Valkyrie vs Recoura: failed payment recovery compared
Recoura is the closest thing on this list to a like-for-like tool: focused recovery, not a full retention suite. The real difference is who does the work and who carries the risk. Recoura charges you every month and hands you the tools. Valkyrie does the recovery for you and only gets paid when you do.
What each product is
Valkyrie connects to Stripe, identifies hard-decline failures Smart Retries can't fix, and emails the customer to ask them to update their card, billing 25% of what's actually recovered.
Recoura offers a free dashboard showing revenue at risk (connect Stripe or Square, no card required), then flat monthly plans to unlock recovery actions: manual recovery, automated email campaigns, in-app banners, and AI-drafted reminders at the higher tier.
| Valkyrie | Recoura | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | 25% of recovered revenue only | Flat monthly fee, two paid tiers |
| Starting cost | $0 until something's recovered | Free dashboard; $39/mo discounted (Recovery plan) |
| Higher tier | Same 25% rate | $79/mo discounted (Growth, unlimited recovery) |
| Processors supported | Stripe only | Stripe and Square |
| Free trial | Free 90-day scan before paying anything | Free dashboard tier, plus 14-day trial on paid plans |
| Contract | None, cancel any time | Not specified on their pricing content; appears to be monthly subscription |
The real cost of a flat fee
A $79 sticker price looks small, but it's a fee you pay whether you recover $5,000 or nothing at all, and what you're buying is a set of recovery tools to configure and run yourself. Valkyrie is done for you: we find the failed payments, send the branded outreach, and trace every recovery end to end. You pay 25% of what comes back above Stripe's own baseline, with no recovery cap and nothing owed in a quiet month.
The catch with Recoura
A fixed monthly bill regardless of results, a $5k monthly recovery cap on the cheaper plan, and a toolkit you have to set up and manage yourself.
Why Valkyrie wins
Done-for-you recovery with no fixed fee and no cap. We do the work, show you a full trail for every recovery, and only charge on real lift above what Stripe would have won anyway. A free 90-day scan shows you the real number first.
Related decline codes
See your real recoverable number first
Connect Stripe for a free 90-day scan, no commitment either way. Or try the calculator for a quick estimate.
Connect Stripe freePrices checked October 2026. Source: Recoura homepage/pricing (Recoura did not have a separate dedicated pricing page URL at time of checking).