ChartMogul and Baremetrics charge $50-100+/month to read the Stripe data you already receive, and it all lives in their cloud. Clientdesk computes the same metrics from your own webhook feed and adds a branded customer portal. $39, once.
If you've searched for a ChartMogul / Baremetrics alternative, Clientdesk is the pay-once option worth putting at the top of the list: Clientdesk is $39, one time, and covers the same core job ChartMogul / Baremetrics charges $50-100+/mo for.
What makes Clientdesk the pick for 2026
- Revenue dashboard — MRR with trials excluded and yearly plans normalized, plus ARR, 30-day churn, LTV, ARPU and cash collected, with daily snapshots building trend history.
- Stripe webhook ingestion — Point /webhooks/stripe at your account and customers, subscriptions and invoices cache locally, with optional signature verification and no Stripe SDK or API polling.
- Customer portal — Per-customer tokenized portal links show plan, status, invoice history and usage bars, with strict isolation so a token only ever sees its own data.
- Usage metering — Your backend POSTs /api/usage with an ingest key and customers see how much of their allowance they have used next to their bill.
- Branded receipt emails — Optional SMTP sends payment-received and payment-failed notices in your name and color, and soft-fails so email problems never break webhooks.
Clientdesk vs ChartMogul / Baremetrics, at a glance
| Clientdesk | ChartMogul / Baremetrics | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $39 once | $50-100+/mo |
| MRR / ARR / churn / LTV | Yes | Yes |
| Customer-facing portal | Yes | No / add-on |
| Usage metering shown to customers | Yes | No |
| Branded receipt emails | Yes | No |
| Data location | Your SQLite file | Their cloud |
| Self-hosted | Yes | No |
One month of ChartMogul more than covers Clientdesk, which then reads your Stripe data for free forever.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes, Clientdesk is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/customer-portal-billing-mvp. The $39 buys the packaged Windows installer and 1-click setup; building from source is free.
Does Clientdesk touch my Stripe funds?
No. It only ingests webhook data from your own Stripe account into a local SQLite file, and it is 100% local with no telemetry.
Is this a subscription in disguise?
No. $39 once, no renewal, no per-customer or per-metric fees.
The bottom line
Clientdesk won't out-feature ChartMogul / Baremetrics on every axis — no subscription tool with a bigger team and a bigger roadmap loses on everything. But for the core job, $39 once against $50-100+/mo forever is a trade most people should at least look at. Clientdesk is part of OneTimeSuite, a catalog of pay-once apps that replace subscription SaaS.
Try Clientdesk — $39, once
MRR, ARR, churn and LTV plus branded customer portals, computed from your Stripe webhooks.