Open-Source Stripe Alternatives: Payment Orchestration, Subscription Billing and Invoicing You Can Self-Host
Stripe is several products in one: it accepts card payments, runs subscriptions with Stripe Billing, sends invoices, calculates tax and gives you a dashboard for all of it. Open-source software can replace most of those software layers, so you own your billing logic, your customer data and your pricing rules, and you can switch payment providers without rebuilding. What open source cannot replace is the licensed money movement itself: to accept cards you still need a payment processor or acquirer (Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, a bank), unless you take Bitcoin directly. We checked every project below in October 2026 on its official website and GitHub: the exact licence, the latest release and what it really replaces. Projects that were dropped, abandoned or never open source are listed at the end.
Quick answer: to route payments across several processors from your own servers, use Juspay Hyperswitch; for subscription billing with a long track record, use Kill Bill; for usage-based or AI token billing, use Lago, Flexprice or OpenMeter; to take Bitcoin with no processor at all, use BTCPay Server; and for simple quotes and invoices with Stripe or PayPal payment links, use SolidInvoice (MIT) or Invoice Ninja (source-available).
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Which Parts of Stripe Can Open Source Replace in 2027?
On Stripe's pricing page (the Netherlands version, checked October 2026), standard European cards cost 1.5% + €0.25 per successful payment, Stripe Billing costs 0.7% of billing volume on pay-as-you-go, and Stripe Invoicing (Starter) costs 0.4% per paid invoice. The open-source tools below go after different layers of that bill:
- Payment orchestration: one API in front of several processors, with routing, retries and a card vault. Hyperswitch replaces this layer. Card fees from your processor stay.
- Subscription and usage billing: plans, metering, proration, credits, dunning and invoices. Kill Bill, Lago, Flexprice, OpenMeter and UniBee replace the Billing percentage.
- Invoicing: quotes, invoices, reminders and a client portal with a pay button. SolidInvoice, Invoice Ninja and FOSSBilling cover this.
- Payments without a processor: BTCPay Server sends Bitcoin straight to your wallet. It is the only tool here that removes the processor, and only for crypto.
One editorial warning: if you self-host a card vault or touch raw card numbers, your own servers come into PCI DSS scope. Most startups keep card data with their processor and self-host only the billing and orchestration logic.
Open-Source Stripe Alternatives Compared
Sources: each project's official website, pricing page and GitHub repository (licence file, releases), checked 28 October 2026. Self-hosting is free, but you pay for servers, your time and your payment processor's fees.
The Best Open-Source Stripe Alternatives in 2027
1. Juspay Hyperswitch: open-source payment orchestration
Hyperswitch is the closest open-source match to Stripe's payments layer. Built by the payments company Juspay, it calls itself a composable, open-source payments platform: one API in front of more than 300 processor and acquirer integrations, a vault for card and network tokens, intelligent routing between processors, retries for failed payments, reconciliation and a dashboard that breaks down scheme, interchange and acquirer fees. The code is Apache-2.0 on GitHub, with version v1.128.0 in October 2026 and new release tags several times a week. On its pricing page the self-hosted Community Edition is free, while the Enterprise Edition and Hyperswitch Cloud are on request, and Revenue Recovery, Cost Observability and Reconciliation are marked as paid add-ons. You still sign contracts with the processors you route to; Hyperswitch decides which one handles each payment.
2. Kill Bill: subscription billing and payments since 2010
Kill Bill is the veteran: an open-source billing and payments platform in production since 2010, under the Apache-2.0 licence. It handles subscriptions, price books and usage-based billing, and connects to gateways through plugins, with Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Braintree and GoCardless listed, plus Avalara and Vertex for tax. Kaui, its admin screen, lets non-developers manage subscriptions and payments. The open-source edition is free with community support; Aviate, a managed version, is sold at a fixed price rather than a share of revenue. Kill Bill shipped 0.24.22 in September 2026. It suits a team with a developer who can run and extend it.
3. Lago: usage-based billing and invoicing
Lago meters usage, such as AI tokens, and turns it into invoices, with subscriptions, prepaid credits, wallets, credit notes and dunning. Its GitHub README makes the key point for this list: Lago keeps metering and pricing separate from payment processing, so you connect Stripe, Adyen, GoCardless or another provider without making that provider your product catalogue. The platform is AGPL-3.0 and version v1.55.0 came out in October 2026. Some capabilities, such as the Billing Assistant and enterprise integrations, are Premium features on request, and the pricing page lists no public prices.
4. Flexprice: usage and credit billing for AI products
Flexprice targets AI-native and SaaS teams with usage-based, credit-based and hybrid pricing: real-time metering, credit grants that expire or roll over, invoices and reporting. It integrates with Stripe, Razorpay and Paddle for collecting money and with HubSpot, QuickBooks and Zoho for the rest of the stack, and it can run on your own servers. The Flexprice repository is AGPL-3.0 and very active, with v2.1.43 in October 2026.
5. OpenMeter: usage metering, now part of Kong
OpenMeter turns events, logs and metrics into billable usage, with limits, quotas, a product catalogue, credits and billing, and SDKs for Node.js, Python and Go. It is Apache-2.0. One change to know: Kong announced it had acquired OpenMeter on 3 September 2025 and said the project stays open source; the hosted version now runs as Kong Konnect Metering and Billing. The open-source code keeps moving, with v1.0.0-beta.236 in October 2026, but the version number shows it is still labelled beta.
6. UniBee: gateway-agnostic subscription billing
UniBee is an AGPL-3.0 subscription billing system with recurring and usage-based plans, coupons, invoices, dunning and MRR and churn reports. It is gateway-agnostic: you connect Stripe, PayPal and other gateways side by side, and the self-hosted version starts at $0. Check its activity before you commit: the UniBee repository last released v1.9.0 in January 2026 and showed no newer commits when we checked in October 2026.
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7. BTCPay Server: Bitcoin payments with no processor
BTCPay Server is a self-hosted, open-source crypto payment processor under the MIT licence. It is the only tool on this list that removes the middleman: payments go straight to your own wallet, and the project advertises 0% fees and no third party. It comes with invoices, a point-of-sale app, payment links, tipping buttons and crowdfunding pages, and plugins for WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, OpenCart and WHMCS. Version v2.4.6 came out in October 2026. The limit is obvious: it only replaces Stripe for customers who want to pay in Bitcoin.
8. FOSSBilling: billing for hosting and online services
FOSSBilling is the community fork of BoxBilling, started at the end of 2022 according to its FAQ. It automates invoices, payment reminders and multi-currency billing, provisions accounts on cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin and HestiaCP, and adds payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe and Mollie as extensions. Its GitHub licence file is Apache-2.0 (the website footer says AGPL 3.0), version 0.8.9 came out in October 2026, and its README still calls it beta. It fits hosting companies, software licences and digital downloads more than a typical SaaS.
9. SolidInvoice: open-source quotes and invoices
SolidInvoice is invoicing software for freelancers and small businesses whose core is MIT-licensed. A client accepts a quote and it becomes an invoice; recurring invoices run daily, weekly, monthly or yearly; and clients pay online through Stripe or PayPal. You can self-host it with Docker, or use the cloud version, which has a Free plan (3 clients, 5 invoices a month) and paid plans from $9 a month. Version 3.1.2 came out in October 2026.
10. Invoice Ninja: invoicing with a client portal (source-available)
Invoice Ninja is a full invoicing, quotes and client portal app that takes payments through Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless and more. It is often listed as open source, but version 5 is under the Elastic License 2.0, which is source-available, not open source: you may self-host it, but not sell it as a hosted service or bypass its licence key. The hosted Free plan covers up to 5 clients, and Ninja Pro costs $14 a month ($140 a year). Version v5.13.50 came out in October 2026.
Stripe Alternatives That Were Dropped or Changed
The 2025 version of this article listed tools that no longer belong on an open-source Stripe shortlist:
- OpenACH: a GPLv3 ACH payment system whose last release (1.9.4) dates from December 2020. Treat it as abandoned.
- UniPay Gateway: not open source. It is commercial white-label gateway software sold with an on-premise licence that includes the source code.
- BoxBilling: its GitHub repository has had no release since 2022 and no commit since November 2023, and the boxbilling.com website now promotes a different, hosted AI billing product. Use FOSSBilling, its community fork, instead.
- WooCommerce: an open-source (GPL) store plugin for WordPress, not a payment platform. It still needs a payment gateway extension, which is often Stripe itself.
- Hyperswitch, listed twice: the old list counted it as both number 1 and number 10. It now appears once.
- Added: Flexprice, OpenMeter, SolidInvoice and Invoice Ninja (marked source-available).
Which Open-Source Stripe Alternative Should You Choose?
- You process enough volume to use two or more processors: Hyperswitch, to route each payment to the cheapest or most reliable one.
- You sell subscriptions and want to stop paying a share of revenue for billing: Kill Bill, or UniBee if you accept its slower release pace.
- You charge per API call, token or credit: Lago, Flexprice or OpenMeter, with Stripe, Adyen or Razorpay only collecting the money.
- You run a hosting, licence or download business: FOSSBilling.
- You are a freelancer or service firm sending invoices: SolidInvoice, or Invoice Ninja if source-available terms are fine.
- Your customers pay in Bitcoin: BTCPay Server.
- You are pre-revenue: keep Stripe or another hosted processor for now. Self-hosting billing only pays off once its percentage fee costs more than the time you spend running servers.
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How Founders Use Open-Source Billing and Payment Tools
Early-stage founders rarely replace Stripe on day one. A common path is to start with a hosted processor, then move pricing logic into an open-source billing engine once plans, usage or credits get complex, and only later add orchestration across processors. Billing is one piece of a lean, self-hosted stack: track spending with our open-source Expensify alternatives, build internal billing dashboards with open-source Retool alternatives, connect invoices, CRM and email with open-source Zapier alternatives, design your checkout and pricing pages with open-source Figma alternatives, and answer billing questions with open-source Intercom alternatives.
Service businesses can start with our guide on setting up estimates and invoices. If you are building a landing page that takes payments, compare Squarespace alternatives and free Carrd alternatives. For inspiration from the payments world, read how Stripe's co-founders built the company, meet female fintech founders, and find investors and partners at fintech startup events. When your product is live, the F/MS AI SEO Tool helps customers find it in Google and AI assistants.
FAQ About Open-Source Stripe Alternatives
Is there an open-source version of Stripe?
Not a complete one. Open-source projects replace Stripe's software layers: Hyperswitch for payment orchestration, Kill Bill, Lago or Flexprice for billing, and SolidInvoice for invoices. Accepting cards still needs a licensed payment processor or acquirer.
Can I accept card payments without Stripe or another processor?
No. Card payments run through acquirers and card networks, so you need a processor such as Stripe, Adyen or PayPal, or a bank acquirer. Only crypto payments, for example through BTCPay Server, can go straight to your own wallet.
What is the best open-source alternative to Stripe Billing?
Kill Bill for classic subscriptions, and Lago or Flexprice for usage-based and credit billing. All three let you keep your processor for collecting payments.
What does Juspay Hyperswitch do?
Hyperswitch is an Apache-2.0 payment orchestration platform: one API in front of more than 300 processor and acquirer integrations, with routing, retries, a card vault and reconciliation. The self-hosted Community Edition is free.
Is Lago open source?
Yes. The Lago platform is AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted for free. Some Premium capabilities, such as the Billing Assistant and enterprise integrations, are only available on request.
What happened to OpenMeter?
Kong announced on 3 September 2025 that it had acquired OpenMeter. The code is still Apache-2.0 on GitHub, and the hosted version now runs as Kong Konnect Metering and Billing.
Is Invoice Ninja open source?
Not by the usual definition. Invoice Ninja 5 uses the Elastic License 2.0, a source-available licence: you may self-host it, but you may not offer it as a hosted service. SolidInvoice (MIT) is a fully open-source alternative.
How much does Stripe cost compared with self-hosting?
When we checked Stripe's Netherlands pricing page in October 2026, European cards cost 1.5% + €0.25, Stripe Billing 0.7% of billing volume and Invoicing 0.4% per paid invoice. Self-hosted billing removes the Billing and Invoicing percentages, but not your processor's card fees, and adds server and maintenance costs.
Why are OpenACH and UniPay Gateway no longer on the list?
OpenACH has had no release since December 2020, and UniPay Gateway is commercial white-label software, not open source.
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About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
