Best payment processor for low fees in 2026 — compared

Stripe is the default. Creem is the cheapest Merchant of Record at 3.9%+$0.40 flat. Paddle is the safer global default if you want a name with a track record. Lemon Squeezy adds a 0.5% surcharge on all subscription renewals plus 1.5% on international cards. Gumroad’s direct rate is 10%+$0.50; Discover marketplace sales cost 30% flat — avoid it for SaaS. Here is the math so you can stop guessing.

Who this is for

Developers and indie hackers selling SaaS subscriptions or digital products and trying to figure out which processor actually takes the least. If you are a Vietnam-registered business, scroll to the Vietnam section first — Stripe is off the table for you.

If you are still validating what you will sell, the SaaS idea validation playbook covers doing it for under $20 before you need a processor at all.

Fee reference

Processor	Base rate	International	Platform fee	Dispute fee	MoR?
Stripe	2.9%+30¢	+1.5%	None	$15	No
Stripe + Billing	+0.7% on top	—	—	—	No
Stripe + Tax	+0.5% on top	—	—	—	No
Paddle	5%+50¢	Included	None	Handled	Yes
Lemon Squeezy Fresh	5%+50¢	+1.5% intl cards / +0.5% all subs	None	Handled	Yes
Lemon Squeezy Sweet	5%+50¢	+1.5% intl cards / +0.5% all subs	$29/mo	Handled	Yes
Gumroad	10%+$0.50	Discover: 30%	None	$15	No
FastSpring	~5.9%+95¢	Included	None	Handled	Yes
Creem	3.9%+40¢	Included	None	Handled	Yes
Polar Starter	5%+50¢	Included	None	Handled	Yes
Polar Pro	3.80%+40¢	Included	$20/mo	Handled	Yes

Stripe’s base rate looks competitive until you add what you actually need. Recurring billing adds 0.7%. Tax calculation and remittance adds 0.5%. International cards add another 1.5%. Stack all three and Stripe’s effective rate is 4–6% depending on your customer mix.

MoR vs PSP — the trade-off you need to understand

A payment service provider (PSP) like Stripe processes the payment. You own the relationship: you collect the money, you remit sales tax, you handle VAT for EU customers, you deal with disputes. You get Stripe’s base rate but you take on the legal complexity.

A Merchant of Record (MoR) like Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, or Creem buys the product from you and resells it to the customer. They own the tax liability globally. You get a higher headline rate but zero tax compliance ops. No VAT registration in 80 countries. No sales tax nexus analysis.

For a solo developer in the US selling to a domestic audience, Stripe + Billing + Tax is feasible and cheaper. For anyone selling globally from day one — or any Vietnam-registered business — the MoR model is the practical path.

Real-world scenarios

$29/mo SaaS — 100 subscribers, domestic US

Monthly revenue: $2,900

Stripe (core + Billing + Tax): 4.1% × $2,900 + 100 × $0.30 = $119 + $30 = $149/mo (5.1%)
Paddle: 5% × $2,900 + 100 × $0.50 = $145 + $50 = $195/mo (6.7%)
Lemon Squeezy Fresh: 5.5% × $2,900 + 100 × $0.50 = $160 + $50 = $210/mo (7.2%)
Creem: 3.9% × $2,900 + 100 × $0.40 = $113 + $40 = $153/mo (5.3%)
Polar Pro: 3.80% × $2,900 + 100 × $0.40 + $20 = $110 + $40 + $20 = $170/mo (5.9%)

On a domestic subscriber base Stripe wins on cost if you are already handling tax. Creem at $153/mo is the cheapest MoR, $42/mo cheaper than Paddle. Lemon Squeezy Fresh’s 0.5% subscription renewal surcharge applies even to domestic subs, making it the most expensive MoR here at $210/mo. Polar Pro beats Paddle but the $20/mo platform fee only starts paying off above ~45 subscribers at $29.

$99 one-time product — 100 sales, domestic US

Revenue: $9,900

Stripe (core + Tax): 3.4% × $9,900 + 100 × $0.30 = $337 + $30 = $367 (3.7%)
Paddle: 5% × $9,900 + 100 × $0.50 = $495 + $50 = $545 (5.5%)
Lemon Squeezy Fresh: $545 (5.5%)
Creem: 3.9% × $9,900 + 100 × $0.40 = $386 + $40 = $426 (4.3%)
Gumroad (direct): 10% × $9,900 + 100 × $0.50 = $990 + $50 = $1,040 (10.5%)

Gumroad is the most expensive option here even on direct sales at 10%+$0.50. Discover marketplace sales cost 30% flat. The only case for Gumroad is if Discover marketplace traffic is your primary acquisition channel and the exposure justifies the fee.

$10K MRR global — 60% international

Revenue: $10,000, split $4K domestic / $6K international.

Stripe (core + Billing + Tax): 4.1% × $4K + (4.1%+1.5%) × $6K = $164 + $336 = $500 + per-transaction fees ≈ $560/mo (5.6%)
Paddle: 5% × $10K + ~200 × $0.50 = $500 + $100 = $600/mo (6.0%)
Lemon Squeezy Fresh (0.5% sub surcharge on all renewals): 5.5% × $4K + 7% × $6K + ~200 × $0.50 = $220 + $420 + $100 = $740/mo (7.4%)
Creem (no international surcharge): 3.9% × $10K + ~200 × $0.40 = $390 + $80 = $470/mo (4.7%)
Polar Pro: 3.80% × $10K + ~200 × $0.40 + $20 = $380 + $80 + $20 = $480/mo (4.8%)

At $10K MRR global, Creem saves roughly $130/mo over Paddle and ~$270/mo over Lemon Squeezy Fresh. The gap widens if your international share is higher — Lemon Squeezy’s 0.5% subscription surcharge applies to all renewals, not just international ones, making it the most expensive MoR in this comparison.

The processors

Stripe

The default for a reason. Best API, most ecosystem integrations, broadest country support for sellers. The fee structure is modular — you pay for what you use — which is useful but makes it easy to underestimate actual cost.

Key numbers: 2.9%+30¢ base, +0.7% for Billing (recurring), +0.5% for Tax (automatic calculation + remittance), +1.5% for non-US cards. Stack all three and your effective rate is 4.1% domestically, 5.6% for international cards. Dispute fee: $15.

Where Stripe falls down: you own tax compliance. Sales tax nexus, EU VAT, India GST — that is your problem. At small scale it is manageable. At $10K+ MRR global it becomes a part-time job or a Stripe Tax bill.

Vietnam-registered businesses cannot use Stripe as a seller. Stripe supports Stripe Checkout for Vietnamese customers but cannot onboard Vietnamese businesses as merchant accounts. This is a hard limit.

Paddle

The market-standard MoR for developers who want to handle nothing. 5%+50¢ on everything, international included. Tax, VAT, disputes, chargebacks — Paddle owns it. Paddle.js drops into your checkout flow in a few hours.

The downside is pure cost. At $10K MRR global you are paying $600/mo vs $470 for Creem. Paddle is not the cheapest but it has been around since 2012, handles edge cases well, and is the default for most indie SaaS tools you have probably used. Established track record has a price.

Paddle also launched Billing (previously ProfitWell) which adds subscriber analytics and dunning. Useful if you want those things; increases lock-in.

For a focused Stripe vs Paddle head-to-head on when MoR is worth the premium, see Stripe vs Paddle: Merchant of Record for SaaS Founders.

Lemon Squeezy

Both Fresh (free tier) and Sweet ($29/mo tier) are priced at 5%+50¢ — Sweet adds features, not a lower processing rate. The universal surcharges: +1.5% on international card transactions, +0.5% on all subscription renewals (domestic and international alike). For a globally distributed customer base these surcharges add up fast.

At $10K MRR with 60% international on subscriptions: Lemon Squeezy Fresh hits $740/mo vs Creem at $470. The $270/mo gap is real and predictable. Lemon Squeezy makes sense if you want its specific feature set; on fees alone it is the most expensive MoR in this comparison.

The Stripe acquisition (2024) hasn’t changed the developer-facing product meaningfully.

Gumroad

10%+$0.50 direct. 30% flat on Discover marketplace sales. Gumroad is worth it specifically if you want Discover to surface your product — it works well for ebooks, courses, and templates with SEO-driven discovery on the Gumroad marketplace. For a SaaS with a landing page and direct checkout, the economics are bad.

Payout delay: one month. Dispute handling: you own it. No MoR.

FastSpring

Enterprise-focused MoR that does not publish prices publicly. Community reports put rates around 5.9%+95¢ for lower-volume accounts. Useful for software companies that need complex licensing, per-seat pricing, and offline invoice workflows. Overkill for most indie products; the negotiated pricing structure is not worth the onboarding friction unless you are closing five-figure annual contracts.

Creem

New MoR launched 2024. Flat 3.9%+40¢, no international surcharge, handles tax and disputes as MoR. Currently the cheapest MoR on the market by a meaningful margin.

Creem is early-stage. The API is functional, the Stripe-like developer experience is deliberate, and the pricing is aggressive. The risk is longevity — a startup MoR folding or changing pricing creates a migration problem at the worst possible time. For high-stakes production workloads, weigh that risk against the ~$130–$270/mo savings vs Paddle and Lemon Squeezy Fresh.

Polar

Open-source billing infrastructure that also operates as a MoR. Starter: 5%+50¢, no platform fee. Pro: $20/mo + 3.80%+40¢. Polar sits between Lemon Squeezy and Creem on cost at scale, with a developer-friendly ethos and GitHub-native integrations.

Polar Pro is worth the $20/mo above roughly 45 transactions/month at $29 average order value. Below that, Starter is fine. The GitHub Sponsors-style creator tooling differentiates Polar from pure-payment processors — useful if you want a combined donations + subscriptions flow.

Vietnam note

Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal do not onboard Vietnam-registered businesses as merchant accounts. If you are building and selling from Vietnam, the MoR path — Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Polar — is the practical default. You sell through the MoR’s merchant account. Your payment infrastructure works day one with no incorporation-jurisdiction gymnastics.

Creem and Polar’s willingness to onboard international sellers is confirmed; verify with their support before committing if your jurisdiction has specific requirements.

Verdict

US-based, domestic audience, comfortable with tax ops: Stripe + Billing + Tax. Cheapest effective rate, best ecosystem. Budget for compliance overhead.
MoR, new product, want lowest fees: Creem at 3.9%+40¢. Cheapest MoR, no international surcharge. Accept early-stage risk.
MoR, want proven track record: Paddle. 5%+50¢, solid infrastructure, been around since 2012. Pay the premium for stability.
MoR, feature-rich tooling at a cost: Lemon Squeezy. The 0.5% surcharge applies to all subscription renewals — Paddle is cheaper on both domestic and international at most volumes.
Vietnam-registered: any MoR. Paddle, Creem, or Polar. Stripe is not an option.
Marketplace discovery is the product: Gumroad Discover. Accept the ~30% take for the distribution.

Caveats

Fee structures change without notice. Verify current rates directly on each processor’s pricing page before building financial models. FastSpring rates are community-sourced and unverified for 2026. Creem pricing was verified Q2 2026 but the company is early-stage — pricing changes are possible. Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy rates and plan names verified Q2 2026. The Vietnam onboarding notes reflect seller restrictions, not buyer restrictions; Vietnamese consumers can pay via all listed processors.