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.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.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).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.