Payments

Accept payments, manage subscriptions, and handle billing. Compare 4 tools with verified pricing and honest trade-offs.

Stripe

stripe.com

The industry-standard payments infrastructure for the internet — powerful, developer-first, and globally supported.

Best for: Products that need full control over the payment experience and plan to scale internationally 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (US cards). No monthly fees
Key Features
  • Comprehensive API for one-time payments, subscriptions, invoicing, and marketplaces
  • Available in 46+ countries with support for 135+ currencies
  • Extensive documentation and SDKs for all major languages and frameworks
Limitations
  • You are responsible for handling sales tax / VAT — Stripe does not handle this automatically without additional configuration or tools
  • More setup complexity than Lemon Squeezy for simple digital product sales
  • Per-transaction fees add up for high-volume, low-value transactions
Pricing verified March 2026

Lemon Squeezy

lemonsqueezy.com

Merchant of Record platform for selling digital products — they handle sales tax globally so you don't have to.

Best for: Indie hackers selling digital products, SaaS subscriptions, or software licenses who want zero tax complexity 5% + $0.50 per transaction. No monthly fee
Key Features
  • Merchant of Record model — Lemon Squeezy handles sales tax and VAT in 100+ countries
  • Built-in checkout, customer portal, and subscription management
  • License key delivery for software products
Limitations
  • Higher transaction fee (5% + $0.50) compared to Stripe
  • Less customizable checkout experience than Stripe
  • Fewer integrations and a smaller ecosystem than Stripe
Pricing verified March 2026

Gumroad

gumroad.com

Simple storefront for creators and indie makers to sell digital products with no upfront setup.

Best for: Creators and indie makers selling one-off digital products (templates, ebooks, assets) with minimal setup 10% platform fee on sales (no monthly fee). Reduced to 5% after $1M lifetime
Key Features
  • Extremely simple setup — a product page in minutes, no coding required
  • Handles payments, delivery, and basic analytics
  • Built-in audience discovery for creators
Limitations
  • 10% fee is the highest of any option here — not suitable for high-volume or high-margin products
  • Limited customization for checkout and storefront
  • Less suitable for SaaS subscriptions or software licensing
Pricing verified March 2026

Paddle

paddle.com

Merchant of Record platform for SaaS companies with built-in billing, tax handling, and subscription management.

Best for: SaaS companies that want a Merchant of Record model with enterprise-grade billing features and global compliance 5% + $0.50 per transaction. No monthly fee on Starter plan
Key Features
  • Merchant of Record — handles global tax compliance automatically
  • Advanced subscription management, trials, and upgrade/downgrade flows
  • Fraud protection and chargeback management included
Limitations
  • More complex setup than Lemon Squeezy — aimed at more mature SaaS products
  • Higher transaction fee than Stripe
  • Approval process required — not instant access
Pricing verified March 2026

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