---
title: "QuotaStack vs Lago"
description: "An honest comparison of QuotaStack and Lago for usage-based billing — open-source model, pricing, credit primitives, metering depth, and who each is best for."
order: 4
competitor: "Lago"
competitorUrl: "https://www.getlago.com"
---

# QuotaStack vs Lago

Lago is an open-source metering and usage-based billing platform licensed under AGPLv3 with over 10,000 GitHub stars. It supports subscription-based, usage-based, and hybrid billing models with six aggregation methods (count, count-unique, sum, max, latest, weighted sum), real-time event ingestion, prepaid credit wallets, entitlements via a partner integration (Oso), coupons, dunning automation, and integrations with Stripe, Adyen, NetSuite, Salesforce, and cloud marketplaces. Customers include Mistral AI, PayPal, 1NCE, and Laravel. The open-source model is Lago's genuine differentiator: teams that want full data ownership, self-hostable infrastructure, and code they can audit or modify will find no equivalent among proprietary competitors.

Lago's cloud pricing is sales-led for its Business and Enterprise tiers, both requiring a "Contact us" or "Book a demo" interaction with no public rate card listed on the pricing page as of June 2026. The cloud is not self-serve. Self-hosting is free (AGPLv3), covering the full core feature set without usage caps — but you bear the infrastructure and operational overhead. Lago's pricing FAQ notes that packages are "tailored to specific company stages: early, scaling, or enterprise" and charges based on a usage-based dimension such as events ingested, invoices generated, or active customers; specific rates are not publicly listed for the cloud tiers. This means the cloud path requires a sales conversation, while self-hosting is a genuine zero-cost option backed by a large open-source community.

On credit primitives, Lago supports prepaid credit wallets with up to five active wallets per customer, priority ordering (1–50), purchased and granted credit types, scoping to specific fee types or billable metrics, expiration management, and real-time ongoing balance estimation. Entitlements (feature gates, privileges, allowances, and quotas) are available as a feature but are powered by a partner integration with Oso. QuotaStack treats credits, entitlements, reservations, and wallets as first-class built-in primitives accessible directly via API without additional partner configuration.

The honest choice turns on your deployment preferences and go-to-market stage. If you need full data sovereignty, a self-hostable billing stack you can modify and audit, and are comfortable managing infrastructure — Lago's open-source model is unique in this space. If you are an indie developer or early-stage startup that wants credit-native billing primitives, transparent self-serve pricing, a free managed cloud tier, and a zero-ops start — without a sales call and without running a server — QuotaStack is built for that.

## Lago vs QuotaStack

| Feature | QuotaStack | Lago |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per metered event | Self-hosted open source is free (AGPLv3); cloud Business and Enterprise tiers are priced on a usage-based dimension (events ingested, invoices generated, or active customers) — specific rates not publicly listed; all cloud plans require contacting sales (as of June 2026) ([source](https://getlago.com/docs/faq/pricing)) |
| Entry / free tier | Free up to 100k events/mo, no card | No free cloud tier listed on the pricing page; self-hosted version is free with no usage cap under AGPLv3 license; cloud requires "Contact us" or "Book demo" to access any paid tier (as of June 2026) ([source](https://getlago.com/pricing)) |
| Pricing transparency | Public, self-serve | Not public for cloud tiers — all Business and Enterprise plans require contacting sales; self-hosted pricing is transparent (free, open source, AGPLv3) ([source](https://getlago.com/pricing)) |
| Credit-native primitives | Yes — credits, entitlements, reservations, wallets | Prepaid credit wallets with up to 5 wallets per customer, priority ordering (1–50), purchased and granted credit types, scoping to specific fee types or billable metrics, and expiration management; entitlements (feature gates, privileges, allowances, quotas) available via partner integration with Oso; no native reservation primitive ([source](https://getlago.com/docs/guide/wallet-and-prepaid-credits/overview)) |
| Metering | Yes, real-time | Yes — real-time event ingestion with six aggregation methods: count, count-unique, sum, max, latest, and weighted sum (time-prorated); events ingestible via REST API with duplicate prevention ([source](https://getlago.com/docs/guide/introduction/welcome-to-lago)) |
| Self-serve vs sales-led | Self-serve | Cloud is sales-led — Business and Enterprise tiers require "Contact us" or "Book demo"; self-hosted path is self-serve (open-source download via GitHub, no account required) ([source](https://getlago.com/pricing)) |
| Open source | No (fully managed) | Yes — AGPLv3 license, 10k+ GitHub stars; full metering and billing codebase is public at github.com/getlago/lago; self-hosting is supported and free ([source](https://github.com/getlago/lago)) |
| Agent-native docs | Yes — .md twin on every page + llms.txt | Yes — publishes llms.txt at getlago.com/docs/llms.txt covering full API reference and implementation guides; also provides lago-agent-toolkit (MCP-based billing attribution for LLM agents) ([source](https://github.com/getlago/lago-agent-toolkit)) |
| Best for | Indie devs & startups billing usage/credits, free to start | Teams that need full data sovereignty, a self-hostable and auditable billing stack, or open-source flexibility — including AI companies (token/GPU billing), enterprise, IoT/telco, and finance |

## Choose Lago if

- You need full data sovereignty and want to self-host your billing infrastructure — Lago is open-source (AGPLv3) and free to run on your own servers, with no vendor lock-in and a 10k+ star community
- You want to audit, fork, or modify your billing stack — Lago's public codebase on GitHub lets you inspect and extend the platform in ways no proprietary SaaS allows
- You have complex hybrid billing requirements (subscriptions + usage-based + coupons + dunning) combined with enterprise integrations (NetSuite, Salesforce, Adyen, cloud marketplaces) and are comfortable engaging in a sales conversation for the managed cloud

## Choose QuotaStack if

- You want credit-native primitives (credits, entitlements, reservations, wallets) out of the box without stitching together a preview feature and a separate sales-led product
- You want to start free and self-serve with transparent, public pricing — no "contact sales" to get a plan
- You build with AI editors and want agent-native docs (.md twins on every page and an llms.txt discovery index)

## Sources

- [Lago pricing page](https://getlago.com/pricing)
- [Lago pricing FAQ (docs)](https://getlago.com/docs/faq/pricing)
- [Lago GitHub repository (AGPLv3, 10k+ stars)](https://github.com/getlago/lago)
- [Lago wallet and prepaid credits docs](https://getlago.com/docs/guide/wallet-and-prepaid-credits/overview)
- [Lago entitlements docs](https://docs.getlago.com/guide/entitlements)
- [Lago introduction and metering docs](https://getlago.com/docs/guide/introduction/welcome-to-lago)
- [Lago llms.txt (agent discovery index)](https://getlago.com/docs/llms.txt)
- [Lago homepage (positioning, customers)](https://www.getlago.com)
- [Lago agent toolkit (MCP)](https://github.com/getlago/lago-agent-toolkit)