The Recurly Alternative Built for Retention-First D2C Businesses
Recurly handles billing. Cleeng is the subscriber infrastructure for D2C — MoR, AI churn prediction, and customer care in one stack. Proof of Concept ready in 60 minutes.
Trusted by leading streaming platforms
Measurable outcomes at enterprise scale
Recurly handles billing. Cleeng handles growth.
D2C businesses outgrow Recurly when they realise billing is table stakes. They need retention, payments, and support working together — not bolted together.
One infrastructure, not five tools
Cleeng replaces your billing tool, tax system, churn analytics, customer care platform, and payment gateway. Stop maintaining integrations between tools that don't talk to each other.
MoR — no tax liability on your desk
As your Merchant of Record, Cleeng handles payment processing, global tax remittance, chargebacks, and fraud. Recurly leaves all of that to you or to third-party add-ons.
Predict churn before it happens
ChurnIQ's ML engine analyzes 80+ signals — content consumption, billing behavior, offer history — to predict cancellations early and trigger targeted winbacks automatically.
Cleeng vs Recurly
What you gain when you choose Cleeng as your Recurly alternative for D2C.
| Feature | CleengSubscriber Infrastructure | RecurlyBilling platform |
|---|---|---|
| Payments & Compliance | ||
Merchant of Record Legal liability for tax, chargebacks, fraud | Native MoR — checkout, tax remittance, chargebacks, fraud included | Not native — MoR only via third-party (Reach); merchant retains tax liability |
Payment Methods Local and global payment coverage | 200+ payment options , global currencies | Broad payment methods via gateway integrations |
| Retention & Analytics | ||
AI Churn Prediction Proactive ML-driven retention | ChurnIQ — AI-powered churn prediction, segmentation, automated winbacks | Churn analytics & dunning — less predictive AI capability |
Analytics Depth Lifecycle-wide visibility | 80+ dashboards: payments, behavior, churn, support — one view | Subscription analytics, KPIs, customizable reports |
| Customer Support | ||
Integrated Customer Care Support tied to billing and subscription data | Hi5 — AI-enhanced chatbot + support center, integrated with subscriber data | Requires a third-party support solution |
| AI & Automation | ||
Agentic AI AI that acts, not just answers | AI Agents — proactively analyzes churn risks, executes workflows, creates pricing plans, generates reports. No dashboards required. | AI-powered analytics and search — no agentic execution layer |
| Platform & Focus | ||
Industry Specialization Platform built for your business model | Purpose-built for D2C, OTT, sports, media & entertainment | Horizontal platform: SaaS, e-commerce, digital media |
Pricing Transparency Predictable total cost of ownership | Managed User pricing, defined add-ons, no hidden fees | Platform fee + transaction fees + gateway costs add up |
One stack replaces five legacy vendors
Stop juggling separate identity systems, payment providers, tax tools, and BPOs. Cleeng's SRM® suite is your complete subscriber infrastructure — across every device and channel.
Subscriber Management
Offers, billing, entitlements, upgrades, pausing — across web, mobile, and TV apps.
Merchant of Record
Payments, tax calculation, remittance, chargebacks, and fraud — fully handled.
Churn Intelligence
AI-powered prediction, subscriber segmentation, and automated retention campaigns.
Customer Care
AI-enhanced support center integrated with subscription and payment data in real time.
AI Agents that act on churn — before you even notice it
Cleeng's agentic AI doesn't just answer questions — it proactively analyzes churn risks, executes workflows, creates pricing plans, and generates reports across your entire subscriber dataset. Tasks that took hours now take a single conversation.
"Cleeng is completely invisible to the end user which is exactly what we wanted. They just subscribe, enter their username and password, and it works on all their devices."
Brett Jubinville
CCO at Skyship Entertainment
Migration is easier than you think
We've migrated hundreds of subscription businesses. Your subscriber data, billing history, and payment methods come with you — without downtime or data loss.
We map your Recurly subscriber records, plans, and billing data to Cleeng's structure.
Run both platforms in parallel. Validate every subscriber, offer, and entitlement before cutover.
Switch traffic on your timeline. Subscribers experience zero interruption.
Ready to migrate from Recurly?
Our migration guide covers the full process — data export, subscriber transfer, testing, and go-live checklist. Our team supports every step of the way.
The Recurly alternative D2C businesses choose
Join NHL, NHK, MXGP, and dozens of streaming businesses that consolidated their subscriber stack into Cleeng.
No commitment required · Implementation support included · Cancel anytime