The cheapest merchant of record in 2026: Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Creem, Dodo and FastSpring

The short answer

On a $29 monthly plan, Creem has the lowest published fee at $1.53 a sale for a US seller. Dodo Payments is next at $1.71, then Paddle and Polar's free plan at $1.95, Lemon Squeezy at $2.09, Stripe…

Cheapest published rate: Creem at 3.9% + 40¢, then Dodo at 4% + 40¢. Paddle, Lemon Squeezy and Polar's free plan are 5% + 50¢ before add-ons

Add-ons change the order: Lemon Squeezy, Dodo and Polar add 1.5% on non-US cards, so a $29 non-US sale costs $2.14 to $2.53 there, against $1.53 on Creem and $1.95 on Paddle

Small prices hurt most: at $9 the take rate runs 8.3% (Creem) to 15.6% (Gumroad); at $99 it is 4.3% to 10.5%

FastSpring: quote-only. No percentage appears on its pricing page