QuestDB, a startup that develops a high-performance time series database, was on a quest of its own: to put in place a robust, reliable billing solution that could keep pace with its dynamic business needs.

The developers at QuestDB were initially up for the challenge of building their own billing system—until they realized it would be very inefficient and time-consuming to build as they scaled and launched additional products and features. 

With the upcoming product launch of QuestDB Cloud and a fast-growing customer base, the team knew they needed a widely adopted, tested, and long-term billing partner to support both their immediate and future needs.

When QuestDB was deciding whether to build its own billing system or partner up with a provider, the team had clear evaluation criteria. They needed a solution that could meter usage, manage a credit grant system, generate invoices based on usage and custom pricing plans, and handle payments through their existing providers.

Before Metronome, the team had been manually calculating and generating PDF invoices via Excel and realized early on that this process needed to be more scalable. The ability to offload calculations complexity to a partner was paramount in their considerations. 

Success for QuestDB would require an automated solution that was robust and battle-tested, something that Metronome uniquely provided. Several alternatives were evaluated, but these were deemed too inflexible or missing the complete set of features to run their billing operations.

Billing that integrates with their revenue tech stack

During the evaluation process, Metronome stood out. Key factors included easy integration with Stripe and AWS Marketplace for payments and with Anrok for tax compliance. Metronome's embeddable dashboards made it easy to provide customers with real-time transparency and spend management information. Additionally, proven deployments from fast-growing companies, such as OpenAI, were particularly influential. OpenAI's credit grant system was similar to QuestDB’s use case and demonstrated that companies operating at high scale were effectively managing pricing and credits with Metronome. 

Fast implementation, designed for the long-term

Metronome provided a straightforward and comprehensive deployment plan, and QuestDB was able to test the system in a sandbox environment before switching to production. In addition to developer-friendly APIs, Metronome’s user-friendly UI made it easy to get business users up and running, which democratized access to metering and billing data. The UI also allowed the team to easily test out the product and understand how to manage and update customers, plans, and pricing in a sandbox environment before going live in production. 

Throughout the process, Metronome provided exceptional support, finding the ideal solution for QuestDB's setup and even adding some features based on their specific needs. The responsive communication between Metronome and QuestDB through a shared Slack channel proved very helpful in reducing the time to get feedback or address questions.

QuestDB’s Business Operations Manager, Sandro Büchel, shared, "Metronome helped us create the ideal setup for billing that would scale with us in the long term and support pricing changes and future products. The team dove into what we needed, how our pricing works, what products we have, and put all that into Metronome’s language."

Reliable billing operations with automated invoicing

Today, Metronome serves as the bridge between QuestDB's product and its revenue workflows. It’s now easier for QuestDB to programmatically grant and track credits for customers, and native integrations with Stripe, AWS Marketplace, and Anrok allow for seamless, automated processing of invoices and streamlined accounting operations.

Metronome's reliable performance also means that QuestDB can focus on its core operations without worrying about billing issues.

6 months of engineering time saved

By choosing Metronome, QuestDB was able to bring its new product to market much faster. Without the need to invest engineering resources into the billing system, the team could focus on product development and preparing for launch.

"We were able to launch our new product, QuestDB Cloud, faster because of Metronome. We saved 6 months of engineering time by not having to build a billing system ourselves. Our engineers were able to use that time to build out additional features for launch instead of working on billing."

Scalable system—and partnership

Beyond the quantifiable time savings, Metronome's guidance and support exceeded expectations by sharing best practices, providing a solutions-oriented approach, and a hands-on implementation. As QuestDB's user base continues to grow, Metronome is built and prepared to scale with them—so that billing is never a bottleneck. It’s clear that Metronome is not only a billing solution for QuestDB, but also a key partner in its ongoing success.

"Everyone at Metronome has made us feel like a valued customer. With any challenges we’ve run into, the team was able to offer a solution and prioritize requests so we could have a smooth product launch. With Metronome, we have a robust billing platform that does what it promises.”

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If you’re interested in learning more about Metronome and how we can support your billing needs, you can contact us here.