools, payments orchestration across gateways, multicurrency and single sign-on. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| All-Access offers a free sandbox start button and a request-pricing-details button. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| All-Access for Shopify lists cancel-save flows and surveys, prepaid and gift subscriptions and a hosted subscriber portal with passwordless login. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| Engage is priced from $1,600 per month billed annually and lists cancel-save, upsell and cross-sell capabilities with A/B testing. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| RevRec is priced from $850 per month billed annually and lists multi-GAAP compliance and an immutable audit trail. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |
| The page offers a conversation to build bundled and custom pricing around your volume. | 2026-10-19 | [vendor page](https://recurly.com/pricing/) |

## Questions

### How much does Recurly cost?

Starter is $249 per month plus 0.9% of billing volume, with the first $40K of monthly billings included. Higher tiers are quoted.

### Does Recurly have a free trial?

The page offers a 90-day free trial of Starter and a free sandbox for All-Access.

### Does Recurly include dunning?

Starter lists one dunning campaign and All-Access lists multiple dunning campaigns.

### What is the volume minimum for All-Access?

The page describes All-Access as aimed at a $1M billing volume minimum.

### Can TrialValid replace Recurly?

No. TrialValid does not run invoicing or dunning campaigns. It handles the card hold, trial and first charge in your Stripe account.

## What we could not verify

- Whether Recurly can hold a card at sign-up before a trial begins: not described on the pricing page.
- Rates for All-Access, All-Access for Shopify and Engage beyond the stated floor: the page says to request details.
- Whether Recurly can run trials on top of your own Stripe account: the page does not say.
- Whether Recurly stores authorization wording, descriptor rules or signup attribution: nothing on the page covers it.

> Spot something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@meralume.com and we will review it.

## Related

- [TrialValid compared with billing and growth tools](https://trialvalid.com/comparison.md)
- [Plans from $29 with a 14-day trial for $1](https://trialvalid.com/pricing.md)