Choosing the right billing system

Billing is the silent engine of every business—handling customer payments, tracking usage, applying pricing models, and ensuring revenue flows in smoothly. And yet, it’s often an afterthought until things start breaking.

Billing isn’t just about invoices; it powers everything from sales workflows to finance operations. Get it wrong, and you’re stuck with rigid pricing, manual ops nightmares, and an eventual overhaul. Get it right, and you unlock flexibility, automation, and scalability.

So how do you pick the right billing system? Here are the five things that matter most:

1. Scalability (Will this last more than a year?)

Most companies underestimate how quickly pricing complexity grows. What starts as a simple subscription model can soon involve usage-based pricing, hybrid models, or geographic expansion. If you're still early, no-code tools seem tempting—but they pile up technical debt fast.

Ask yourself: What kind of scale and pricing changes do I expect in 18 months?

If you plan to introduce metered billing or scale usage tracking, make sure your system won’t bottleneck you. For instance, Chargebee caps usage tracking at 5,000 events per account, lifetime—barely enough for even moderate usage-based businesses.

2. Flexibility (Can I tweak it without breaking things?)

Your pricing will evolve—whether it’s adding new tiers, bundling features, or tweaking usage limits. If your billing system forces you to work around its limitations rather than adapting to your needs, that’s a red flag.

• Can engineers easily extend it with APIs?

• Can non-tech teams (sales, finance) create custom quotes without engineering?

• Does it lock you into one payment processor, or can you switch easily?

Billing needs to fit into your workflows, not force you into rigid structures.

3. Real-Time Capabilities (Do I need instant usage tracking?)

If you're billing customers based on their consumption—compute, API calls, storage, fintech transactions—real-time tracking is non-negotiable.

• If a neobank lets users withdraw money, the system should instantly check if they have funds.

• If an AI tool offers credits, users shouldn't exceed their limits before getting charged.

Most plug-and-play billing tools batch process data rather than tracking usage as it happens. If real-time is a must, look for event-driven architectures, not query-based ones.

4. Self-Serve vs. Sales-Led (Who actually owns billing?)

Self-serve pricing is usually straightforward—users pick a plan, enter their card, and get billed automatically. But sales-led motions? That’s where it gets tricky.

Sales teams need custom quotes, deal-specific discounts, and approvals, often without touching code. If your billing system doesn’t support both self-serve and sales-led processes seamlessly, you’ll end up with a Frankenstein of spreadsheets and manual invoicing.

Make sure your billing solution is usable by the team that owns it—whether that’s finance, sales, or engineering.

5. Pricing & Lock-In (Are you signing up for a future headache?)

Billing vendors love taking a cut of your revenue. It’s great when you’re small but painful as you scale.

• A 1-3% rev share might not hurt now, but at $10M ARR? That’s a six-figure problem.

• Some vendors lock you into their payment processor (e.g., Stripe Billing requires Stripe Payments).

• Exporting your data and switching later can be a nightmare—check for easy migrations upfront.

Make sure you’re not setting yourself up for a costly breakup down the road.

Why We Built Flexprice 🚀

We’ve seen firsthand how rigid billing systems slow down businesses. So we built Flexprice, an open-source metering and billing platform designed for AI and infra companies.

• Launch any pricing model—subscriptions, usage-based, or hybrid—without waiting months.

• Integrate seamlessly with your existing stack (yes, even if you're using Stripe today).

• Stay flexible—it’s open source, meaning you own your billing, not a vendor.

If you're scaling and don’t want billing to become your next big headache, check out Flexprice.