Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing
Congrats! We built a usage-based telephony (voice & sms) billing system for our customers and appreciate the pain. Not to take anything away from your launch, but founders / product managers should carefully consider if usage-billing (even with a tool like Lago) is best for your business and customers.<p>We started as usage-based then learned a few years in (once we understood customer usage trends - key) that customers would gladly pay ~20% MORE per year for unlimited access because the customer wanted a predictable bill. We essentially rode the same trend of pay-as-you-go mobile to unlimited plans.<p>Later in our history we found investors (and our accountants) liked the predictability as well. It's easier to show "up and to the right" when not dealing with a few large customers varying down in usage in one quarter (even if the business was on the upswing).<p>One-size doesn't fit all -- usage billing has its place for sure -- just carefully weigh your model as it's a huge lift to flip it midstream.