Lemon Squeezy vs Paddle Fees, Same 5% but Different Bills
Lemon Squeezy and Paddle share the same 5% + 50¢ headline, but surcharges and payout FX split the bill. Worked examples show which MoR costs less and when.
Lemon Squeezy and Paddle are the two merchants of record most often shortlisted by SaaS and digital-product businesses that want someone else to own global sales tax and chargebacks. Both advertise identical pricing of 5% + 50¢ per transaction, taxes and disputes included, no monthly fee.
The comparison exists because that identical headline produces different bills. Lemon Squeezy adds surcharges at checkout (1.5% for international cards, 0.5% for subscription renewals, 1.5% for PayPal), so its effective rate runs anywhere from 5% to 8.5% plus 50¢ depending on the transaction. Paddle adds nothing at checkout and instead takes a 1.5-3% currency-conversion margin when non-USD revenue converts at payout. A $100 domestic card sale costs exactly $5.50 on both platforms, but an international PayPal subscription costs 8.5% + 50¢ on Lemon Squeezy and 5% + 50¢ on Paddle. There is also a deadline built into this choice. Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy and is migrating merchants to Stripe Managed Payments, previewed at roughly 6.4% + 30¢, which is why many Lemon Squeezy users are pricing Paddle right now. The calculator below runs your product through both fee structures.
Lemon Squeezy breakdown
- Base fee (5% + 50¢) $5.50
Paddle breakdown
- Base fee (5% + 50¢) $5.50
| Platform | Fee | Effective rate | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 | |
 PaddleMoR | $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 |
The ranking counts per-transaction cost only. Monthly plan fees, payout fees, and dispute fees are listed separately on each platform page. Rates are verified against official pricing pages, and the sources list the dates.
Every Lemon Squeezy vs Paddle fee side by side
| Lemon Squeezy | Paddle | |
|---|---|---|
| Base transaction fee | 5% + 50¢ | 5% + 50¢ |
| International cards | +1.5% | No surcharge |
| Currency conversion | No surcharge | No surcharge |
| Subscription billing | +0.5% | Included |
| PayPal | +1.5% | Included |
| Monthly fee | None | None |
| Payout fees | US bank free, non-US bank 1%, PayPal 50¢ (US) or 3% capped at $30 (international) ($50 minimum payout balance) | Free payouts. An FX margin of roughly 1.5–3% applies when your payout currency differs from the sale currency ($15 SWIFT wire fee for some currency/bank combinations) |
| Dispute / chargeback fee | $15.00 | Chargeback fees absorbed by Paddle |
| Sales tax / VAT handling | MoR Lemon Squeezy handles global sales tax and VAT as the legal seller | MoR Paddle handles global sales tax and VAT as the legal seller |
| Source | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 (Acquired by Stripe. Merchants are being migrated to Stripe Managed Payments) | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 |
| Platform | $10 sale | $50 sale | $500 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon Squeezy | $1.00 | $3.00 | $25.50 |
| Paddle | $1.00 | $3.00 | $25.50 |
Same sticker, different stacking
Both platforms are merchants of record, so each one’s 5% + 50¢ covers processing, subscription billing, tax remittance, and being the legal seller. The divergence is everything appended to that number.
- Lemon Squeezy stacks its extras at checkout. International cards add 1.5%, subscription renewals add 0.5%, and PayPal adds 1.5%. They combine, so an international PayPal subscriber pays all three at once.
- Paddle takes its extras at payout. There are no checkout surcharges of any kind, but a roughly 1.5-3% margin applies to revenue converted from other currencies into your payout currency, plus a possible $15 SWIFT fee.
Where the bills separate
A $100 one-time domestic card sale is the transaction both platforms price identically, at $5.50 to the cent. Everything after that favors one side.
Move a $49 subscription abroad and the gap opens. On a card, Lemon Squeezy applies 5% + 1.5% + 0.5% = 7% + 50¢, which comes to $3.93 per renewal (an 8.0% effective rate), while Paddle stays at $2.95 (6.0%). Route the same subscriber through PayPal and Lemon Squeezy’s stack reaches 8.5% + 50¢, or $4.67 per renewal, 9.5% effective, against Paddle’s unchanged $2.95. That widest case costs $1.72 more per renewal, roughly $21 per subscriber per year. For scale, the same renewal runs $2.31 on Creem and $2.80 on Kelviq, two newer MoRs with lower posted rates.
Paddle’s cut is real, just deferred
Paddle localizes checkout, so international buyers typically pay in their own currency. When that revenue converts into a USD payout, Paddle’s FX margin of roughly 1.5-3% applies, so $1,000 of euro-denominated sales costs $15-30 on the way out. At the low end that matches Lemon Squeezy’s 1.5% international card surcharge. At the high end it doubles it. A business that prices in USD only sees Paddle add nothing anywhere, while Lemon Squeezy still surcharges international cards 1.5% regardless of currency.
Disputes are the other quiet line item. Lemon Squeezy charges $15 per chargeback, while Paddle charges nothing and holds the liability itself. Ten chargebacks in a month is a $150 line on one platform and $0 on the other.
Payout mechanics differ too. Lemon Squeezy pays US bank accounts free (1% to non-US banks, 50¢-3% via PayPal) once your balance clears $50, while Paddle’s only payout costs are the FX margin and possible SWIFT fee.
The clock on this comparison
Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy and is migrating merchants to Stripe Managed Payments, previewed in February 2026 at roughly 6.4% + 30¢ all-in, 1.4 points above Lemon Squeezy’s current headline. Choosing between these two platforms today therefore means comparing Paddle’s posted pricing against a roadmap that ends somewhere near SMP’s rate, not at 5% + 50¢. That asymmetry, more than any single surcharge, is what’s driving Lemon Squeezy merchants to run this exact comparison in 2026.
Verdict
For a US-focused business selling one-time products by card, the two are priced identically at checkout, and Lemon Squeezy’s free US bank payouts make it marginally cheaper end to end. Everywhere else, Paddle wins on fees. Subscriptions avoid Lemon Squeezy’s 0.5% surcharge, PayPal avoids 1.5%, international cards avoid 1.5%, and disputes cost $0 instead of $15. Paddle’s payout FX margin claws back 1.5-3% on non-USD revenue, which narrows but rarely erases the gap. An international PayPal subscription runs 9.5% effective on Lemon Squeezy against 6% at checkout on Paddle, plus at most a 3% conversion margin at payout. The acquisition also tips a close call, because Lemon Squeezy’s successor pricing (Stripe Managed Payments, ~6.4% + 30¢) is higher than what either platform charges today, so anyone planning more than a year ahead should weigh Paddle’s posted rates against where Lemon Squeezy is heading.What’s the best alternative?
Lemon Squeezy and Paddle aren’t the only two options for this kind of selling. Kelviq, a newer merchant of record, charges 3.5% + 40¢ per sale with no monthly fee (2.9% + 40¢ on your first $5,000). On a $100 domestic sale that works out to $3.90, next to $5.50 on Lemon Squeezy and $5.50 on Paddle, and the fee includes usage metering and entitlements that SaaS and AI products otherwise build separately. Run your own numbers in the Kelviq fee calculator, or see the direct matchups in Kelviq vs Lemon Squeezy and Kelviq vs Paddle.