Payments & subscriptions

Charging money. Stripe is the obvious choice but Lemon Squeezy + Paddle handle EU VAT for you, which is worth a lot if you're a solo founder.

Lemon SqueezyFREE TIER

5% + $0.50 per transaction

Merchant of Record — they handle EU VAT, US sales tax, refunds, chargebacks. Higher fees than Stripe but you save 100+ hours of accounting per year. The right default for solo SaaS.

Paddle

5% + $0.50 (similar to LemonSqueezy)

Same Merchant-of-Record model as LemonSqueezy, slightly more enterprise-friendly. Pick one of the two, it doesn't matter much.

Stripe

2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (lower in EU)

Cheapest fees and the best API by far. But you're on the hook for EU VAT, US sales tax, and chargebacks. Use Stripe if you have an accountant or your customers are mostly US-based.

PolarFREE TIER

4% + Stripe fees

Newer Merchant-of-Record built for indie devs. GitHub-native, very clean UI. Worth watching but smaller ecosystem than Lemon Squeezy.

Get the launch email

When the paid tier launches, the 3 people on the waitlist get a one-time email + a free upgrade. No spam. Single email.