Stripe vs Paddle
Stripe vs Paddle: 2.9% + 30¢ (Payment processor) and 5% + 50¢ (Merchant of Record). Compare seller eligibility, tax responsibilities, payouts and subscription portability.
The useful answer
These products have different roles: Stripe is a payment processor, while Paddle is a merchant of record. Investigate Stripe for teams building a custom payment and billing experience; investigate Paddle for software and saas businesses that want an mor. Neither wins for every country or workflow.
| Decision factor | Stripe | Paddle |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Payment processor | Merchant of Record |
| Public headline | 2.9% + 30¢ US domestic cards · Payments | 5% + 50¢ Standard checkout · USD |
| Best investigated for | Teams building a custom payment and billing experience Businesses in supported merchant markets | Software and SaaS businesses that want an MoR Teams that want billing and transaction-tax handling together |
| Stripe relationship | This is the Stripe Payments baseline. Stripe also offers Managed Payments, a separate merchant-of-record product. | No personal Stripe account required. An exclusive upstream processing dependency was not established by this research. |
| Seller eligibility | The country filter uses a documented subset of Stripe merchant markets, not all buyer countries. India is conditional/preview. Approval, legal entity, owners and bank requirements still apply. | Paddle describes worldwide software-business support with explicit country and territory exclusions. All matches here remain conditional on business and product review. Buyer-country restrictions are separate. |
| Payout considerations | Standard payout timing and first-payout delays depend on market, business and account. Stripe can set reserves. Standard scheduled payouts and optional instant payouts have different fees and eligibility. | Monthly payouts. Once the minimum balance is reached, payout is generated on the 1st and sent by the 15th. The threshold is $100, £100 or €100 for the relevant balance. Some transfer routes carry a SWIFT charge. Sent does not mean received by your bank. |
| Refunds and disputes | Original processing, Connect and currency-conversion fees are not returned on refunds under the US pricing reviewed. Dispute-received and dispute-response charges are separate; review the current product-specific rules. | Paddle handles disputes as MoR, but the disputed transaction and applicable fee can be deducted from your seller balance. Winning a dispute does not necessarily return the chargeback fee. |
| Portability | Payment-data migration must follow a supported secure process between processors. CSV customer export alone does not move card credentials or make subscriptions continue automatically. | Before migrating, verify subscription transfer, customer records, payment-data movement and invoice history. An MoR relationship is not equivalent to a Stripe account you directly own. |
Before you decide
- Confirm seller, owner and payout-bank eligibility for the exact product.
- Identify who is the contractual seller and who handles taxes, refunds and disputes.
- Model your real checkout and payout volume, including fixed and add-on fees.
- Check subscription portability, data access and retained balances on exit.
Compare fees at your sales volume → · Compare tax responsibilities →
Primary sources
Sources: Stripe US pricing · Stripe merchant availability · Stripe Managed Payments · Stripe reserves · Stripe: compatibility review source · Stripe: supporting feature documentation · Paddle pricing · Paddle supported countries · Paddle payout schedule · Paddle chargebacks · Paddle: compatibility review source