Stripe vs Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy for AI SaaS (2026): the fee at $9, $29 and $99, and who files your VAT

I don't trust a fee table until I've done the maths at three price points, and for payments that habit matters more than usual. Every comparison of these providers quotes the same headline percentages, and almost none of them work an actual $9 or $29 subscription, where a 30¢ or 50¢ fixed fee changes the order. Fewer still say who has to file the VAT, which is the difference that should decide it.

So I read every rate card on the provider's own page on 27 September 2026 and did the arithmetic for two sellers: one based in the US, and one based in Denmark, where aliteq's founder lives and where Stripe's site served us its Danish prices first. aliteq doesn't sell anything through any of these providers and none of them pay us. We have no merchant account to protect; we read the rate cards.

The fee on one sale, at $9, $29 and $99

For a US seller, plain Stripe is the cheapest option at every price, and the gap to the merchants of record is widest on cheap plans. At $29 a month with a US customer, Stripe plus Billing keeps $1.34 of each payment, Paddle $1.95, Lemon Squeezy $2.09 and Stripe Managed Payments $2.36.

Here is the full grid for a US-based seller. The formula is the price times the percentage, plus the fixed fee, using a card payment and one charge a month.

The inputs, all from the providers' own pages:

• Stripe (US): 2.9% + 30¢ for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% more if Stripe converts the currency. Billing adds 0.7% of subscription volume. Tax Basic adds 0.5% per transaction, and only calculates tax where you're registered.
• Stripe Managed Payments: 3.5% on top of Stripe's normal processing fees. Billing is separate, so subscriptions pay its 0.7% as well.
• Paddle: 5% + 50¢, all-in, with no extra for international buyers or subscriptions. For products under $10, Paddle's pricing page says to contact it for custom pricing.
• Lemon Squeezy: 5% + 50¢, plus 1.5% for buyers outside the US, 0.5% for subscription payments and 1.5% for PayPal.

Try your own price, country and volume:

The fixed-fee problem: cheap plans pay the most

A fixed fee is a rounding error on a $99 plan and a big slice of a $9 one. At $9 a month, Stripe plus Billing keeps 6.9% of each payment, and Paddle, Lemon Squeezy and Managed Payments each keep between about 10% and 11%. Smaller merchants of record such as Creem (3.9% + 40¢) come in lower, at about 8%.

Two details matter at the low end. Paddle publishes no rate under $10; its pricing page asks you to get in touch. Lovable's payments docs, which use Paddle as one of their two providers, say Paddle charges a flat 10% on transactions under $10, so fees never exceed 10% of the price. Lemon Squeezy's docs also offer custom pricing under $10. If you plan a $5 or $7 plan, ask for the quote before you build on it, or consider an annual plan, which pays the fixed fee once instead of twelve times.

Who files the tax: the difference that should decide it

The real split isn't between four brands. It's between two models. A payment processor moves the money and leaves you as the legal seller. A merchant of record buys your product and resells it to your customer, so it becomes the legal seller and takes on the tax.

What that means in practice:

• With plain Stripe, you register for VAT, GST and sales tax wherever you owe it, file the returns and keep the records. Stripe Tax Basic calculates and collects tax only where you've told it you're registered. Stripe Tax Complete, from $90 a month on a one-year contract, adds threshold monitoring and help with registrations and filings, but you're still the seller.
• With a merchant of record, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy or Stripe Managed Payments registers, files and pays the indirect tax in the countries it covers.
• In every case, you still owe income tax on what you're paid out, and your own country's rules for that payout still apply. Ask an accountant where you live.

The work you skip is not small for a US seller. A business established outside the EU owes EU VAT on digital sales to EU consumers from the first sale; the €10,000 threshold only exists for sellers established in one EU country. The UK says a business based outside the UK must register "regardless of taxable turnover" if it sells to UK consumers. Each of those means a registration and returns, usually quarterly. The thresholds for every region are on our business payments hub.

Stripe Managed Payments, as of September 2026

Stripe is now a merchant of record too, and many comparisons still describe it as a preview. Managed Payments has been generally available since 22 April 2026. It adds 3.5% per successful transaction on top of normal Stripe processing, with no setup or monthly fee.

What its own docs say, checked 27 September 2026:

• Where you can sell from: 37 business locations listed in Stripe's docs, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore and most of Europe, Denmark included. Access also goes through an eligibility review.
• What you can sell: digital products only, such as software, games, digital media and online courses. Your product must be fully automated: a service with a human in the loop, such as one-to-one coaching, doesn't qualify.
• AI apps are explicitly in scope. Since 2 June 2026 there are four tax codes for AI as a service, covering tools such as LLMs, image generators and chatbots.
• What it doesn't support: Stripe Connect platforms and marketplaces, embedded Elements checkouts, one-off invoices, or subscriptions created outside Checkout or Payment Links.
• The 3.5% is charged on the full amount including tax, according to Stripe's support page on Managed Payments pricing, and Billing's fees apply on top for subscriptions.
• Customers see Link, not you, on receipts and invoices. If you don't answer a refund request within 48 hours, Stripe may refund the customer without your approval.

Stripe's own pages disagree on tax coverage: the pricing page says more than 75 countries, the docs say more than 80. You can also mix: Stripe lets you use Managed Payments for some markets or products and plain Stripe for the rest.

For a US seller with EU customers, Managed Payments is the most expensive option in the table at 9.6% of a $29 sale. Its advantage is everything else: one Stripe account, Stripe's checkout, and a clear migration path from Lemon Squeezy.

What's happening to Lemon Squeezy

Stripe bought Lemon Squeezy in July 2024. In January 2026, its CEO wrote that support had been slower and updates less frequent because the team was building Stripe's merchant-of-record product, and that the goal was an easy way for Lemon Squeezy users to migrate to Managed Payments.

As of 27 September 2026, no shutdown date has been announced and the published fees haven't changed. Two signs point in one direction, though. Lemon Squeezy's sign-up link now opens a "tell us about your business" form that says Stripe will recommend the best path. And the footer of its site now names the company "Sold through Link, LLC f/k/a Lemon Squeezy LLC", the same Link name Managed Payments sells under. If you're choosing today, compare against Managed Payments directly.

Paddle: the all-in price, and the strictest AI rules

Paddle's pricing is the simplest to reason about: 5% + 50¢ per transaction, with international sales and subscriptions included and no monthly fee. It pays out in local currency for free in the main currencies, charges $15 for a SWIFT wire in another currency, and may add up to 1.5% when it converts your balance.

Two costs catch people later. Its chargeback fee is $20, €20 or £20 and isn't refunded when you win. And it wants your chargeback rate below 0.65%.

Paddle also has the most detailed rules on AI products of the three, in an acceptable-use policy updated on 13 April 2026. Under content generation, it lists human-like faces as a restricted category, and face swaps, deepfakes, voice impersonation, content using someone's likeness without their consent, and automated decision-making or categorisation of people as not allowed.

Will they accept your AI app?

A lower fee is worth nothing if your account is rejected or frozen. Here is what each provider's own rules say about AI products.

In practice, a chatbot, writing tool or coding assistant passes most lists. Tools that generate faces, voices or anyone's likeness hit Paddle's list first. Sellers on Reddit report rejections that are harder to predict: an EU legal-research tool flagged under Paddle's deepfake category, and a job tracker with AI features turned down by both Lemon Squeezy and Paddle without a reason, then accepted by Polar. Those are individual reports, not data, but Lovable's own docs acknowledge the pattern: restricted products aren't guaranteed approval, and if one provider refuses, Lovable points you to the other.

Selling from the EU: plain Stripe costs about half

Stripe's European rate card is far cheaper than its US one: 1.5% + 1.80 kr for a standard EEA card, against 2.9% + 30¢ in the US. For a seller based in Denmark with EU customers, that makes plain Stripe the cheapest option in this whole comparison.

On a $29 subscription with Billing and Tax Basic, a Denmark-based seller pays about $1.06 per EU sale, or 3.6%. The same sale costs $1.93 through Managed Payments, $1.95 through Paddle and $2.53 through Lemon Squeezy, which counts every non-US buyer as international.

The tax side is friendlier too, while you're small. A seller established in one EU country can charge its home VAT on cross-border digital sales to EU consumers until those sales pass €10,000, counted over the current and the previous calendar year. In Denmark that's the normal 25%, on your usual Danish return. Past €10,000 you charge each customer's own country's rate and file one quarterly return through the EU's One-Stop Shop, due by the end of the following month.

The catch is the rest of the world. Your US customers pay Stripe's international rate of 3.15% + 1.80 kr, plus 2% if Stripe converts the currency, and UK customers bring a UK VAT registration from the first sale. One way round it is to keep EU sales on plain Stripe and send the rest through a merchant of record; Stripe lets you mix Managed Payments and normal payments by market in one account.

The fees nobody puts in the headline

Refunds cost you too. Stripe charges nothing to issue one, but it keeps the original processing fee. Lemon Squeezy and Stripe Managed Payments both reserve the right to refund a customer within 60 days themselves.

Lovable Payments: Stripe or Paddle?

If you built your app with Lovable, you may never see these rate cards directly. Lovable's built-in payments run on two providers, Paddle and Stripe, and its docs say using either through Lovable costs the same as going to the provider directly. Built-in payments need a paid Lovable plan; on the Free plan you connect your own Stripe account.

Its docs are frank about the choice. Paddle is a merchant of record. Stripe is a processor with an optional merchant of record, Managed Payments, available in fewer countries than Stripe's normal processing. Only one provider can be active per project, projects with payments can't be remixed, and disconnecting is permanent for that account and project. Pick deliberately.

Whichever you choose, the payment code itself has to be safe: the secret key stays on the server and the webhook checks Stripe's signature. We showed the right and wrong way to prompt for that in add a Stripe checkout button to your vibe-coded app.

How to choose