Why pick Stripe

Choose Stripe for lower fees and maximum control. At 2.9% + 30¢ it's roughly 40% cheaper per transaction than Paddle, with legendary developer experience — clean APIs, great docs, and full control over your checkout and customer relationship. The catch is that you remain the merchant, so tax registration, filing, and compliance are your responsibility (Stripe Tax helps calculate, but you still file).

Why pick Paddle

Choose Paddle to offload tax compliance entirely. As a Merchant of Record, Paddle becomes the legal seller and owns tax collection, remittance, disputes, and compliance across markets. One integration covers payments, subscriptions, invoicing, and worldwide tax filing at 5% + 50¢, with no monthly fee. You pay a premium for peace of mind — which is why many founders start on Paddle and switch to Stripe around $50k–$100k MRR once fee savings justify the engineering work.