Recurly
Recurly is a subscription billing and management SaaS platform serving 2,000+ brands including Twitch, Paramount, and Cinemark. It processes $16B in annual transaction volume across 100M+ subscribers, offering subscription management, payment recovery, revenue recognition, and AI-powered analytics.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Recurly does
Recurly is a subscription management and recurring billing SaaS platform serving more than 2,000 brands globally, including Twitch, Paramount, Cinemark, Lucid Software, FabFitFun, Experian, NerdWallet, and Nuuly. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company processes $16B in annual transaction run rate across 100M+ active subscribers in 140+ currencies, tracking 77M+ subscription renewal events per year. Its product portfolio comprises a core subscription management engine (Recurly Subscriptions), a native Shopify subscription app (Recurly Commerce), in-app subscriber engagement and churn-prevention tooling (Recurly Engage), automated ASC-606/IFRS-15 revenue recognition (Recurly RevRec), and an AI-powered analytics layer (Recurly Compass) that provides natural language configuration, anomaly detection, and predictive churn insights. The platform is PCI-DSS Level 1 certified, listed on the Visa Global Registry of Service Providers, and integrates with CRM, payments, tax, and ERP systems via APIs and webhooks.
The company generates revenue through tiered SaaS subscription platform fees (Starter, Pro, and RSM plans with monthly, annual, and multi-year billing cadences) plus payment processing fees on the $16B in annual transaction volume it routes. Its go-to-market is sales-led for enterprise and mid-market customers — supported by direct field sales, demo-request CTAs, and free sandbox trials — with self-service and Shopify App Store channels serving smaller and ecommerce-native merchants. Recurly's customer base spans SaaS/Software, Digital Media & Entertainment, Ecommerce, Healthcare/Telehealth, and Education verticals, with named enterprise anchors across each. Recent strategic moves include the 2025 acquisitions of Redfast and Prive (engagement and pricing optimization), a deepened Shopify partnership, the 2026 launch of Recurly Compass AI, and new C-suite leadership (CRO Matt Schurk in 2025, CMO Suzin Wold in 2026) consistent with an active scale-up phase.
Recurly firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Recurly
- Legal name
- Recurly, Inc.
- Website
- https://recurly.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Short description
- Recurly is a subscription billing and management SaaS platform serving 2,000+ brands including Twitch, Paramount, and Cinemark. It processes $16B in annual transaction volume across 100M+ subscribers, offering subscription management, payment recovery, revenue recognition, and AI-powered analytics.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Recurly industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Subscription Management & Recurring Billing Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Recurring Billing, Subscriptions & Tokenized Payments (CRAFALAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Recurring Billing & AutoPay Management (FSAMAJAE), Billing, Payments & Subscription Support (BPAAABAC)
Keywords
Where Recurly is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Recurly business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Subscription Management Platform Fees: Recurly generates revenue through subscription management platform fees, likely tiered based on transaction volume or features. The platform processes $16B in annual transaction run rate.
- Payment Processing Fees: Revenue derived from payment processing services integrated into the subscription billing platform, including transaction fees for credit card, ACH, and other payment methods.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Starter Plan - Entry-level subscription management |
| Subscription | Annual | Pro Plan - Advanced features for growing businesses |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | RSM Plan - Enterprise subscription management |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Recurly product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Recurly provides a subscription management and recurring billing SaaS platform that enables digital commerce businesses to launch, bill, retain, and scale subscribers. The platform automates plan management, checkout optimization, payment retry and dunning, churn prediction, subscriber engagement journeys, automated ASC-606/IFRS-15 revenue recognition, and multi-currency global payment processing. Customers include Paramount, Twitch, Cinemark, FabFitFun, Lucid Software, NerdWallet, and Experian, with the platform processing a $16B annual transaction run rate across 100M+ active subscribers.
Product overview
Recurly is a subscription management and billing platform offering a unified product portfolio with core subscription management plus specialized modules. The platform includes Recurly Subscriptions (core platform), Recurly Commerce (Shopify-native app), Recurly Engage (in-app subscriber engagement), Recurly RevRec (automated revenue recognition), Recurly Compass (AI-powered analytics), App Management, and Recurly Release. The platform processes $16B in annual transaction run rate across 100M+ active subscribers, supporting 140+ currencies. Pre-built integrations connect with CRM, payments, tax, and ERP systems via APIs and webhooks.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Recurly Compass: AI-powered analytics platform combining 15+ years of subscription expertise with subscriber data for growth management.
- Recurly Subscriptions
- Recurly Commerce
- Recurly Engage
- Recurly RevRec
Products and services
- Recurly Subscriptions Core subscription management platform for high-volume digital commerce, enabling flexible plan launches, high-converting checkout flows, revenue recovery, payment automation, global expansion with multiple payment methods, and AI-powered insights for subscription businesses such as Paramount, Twitch, and Cinemark.
- Recurly Commerce Native subscription management app for Shopify merchants, providing cancel flows, win-back offers, intelligent retry logic, memberships, bundles, prepaid plans, no-code setup, pricing experiments, API integrations, and a self-service subscriber portal for skip, swap, or cancel operations. Targeted at ecommerce subscription brands such as FabFitFun and Scentbird.
- Recurly Engage Personalized in-app subscriber engagement module that predicts cancellations, triggers targeted retention flows, enables no-code subscriber journey building, and syncs subscriber actions such as upgrades and downgrades to billing in real time. Used by subscription businesses to reduce churn and drive product adoption.
- Recurly RevRec Automated revenue recognition product for recurring revenue models, supporting ASC-606 and IFRS-15 compliance, reducing audit risk and costs, enabling book closure in days rather than weeks, and providing real-time reporting and prepackaged analytics for subscription finance teams. Customers include PandaDoc and Thryv.
- Recurly Compass AI-powered analytics product combining 15+ years of subscription expertise with subscriber data, offering instant plan configuration via natural language chat, customization without coding using ready-to-use API snippets, and anomaly detection for fraud, declines, and subscription spikes. Built on 76 million subscriber data points.
Quantifiable outcome
- $169.4 million recovered in revenue through dunning and payment recovery in a single year (ecommerce)
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Recurly
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Recurly technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability5 records
Feature6 records
Recurly partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- ShopifycoreRecurly deepened its partnership with Shopify to lead the shift toward subscription-based ecommerce models. The partnership provides native subscription management capabilities for Shopify merchants through a dedicated app, enabling cancel flows, win-back offers, intelligent retry logic, and self-service subscriber portals.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Recurly competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Chargebee: Closest direct competitor in subscription billing and recurring revenue management for SaaS and consumer subscription businesses. Competes head-to-head with Recurly on enterprise subscription management, dunning, and revenue recognition.
- Zuora: Enterprise subscription management and monetization platform with strong revenue recognition capabilities. Competes directly for large enterprise customers needing ASC-606/IFRS-15 compliance — same compliance DNA as Recurly RevRec.
- Maxio: SaaS-focused billing and revenue recognition platform (formerly SaaSOptics + Maxio). Competes with Recurly's SaaS vertical segment on subscription metrics, ARR reporting, and GAAP-compliant revenue recognition.
- Paddle: Merchant-of-record billing platform for SaaS companies handling global tax, payments, and subscription management. Competes with Recurly's global payments value proposition across SaaS customers in 140+ currencies.
- FastSpring: Merchant-of-record ecommerce and subscription billing platform for SaaS and digital goods. Competes with Recurly in the SaaS and digital media verticals with similar global payment and tax management capabilities.
Broad incumbents
- Stripe Billing: Stripe's subscription billing module bundled into the broader Stripe payments platform. Targets Recurly's SMB and mid-market segments with the advantage of integrated payment processing at aggressive pricing.
- 2Checkout (Verifone): Global merchant-of-record and subscription billing platform under Verifone. Competes with Recurly for international subscription businesses, particularly in digital goods and SaaS segments.
- Zoho Billing: Subscription billing module within the broader Zoho business applications suite. Serves similar SMB and mid-market subscription customers with the advantage of being part of a full CRM/finance stack.
Regional players
- Billwerk+: European subscription management and recurring billing platform. Comparable in product scope to Recurly Subscriptions but focused primarily on DACH and European markets — overlapping with Recurly's international expansion.
Emerging players
- SubscriptionFlow: Subscription management and recurring billing platform for SMB and mid-market. An emerging competitor to Recurly in the lower-end of the subscription billing market with similar dunning and plan management features.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Recurly social profiles
Digital presenceRecurly compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Recurly financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Recurly leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Recurly funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors11 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Recurly M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A4 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Recurly
What does Recurly do?
Recurly provides a subscription management and recurring billing SaaS platform that enables digital commerce businesses to launch, bill, retain, and scale subscribers. The platform automates plan management, checkout optimization, payment retry and dunning, churn prediction, subscriber engagement journeys, automated ASC-606/IFRS-15 revenue recognition, and multi-currency global payment processing. Customers include Paramount, Twitch, Cinemark, FabFitFun, Lucid Software, NerdWallet, and Experian, with the platform processing a $16B annual transaction run rate across 100M+ active subscribers.
Is Recurly a public or private company?
Recurly is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Recurly founded?
Recurly was founded in 2010. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is Recurly based?
Recurly is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Recurly make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Subscription Management Platform Fees are the primary driver. The others are payment Processing Fees.
Who are Recurly's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Chargebee, Zuora, Maxio, Paddle and FastSpring. Broad incumbents are Stripe Billing, 2Checkout (Verifone) and Zoho Billing. Billwerk+ is listed as a regional player. SubscriptionFlow is listed as an emerging player.
Does Recurly have an API?
Yes. Recurly provides a public API and developer documentation for building subscription management integrations. The platform supports APIs, webhooks, and custom checkout implementations. Documentation available at https://docs.recurly.com/ and API reference at https://recurly.com/developers/index.html. Separate documentation exists for Subscriptions (https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-subscriptions), Commerce (https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-commerce), Engage (https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-engage), and RevRec (https://docs.recurly.com/recurly-revrec). Developer documentation is at docs.recurly.com.
What industry is Recurly in?
Recurly's product category is Subscription Management & Recurring Billing Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRAFALAH, Recurring Billing, Subscriptions & Tokenized Payments, with a secondary code of FSAMAJAE, Recurring Billing & AutoPay Management. Its NAICS code is 518 and its SIC code is 7372.