Merchant of Record Providers for SaaS: Compared

What to look for in a MOR provider

Not all merchant of record providers are built for SaaS. Some target digital creators, others focus on enterprise software, and a few try to do everything. Before comparing individual providers, it helps to know what actually matters for a subscription business.

Fee structure is the obvious one, but the headline rate rarely tells the full story. MOR fees typically run 3.9-10% per transaction, which is significantly higher than standard payment gateway rates. You’re paying for tax compliance, chargeback protection, and the operational overhead the MOR absorbs. The question is whether that fee is cheaper than handling it yourself.

Watch for stackable fees. Some MORs add surcharges for international cards (+1.5% is common), subscription billing (+0.5%), and specific payment methods like PayPal or BNPL (+3% in some cases). These aren’t always obvious on the pricing page, and they compound on top of the base rate. A provider advertising “4% + 40¢” can quietly cost 6-9% on a non-US subscription paid via PayPal. Only a couple of providers (Paddle and Creem) offer genuinely all-inclusive pricing where the headline rate is what you actually pay regardless of payment method or geography.

Payout fees and timing are another blind spot. Some MORs charge flat fees or percentages on each payout, especially for non-USD or non-EUR transfers. Minimum payout thresholds ($50-100 is typical) mean your revenue sits with the MOR until it crosses that amount. Payout cycles range from semi-monthly to monthly, and some providers hold funds for 14-45 days before your first payout. For a bootstrapped founder doing $2,000/month, the difference between getting paid twice a month and waiting until mid-February for January revenue is real.

Dispute fees vary from $0 to $30 per chargeback. Some MORs handle disputes entirely on your behalf and absorb the cost. Others pass the fee through win or lose. If you’re selling to consumers, dispute rates tend to be higher, and the fee difference adds up.

Tax coverage varies. Some MORs handle VAT in 200+ countries. Others cover the major markets and leave gaps. If you’re selling globally, verify the specific jurisdictions you need.

Then there’s dunning and payment recovery. This is where most MORs fall short. Payments fail regardless of who the merchant of record is. Cards expire, banks decline charges, customers overdraw. We’ve seen payment failure rates hold steady at 5-10% across processors. What varies is how well the failures get recovered. Some MORs offer basic retry logic. Very few offer full dunning with customer-facing recovery emails and pre-dunning alerts.

The providers

Paddle

Paddle is the default MOR for SaaS. It’s been around for over a decade, handles tax compliance in 200+ countries, and is used by thousands of software companies from solo founders to scale-ups.

Fees: 5% + 50¢ per transaction, and that rate is genuinely all-inclusive. No extra charge for international cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, or subscription billing. The same rate applies regardless of payment method or customer geography, which makes Paddle one of the most predictable MORs to budget around.

The trade-off is cash flow. Paddle’s payout cycle is monthly, landing by the 15th of the following month. That’s the slowest of any provider here. Revenue from early January might not hit your bank until six weeks later. You’ll need $100 in your balance before a payout triggers, and if your payout currency doesn’t match your Paddle balance currency, expect up to 1.5% in conversion fees. Domestic transfers are free; SWIFT costs $15. On disputes, Paddle charges $15 per card chargeback ($20 for PayPal disputes), but they contest automatically and refund the fee when they win.

Paddle offers its own retention tool called Retain, which includes cancel flow optimisation, recovery emails, and analytics. It’s capable but enterprise-priced. Most bootstrapped founders either can’t justify Retain’s cost or don’t know it exists. That leaves a gap between Paddle’s basic retry logic and a proper dunning setup.

Best for: SaaS businesses selling globally that want a proven, established MOR. If you’re past early stage and doing meaningful international volume, Paddle is the safe choice.

ChurnWard support: Coming soon. $29/month.

Dodo Payments

Dodo Payments is a newer MOR that’s built a following among indie developers and small SaaS teams. The pitch is straightforward: merchant of record services at a lower price point than Paddle. That’s true on headline rate, but the stacking fees matter.

Fees: The base rate is 4% + 40¢, but that’s just the starting point. International cards and alternative payment methods add 1.5%. Recurring billing adds another 0.5%. PayPal or BNPL (Klarna, Afterpay) adds 3%. Stack all of those on a non-US subscriber paying via PayPal and you’re at 9% + 40¢ per transaction. Each refund costs $1, and disputes run $30 each, the steepest chargeback fee of any dedicated MOR.

Dodo pays out twice monthly (the 4th and 18th). Balances above $1,000 transfer for free; below that, there’s a $5 fee. SWIFT transfers cost $25, and you need at least $50 in your balance before a payout triggers. One useful feature: Adaptive Currency lets your customers pay in their local currency, with the FX conversion fee (2-4%, scaled by order size) passed to the buyer rather than deducted from your revenue.

The platform is less mature than Paddle and covers fewer edge cases in its documentation, but it’s actively improving and has a responsive team. In practice, we’ve found the core billing mechanics work reliably.

Best for: Bootstrapped SaaS founders and indie developers selling primarily to US customers, where the stacking fees don’t apply. If most of your revenue is international subscriptions, compare the all-in cost carefully against Paddle’s flat rate.

ChurnWard support: Live. Full integration with dunning, card alerts, and analytics.

Polar

Polar is a developer-focused MOR that’s gained traction with open-source maintainers and indie SaaS builders. It started as a funding platform for open-source projects and has expanded into a full merchant of record with subscriptions, one-time purchases, and license key management.

Fees: Same 4% + 40¢ base as Dodo Payments, with similar stacking. Non-US cards add 1.5%, subscriptions add 0.5%. A recurring charge from a European customer lands at 6% + 40¢ before payouts are factored in. Disputes are $15.

Under the hood, Polar runs on Stripe and passes Stripe’s payout fees through at cost: a $2 monthly platform fee when active, 0.25% + 25¢ per transfer, and 0.25-1% for cross-border currency conversion. You trigger payouts manually with a $10 minimum. Once you add it all up, a typical international subscription costs roughly what Paddle charges at its flat rate, which makes the lower headline somewhat misleading.

Best for: Developers and open-source maintainers who want to monetise software with a platform that understands the developer ecosystem. Less suited for traditional SaaS with non-technical buyers.

ChurnWard support: Not currently supported.

Stripe Managed Payments

Stripe announced Managed Payments at Stripe Sessions in spring 2025, positioning it as “everything you love about Lemon Squeezy, now built in Stripe.” It’s currently in private preview and available to merchants in 35+ countries, but only for subscriptions on digital products processed through Stripe Checkout. One-time payments aren’t supported yet.

Fees: Stripe hasn’t published pricing. Outside estimates put the MOR layer at 3-7% on top of standard Stripe processing (2.9% + 30¢). Factor in international card surcharges and currency conversion and an international subscription could run 9-12% all in. If that’s accurate, it would be the priciest option here, but there’s no way to confirm until Stripe makes the numbers public. For a deeper look, see merchant of record vs Stripe.

Best for: Existing Stripe users who want MOR benefits without switching processors and are willing to wait for the product to mature. The convenience of staying on Stripe is the main draw, but the lack of public pricing and feature limitations make it hard to recommend over established alternatives right now.

ChurnWard support: Live (via the Stripe integration).

FastSpring

FastSpring has been around since 2005 and positions itself toward software companies selling digital products. It handles tax, localised checkout experiences, and supports both subscription and one-time purchase models.

Fees: You won’t find pricing on their website. Contact sales. Independent sources consistently cite 5.9% + 95¢ per transaction, with an alternative 8.9% flat plan. Like Paddle, those rates cover everything: no international or subscription surcharges. But they’re steep. On a $15/month subscription, 5.9% + 95¢ works out to roughly 12% effective.

Payouts land twice monthly, but there’s a 14-day settlement delay built in, and new accounts face a 45-day hold before the first transfer. ACH is free, wire transfers cost $15, and non-US PayPal payouts carry a 2% fee (capped at $20). You need $100 in your balance to trigger a payout. One thing that’s easy to miss: FastSpring marks up exchange rates on customer-facing prices. Major currencies (EUR, GBP, AUD) get a 3.5% markup; others get 5.5%. Your customers see higher prices at checkout, which is less transparent than an explicit surcharge but has the same effect on competitiveness.

FastSpring’s checkout experience is more opinionated than Paddle’s. Some founders find it outdated compared to modern alternatives, though FastSpring has been updating its UI. The platform is solid for established software businesses but less commonly chosen by early-stage SaaS.

Best for: Established software companies, particularly those selling desktop software or larger enterprise products alongside SaaS subscriptions.

ChurnWard support: Not currently supported.

Gumroad

Gumroad is a MOR aimed at creators and indie makers. It handles payments, tax, and delivery, but it’s designed primarily for digital products, courses, and memberships rather than SaaS subscriptions.

Fees: 10% + 50¢ is the headline, but Gumroad also charges payment processing (2.9% + 30¢) as a separate line item. That brings the real cost to about 12.9% + 80¢ per transaction. If a customer finds you through Gumroad’s Discover marketplace, the fee jumps to a flat 30%. Payouts are weekly via bank deposit, free, with a ~$10 minimum.

Disputes are entirely on you. Gumroad routes chargebacks through the underlying Stripe/PayPal Connect accounts, and the full transaction amount plus processing fees get charged back to the creator. There are no volume discounts.

Gumroad’s subscription support exists but is basic compared to dedicated SaaS billing platforms. There’s no real dunning system, limited webhook support, and the analytics are oriented toward product sales rather than SaaS metrics like MRR or churn rate.

Best for: Creators selling digital products, courses, and memberships. Less suited for recurring SaaS with complex billing needs.

ChurnWard support: Not currently supported.

Creem

Creem is a newer MOR targeting SaaS businesses. It’s positioning itself as a modern alternative to the established players, with developer-friendly APIs and competitive pricing.

Fees: 3.9% + 40¢, and that’s the actual rate. Like Paddle, there’s no stacking: international cards, different payment methods, and subscription billing are all covered. Your first €1,000 in revenue comes fee-free, which helps if you’re just launching. Chargebacks cost nothing. Creem intercepts disputes proactively through card network alerts before they escalate.

You get paid twice a month (1st and 15th), with a $50 minimum balance to trigger a transfer. EU/SEPA payouts are free. Outside the EU, you’ll pay the greater of $7 or 1%. If you want stablecoin payouts (USDC on Polygon), that’s 2%. Creem also offers optional paid features: affiliate marketing and revenue splits add 2% per transaction, and abandoned cart recovery takes 5% of any value it recovers.

Creem is early-stage relative to Paddle or FastSpring. The product is actively evolving, and coverage in some tax jurisdictions may still be catching up. Worth watching if you’re evaluating options, but do your due diligence on the specific countries and features you need.

Best for: SaaS founders who want a modern MOR experience and are comfortable with a newer platform.

ChurnWard support: Not currently supported.

What happened to Lemon Squeezy?

Lemon Squeezy was a go-to MOR for indie SaaS and digital product sellers. Then Stripe bought it in July 2024. The team was small (around 13 people), and the product has been in limbo since. It’s not officially dead, but support has slowed, updates are rare, and the engineering effort has clearly shifted toward building Stripe Managed Payments. Stripe pitched the move as “everything you love about Lemon Squeezy, now built in Stripe.”

If you’re still on Lemon Squeezy, the writing is on the wall. You can wait for official migration tools to Stripe Managed Payments, move to standard Stripe yourself, or switch to Dodo Payments, Polar, or another MOR entirely.

Comparison table

Provider	Base fees	Stacking fees	Dispute fee	Payout cycle	Payout fees
Paddle	5% + 50¢	None (all-inclusive)	$15/$20	Monthly	Free domestic; $15 SWIFT; up to 1.5% FX
Creem	3.9% + 40¢	None (all-inclusive)	$0	Semi-monthly	Free EU; max($7, 1%) other
Dodo Payments	4% + 40¢	+1.5% intl, +0.5% subs, +3% PayPal/BNPL	$30	Bi-monthly	Free ≥$1K; $5 below; $25 SWIFT
Polar	4% + 40¢	+1.5% intl, +0.5% subs	$15	On-demand	$2/mo + 0.25% + 25¢; 0.25-1% FX
FastSpring	5.9% + 95¢	None (all-inclusive)	Not published	Twice monthly	Free ACH; $15 wire; 3.5-5.5% FX markup
Gumroad	10% + 50¢	+2.9% + 30¢ processing	Full amount	Weekly	Free
Stripe Managed Payments	Not public	Not public	$15 + $15 counter	2-7 days	Standard Stripe

What a $50/month international subscription actually costs

Numbers make this concrete. For a $50/month subscription charged to a non-US credit card, here’s what each provider takes:

• Creem: ~$2.35 (3.9% + 40¢) = ~4.7%
• Paddle: ~$3.00 (5% + 50¢) = ~6.0%
• FastSpring: ~$3.90 (5.9% + 95¢) = ~7.8%
• Dodo Payments: ~$3.40 (4% + 40¢ + 1.5% intl + 0.5% sub) = ~6.8%
• Polar: ~$3.40 (4% + 40¢ + 1.5% intl + 0.5% sub) = ~6.8%, plus payout fees
• Gumroad: ~$7.25 (10% + 50¢ + 2.9% + 30¢) = ~14.5%
• Stripe Managed Payments: estimated 9-12% all-in (fees not public)

Paddle and Creem are the most predictable because their rates don’t change based on customer geography or payment method. Dodo Payments and Polar look cheaper at the base rate but approach or exceed Paddle once the surcharges stack.

Recovery still matters

Whichever MOR you choose, involuntary churn doesn’t disappear. Failed payments happen on every processor, every payment method, every market. The failure patterns we see across ChurnWard customers look remarkably similar regardless of whether they’re on Stripe, Dodo Payments, or any other processor.

Most MOR providers offer basic retry logic. Few offer full dunning with customer-facing emails, expiring card alerts, and configurable recovery flows. ChurnWard fills that gap for Stripe and Dodo Payments today, with Paddle support coming soon. $29/month flat.