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Every vendor on this page meters usage or moves money. We compile a business: the gateway that enforces it, the meter that counts it, the Stripe billing that settles it, and the portal that sells it — from one TypeScript file.
It consolidated. Between May 2025 and July 2026, four independent usage-metering and billing vendors were acquired by larger platforms and one shut down. The pieces — metering, rating, invoicing — are being folded into bigger suites. We found no acquirer assembling the whole loop: gateway, metering, billing, portal, and docs as one system.
Moesif → WSO2. The API analytics and monetization vendor was acquired by WSO2 (EQT-owned) in an all-cash deal.
OpenMeter → Kong. Announced September 3, 2025; “OpenMeter Cloud is now Kong Metering & Billing,” with migration completing through mid-2026 (openmeter.io, Kong press room).
Metronome → Stripe. Closed January 14, 2026, reported at roughly $1 billion. Stripe’s own pricing page now routes complex usage-based billing to Metronome (Stripe newsroom, Metronome announcement, stripe.com/billing/pricing).
m3ter → Salesforce. Closed July 1, 2026, folding into Agentforce Revenue Management (Salesforce announcement).
Archetype. No longer operating as of 2026 — the domain is parked, and the founder has since launched an unrelated payments company.
The market is consolidating the pieces. We started from the whole.
No single vendor we surveyed combines pricing declared in TypeScript, an edge gateway that issues customer API keys and enforces plans for your own API, exact edge metering, Stripe-settled billing with prepaid credits, a hosted branded subscriber portal, hosted docs, and CLI/MCP operability. Each covers a subset; the table below shows which.
| Vendor | Gateway for your API | Usage metering | Billing engine | Settles money | Subscriber portal | Hosted docs | Pricing as code | CLI / MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farther Shore | Yesedge keys · plan limits | Yesat the edge | Yes | Via Stripeyour connected account | Yessignup · checkout · keys · usage | Yes | Yesone TypeScript file | YesCLI + MCP |
| Stripe Billing + Metronome | None found | Yesvia Metronome | Yes | Yesown rails | Partialbilling-only portal | None found | Partialimperative API, not declarative | YesStripe MCP · ACP |
| Kong Konnect + OpenMeter | Yesmature gateway | Yesanalytics + OpenMeter | YesGA Dec 2025 | Nobring your own Stripe key | Partialdev portal · Stripe Checkout link | YesAPI docs | PartialdecK/Terraform; billing plans — none found | Partial |
| Zuplo | YesTS-first gateway | Yes | NoStripe wrapper, per their docs | NoStripe Checkout handoff | Partialdocs-centric | YesOpenAPI · Zudoku | YesTS policies | PartialMCP generation |
| Orb | None found | Yes | Yes | None found | Partialinvoice/usage portal, signed URLs | None found | Nodashboard-configured | None found |
| Lago | No | Yesevents you send | Yes | NoStripe · Adyen · GoCardless | PartialPremium-gated iframe | None found | None found | Partialagent-toolkit repo |
| Moesif | Nonot a gateway, per their docs | Yescore strength | Partialpushes to Stripe · Chargebee · others | No | NoOSS app you deploy | No | Partialdashboard | None found |
| Stigg | No | Partialentitlements + credits runtime | Nosits on your billing provider | No | None found | None found | None foundno file-based config found | None found |
| Schematic | None found | Partialentitlements layer | Nolayer on Stripe | No | Partialembeddable React components | None found | None found | Yesopen-source admin MCP |
| Paid.ai | NoSDK/OTel wrapper — no keys or limits | YesSDK · OTel | Yes | Yesbilling + payments | None found | None found | None found | None found |
| LiteLLM | InternalLLM proxy for your own org | Yesinternal spend | Nocannot bill third parties | No | Noadmin UI only | No | PartialYAML, internal | YesMCP gateway |
A business.ts file declares plans, prices, meters, rate limits, and entitlements. Publishing compiles it into gateway enforcement at the edge, Stripe subscriptions and prices, exact usage metering, a branded subscriber portal with signup, checkout, keys, and usage, and hosted product docs — one source of truth, so limits, meters, and invoices cannot drift apart.
Gateway
Key auth, plan gates, and rate limits enforced at the edge on every request to your API.
Meters
Usage counted exactly at the edge — the same counts your invoices bill, so they cannot drift apart.
Billing
Plans and prices compiled into Stripe subscriptions, overage, and prepaid credits on your connected account.
Portal
A hosted, branded subscriber portal: signup, checkout, API keys, and usage dashboards.
Docs
Hosted product docs published from the same source of truth.
Agent surface
Every operation exposed over the CLI and MCP, so agents can run the business too.
Vendors that were acquired mid-flight, pivoted, or sit adjacent to this comparison rather than inside it — one line each, as of July 2026.
Not competitors: Stripe ACP, Google AP2, x402, and Skyfire are payment and identity rails, not platforms. We make your API a business agents can buy; these are rails agents pay with.
Choose by what you already have and what you must keep. If billing is a finance-team system, a dedicated engine may fit better; if you need self-hosted infrastructure, pick open source; if you run deep Stripe Billing integrations, stay close to Stripe. The honest cases for each vendor are below — and on every comparison page.
And honestly about us: Farther Shore is a young platform with an opinionated single-file model. We settle through Stripe only, there is no self-hosted option, and enterprise quote-to-cash (Salesforce, NetSuite, SAP) integrations are not our lane.
Head to head
We're not a Stripe alternative — we settle through Stripe. The comparison is everything around the charge.
Read the comparison
Gateway-first vs business-first: the closest architectural mirror in the market.
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TypeScript-first kinship, different compile target: gateway policies vs a whole business.
Read the comparison
Orb prices what happened. Farther Shore also decides what's allowed to happen.
Read the comparison
FAQ
No. Farther Shore settles money through Stripe — subscriptions, overage, and prepaid credits all ride Stripe's rails on your connected account. The comparison is everything around the charge: the edge gateway, customer API keys, metering, the subscriber portal, and hosted docs.
Metronome was acquired by Stripe (closed January 14, 2026, reported at about $1B). OpenMeter was acquired by Kong (announced September 3, 2025). Moesif was acquired by WSO2 (May 28, 2025). m3ter was acquired by Salesforce (closed July 1, 2026). Archetype is no longer operating as of 2026.
As of July 2026, across every vendor we surveyed, we found no other product that combines pricing declared in TypeScript, an edge gateway issuing customer API keys and enforcing plans for your own API, exact usage metering, Stripe-settled billing with prepaid credits, a hosted branded subscriber portal, hosted docs, and CLI/MCP operability in one system. Corrections welcome at [email protected].
Yes. Every operation on the platform is exposed over the CLI and MCP, and the business itself is a TypeScript file an agent can read, diff, and change through a normal pull-request flow.
No — Farther Shore is a hosted platform. If self-hosting a billing stack is a hard requirement, Lago and OpenMeter are real open-source options in this space.
It is a young platform with an opinionated single-file model. It settles through Stripe only, has no self-hosted option, and enterprise quote-to-cash integrations (Salesforce, NetSuite, SAP) are not its lane — m3ter and Metronome serve that world.
Keep comparing
Point Farther Shore at your API, describe the business in one TypeScript file, and publish. Gateway, meters, Stripe billing, portal, and docs ship as one compiled system.