Stigg

Stigg is a runtime layer for controlling access, measuring consumption, and governing spend in software products, especially AI services. It suits engineering teams that need those controls alongside an existing billing provider. The main drawback is that the free tier’s event allowance can be limiting before paid service starts at $399 per month on annual billing.

Overview

Stigg combines credits, entitlements, metering, and governance in the runtime path of an application. It works on top of billing systems rather than replacing them, offering bi-directional synchronization with providers including Stripe and Zuora. That positioning makes it a practical addition to an established billing stack, but a less direct choice for a company seeking a complete billing platform by itself.

Its controls are designed to act while usage occurs. Stigg states that entitlement checks run at p99 latency below 10ms, while per-user, per-team, and per-agent budget caps are enforced at call time. For AI products, that distinction matters: teams can stop or restrict expensive activity instead of discovering overruns only in reports.

Key features

Credits and entitlements

The credits engine supports wallets, ledgers, burn-downs, expiry rules, and priority consumption. Those primitives can represent prepaid balances, promotional credits, or consumption order without forcing every product into one billing model. Entitlement logic can be changed outside the codebase and without a deployment, which is valuable when commercial access rules change faster than application releases.

Usage metering and governance

Stigg meters and aggregates tokens, inference calls, and agent actions, with stated throughput above 1M events per second. That scale is aimed at high-volume AI workloads rather than small internal tools. Budget caps for users, teams, and agents add operational guardrails, though teams still need to design the policies that determine when and how those caps apply.

Billing and deployment

Supported billing models include subscription, usage-based, per-unit, credits, and hybrid structures. Stigg offers a hosted Cloud API, deployment in a customer cloud through BYOC, and bring-your-own-database deployment. Its Trust Center lists ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 1 Type 2, and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, plus penetration-test, security-whitepaper, data-processing, and business-continuity documentation.

Pricing

Build

The free Build plan is free forever and includes 10,000 managed entities, 5M usage events per month, 1K events per second, the full credits and entitlements engine, Stripe and HubSpot integrations, and community support. It is a credible starting point for a small product or proof of concept, but the 5M-event ceiling and lower throughput leave less room for a rapidly growing AI service.

Pro

Pro costs $399 per month when billed annually, or $499 per month when billed monthly. Both versions include 10,000 entities, 25M monthly events, 10K events per second, standard support with a two-hour Sev1 SLA, and a 99.95% SLA. Graduated pricing applies beyond the annual plan’s included event volume. Annual billing saves $100 per month compared with monthly billing, while monthly billing reduces commitment.

Scale and BYOC

Scale uses custom pricing and starts with committed entity blocks from 50K and committed event volumes. It raises throughput to 50K events per second, upgradeable to 100K, and adds RBAC, SAML SSO, premium support, and a 99.99% SLA. BYOC also uses custom pricing, with committed-block entity capacity, a fixed license fee and service, 1M+ events per second, BYOC or BYODB deployment, and 24/7 support. These plans target organizations with stricter control, volume, or hosting requirements rather than budget-conscious teams.

Platforms

Stigg is offered through an API, web interface, and self-hosted deployment options. Cloud API suits teams that want a managed service; BYOC and BYODB address organizations that need deployment or data infrastructure in their own environment.

Who it's for

Stigg is best for engineering teams building AI products with variable, potentially costly usage and an existing billing provider. It is particularly suitable when entitlements must change without releases, usage must be measured at high throughput, and budgets must be enforced per user, team, or agent. Teams that only need basic invoicing, or that have low and predictable usage, may find its runtime governance unnecessary.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Runtime enforcement: sub-10ms p99 entitlement checks and call-time budget caps address overspending before it compounds.
• Flexible credit accounting: wallets, ledgers, expiry, burn-downs, and priority consumption support varied prepaid and usage designs.
• High stated capacity: metering above 1M events per second and Scale/BYOC capacity suit demanding AI workloads.
• Deployment choice: hosted, BYOC, and BYODB options accommodate different infrastructure and control requirements.
• Established billing compatibility: bi-directional synchronization with Stripe and Zuora avoids replacing an existing provider.

Cons

• Free-tier ceiling: Build stops at 5M monthly events and 1K events per second, which may be restrictive as an AI product grows.
• Meaningful paid commitment: Pro starts at $399 monthly on annual billing, with $499 monthly billing, before graduated overage pricing.
• Custom-plan budgeting: Scale and BYOC prices are custom, making enterprise cost planning less immediate.
• Not a standalone billing replacement: its value depends on layering runtime controls onto another billing provider.

Alternatives

API Monetization Software is a useful broader category for comparing products that focus on monetizing APIs.

Gravitee API Gateway is the better choice when an API gateway and an Apache 2.0 community edition matter more than Stigg’s credit and entitlement runtime.

Kong Gateway suits teams wanting a gateway with a 30-day no-card trial and no gateway limits during that trial.

Lago is preferable when an AGPLv3 open-source, self-hosted billing foundation is the priority.

Moesif fits teams seeking API analytics with a 14-day trial before its free tier.

Revenium is a lighter starting point for observing up to 100,000 transactions per month with one user and community support.

Zuplo is suited to smaller API programs that can stay within 100,000 requests per month on its free plan.

Apigee API hub is an option for eligible Apigee organizations in supported regions that want the hub at no additional cost.

Flexprice is worth considering when a web-based free plan covering 100,000 events per month and tax management is sufficient.

Verdict

Choose Stigg if your engineering team needs fast, policy-driven control over AI usage, credits, entitlements, and budgets while retaining an existing billing provider. Its strongest case is the combination of runtime enforcement, flexible credit logic, and high-volume metering. Look elsewhere if you need a standalone billing system, a simple API gateway, or materially more headroom than the free plan provides without committing to paid or custom pricing.