Paddle

What is Paddle?

Paddle is a merchant-of-record payments platform: instead of you being the seller of record who has to register for VAT and sales tax in every jurisdiction your customers live in, Paddle legally becomes the seller and handles that tax compliance for you. It's aimed at software companies, especially SaaS and digital products sold globally, where the alternative is either hiring someone to manage international tax filings or building that compliance work yourself on top of a raw payment processor like Stripe.

Key features

• Merchant-of-record model, Paddle collects and remits VAT/sales tax in 200+ countries so you don't register anywhere yourself
• Built-in subscription billing, invoicing, and checkout flows designed for SaaS
• Handles currency conversion and localized pricing/payment methods automatically
• Chargeback and fraud handling folded into the merchant-of-record relationship
• Dashboard and API for managing subscriptions, upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations

Who it's for

Makes the most sense for solo founders and small teams selling software globally who don't want to deal with tax registration themselves, the tradeoff is a meaningfully higher take rate than a raw processor. If you're already big enough to justify your own tax/compliance setup, or you're selling primarily in one jurisdiction, a lower-fee option like Stripe directly may cost less overall.

Pricing

Percentage-plus-fixed-fee per transaction, higher than a standard payment processor because tax compliance and merchant-of-record liability are bundled into the rate. Check the tool's site for current rates.