Orb vs Stripe Billing: 

What’s the Difference?

Stripe is a subscription billing platform that added limited usage-based features — Orb is a full-stack, usage-based billing solution built for pricing agility.

When comparing Orb vs Stripe for billing, the key distinction is architecture. Stripe was built for recurring payments and later retrofitted with metered billing features. Orb was purpose-built for usage-based pricing from the ground up, using a raw event data model that enables real-time billing, pricing experiments, and complex monetization workflows.

• Stripe = Subscription-first
• Orb = Usage-first, real-time billing infrastructure

When Stripe Billing Works Well

Stripe billing is limited for companies with:

• Your pricing model is fixed, such as per-seat or tiered monthly subscriptions
• You only need simple usage add-ons (e.g. charging for API calls or overages)
• You’re already using Stripe for payments and want basic billing in one place
• You don’t need complex proration, credit systems, or usage-based discounts

Stripe’s billing solution is ideal for early-stage SaaS companies with low billing complexity and predictable usage patterns.

Where Stripe Billing Falls Short

Stripe billing is limited for companies with:

• Complex or evolving pricing models (multi-dimensional pricing, prepaid credits, hybrid pricing)
• Real-time usage tracking or need for threshold-based invoicing
• Pricing iteration and simulations to forecast revenue impact before going live
• Raw event-level data ingestion (Stripe does not support retrospective recalculations based on event data)
• Finance and product teams that want self-serve pricing updates without engineering involvement

Stripe does not offer a native revenue simulation engine or support robust billing scenarios like parent-child hierarchies or modular invoicing logic.

Comparison Table: Orb vs Stripe for Billing

How to Evaluate Stripe in the Billing Market

Stripe belongs to the category of subscription billing platforms — along with tools like Zuora and Chargebee. These solutions are optimized for recurring charges, not for dynamic, usage-driven revenue models.

Orb, by contrast, is a purpose-built usage-based billing platform designed to help companies:

• Iterate on pricing rapidly
• Scale billing without engineering bottlenecks
• Integrate finance, product, and GTM teams into one revenue workflow

Want to see how Stripe compares to other billing categories?

Go to the Buyer's Guide

It explains the three billing solution types: subscription, metering point, and full-stack usage-based billing.