Comparison
Stripe vs Paddle
Both can charge a customer for a SaaS. The split is who the customer's receipt names, who remits sales tax, and how much of the payment stack you operate. Fees were not quoted here because Stripe's vary by country and Paddle's are packaged. See both sites.
Updated 16 Oct 2026
| Question | Stripe | Paddle |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant of record | Usually you. Stripe moves the money. | Paddle. They describe themselves as merchant of record for digital products. |
| Sales tax | Your problem, unless you add Stripe Tax and still own the liability. | Paddle's problem, which is the reason people switch. |
| How a generated app gets it wrong | Secret key in the client, or a success page that grants access with no webhook. | Same class of bug: trusting the browser instead of a verified server notification. |
| What you integrate | Checkout or Billing, webhooks, customer portal. | Paddle checkout and their subscription webhooks. They review what you sell. |
| Fit for a weekend app | Faster to a test-mode payment if you already know Checkout. | Better once you are actually selling in more than one country and do not want a tax setup. |
| Pricing | See site. Do not trust a blog that quotes one US card rate as universal. | See site for all-inclusive or custom pricing. |
Lean toward Stripe when
You want the most documented API, you are comfortable being the merchant, and the buyer is mostly in one country while you figure tax out.
Lean toward Paddle when
You sell software globally and want someone else named on the receipt and responsible for remitting sales tax.
Start on Stripe if you are still proving the product and you can keep the secret key on a server. Move or start on Paddle when tax and merchant-of-record status are the actual problem. Do not run both without a clear reason. And on either one, do not unlock the product from the success URL alone.