Usage metering compared: Usage Lab, Stripe meters, Orb, Lago and Metronome

Five ways to turn product usage into billable numbers. Two are metering-first (Stripe Billing meters and Usage Lab), three are full billing platforms (Orb, Lago, Metronome). The right one depends on how much of billing you want a vendor to own.

Competitor prices re-checked on each official pricing page as of Oct 17, 2026, quoted in the vendor's own currency. Where a vendor doesn't publish a price we say "Contact sales". Usage Lab is our product; we've tried to be fair, and corrections are welcome at canada.site.ops@gmail.com.

Prices (as of Oct 17, 2026)

Option	What it is	Published price	Source
Usage Lab	Metering API (events → monthly per-customer totals), Stripe push in beta	Free CA$0 (100k events, 3 meters/month) · Pro CA$12/month (2M events, 10 meters) · Ultra CA$36/month (20M events, 100 meters). Flat; no % of revenue.	Pricing
Stripe Billing meters	Meters API inside Stripe Billing	Billing pay-as-you-go: 0.7% of Billing volume. Pay-monthly tiers from CA$770/month (1-year contract) on the Canadian page. Basic metering via the Meters API is included in Billing pricing, up to 100M events/month. Card payments are separate (2.9% + CA$0.30 in Canada).	stripe.com/en-ca/billing/pricing
Orb	Usage billing and invoicing platform	Business: $6.00 per credit (USD), "or less with volume discounts". One credit works out to 0.60% of billing volume, plus event ingestion and other metered dimensions. 100 free credits to start. Enterprise: Contact sales.	withorb.com/pricing
Lago	Open-source billing platform	Open Source: $0 software license (AGPL-3.0); you pay for and run the infrastructure. Premium (Cloud or self-hosted): Contact sales.	getlago.com/pricing, docs/pricing
Metronome	Usage billing platform (a Stripe product)	Startup: 0.8% of billing volume + $0.04 per 1k ingested events (USD). Custom: Contact sales.	metronome.com/pricing

Percentages are of the amount you invoice through the platform, so the cost grows with your revenue. Rough illustration only, using the published rates: at US$50,000 a month invoiced and 1M events, Metronome Startup's rates come to about US$440 a month (US$400 + US$40).

Feature table

Capability	Usage Lab	Stripe meters alone	Orb	Lago	Metronome
Retry deduplication	Yes: required Idempotency-Key, unique per account with no expiry; same key and different body returns 409	Optional `identifier`, unique within a rolling period of at least 24 hours	Yes: idempotency key on ingestion	Yes: `transaction_id` (semantics depend on the event store)	Yes: `transaction_id`, 34-day window
Late events	Yes: accepted up to 30 days back; monthly totals recompute	Timestamps up to 35 days in the past	12-hour grace period by default (configurable), then an amend/backfill API	By event timestamp; not into finalized invoices	Up to 34 days via the API; up to 1 year via bulk ingest
Explainable rollups	Partly: per-customer monthly totals with event counts, recomputed from the raw ledger you keep while your account exists. No per-event listing API yet	Aggregated event summaries per customer; no raw-event query	Yes: SQL metrics over raw events	Yes: billable metrics over raw events	Yes: SQL billable metrics over raw events
CSV export	Yes: rollups as CSV on every plan	Not via the Meters API	Data exports to your warehouse (Enterprise, metered)	Data pipeline integration (Premium; capped volume)	Warehouse/BI data exports (Custom plan)
Push to Stripe	Beta on Pro/Ultra: monthly deltas to your own Stripe Billing Meters, retry-safe	It is Stripe	Stripe payments integration (Orb invoices)	Stripe payments integration (Lago invoices)	Native Stripe integration
Self-serve signup	Yes: API key in seconds, no card	Yes	Yes: Business plan, 100 free credits	Open Source: self-host. Cloud/Premium: Contact sales	Yes: Startup plan
Invoicing, contracts, credits	No (use Stripe)	Stripe Billing	Yes	Yes	Yes

Competitor capabilities come from their public docs and pricing pages; plans and limits change, so check the linked sources before deciding.

Which one fits

Stripe Billing meters on their own

Better fit if you already bill with Stripe, your app can report each event once with a stable identifier, and late data arrives within 35 days. It's the fewest moving parts. See Stripe Billing Meters vs a usage ledger for where meters alone get tricky.

Orb

Better fit if billing is a core system for you: SQL metrics over raw events, invoicing and A/R in one place, plus customer hierarchies, NetSuite/Salesforce and SLAs on Enterprise. It's priced as a share of billings, which makes sense at scale.

Metronome

Better fit if you run enterprise contracts with commits, credits and rate cards, sell through cloud marketplaces, or need very high ingestion volume. It's now a Stripe product, with native Stripe integration.

Lago

Better fit if you want to self-host an open-source biller (AGPL-3.0) and own the infrastructure, or you want a billing platform other than Stripe with the source code in hand.

Usage Lab

Better fit if you want Stripe to stay your biller and just need trustworthy numbers in front of it: a required idempotency key on every event, a 30-day late window, monthly per-customer totals and CSV, at a flat CA$ price instead of a share of revenue. It's early access and small. It doesn't do invoicing, contracts, credits, SQL metrics or SLAs. Get a free key · First event in 2 minutes

More comparisons

Usage Lab vs UsageBox (another metering-only API)
Metronome and Orb alternatives for small SaaS teams (Flexprice, m3ter and others)
How to meter usage for Stripe usage-based billing
Stripe push (beta)

FAQ

Is Usage Lab a billing platform like Orb, Metronome or Lago?

No. Usage Lab is a metering API: it records usage events, dedupes retries, accepts late events for 30 days and produces monthly per-customer totals. Stripe (or your own code) still does pricing, invoicing and payments. Orb, Metronome and Lago are full billing platforms.

Do I need anything besides Stripe Billing meters?

Often not. If your app can send each event once with a stable identifier, within Stripe's 35-day window, and you don't need to explain totals from raw events, Stripe meters alone are the simplest choice. Stripe says basic metering via the Meters API is part of Billing pricing with up to 100M events a month included.

How much do Orb, Metronome, Lago and Stripe Billing cost?

As of Oct 17, 2026, on their official pricing pages: Metronome Startup is 0.8% of billing volume plus $0.04 per 1k ingested events (USD). Orb Business is $6.00 per credit (USD), where one credit works out to 0.60% of billing volume plus event ingestion and other meters; Enterprise is contact sales. Lago Open Source is a $0 AGPL-3.0 license you self-host; Lago Premium is contact sales. Stripe Billing pay-as-you-go is 0.7% of billing volume.

How much does Usage Lab cost?

Free: CA$0 for 100,000 events and 3 meters a month. Pro: CA$12 a month for 2M events and 10 meters. Ultra: CA$36 a month for 20M events and 100 meters. Flat prices, never a percentage of your revenue.

When should I pick Orb or Metronome instead?

When billing itself is the product problem: enterprise contracts, commits and credits, prepaid drawdowns, CRM/ERP sync, invoicing outside Stripe, or very high event volumes with SLAs. Both do far more than a meter.

When is Lago the better fit?

When you want an open-source billing platform you run yourself (AGPL-3.0) and are happy to operate the infrastructure, or you want Lago to be your biller rather than Stripe.

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