Kill Bill

A subscription billing and payments platform you run yourself, covering catalogs, usage, invoices, gateways, tax and dunning.

5.8k stars, 975 forks Java On GitHub since October 2012

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Kill Bill at a glance

Open sourceYes, Apache-2.0No paid parts in the repository
Health60 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingFrom sourceSteps in the README
Interface2 languagesIncluding English and French
Issue repliesWithin ~27 daysMedian first reply; 40% of recent issues answered

What is Kill Bill?

Kill Bill has been in production since 2010 and handles the whole subscription lifecycle: product catalogs and pricing, trials and discounts, subscriptions, usage metering, invoicing, payments through several gateways, credits, tax and dunning for failed payments. It is modular, so you can switch off parts you do not need or keep an existing system for them, and plugins connect payment gateways and tax engines without forking the core. It runs on premises or in the cloud, and you can roll it out one business area at a time.

Good fit if

  • You run a SaaS or subscription business and want billing logic and customer data on your own servers.
  • You need to experiment with pricing models without a vendor's limits.

Look elsewhere if

  • Your pricing is mainly usage-based for APIs or AI products: Lago.
  • You only need to route card payments across processors: HyperSwitch.

Before you adopt it

Kill Bill is Apache-2.0 with no paid parts in the repository. A handful of developers maintain it steadily. It is aimed at engineering teams; expect integration work rather than a turnkey app, and plan your deployment from the project's documentation, since the repository includes no Docker setup.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

How to run Kill Bill yourself

Docker
No Docker files in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
2 languages: English and French

Install instructions: killbill.io or the README on GitHub.

Kill Bill health: is it still maintained?

60 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~49 days7 releases in 12 months; latest killbill-0.24.22
Issue repliesWithin ~27 daysMedian first reply; 40% of recent issues answered
Bus factorLow riskThe most active of 6 authors wrote 38% of recent commits
  • Activity
    45 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 28 October 2026.
    20 / 30
  • Contributors
    6 people wrote the 45 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 38% of them.
    11 / 20
  • Releases
    7 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, killbill-0.24.22, on 29 September 2026.
    17 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 40% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 27 days.
    7 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.6 of 10.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 6 November 2026. How the score works

Kill Bill security practices

OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

OpenSSF Scorecard4.6 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyNoNo SECURITY.md or similar

What each check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • Dangerous workflows10 / 10No risky patterns in GitHub Actions
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • Static analysis6 / 10Code is scanned for bugs on some changes
  • Code review4 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Branch protection0 / 10The main branch has no protection rules
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Pinned dependencies0 / 10Dependencies are not pinned to fixed versions
  • Security policy0 / 10No security policy
  • Token permissions0 / 10CI tokens have broad write rights

From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 19 October 2026. Checks that do not apply to Kill Bill are left out.

Kill Bill license: is it open source?

Kill Bill uses Apache-2.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. October 2012First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayApache-2.0.

Kill Bill for developers

Written in

  • Java 98%
  • JavaScript <1%
  • CSS <1%
  • Shell <1%
  • Mustache <1%
  • Other <1%

Getting involved

Contributing guideYesCONTRIBUTING.mdOpen issues244On GitHub
Authors, 90 days6Of 45 commits
DonationsGitHub SponsorsListed on GitHub

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to Kill Bill

  • LagoOpen Source Metering and Usage Based Billing API Consumption tracking, Subscription management, Pricing… 75 health · AGPL-3.0 · 10.8k stars
  • HyperSwitchOpen source, composable payments platform | PCI compliant | SaaS and Self-host options | Enables… 84 health · Apache-2.0 · 45.7k stars
  • LangfuseOpen source agent evals & observability: Trace, evaluate, and improve LLM applications with one open platform. 89 health · MIT · 37.1k stars
  • OpikDebug, evaluate, and monitor your LLM applications, RAG systems, and agentic workflows with comprehensive… 87 health · Apache-2.0 · 23.2k stars
  • code-serverVS Code in the browser 85 health · MIT · 79.8k stars

All 23 projects in Developer tools

Questions about Kill Bill

Is Kill Bill open source?

Yes. Kill Bill is published under Apache-2.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Kill Bill still maintained?

Its health score is 60 of 100 (actively developed). It had 45 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 28 October 2026, and its latest release came out on 29 September 2026.

How do I run Kill Bill?

The repository has no Docker files or app builds, so you build it from source. The README on GitHub has the steps.

What is Kill Bill written in?

Kill Bill is written mainly in Java (98% of the code), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is Kill Bill available in?

The repository has interface translations for 2 languages: English and French.

What are the alternatives to Kill Bill?

Close alternatives in the Developer tools category include Lago, HyperSwitch, Langfuse.