Merchant of Record Comparison for SaaS Payment Fees
Merchant of record comparison for SaaS. Stripe, Stripe Managed Payments, Paddle, Polar, Lemon Squeezy and Creem fees for your price, volume and tax.
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Checked
01Tool
Tool
Keeps the most
$9,338.00
Creem, after its fees
Revenue a month
$9,800.00
200 orders at $49.00
Net a month, highest first
Creem
Net a month $9,338.00
- Fee per order
- $2.31
- Fees a month
- $462.00
- Effective rate
- 4.71%
- Payout fees
- Not published
Files and pays the sales tax and VAT for you
- Does not say whether its percentage covers the tax, so it is applied to the total with tax.
Stripe
Net a month $9,328.80
- Fee per order
- $2.36
- Fees a month
- $471.20
- Effective rate
- 4.81%
- Payout fees
- $0.00
You register, file and pay the sales tax and VAT
Polar Pro
Net a month $9,243.33
- Fee per order
- $2.56
- Fees a month
- $556.67
- Effective rate
- 5.68%
- Payout fees
- $25.47
Files and pays the sales tax and VAT for you
- Polar's cheapest plan for these numbers. Every plan is listed below.
Paddle
Net a month $9,210.00
- Fee per order
- $2.95
- Fees a month
- $590.00
- Effective rate
- 6.02%
- Payout fees
- Not published
Files and pays the sales tax and VAT for you
- Does not say whether its percentage covers the tax, so it is applied to the total with tax.
- Nuxter has no Paddle adapter.
Lemon Squeezy
Net a month $9,101.60
- Fee per order
- $3.49
- Fees a month
- $698.40
- Effective rate
- 7.13%
- Payout fees
- $0.00
Files and pays the sales tax and VAT for you
- Lemon Squeezy says its goal is an easy way for its users to move to Stripe Managed Payments. Read Lemon Squeezy's post
Stripe Managed Payments
Net a month $8,985.60
- Fee per order
- $4.07
- Fees a month
- $814.40
- Effective rate
- 8.31%
- Payout fees
- $0.00
Files and pays the sales tax and VAT for you
- Includes Stripe Billing, which Stripe charges separately for subscriptions.
Net leaves out payout fees, which Creem and Paddle do not publish.
Every Polar plan
| Plan | Fees a month | Net a month | Beats Starter above |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFree | $674.33 | $9,125.67 | Baseline |
| Pro$20 a month | $556.67 | $9,243.33 | $1,420.29 a month |
| Growth$100 a month | $606.75 | $9,193.25 | $5,833.33 a month |
| Scale$400 a month | $878.02 | $8,921.98 | $19,918.70 a month |
02Guide
How it works
Processor or merchant of record
With a payment processor such as Stripe, your business is the seller. You may owe sales tax, VAT or GST where your buyers live, and registering, filing and paying it over are yours to do. Stripe Tax can calculate and collect it for you.
A merchant of record resells your product instead. It is the seller on the receipt, it collects and pays over the tax, and it takes the chargebacks. Paddle, Polar, Lemon Squeezy, Creem and Stripe Managed Payments all work this way, and each starts from a higher rate than Stripe's for doing so. Stripe's surcharges for non-US cards and for Billing can close that gap, which is why the order changes with your numbers.
What the comparison counts
Each provider's percentage applies to the total the buyer pays, tax included, which is how Polar and Lemon Squeezy document their fees. Orders on US and non-US cards are worked out separately, weighted by the share you enter, and each order's fee is rounded to the cent. Stripe's conversion fee applies to plain Stripe only, since Managed Payments converts through Adaptive Pricing at the buyer's expense.
Polar's plan fees and its payout fees are included, and so is Lemon Squeezy's payout fee for sellers outside the US. Disputes, refunds and PayPal payments are left out.
When the premium pays for itself
The gap between Stripe and a merchant of record buys the tax work: a registration in each place where you owe tax, a return on each one's schedule, and paying over what you collected. Stripe Tax Basic only calculates and collects, so with it the registrations and filings are still yours, unless you add Tax Complete. If you sell to consumers in many countries, weigh the premium against what that work would cost you.
Polar's plans
Polar has a free Starter plan and three paid plans that trade a monthly fee for a lower rate. Organizations created before Polar's plan change keep the Early Member rate for as long as they stay on it; upgrading to a paid plan retires it. The table's threshold for each paid plan counts sales before tax and leaves payout fees out.
Lemon Squeezy and Stripe Managed Payments
On January 28, 2026, Lemon Squeezy's co-founder JR Farr wrote: "Our goal is to provide Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate to Stripe Managed Payments." The post does not give a date for the move or new fees. Until Lemon Squeezy says more, the comparison uses the rates on its fee page and shows Managed Payments beside it.
03Rates
The numbers it uses
| Item | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic card Per successful payment | 2.9% + $0.30 | stripe.com |
| Non-US card | +1.5% | stripe.com |
| Currency conversion When Stripe has to convert the payment | +1% | stripe.com |
| Billing, pay as you go Of Billing volume, for subscriptions | 0.7% | stripe.com |
| Stripe Tax Basic, no-code Per payment where you're registered; calculates and collects only | 0.5% | stripe.com |
| Stripe Tax Complete Adds registrations and filings, on a one-year contract | From $90 a month | stripe.com |
| Payouts On Stripe's standard schedule | Free | stripe.com |
| Item | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Managed Payments Per successful payment, on top of Stripe's payment fees | +3.5% | stripe.com |
| Stripe Billing Priced separately from Managed Payments | Charged separately | stripe.com |
| Stripe Tax Managed Payments handles the tax itself | Not combined | docs.stripe.com |
| Currency conversion Adaptive Pricing, on by default, adds it to the buyer's price | Paid by the buyer | docs.stripe.com |
| Item | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout payment Per transaction | 5% + $0.50 | paddle.com |
| Monthly fee | None | paddle.com |
| Small orders Products under $10 | Quoted on request | paddle.com |
| Whether the fee covers the tax | Not published | paddle.com |
| Payout fees | Not published | paddle.com |
| Item | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Starter plan Free | 5% + $0.50 | polar.sh |
| Pro plan Plus $20 a month | 3.8% + $0.40 | polar.sh |
| Growth plan Plus $100 a month | 3.6% + $0.35 | polar.sh |
| Scale plan Plus $400 a month | 3.4% + $0.30 | polar.sh |
| Early Member rate Organizations created before May 27, 2026, until they upgrade | 4% + $0.40 | polar.sh |
| Early Member subscriptions The paid plans have no subscription fee | +0.5% | polar.sh |
| Non-US card Every plan | +1.5% | polar.sh |
| Payouts, monthly In a month with a payout | $2 a month | polar.sh |
| Each payout | 0.25% + $0.25 | polar.sh |
| Cross-border payout, EU | 0.25% | polar.sh |
| Cross-border payout, elsewhere | 1% | polar.sh |
| Dispute | $15 | polar.sh |
| Transaction fee on a refund | Not returned | polar.sh |
| Item | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee On the total order value | 5% + $0.50 | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| Non-US payment | +1.5% | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| PayPal payment | +1.5% | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| Subscription payment | +0.5% | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| Stripe payout to a US bank | Free | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| Stripe payout to a bank outside the US Per payout | 1% | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| PayPal payout, US Per payout | $0.50 | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| PayPal payout, outside the US Per payout, capped at $30 | 3% | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
| Small orders Products under $10 | Quoted on request | docs.lemonsqueezy.com |
04Questions
Questions
- Which payment provider has the lowest fees for a SaaS?
- It depends on your price, how many buyers pay with non-US cards and whether you sell subscriptions. A fixed fee per order weighs more on a small price, and the surcharges for international cards and subscriptions differ from one provider to the next, so the ranking moves as those change. Enter your own numbers above to see the order for your sales.
- What is a merchant of record?
- The merchant of record is the business that legally sells to your buyer. It charges the card, collects and pays over sales tax and VAT, and handles refunds and chargebacks, then pays you what is left after its fee. With plain Stripe, you are the merchant of record yourself.
- How much does Stripe Managed Payments cost?
- Stripe charges a percentage on each successful Managed Payments transaction, on top of its usual payment fees, so the surcharge for international cards still applies. Currency conversion goes through Adaptive Pricing, which Managed Payments turns on and the buyer pays for. Stripe prices Billing separately, so subscriptions pay its fee as well.
- What is happening to Lemon Squeezy?
- Lemon Squeezy is part of Stripe, and in January 2026 its co-founder wrote that the goal is to give Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate to Stripe Managed Payments. The post does not give a date for the move or new fees. Lemon Squeezy's fee page still lists its own rates, which this comparison uses.
- When does Polar's Pro plan become cheaper than Starter?
- When the monthly plan fee is smaller than what the lower rate saves you. Polar gives its thresholds in monthly sales, and they depend on your average order, because part of each fee is fixed per order. The comparison works out the threshold for your price beside each Polar plan.
- Do merchant of record fees apply to the sales tax or VAT part of a payment?
- For Polar and Lemon Squeezy, yes. Both charge their fee on the total including tax, and their own examples show it. Paddle and Creem do not say, so this comparison applies their fee to the total and marks the assumption.
05Sources
Sources
Every fact on this page was read from these pages on .
- Stripe, Pricingstripe.com/
pricing - Stripe, Pricing in the United Kingdomstripe.com/
gb/ pricing - Stripe, Managed Payments pricingstripe.com/
managed-payments - Stripe docs, Update your Checkout integration for Managed Paymentsdocs.stripe.com/
payments/ managed-payments/ update-checkout - Stripe docs, How Managed Payments worksdocs.stripe.com/
payments/ managed-payments/ how-it-works - Stripe docs, Adaptive Pricingdocs.stripe.com/
payments/ currencies/ localize-prices/ adaptive-pricing - Paddle, Pricingpaddle.com/
pricing - Polar docs, Feespolar.sh/
docs/ merchant-of-record/ fees - Polar docs, Merchant of Recordpolar.sh/
docs/ merchant-of-record/ introduction - Lemon Squeezy docs, Feesdocs.lemonsqueezy.com/
help/ getting-started/ fees - Lemon Squeezy, 2026 Update, Lemon Squeezy + Stripe Managed Paymentslemonsqueezy.com/
blog/ 2026-update - Creem, Pricingcreem.io/
pricing
Found something out of date? Tell us.
Nuxter
Building a SaaS on Nuxt?
Nuxter ships adapters for Stripe, with or without Managed Payments, Polar, Lemon Squeezy and Creem, each on the provider's hosted checkout. Choose on fees; the adapter is already in the kit.