Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Notion VS Recurly

Compare Notion VS Recurly and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Notion logo Notion

All-in-one workspace. One tool for your whole team. Write, plan, and get organized.

Recurly logo Recurly

Subscription billing and recurring billing management. Recurly offers enterprise-class subscription billing for thousands of companies worldwide.
  • Notion Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12
  • Recurly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-07

Notion features and specs

  • All-in-One Workspace
    Notion combines note-taking, task management, databases, calendars, and collaboration features in a single platform, reducing the need for multiple tools.
  • Highly Customizable
    Users can tailor Notion to fit their specific workflow with customizable templates, pages, and databases, making it versatile for various use cases.
  • Collaboration Features
    Notion offers seamless collaboration with real-time editing, comments, mentions, and shared workspaces, enhancing teamwork and productivity.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    Notion is available on multiple platforms, including web, desktop, and mobile, providing flexibility and accessibility from anywhere.
  • Integration Capability
    Notion supports integrations with various third-party applications like Google Drive, Slack, and Trello, allowing for a more interconnected workflow.

Possible disadvantages of Notion

  • Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and customization options, new users might find Notion challenging to learn and navigate initially.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users report that Notion can become slow or experience lag, especially with large databases and complex pages.
  • Offline Limitations
    While Notion offers some offline capabilities, its functionality is significantly reduced without an internet connection, which can be inconvenient for some users.
  • Pricing for Teams
    Though Notion offers a free version, its premium plans can be expensive for larger teams, which may be a constraint for startups or small businesses.
  • Privacy Concerns
    As with any cloud-based service, there are potential privacy and data security concerns, especially for users handling sensitive information.

Recurly features and specs

  • Integrations
    Recurly offers extensive integration options with various payment gateways, accounting software, and CRMs, which can streamline operations and enhance functionality.
  • Customization
    The platform provides robust customization options, allowing businesses to tailor the subscription billing process to fit their specific needs and branding.
  • Analytics and Reporting
    Recurly's advanced analytics and reporting features give deep insights into subscription metrics, helping businesses make data-driven decisions.
  • Dunning Management
    The excellent dunning management system helps in recovering failed transactions automatically, reducing churn and improving revenue collection.
  • Global Reach
    With multi-currency and localization support, Recurly is well-suited for businesses that operate internationally.
  • User Interface
    Recurly's user-friendly interface makes it easy for businesses to manage subscriptions, analyze data, and configure settings without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Recurly

  • Cost
    Recurly can be expensive for small businesses or startups, as it includes a base subscription fee along with transaction fees.
  • Learning Curve
    The platform has a steep learning curve, especially for users who are new to subscription management systems.
  • Limited Invoicing Customization
    Some users find the invoicing customization options to be limited compared to other subscription management platforms.
  • Support for One-Time Payments
    Recurly is primarily focused on recurring billing and may not be the best fit for businesses that need robust support for one-time payments.
  • Customer Support
    Some users report that customer support can be slow to respond and not as helpful as expected, impacting issue resolution.
  • Compliance
    While Recurly has good compliance features, some users might find that it lacks specific compliance certifications or requirements needed for their industry.

Analysis of Recurly

Overall verdict

  • Recurly is generally considered a good choice for subscription management and billing, especially for businesses that require a robust and scalable solution.

Why this product is good

  • Recurly is praised for its ease of use, flexibility, and ability to handle complex billing scenarios. It supports a wide range of payment gateways, offers robust analytics and reporting features, and provides excellent customer support. Additionally, its integration capabilities with other business tools make it a versatile option.

Recommended for

    Recurly is recommended for SaaS companies, subscription-based businesses, and e-commerce platforms that need a reliable and scalable billing solution. It is particularly suitable for businesses looking to streamline recurring billing processes and those that require advanced subscription management features.

Notion videos

The Most Powerful Productivity App I Use - Notion

More videos:

  • Review - I switched to Notion for a week... Here's what happened!
  • Review - Notion is Truly an All-in-One Productivity Tool (App Review)

Recurly videos

Recurly Demo Review - Beginners to Expert PREVIEW by Bizversity.com

More videos:

  • Demo - Recurly Product Demo
  • Review - Recurly Features - Subscription and Recurring Billing

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Notion and Recurly)
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Recurring Subscription Billing
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Recurring Billing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Notion and Recurly. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Notion and Recurly

Notion Reviews

  1. jk22
    · consultant at GFI ·
    Notion has helped in documenting our business

    It's been very very helpful to streamline different people on our team, especially remote workers to help them understand what's going on in our business without 100s of meetings.

    👍 Pros:    Ui is very attractive|Easy to use|Great for collaboration|Good customer service|Free to use
    👎 Cons:    Steep learning curve
  2. Ramesh Kumar
    · Product Manager at Aerial ·
    Extremely helpful- made life easier

    My remote-first start-up has eliminated more than 200+ hours of meetings and 1000s of mismanaged documents because our entire communication happens through Notion.

    👍 Pros:    Clean ui|File sharing|Modular
    👎 Cons:    Learning curve
  3. Boyd Richardson
    · Writer at SE ·

    As someone who's always on the lookout for the perfect productivity app, I was excited to try out Notion. It promises to be an all-in-one tool for everything from note-taking to project management to personal wikis.

    From the moment you open Notion, you can tell that it's different from other productivity apps. The interface is sleek and modern, and it's easy to navigate. The app is divided into pages, which can be customized with different templates to fit your needs. You can create to-do lists, databases, wikis, calendars, and more.

    One of the things I love about Notion is the ability to create relationships between pages. For example, you can create a database of your favorite books and then link to a page with your book reviews. Or you can create a to-do list and link to a page with notes about the task. This feature makes it easy to keep all of your information in one place and to connect related items.

    🏁 Competitors: Microsoft Loop
    👍 Pros:    Highly customizable|All in one|Collaboration|Cross platform
    👎 Cons:    Steep learning curve

Top 10 Productivity Apps for MacOS 2025
Okay, I know, I know. Notion is probably the most predictable pick for a productivity app list. But here’s the thing: It’s popular for a reason. Notion’s flexibility, customisation, and overall smooth user experience make it a standout, no matter how many times it pops up on productivity lists. Whether you’re organising tasks, taking notes, or creating databases, Notion lets...
Source: dev.to
Top 10 Notion Alternatives for 2025 and Why Teams Are Choosing Ledger
If you're looking for a Notion alternative that supports real, scalable teamwork, you're not alone. Whether you’ve outgrown Notion or are just exploring more robust, team-friendly platforms, here’s a breakdown of the top 10 alternatives in 2025—and why Ledger is becoming the go-to choice for modern teams.
How Tight-Knit Teams Get More Done with Innovative Project Management Tools
Notion: More than a task manager, it acts as a knowledge base. You can store guidelines, references, wikis, and to-do lists all under one roof.
Source: medium.com
11 Popular Knowledge Management Tools to Consider in 2025 
Notion AI (Optional Add-on) – $8 per user/month (billed annually). Available for all plans (including the free plan)
Source: knowmax.ai
11 Best Google Keeps Alternatives for 2024
Unlike other note-taking apps, Notion stands out for its endless customization. It’s like an all-in-one workspace structured by pages and blocks.
Source: upbase.io

Recurly Reviews

Subscription Billing Solutions Comparison: Stripe vs Recurly vs Chargebee vs Rainex
Recurly specializes in subscription billing management, catering to businesses with recurring revenue models. The platform is an all-in-one solution with flexible pricing shaped by the feature set you need. Extensive support for subscription modifications makes Recurly a sought-after choice for businesses with complex billing requirements.
Source: rainex.io
Payment Platforms Comparison: Stripe vs Chargebee vs Paddle vs Recurly
Recurly subscription billing software is a cloud-based billing and invoicing solution. It’s an integrated subscription management and recurring bill monitoring platform. Recurly can be considered as a third-party billing management service used with existing business merchant accounts.
Source: rainex.io
Would you use Paddle, Chargebee, Chargify, or just Stripe?
I had a couple of clients use Recurly and they preferred it because they could swap the Stripe backend out for another payment process. One of them needed to do that when they got kicked off Stripe. Another did it to save money on payment processing once they got to a certain scale.
7+ Cheap Competitors & Alternatives To Chargify
Talking about integrations, both the software allow multiple payment integrations but Chargify doesn’t support PayPal integration while Recurly can give you the option to incorporate PayPal in your Recurly account.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Notion seems to be a lot more popular than Recurly. While we know about 441 links to Notion, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Recurly. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Notion mentions (441)

  • Cool SHIT you can do with docker
    Two of the most popular open source note taking app are affine (basically notion but open source) and obsidian (which stores notes in markdown). - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2024)
    Notion | https://notion.so | Android Engineer | SF | hybrid (in office 2x a week) | Full time
      Level: Mid/Mid+ (4-6yrs experience).
    - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Karyam: Simples everyday writing app
    Advanced Notion and Google Doc writing editor. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • My blog post workflow
    I manage my non-work and work-adjacent tasks in Notion. Whenever I have an idea, regardless of how big or small or silly or achievable it is, I'll add it to Notion, and use labels to categorise it by type of output (e.g. blog, silly project, website update). Today I wanted to write a short post for my site. I clicked on the filtered blog post view, and selected this one (because I hoped it would be a quick one!). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 6 AI tools that feels illegal to know🤖
    Notion.so redefines workspaces. With its intelligent organization and collaboration features, it's more than a productivity tool—it's a digital haven. Discover the art of streamlined and efficient teamwork. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Recurly mentions (5)

  • Ask HN: What are some low cost payment processing alternatives to Stripe?
    Https://recurly.com/ maybe, I can't find this in their pricing page, but from what I know it looks like this: revenue fee 0.500% transaction fee $0.08 and selected plan (there is free one); with your volume that would be around $3.2k a month in fees. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • API monetization using an API Management and a billing provider
    Next, for your API monetization stack, you need a 3rd-party recurring billing solution, such as Stripe, Recurly, Hypercurrent, and many more. But again, we do not recommend any particular payment service in this post and leave the choice of which payment provider to use up to you. The billing provider obviously needs to receive usage charges for each customer, issue an invoice, and support multiple billing models,... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Anyone know a website builder that can do this?
    And you can use Recurly for recurring payments. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Top 10 paywall services to look forward to in 2020
    Recurly is an enterprise-class subscription management software that reduces the complexities of subscription management in order to maximise and automate revenue growth.it uses an open platform approach to quickly link to a wide range of back-office systems. In addition to allowing lightweight and scalable custom integration, Recurly also has powerful out-of-the-box integrations with enterprise applications such... Source: over 3 years ago
  • For those of you running a SaaS business, how are you receiving recurring payments?
    We are using recurly, works fine too. But I think Stripe is definitely the leader in this area. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Notion and Recurly, you can also consider the following products

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

Chargebee - Chargebee lets you manage subscriptions and payments at scale, handle custom recurring billing scenarios, reduce subscription churn and simplify accounting.

Asana - Asana project management is an effort to re-imagine how we work together, through modern productivity software. Fast and versatile, Asana helps individuals and groups get more done.

Chargify - Chargify is the best online billing software for all of your Recurring Billing needs. Learn more about simplifying your Subscription Billing today.

Evernote - Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward.

Zuora - Zuora creates cloud-based software on a subscription basis that enables any company in any industry to successfully launch, manage, and transform into a subscription business.