Cred vs Orb
Orb meters and invoices usage. Cred enforces the balance on every spend.
Orb is a usage-based billing engine: it ingests events, rates them against plans, and invoices. Its credit system is thorough, with per-customer ledgers built from credit blocks, multiple pricing units, expiry, recurring plan allocations, and automatic top-ups. Orb's docs recommend gating access with a locally cached flag updated by webhooks rather than checking the balance before each action.[1][2][3]
B2B SaaS and AI companies with finance teams that need usage or hybrid billing, invoicing, and revenue reporting.
Cred is a credit ledger with payments attached. Your server issues and deducts credits per user and credit type over a REST API; a deduct that would overdraw is rejected in the same call. Users buy packs through hosted Stripe checkout, subscribe for monthly credits, save a card for auto top-up, or pay with x402 stablecoins as an AI agent.
Developer teams selling prepaid credits, tokens, or points inside an app, who want balances, checkout, and spend enforcement without running a billing system.
Last reviewed November 2026 against Orb's public docs. Sources
Where each one
is the better pick.
Cred and Orb overlap, but they start from different places.
Where Cred is better
- Each deduct is checked against the live balance, so users can't overspend between webhooks
- Hosted checkout for end users to buy credit packs
- x402 so AI agents can buy credits or pay per call
- Self-serve start with a $10 pack instead of per-credit platform pricing
Side by side.
Capabilities of Cred and Orb, as documented in November 2026.
| Capability | Cred | Orb |
|---|---|---|
| Prepaid credit balance per user Credit blocks with an append-only ledger.[1] | ||
| Custom, non-monetary credit types One credit ledger per pricing unit.[2] | ||
| Balance enforced at spend time Balance API exists, but docs advise a cached flag updated by webhooks.[3] | ||
| Hosted checkout for buying credit packs No hosted page for end users to buy credits found.[3] | unverified | |
| Auto top-up when a balance runs low Threshold top-ups; spend caps are up to you.[1] | ||
| Subscriptions that grant recurring credits Plan credit allocations on a schedule.[4] | ||
| Credit expiry rules | ||
| Invoicing and revenue recognition | ||
| Open source / self-host Hosted service; the pricing page lists hosted plans only.[7] | ||
| AI agents pay with x402 Agentic payment methods via shared payment tokens; no x402.[6] | ||
| Pricing model | 1 CRD per API call. Packs from $10 for 1,000 calls, no monthly fee, no share of your revenue; Stripe's processing fees apply to your sales. | Business: $6.00 per Orb credit, about 0.60% of billing volume plus metered extras; 100 free credits. Enterprise: custom.[7] |
Cred vs Orb, answered
Is Cred an Orb alternative?
For prepaid credit products, yes: Cred keeps per-user balances, sells packs through hosted checkout, and rejects deducts that would overdraw. If you need usage rating, invoicing, and revenue recognition, Orb covers ground Cred does not.[1][5]
How does Orb enforce a zero credit balance?
Orb's docs recommend keeping a blocked flag in your app, updated from balance webhooks, and acknowledge a customer may make a small number of requests before being blocked. In Cred the deduct call itself fails with INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS when the balance is too low.[3]
Does Orb have hosted checkout for buying credits?
We found no hosted credit-purchase page in Orb's docs; purchases are described through your own dashboard. Cred's hosted checkout sells credit packs and adds them to the buyer's balance after payment.[3]
Related comparisons
Cred vs Metronome
Metronome runs enterprise commits. Cred runs self-serve credit wallets.
Cred vs Lago
Lago is open-source billing. Cred is a hosted credit ledger with checkout.
Cred vs Stripe Billing
Stripe invoices subscriptions. Cred runs the credit wallet in between.
Cred vs usage-based billing platforms
They invoice usage. We run credit economies.
Cred pricing
1 CRD per API call, no monthly fee.
Getting started
Create a project and issue your first credit in minutes.
Sources · last reviewed November 2026
- 1.Orb Docs: Prepurchase and credits
- 2.Orb Docs: Credit systems
- 3.Orb Docs: Product access
- 4.Orb Docs: Managing credits
- 5.Orb Docs: Revenue recognition
- 6.Orb blog: Shared payment tokens
- 7.Orb pricing
Product names are trademarks of their owners. Features change; if something here is out of date, tell us at hello@cred.diy and we'll correct it.
Your first credit is
one request away.
No card needed to start.