Payments & MoR: cheapest modeled plans
Eligible plans ordered by monthly equivalent at the workload below. A low subscription fee alone does not establish the cheapest total.
What this comparison covers
Commercial online payments for SaaS and digital goods. Card processing, fraud protection, and currency handling. Custom negotiated enterprise volume discounts, chargeback dispute defense fees, and local banking payout fees are excluded.
Evaluating 4 products from 4 published in this category. USD monthly equivalents, before tax. Features and service compatibility need separate evaluation.
- Gross transaction volume
- 20,000 USD / month
- Successful transactions
- 500 transactions / month
- International volume
- 30 % of volume
Cost ranking at this workload
4 eligible products. Quote-only, expired and unsupported configurations are excluded from cost rankings.
Stripe
The financial infrastructure platform for developer-driven custom payment experiences.
$820.00 / month
Integrated Payments
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-06
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Domestic card processing (2.9%): $580.00
- Per-transaction fixed fee: $150.00
- International card fee (+1.5%): $90.00
- Stripe is a payment gateway, NOT a Merchant of Record. You remain liable for international VAT/sales tax registration and remittance.
- Stripe Tax (0.5% fee), Radar for Fraud Teams ($0.02/tx), dispute protection, and Stripe Billing tiers.
Integrated Payments: $820.00/month at reference usage.
Paddle
Complete Merchant of Record infrastructure for B2B and B2C software companies worldwide.
$1,250.00 / month
Paddle Billing
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-06
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Unified MoR & processing (5.0%): $1,000.00
- Per-transaction fee: $250.00
- All-in Merchant of Record fee covers global sales tax liability, chargeback guarantees, and localization without international card markups.
- Paddle Retain cancellation flows and enterprise negotiated custom rates.
Paddle Billing: $1,250.00/month at reference usage.
Lemon Squeezy
All-in-one Merchant of Record platform handling global tax compliance, subscriptions, and payouts.
$1,340.00 / month
Standard MoR
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-06
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Card processing & MoR (5.0%): $1,000.00
- Per-transaction fee: $250.00
- International fee (+1.5%): $90.00
- Full Merchant of Record liability: automated calculation, filing, and remittance of global sales tax/VAT across 100+ countries.
- Custom enterprise agreements, affiliate tracking fees, and instant wire payout surcharges.
Standard MoR: $1,340.00/month at reference usage.
Polar
Developer-first Merchant of Record built for modern SaaS products, digital downloads, and subscriptions.
$1,340.00 / month
Starter
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-08
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Platform & card processing (5.0%): $1,000.00
- Per-transaction fee: $250.00
- International cards (1.5%): $90.00
- Starter for organizations created on or after May 27, 2026. Volume includes tax; international share means non-US cards. No separate subscription payment fee.
- Payout fees, currency conversion, disputes, refunds, optional paid plans and grandfathered Early Member pricing.
Starter: $1,340.00/month at reference usage.
Questions before you decide
Which Payments & MoR product is cheapest?
Stripe has a lowest modeled cost among the eligible products shown at reference usage. Ties share a rank. This is not a claim about every vendor or workload.