Payment fee comparison.
Put one sale through Stripe, PayPal, Polar, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Dodo Payments, Gumroad and Whop, and see what each one leaves you. Stripe and Whop appear with and without tax handling, because a processor and a merchant of record don't do the same job.
Free · 9 providers · Rates checked September 2026
Your sale
Merchant of record fees are published in US dollars.
The price before any sales tax or VAT.
Your customers
Stripe, PayPal, Polar, Lemon Squeezy, Dodo Payments and Whop add 1.5% on these.
Lemon Squeezy and Dodo Payments add 0.5% on subscriptions. Stripe adds Billing's 0.7%.
Volume and tax
For monthly totals and plan fees.
Fees apply to the total including tax.
Building a SaaS?
Stripe would leave you $1,050.00 more a month than Gumroad on these numbers. SyntaxKit runs on Stripe, Polar or Creem, and switching between them is one setting.
$97.00
Whop takes $3.00 (3% of the price).
- Price
- $100.00
- Card processing2.7% + 30¢
- −$3.00
- You keep per sale
- $97.00
- Per monthfees / you keep
- $300.00 / $9,700.00
Building a SaaS?
Stripe would leave you $1,050.00 more a month than Gumroad on these numbers. SyntaxKit runs on Stripe, Polar or Creem, and switching between them is one setting.
The same sale on every provider.
Lowest total fees first, counting monthly plan fees. A merchant of record collects and pays sales tax and VAT for you.
Polar is shown on the plan that leaves you the most at your monthly volume. Unless you pick otherwise above, Gumroad is shown on direct sales and PayPal on its checkout rate. Payout, dispute and refund costs are covered further down.
Every provider's fees in one table.
Rates checked against each provider's own pricing page on and . Providers change pricing; confirm on their site before you commit.
What you keep at common SaaS prices.
What the extra 2% buys.
With Stripeyou are the seller. Once you pass a country's or state's threshold you register there, charge the right tax, and file returns. Stripe Tax calculates the amount for 0.5% but leaves the registering and filing to you.
A merchant of record buys your product and resells it to the customer, so the tax obligation is theirs. That is what the higher fee pays for, along with fraud handling, invoices and chargeback disputes. For a small team selling to the EU and many US states, it often costs less than the accountant it replaces.
Picking one is also a code decision: checkout, webhooks and the customer portal work differently on each. See the Stripe fee calculator for account-country pricing, and the Polar calculator to find the plan that fits your volume.
Costs the per-sale fee leaves out.
Payment fee questions.
Is Paddle more expensive than Stripe?
Per transaction, yes. Paddle charges 5% + 50¢ against Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ in the US, so on a $29 sale Paddle takes $1.95 and Stripe $1.14. Paddle's fee includes collecting and remitting sales tax and VAT worldwide, which Stripe leaves to you unless you add Managed Payments for 3.5%.
Is Lemon Squeezy cheaper than Stripe?
No. Lemon Squeezy starts at 5% + 50¢ and adds 1.5% for non-US payments, 1.5% for PayPal and 0.5% on subscriptions. It is a merchant of record, so like Paddle its fee covers sales tax handling that Stripe doesn't.
What does a merchant of record charge?
Between 3.4% + 30¢ (Polar's Scale plan, $400 a month) and 5% + 50¢ (Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar Starter). Creem charges 3.9% + 40¢ with no international surcharge. Stripe Managed Payments adds 3.5% to Stripe's normal card fees.
Which payment provider is cheapest for small transactions?
The fixed fee decides it. On a $10 sale Stripe keeps you $9.41, Creem $9.21 and Paddle $9.00. Paddle only offers custom pricing for products under $10.
Which is cheapest for a SaaS selling worldwide?
For a $29 subscription where half the customers pay with a non-US card, the order is Whop ($27.70), Creem ($27.47), Stripe ($27.44), Stripe + Stripe Tax ($27.29). International surcharges and Stripe Billing close most of the gap between Stripe and the merchants of record, and Stripe still leaves tax registration and filing to you.
Is PayPal cheaper than Stripe?
No, for checkout payments. On a $29 sale PayPal Checkout takes $1.50 and Stripe $1.14. Both are payment processors, so with either one you handle sales tax and VAT yourself.
What does Gumroad charge compared with a merchant of record?
Much more on direct sales: 10% + 50¢ plus 2.9% + 30¢ processing. On a $29 sale Gumroad leaves you $24.46 and Creem $27.47. Both handle sales tax for you.
What is Stripe Managed Payments?
Stripe's merchant of record option. Stripe becomes the seller and handles global sales tax and VAT, for 3.5% of the transaction on top of the normal payment and Billing fees. It is Stripe's path forward for Lemon Squeezy merchants.
Did Stripe acquire Lemon Squeezy?
Yes, in 2024. In January 2026 Lemon Squeezy described Stripe Managed Payments as its future and promised an easy migration path. It still runs and publishes its own pricing.
Do merchant of record fees include sales tax and VAT?
The fee covers handling the tax, not the tax itself. The customer pays the tax on top of your price, the merchant of record remits it, and the percentage fee is charged on the total including tax. Enter your tax rate in the calculator to include that.
Pick a payment provider. Keep your code.
SyntaxKit is a Next.js SaaS starter kit with billing already built. Start on Stripe, Polar or Creem and switch later with one setting: your plans, checkout and access rules stay exactly the same.
- Hosted checkout and customer portal
- Plans, prices and feature limits in one file
- Webhooks that stay correct when retried
- Per-seat plans, and usage billing on Stripe
- Refunds and disputes end access automatically
- Invoices and AI usage on the billing page
From $199 · one-time payment · lifetime updates
Payment provider
- Free3 projects$0/mo
- ProUnlimited projects, AI chat$29/mo
- Team5 seats, roles and invites$79/mo
Checkout byStripe
Same plans, same checkout code
Related tools.
All free tools- Stripe fee calculatorStripe's fee and your payout for any amount, or what to charge to keep a target. US, EU and UK pricing with Billing, Tax and Managed Payments.
- Polar fee calculatorPolar.sh fees on every plan, from Starter to Scale, and the plan that costs least at your volume.
- Lemon Squeezy fee calculatorLemon Squeezy's base fee plus its international, subscription and PayPal surcharges, and what you keep.