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Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

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Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#91

Post by sokoloff »

evv wrote: post #78
rapnie wrote: post #15

I submitted separately [0] your blogpost "Open-source licensing and why Lago chose AGPLv3" [1]. I find this a refreshing and good read that counters the usual FUD so many people raise when hearing about the AGPL. In the article is mentioned Plausible [2] who also managed to create a great business this way, and in direct competition to Google Analytics. Well done. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34773891 https:/…

Regarding this blog post, I don't understand how AGPL is a good fit for the first stated use case. >Case 1: You fork our code to build your own billing system at your company. It’s awesome and we would be grateful if you could take some time to share your code as well, as it could help other companies. This is _strongly encouraged but not required_, as we understand not all companies can afford to do this. And later…

I think the difference in cases is that in case 1 above, I read it as your company's employees [or technical systems] are using the software for some internal billing purpose and no outsiders are using the system, but are rather merely receiving a bill which was calculated using that system.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#92

Post by Rafsark »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #87

Interesting. Would you know how this compares to turnstile [0]? (I only know about them because I saw their hiring page on HN a week or two ago, and was intrigued.) [0] https://tryturnstile.com/

Don't have much information about them, but it seems that we are API first while they are focusing on no-code (from what I understand from their homepage). The common path would be that we both have a UI to let non-tech users handle billing actions without engineers.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#93

Post by nojs »

telecuda wrote: post #61

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 customer…

I'm interested how you handle suppliers that have usage-based pricing (which I imagine are the norm in the telephony space) if you can't pass this on to the customer. Do you offer your customers an unlimited plan, price it high and just hope they don't use so much that you go backwards?

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#94

Post by truetraveller »

telecuda wrote: post #61

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 customer…

Providing "unlimited" is a major competitive advantage. The hard part is predicting the average cost per customer. One can use historical metrics to help. The final price would then be set according to the average cost, taking into account profit + padding for outliers.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#95

Post by AnhTho_FR »

nojs wrote: post #93
telecuda wrote: post #61

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 customer…

I'm interested how you handle suppliers that have usage-based pricing (which I imagine are the norm in the telephony space) if you can't pass this on to the customer. Do you offer your customers an unlimited plan, price it high and just hope they don't use so much that you go backwards?

I guess it was a question for telecuda, but I've worked 3y for telecommunications groups fresh out of business school and what you describe is pretty much the approach. Sometimes if it's a big group, they might have historical data and can make "informed guesses" but at the end of the day, this is it. And if the unlimited offer isn't viable (business wise), they just sunset it, and usually "grandfather" the offer.

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#96

Post by AnhTho_FR »

neoecos wrote: post #76

Happy Lago customers here at Mono, we we're able to "hack"our way to billing connecting a Kafka listener to n8n and orchestrate all the billing from n8n, rather than expending lots of time integrating. We did all the integrations in 1 week in a "low-code" environment without requiring any developer to work on in.

Honored to work with you!

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#97

Post by AnhTho_FR »

xyst wrote: post #84

great project and thank you for open sourcing! this is something I need for a future project and you have already built all or most of the features I need for the billing aspect. I'll explore the product more on my own and will try to contribute back where possible

Awesome! Yes, feel free to contact us at founders[at]getlago.com if you need anything!

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#99

Post by AnhTho_FR »

josefbvt wrote: post #49

Wow this is finally happening! Big fan of this team and this product! Congrats for this launch, this is the first milestone of an amazing journey reinventing billing for tech companies!

haha we've been working hard to get to this point, thanks!!!

Re: Launch HN: Lago (YC S21) – Open-source usage-based billing

#100

Post by AnhTho_FR »

asselinpaul wrote: post #77
AnhTho_FR wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the use case for you and the reasons to leave Stripe Connect? We're working with one company to replace their Stripe Connect stack, but it really depends on the specifics of the use case. My email if useful: anhtho[at]getlago.com

payfac flexibility (aka, no vendor lock-in) — requires an independent platform ledger (where payments have two legs: payee to platform and platform to merchant). Refunds and chargebacks may affect both legs :)

We might have ideas for you! Lago won't cover all these use cases today, but we're working with other players that can provide an alternative stack. If you're interested, would you mind emailing us? Founders[at]getlago.com Thanks!
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