Stripe vs Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy for startups

These are not the same product. Paddle and Lemon Squeezy are merchants of record and absorb global sales tax and VAT for a higher fee. Stripe leaves tax to you, and its startup offer is Atlas: US incorporation plus a perks bundle, not a payments discount.

Founders search for this comparison expecting a fee table and find three programs answering different questions. Two of them sell you out of tax compliance. The third sells you a company to be compliant with, which is a strange thing to find in a payments comparison until you know why it is there.

Lemon Squeezy is now owned by Stripe, which makes the third row less of a rival than it looks. The startup terms for both merchant-of-record programs are thin, so the amount column stays empty rather than carrying a figure we invented.

Side by side

Amounts and terms come from our catalog, not from this article.

ProgramPublished amountBest forThe catch
Stripe Atlas$50,000Founders outside the United States who need a Delaware entity, a bank account and a payments stack in one pass, with a partner perks bundle attached.It is not a discount on processing fees, and the perks figure is a bundle of third-party offers rather than money. Every sales tax and VAT registration remains entirely yours.
Paddle for StartupsNot publishedB2B SaaS selling into many countries, where the tax registrations would otherwise turn into somebody’s permanent job.The blended cost sits above card processing alone, and the published startup terms are thin enough that you should confirm the current discount in writing before migrating billing.
Lemon Squeezy for StartupsNot publishedSmall digital products and solo-founder SaaS, where setup speed matters and the volume does not justify a heavier platform.Now part of Stripe, so treat the long-term roadmap as an open question. Like Paddle, its startup terms are not published as a figure, which is why the amount column is blank.

Last verified . Report an error

What we would actually do

Selling globally from day one, take a merchant of record

Registrations, filings and thresholds across dozens of jurisdictions cost more in attention than the fee difference costs in money at small volume. That trade reverses somewhere in the low millions of revenue, which is a good problem to reach.

Selling mostly into one country, keep the lower fee

If nearly all your revenue sits in a single tax jurisdiction you are paying a merchant of record to solve a problem you do not have. Direct processing plus an accountant is cheaper and leaves you holding the payment data.

Atlas answers a different question entirely

If your blocker is not having a US entity, Atlas is the fastest route and the perks bundle is a real bonus on top. If you already have one, nothing here reduces your payment costs and this comparison is not about you.

Not sure which you clear?

Five questions, and we check the real rules for you.

Check eligibility

Common questions

The provider becomes the legal seller, so the contract is between your customer and them. They collect and remit sales tax, VAT and GST in their own name, which is why the fee is higher and why the compliance burden moves off your desk.

Yes, and it is a genuine migration: subscriptions, dunning, tax history and webhooks all have to move. Doing it before you have thousands of active subscribers is far cheaper, so decide early rather than filing it under reversible.

Not everywhere. Stripe supports businesses in many countries directly, and Atlas exists for founders whose country is unsupported or whose customers expect a US supplier. Check the supported-country list before paying to incorporate, because the fee is not refundable.

Other comparisons