In-depth two-product comparison
Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy
Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy for B2B SaaS: fees at $10k, $50k and $200k a month, tax filing, payouts, dunning, migration both ways and the Stripe link.
Last updated: 2026-10-07
Short answer
Take Paddle when most of your revenue is subscriptions from business buyers in many countries. Its pricing page shows a single rate, 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction, and says there is no additional cost for managing payments, extra payment methods, migrating subscriptions or payment-related buyer support, while Lemon Squeezy's fees page adds 0.5% for subscription payments, 1.5% for international transactions and 1.5% for PayPal. On $200,000 a month of $250 subscription charges that is $10,400 on Paddle and $11,400 on Lemon Squeezy before any international buyer is counted. Take Lemon Squeezy when you also sell license keys or downloads, want payouts twice a month instead of once, or want its migration offer, and read its own 2026 update first, because it says the team's effort has gone into Stripe Managed Payments.
Paddle
One published rate with no listed surcharges, filing and chargebacks included, a sales-led migration service, and the Retain tools for failed payments.
Lemon Squeezy
Self-serve store with license keys, metered billing through an API, twice-monthly payouts with a $50 minimum, and a 0% first month on migrated sales.
Both are merchants of record, so the usual processor-versus-MoR questions are settled before you start: neither makes you register for tax in each country, and both stand between you and the buyer on refunds and chargebacks. The decision comes down to small print in the fee schedule, how often money reaches your bank, how failed renewals are handled, and which vendor's roadmap you want to be on.
Quick comparison
| Decision area | Paddle | Lemon Squeezy | What to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline rate | 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction; no monthly fee, migration fee or hidden extras on the pricing page | $0.50 + 5% of the order total, with no monthly charge for ecommerce features | Ask Paddle in writing whether the percentage is taken on the tax-inclusive total, since Lemon Squeezy states that it is. |
| Surcharges | None listed; the FAQ says there is no extra cost for additional payment methods, migrating subscriptions or buyer support | +0.5% subscription payments, +1.5% international (outside the US), +1.5% PayPal | Split last quarter's revenue by buyer country and payment method; the surcharge only bites on the share that qualifies. |
| Tax filing | Collects the tax, tracks filing deadlines, prepares records and submits returns | Collects, reports and remits tax, and deducts collected tax from your next payout | Confirm which of your top five buyer countries each vendor files in, and ask for the VAT invoice layout your customers receive. |
| Payout schedule | Monthly: a balance above your threshold converts on the 1st and is sent by the 15th; threshold from $100 to $100,000 | Twice monthly: created on the 1st and 15th, held 13 days, paid out on the 14th and 28th; $50 minimum | Lay your payroll and card-bill dates over each schedule before you pick; monthly payouts need a larger cash buffer. |
| Payout methods and fees | Wire transfer or Payoneer; no payout fee in most countries, a $15 SWIFT fee in some | Bank via Stripe (free for US bank accounts, 1% per payout outside the US) or PayPal ($0.50 flat in the US, 3% capped at $30 outside) | Work out the payout fee in your own country from each help page rather than from the headline rate. |
| Failed renewals | Default: retried up to seven times over 30 days, then canceled; Retain adds tactical retries, emails, in-app prompts and optional SMS | Four retries over two weeks, then unpaid status and dunning emails; auto-cancel optional | Decide whether a canceled subscription should be reinstatable: Paddle Billing cancellations cannot be reinstated. |
| Pricing models | Flat, good-better-best, per-seat, usage-based and feature-based pricing; usage billed through custom items on the next invoice | Per-seat, volume and graduated pricing, with metered billing reported through a usage reporting API | Build one real plan with a mid-cycle seat change in each sandbox and compare the invoices. |
| License keys | Not listed on the pricing page | Automatic issue, deactivation and re-issue of license keys, plus signed download links | Only relevant if you ship a client that must be activated offline. |
| Migration help | Included migration service with a Solutions Architect; its guide describes a card transfer by SFTP that takes around 2 weeks | Manual migration from Stripe or Paddle, with 0% fees for the first 30 days up to $10,000 in sales | Ask what the cut-over date and the payment-method transfer look like for your subscriber count. |
The two pricing pages quote the same headline, 5% + 50¢, and that is exactly why the surcharges matter. Lemon Squeezy documents extras for subscription, international and PayPal payments that Paddle's pricing page does not list. Read the cost examples below as arithmetic on published percentages with $250 average charges, then recompute with your own average invoice, because the 50¢ fixed part weighs more on small tickets.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Paddle | Lemon Squeezy |
|---|---|---|
| Who the buyer deals with | Paddle presents itself as the merchant of record; its explainer says the merchant of record's name is what appears on the buyer's card statement. | Lemon Squeezy's docs say the customer is buying from the merchant of record, which handles refunds, chargebacks, sales tax collection and PCI compliance. |
| Tax coverage claim | Paddle's developer docs say tax, compliance and payment methods across 200+ countries are handled for you. | Lemon Squeezy's pricing page says it takes on tax collection and calculation liability across all jurisdictions and is registered to file and pay on your behalf. |
| Buyer support | Listed as included: Paddle handles customer queries about payments, subscriptions and cancellations. | The pricing page mentions customer billing support in its feature list and says Lemon Squeezy takes on liability and support for billing issues. |
| Invoices | Invoicing is listed under additional features and services, described as sending invoices internationally without worrying about sales tax. | Orders and invoices are generated in the dashboard, and sales tax appears on them; a payout invoice is created for each payout. |
| Billing engine | Recurring billing, plan changes, proration, pauses, trials and dunning are described as built in, with statuses trialing, active, past_due, paused and canceled. | Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly billing intervals up to one year; statuses on trial, active, paused, past due, unpaid, cancelled and expired. |
| Seats and add-ons | Seats are a quantity on a price item, tiers are one product each, and add-ons can bill on the same or a different cycle as the base plan. | Per-seat pricing plans are described on the usage-based billing page, with variants for pricing tiers on one product. |
| Usage-based charges | Usage-based charges for metered features are billed through custom items on the next invoice. | Usage is reported through an API so charges follow real-time consumption; consumption reports and usage limits are mentioned. |
| Customer self-service | A customer portal where buyers can view past invoices and download receipts. | Customers sign in at a my-orders page with a magic link to see orders; each subscription carries a signed payment update URL. |
| Default retries | Up to seven retries over 30 days for every Paddle Billing account since January 9, 2025, no Retain needed; sandbox accounts get none. | Four automatic retries over two weeks; renewal reminders go out seven days before renewal. |
| Advanced recovery | Retain Payment Recovery adds algorithmic retry timing, recovery emails written by Paddle, in-app prompts through Paddle.js, and optional SMS. | Dunning emails after the unpaid state with customizable content and schedule, and a hosted page to update billing details. |
| Billing states and events | Subscription states follow the lifecycle trialing, active, past_due, paused, canceled; sandbox accounts are available for testing. | Events include subscription_payment_failed, subscription_payment_recovered, subscription_expired and subscription_paused, plus license_key_created. |
| Test environment | A developer sandbox with its own signup. | A test mode announced for trying most of the platform without real data. |
Pricing and operating cost
Paddle
No free plan and no monthly fee: 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction from the first sale. Paddle also says there are no migration fees, and offers bespoke pricing for products under $10.
The rate is quoted per Checkout transaction, and invoicing sits under additional features and services, so ask what an invoice-paid renewal costs. Retain Payment Recovery needs Paddle.js installed and verified on a public page; the pages we read give no separate price for it, so confirm whether it is included. Canceled subscriptions in Paddle Billing cannot be reinstated, so a returning customer needs a new subscription. Payouts are monthly with a threshold you set from $100 to $100,000, so small balances roll over and cash arrives late.
Lemon Squeezy
No monthly charge for ecommerce features and no card needed to sign up. Migrations from another provider can get 0% fees for the first 30 days, up to $10,000 in sales, per Lemon Squeezy's migration offer page.
The percentage applies to the total order value, which includes tax the buyer pays. A subscription payment from an international buyer costs 5% + 0.5% + 1.5% plus 50¢, which is 7% + 50¢. Payout fees apply outside the US via Stripe (1% per payout) and PayPal (3% capped at $30). Collected sales tax is deducted from your next payout, so the amount you receive is net of tax.
| Tier or usage case | Paddle | Lemon Squeezy |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 a month (40 charges of $250) | $520 5% × $10,000 = $500, plus 40 × 50¢ = $20. | $570 with US cards; $645 if half the revenue comes from international cards 5.5% × $10,000 = $550 (5% base plus 0.5% subscriptions), plus 40 × 50¢ = $20. The international case adds 1.5% × $5,000 = $75. |
| $50,000 a month (200 charges of $250) | $2,600 5% × $50,000 = $2,500, plus 200 × 50¢ = $100. | $2,850 with US cards; $3,225 with half international 5.5% × $50,000 = $2,750, plus $100. The international case adds 1.5% × $25,000 = $375. Gap to Paddle: $250, or $625 with the international share. |
| $200,000 a month (800 charges of $250) | $10,400 5% × $200,000 = $10,000, plus 800 × 50¢ = $400. | $11,400 with US cards; $12,900 with half international 5.5% × $200,000 = $11,000, plus $400. The international case adds 1.5% × $100,000 = $1,500. Gap to Paddle: $1,000 a month ($12,000 a year), or $2,500 a month ($30,000 a year) with the international share. |
| Payout costs outside the headline rate | No payout fee in most countries; a $15 SWIFT fee in some Paddle's help page says your bank or transfer provider may add its own charges. | Bank payouts via Stripe: free for US accounts, 1% per payout outside the US; PayPal: $0.50 flat in the US, 3% capped at $30 outside On $47,150 of payouts (the $50,000 US-card case net of $2,850 in fees), 1% per payout is $471.50. |
What the fee pages say, and what they leave out
Paddle's pricing page offers pay-as-you-go at 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction and describes the plan as including payments, checkout and billing in one platform, global tax and regulatory compliance, and fraud protection, chargebacks and buyer support. Its FAQ adds that there is no additional cost for managing payments, providing additional payment methods, migrating your subscriptions and payment-related buyer support, and that products under $10 can get bespoke pricing. The page lists no surcharge for subscriptions, international cards or specific payment methods.
Lemon Squeezy's fees page uses the same headline but is more explicit. The platform fee is calculated on the total order value and collected when the order is placed, and three situations add to it: +1.5% for international (outside of the US) transactions, +1.5% for PayPal, and +0.5% for subscription payments. For a SaaS whose revenue is all subscriptions, that is a 5.5% base before any international or PayPal buyer. Its pricing page shows the 5% + 50¢ headline with a footnote that some payments may be subject to additional fees, so the figures are easy to miss if you read only that page.
Only Lemon Squeezy has published its extras, so treat Paddle's silence as an open question rather than proof that none exist. If you choose Paddle, get the surcharge list, the fee basis for tax and the rate for invoice-paid renewals in writing before you migrate.
Worked example: $10,000, $50,000 and $200,000 a month
Assume 40, 200 and 800 subscription charges of $250 each, paid by US cards, with no tax inside the amounts. Per $250 charge, Paddle takes 5% = $12.50 plus 50¢, which is $13.00. Lemon Squeezy takes 5.5% = $13.75 plus 50¢, which is $14.25. Over the month that makes $520 against $570 at the first level ($13.00 × 40 and $14.25 × 40), $2,600 against $2,850 at the second, and $10,400 against $11,400 at the third.
Now give Lemon Squeezy a mix where half the revenue comes from buyers outside the US. The extra 1.5% on that half costs $75, $375 and $1,500 at the three levels, so the Lemon Squeezy totals become $645, $3,225 and $12,900. Against Paddle's unchanged $520, $2,600 and $10,400 the gaps are $125, $625 and $2,500 a month. At the top level that is $30,000 a year (2,500 × 12), compared with $12,000 a year (1,000 × 12) when all buyers are domestic.
Two caveats. First, Paddle's page does not say whether its percentage is taken on the tax-inclusive total, and Lemon Squeezy's does, so a quote should settle the fee basis. Second, Paddle's rate is per Checkout transaction and its invoicing service sits under additional features; if you collect large annual contracts by invoice, price that path separately rather than assuming the same rate.
For a seller outside the US the Lemon Squeezy payout fee also counts: on $47,150 of payouts, the net of the $50,000 US-card case, a 1% fee per payout is $471.50. Paddle's help page lists no payout fee in most countries, with a $15 SWIFT fee in some, and your own bank may charge as well.
Seller of record, tax filing and who answers the buyer
Paddle's pay-as-you-go card reads "Start selling globally with Paddle as your Merchant of Record", and its FAQ on tax remittance says Paddle collects the correct rate, tracks the filing deadlines, prepares its records and submits sales tax returns with the necessary documentation and payments. Its merchant of record explainer describes two transactions, one between buyer and merchant of record and one between merchant of record and you, and says the merchant of record's name appears on the buyer's card statement.
Lemon Squeezy's sales tax page says it is technically selling products on your behalf and is liable for the complicated parts, and that sales tax appears on orders and invoices. Collected tax is deducted from your next payout so it can be reported and remitted. The same page says you shouldn't need to report sales tax for sales made through Lemon Squeezy, though you may owe income tax on payouts, and it suggests asking a tax expert.
Both vendors therefore give you the same legal position on tax and refunds. What differs is how the buyer experiences it: your customer's finance team will see Paddle or Lemon Squeezy as the vendor on the invoice and statement. If a large customer demands your legal name on contracts, neither model fully satisfies that, and a processor with your own entity would.
Payouts and cash flow
Paddle's payout help page describes a monthly schedule. On the 1st, a balance above the threshold you set becomes a payout, and Paddle sends the payment by the 15th. The threshold can be set from $100 to $100,000, balances below it roll over to the next month, and payment is by wire transfer or Payoneer. Once sent, a payout can take up to 3 working days to arrive. Most countries pay no payout fee, and some incur a $15 SWIFT fee.
Lemon Squeezy's getting paid page gives a twice-monthly rhythm: payouts are created on the 1st and 15th, net sales are held for 13 days, and money becomes available on the 14th and 28th. Its example is a sale on the 4th that is included in the payout created on the 15th and paid out on the 28th. The minimum payout is $50, bank payouts take 1 to 5 days, and bank payouts are made in USD before conversion to your chosen currency.
The two schedules suit different businesses. A company that bills annually and prefers fewer, larger deposits can live with Paddle's monthly payment, while a company that pays contractors and cloud bills twice a month gets a better match from Lemon Squeezy's rhythm. Under either vendor you should keep enough operating cash for the longest gap between a sale and the payout date.
Subscriptions, seats and metered charges
Paddle's SaaS overview says recurring billing, plan changes, proration, pauses, trials and dunning come built in, and lists flat, good-better-best, per-seat, usage-based and feature-based pricing. Seats are a quantity on a price item, each tier is a product, add-ons can bill on the same or another cycle, and usage-based charges are billed as custom items on the next invoice. If the catalog lives elsewhere, non-catalog items can be added to a transaction.
Lemon Squeezy's subscriptions page covers daily, weekly, monthly and yearly intervals, with a maximum period of one year, optional free trials and proration choices in the dashboard that map to API options. Its usage-based billing page describes metered billing with a usage reporting API, per-seat plans, volume pricing and graduated tiers. Older write-ups call Lemon Squeezy's usage billing limited; that is out of date against its own feature page.
A practical test for a B2B product: price one account with 12 seats, a base fee and a metered add-on, then change seats on day 10 of the cycle. Whichever vendor produces an invoice your finance contact can read without a call to you is the one to keep.
Failed payments: retries, emails and the end state
Paddle's dunning documentation says that since January 9, 2025 failed payments on automatically collected subscriptions are retried up to seven times over a 30-day window before they are canceled, for every Paddle Billing account, with no retries on sandbox accounts. Manually collected subscriptions go past due when an invoice is a day late, but Paddle does not retry, pause or cancel them.
Retain Payment Recovery is the fuller option. Per the same page, it offers tactical retries that weigh product type, card type and customer location, up to four recovery emails typically around days 1, 3, 5 and 7 with copy controlled by Paddle, in-app prompts, optional SMS handled through Paddle.js, and your choice to pause or cancel when all attempts are used. It requires Paddle.js on a verified public page, and canceled subscriptions in Paddle Billing cannot be reinstated.
Lemon Squeezy's recovery page describes four retries over two weeks with an email after each failure, a past due status that keeps access, and an unpaid status after the last failure that stops access. Dunning emails with a payment page then run for a period you can edit, with the option to auto-cancel or leave the subscription unpaid so the customer can reactivate later. PayPal subscriptions follow PayPal's own retry rules, and the features are free in the store.
In short, Paddle gives a longer window by default (30 days against 14) and more optional channels, while Lemon Squeezy gives you editable email content and a reactivation path. For B2B accounts where a card fails because of an expired company card, the longer window and the in-app prompt are the more relevant tools.
Lemon Squeezy and Stripe: what that means for this choice
Lemon Squeezy's blog has a post titled Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy, and its 2026 update says the team has been building Stripe Managed Payments, that this meant slower support responses and less frequent product updates, and that the goal is to give Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate to Managed Payments. It also describes public access as coming soon, so the migration path may not be live for you.
Meanwhile its pricing page still presents Lemon Squeezy as your merchant of record at 5% + 50¢, and its pages carry the legal line "Sold through Link, LLC f/k/a Lemon Squeezy LLC". We found no announced end date for existing stores. For this comparison the point is planning risk: choosing Lemon Squeezy may mean moving again to a Stripe product in the next few years, while choosing Paddle does not hinge on that.
If you are curious about the destination, Stripe's Managed Payments documentation lists restrictions to read first, including digital-product eligibility, supported business locations and no support for subscriptions created outside Checkout or Payment Links. Our Stripe vs Lemon Squeezy page works through that comparison.
Moving from Paddle to Lemon Squeezy
Mapping: products and prices become products and variants, transactions become orders, and license activations become license keys. Lemon Squeezy's migration offer gives 0% fees for the first 30 days, up to $10,000 in sales, once the migration is done.
- Create and activate a Lemon Squeezy store, then contact it to start; its Paddle migration guide lists products, customers, payment methods, transactions, subscriptions, coupons and license keys as migratable.
- Request a secure transfer of payment methods from Paddle, using Paddle's subscription migration guide, and give Lemon Squeezy the identifiers it asks for. The guide names a vendor ID and an auth code from Paddle's Developer Tools, so ask Lemon Squeezy to confirm that this applies to your Paddle account type, since Paddle's docs distinguish Paddle Classic from Paddle Billing.
- If you issue license keys through Paddle, export a CSV of license data from the Paddle dashboard (Reports, Sent Licenses, Export Report) with a date range covering every license.
- Test the imported store, add the product details that cannot be imported, then agree an import date. Lemon Squeezy recreates your subscriptions on that date.
- Cancel every subscription in Paddle on the import date to avoid double billing, and send customers to the my-orders page to see their history with the email they used on Paddle.
Moving from Lemon Squeezy to Paddle
Your data stays yours on either side: Paddle's FAQ says there are no lock-in periods and that data can be migrated to another provider if needed.
- Contact Paddle's sales team about a subscription migration. Per its guide, you get a Solutions Architect who runs the process, and the pricing page lists a migration service as part of the standard plan.
- Ask Lemon Squeezy support for a transfer of your customers' payment methods to Paddle's vault. The Paddle guide says the former provider sends card details server to server by SFTP, using an encryption key from your Solutions Architect, and that this takes around 2 weeks depending on the provider. Lemon Squeezy's help navigation lists guides for migrating in from Gumroad, Stripe and Paddle, but we found none for leaving, so expect a support conversation.
- While the transfer runs, export subscriber data into the CSV Paddle specifies: email, country, currency, payment amount, payment interval and the unique payment-method token that matches each subscriber to a card. Paddle runs a test of the CSV format before the import.
- On the agreed import date, Paddle's engineers import the subscriptions and match them to the vault cards, and you receive a CSV that maps old subscription IDs to new ones. Paddle's guide gives a median migration time of 12 days, which is Paddle's own figure for its customers.
- Cancel the Lemon Squeezy subscriptions the same day, and update invoices, receipts and your terms to name Paddle as the seller of record.
Pros and cons
Paddle
Pros
- One published rate and no listed surcharge for subscriptions, international cards or extra payment methods.
- Tax collection, filing, chargebacks and buyer support are described as included in the same rate.
- Seven retries over 30 days by default, with Retain for recovery emails, in-app prompts and SMS.
- A sales-led migration service with a Solutions Architect, and a pricing page that lists no migration fee.
Cons
- Payouts are monthly, with a threshold from $100 to $100,000, and some countries pay a $15 SWIFT fee.
- Canceled subscriptions in Paddle Billing cannot be reinstated.
- Invoicing and implementation help sit under additional features and services without published prices.
- No license key feature on the pricing page.
Lemon Squeezy
Pros
- Twice-monthly payouts with a $50 minimum, and free bank payouts through Stripe for US accounts.
- Built-in license keys, signed download links and a metered usage API.
- Editable dunning emails, and an option to leave unpaid subscriptions reactivatable.
- Self-serve signup, and 0% fees for the first 30 days up to $10,000 for migrated sales.
Cons
- Surcharges of 0.5% for subscriptions, 1.5% for international and 1.5% for PayPal make the effective rate higher than the headline.
- Its 2026 post admits slower support and less frequent product updates, and points to Stripe Managed Payments.
- Only four retries over two weeks by default, and access ends when the subscription becomes unpaid.
- No published guide for migrating out.
Who should choose what?
Team selling seats to companies in Europe and North America
Most revenue is monthly or annual team plans, half the buyers pay with non-US cards, and a finance lead reviews the invoices.
Recommendation: Paddle. With half the revenue international, the examples show Lemon Squeezy costing $125, $625 or $2,500 a month more at $10,000, $50,000 or $200,000. Paddle's listed rate has no matching surcharge, which also makes forecasting simpler.
Developer tool with a downloadable app and license keys
You sell one-time and yearly licenses for a desktop client next to a small hosted service.
Recommendation: Lemon Squeezy. Lemon Squeezy lists automatic license key issue, deactivation and re-issue plus signed download links, and its migration guide treats license keys as data to import. Paddle's pricing page lists no equivalent.
Founder outside the US who needs cash twice a month
You pay a contractor team on the 1st and 15th and want deposits that match.
Recommendation: Lemon Squeezy. Lemon Squeezy pays out on the 14th and 28th after a 13-day hold, against Paddle's single monthly payout by the 15th. Include the 1% per payout fee that applies outside the US when you compare the two.
Subscription business with expired company cards as the main churn cause
Buyers are small businesses whose corporate cards expire, and renewals fail for a week or two before anyone notices.
Recommendation: Paddle. Paddle retries up to seven times over 30 days by default and Retain adds in-app prompts through Paddle.js, which reach the person using the product. Lemon Squeezy stops at four retries over two weeks before dunning starts.
Company that dislikes roadmap uncertainty
You want a vendor whose product direction is not tied to another company's new product, because a payments migration costs a quarter of engineering time.
Recommendation: Paddle. Lemon Squeezy's 2026 post says its effort went into Stripe Managed Payments and that it hopes to migrate its users there. Paddle's pages make no such statement, so choosing it avoids planning for a second migration.
The scenarios split on operational facts rather than on feature checklists: where your buyers live, whether you invoice, how your cash flow copes with payout dates, and whether you sell something that needs license keys. If your case sits between two scenarios, choose by the one that is costly to change later, which is usually the seller name on invoices and the payment methods stored with the vendor.
Final verdict
Choose Paddle if
- your revenue is mostly subscriptions, and many buyers pay with non-US cards
- you want recovery tools beyond a basic retry schedule and a 30-day dunning window
- you value a sales-led migration with a named Solutions Architect
- you would rather not plan around a vendor moving users to another product
Choose Lemon Squeezy if
- you issue license keys or ship downloads alongside subscriptions
- you want payouts on the 14th and 28th with a $50 minimum
- you are migrating from Stripe or Paddle and can use the 0% first month on up to $10,000 of sales
- you want editable dunning emails and reactivatable unpaid subscriptions
FAQ
Do Paddle and Lemon Squeezy really charge the same?
Their headlines match at 5% + 50¢. Lemon Squeezy's fees page then adds 0.5% for subscription payments, 1.5% for international transactions and 1.5% for PayPal, and Paddle's pricing page lists no such surcharges. On $250 subscription charges, Paddle is $13.00 each and Lemon Squeezy is $14.25 with a US card.
Is Lemon Squeezy still independent of Stripe?
Lemon Squeezy's blog says Stripe acquired it, and its 2026 update says the team has been building Stripe Managed Payments and hopes to migrate its users there. Its pricing page still sells the product as a merchant of record at 5% + 50¢, and we found no end date. Ask Lemon Squeezy for current terms before a long commitment.
Which one pays out faster?
Lemon Squeezy holds net sales for 13 days and then pays on the 14th and 28th, with a $50 minimum. Paddle converts balances above your threshold on the 1st and sends the payment by the 15th. For a sale made early in a month, Lemon Squeezy's schedule pays sooner; for one made late in the month the two dates land within days of each other.
How do their failed-payment tools differ?
Paddle retries up to seven times over 30 days by default, and Retain adds algorithmic timing, emails, in-app prompts and optional SMS. Lemon Squeezy retries four times over two weeks, then moves the subscription to unpaid and sends editable dunning emails with a payment page. Paddle cancellations cannot be reinstated, while Lemon Squeezy lets you leave subscriptions unpaid.
Can I bill enterprise customers by invoice on either?
Paddle's docs describe manually collected subscriptions that go past due when an invoice is a day late, and its pricing page lists invoicing under additional features and services. Lemon Squeezy's pages we read describe checkout payments and a payout invoice for you, not customer invoice terms. Ask each vendor for a worked example before promising net terms.
How long does it take to switch between them?
Paddle's guide describes a card transfer of around 2 weeks and a median migration of 12 days, and Lemon Squeezy migrates in manually after you request the payment method transfer. Both documents say to cancel subscriptions at the old provider on the import date. Moving off Lemon Squeezy has no published guide, so expect a support conversation.