Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy

What you keep on a sample sale

You are choosing between two checkouts, and both pricing pages list the same rate. Paddle's pricing page and Lemon Squeezy's pricing page each show that rate with no monthly fee. Lemon Squeezy adds a percentage when the card is issued outside the US, the buyer pays with PayPal, or the charge is a subscription.

Every amount in the table is the fee on the sale price before sales tax. Lemon Squeezy's fee documentation applies an extra percentage only when the order meets one of those conditions. The Lemon Squeezy fee tables show what happens after tax is added to the order.

The first two rows are a one-time US card payment with no affiliate. Both companies take the same fee.

The third row is a card issued outside the US. Lemon Squeezy adds a 1.5% fee to that sale.

The last row is a subscription on that same non-US card. Lemon Squeezy adds a 0.5% fee to subscription sales.

Lemon Squeezy charges the same extra percentage on a PayPal sale as on an international card. On the US card sale in the table, that PayPal fee equals the international card fee, while Paddle's fee does not change.

An affiliate referral adds 3%. Lemon Squeezy's affiliate fee page adds that 3% to the standard fee. On the US card sale in the table, the fee comes to $4.50.

A payment brought back by an abandoned-cart email carries an extra 5% fee. The same fee documentation lists it.

On a chargeback, Lemon Squeezy deducts the refunded amount minus the platform fee, plus a $15 dispute fee, from the next payout. The refunds page states that.

Products under $10, and high-volume Paddle accounts, need a quote from sales. No second rate is published. The table uses the published rate. The Paddle pricing breakdown notes that quote.

When the payout lands

Paddle's payout article says sellers cannot pull the balance whenever they want. Once the balance is at least $100, Paddle creates the payout on the 1st and sends it by the 15th.

Most payouts have no fee beyond the checkout charge. A SWIFT transfer into a different currency or a different country can cost 15 dollars, euros or pounds. If the payout currency differs from the balance currency, the conversion margin can reach 1.5 percent. The payout-fee page lists both.

Lemon Squeezy's payout article says payouts are created on the 1st and the 15th. Net sales are held for 13 days and paid on the 14th and the 28th, once the balance reaches 50 dollars.

Lemon Squeezy vs Paddle for a software subscription

Paddle's homepage says it manages payments, tax, compliance and billing across 300+ markets. The sales-tax row is that filing work. The billing page includes invoicing and help with the buyer's invoice, plus the failed-payment recovery listed in the trade-offs.

Paddle's acceptable use policy is limited to software companies. A company that mainly sells physical goods, or consulting and other paid time, falls outside it. The trade-offs note that you can export your seller data if you switch.

Lemon Squeezy's homepage describes payments, tax and subscriptions for software companies. Its seller-of-record article says it handles tax, refunds and chargebacks. The affiliate fee above is the cost of that program.

Neither platform offers a same-URL split test of the checkout, and neither can send a single sale to more than one merchant account. The table marks both of those rows unavailable. If a live ad needs that test, read the guide to who files the tax and what that role means.

What sellers report after they apply

On a signup thread, founders say Paddle took days to reply to onboarding emails, and no one from Paddle joined a call they had scheduled. On a payments thread, one post says the developer experience is worse than the other tools there, and the pricing is the part they prefer.

A review thread describes the same store-approval problem listed in Lemon Squeezy's trade-offs. On the signup thread, founders also say support replies slowed after the acquisition named there.

The vendor pages linked above, and those public posts, are what this pick rests on. Run one real order and wait until that payout arrives before you move every product over.

My take

For subscription software sold in many countries, I would start with Paddle when the payout timing above works and you want the recovery tool in the trade-offs. Cards from outside the US, PayPal payments and renewals all use that one published rate.

I would start with Lemon Squeezy when most buyers pay with a US card and you want affiliates in the same account. Funds go out on two dates after the hold in the payout section.

The Paddle review and the Lemon Squeezy review go further on each product. If the fee has to be quoted for your account, see Paddle vs FastSpring or Lemon Squeezy vs FastSpring. Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy compares the storefronts. The comparison index lists every pair.