Paddle vs Stripe Fees and What You'll Actually Pay
Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ vs Paddle's 5% + 50¢ is not the real comparison. See what each costs on domestic sales, international subscriptions, and tax compliance.
Stripe is the default payment processor for software businesses, at 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card charge, with subscription billing, tax calculation, international cards, and currency conversion each sold as an add-on. Paddle is a merchant of record. It resells your product, charges a flat 5% + 50¢, and takes on global sales tax registration, filing, and chargeback liability itself.
That structural difference makes the headline rates misleading in both directions. Comparing 2.9% against 5% ignores that a SaaS company on Stripe typically also pays 0.7% for Billing, 0.5% for Stripe Tax, 1.5% on international cards, and 1% on currency conversion, which adds up to 6.6% + 30¢ on a fully loaded international subscription, with tax registrations and filings still left for you to do. Comparing 6.6% against 5% ignores that most businesses are majority-domestic, where Stripe’s stack stays near 4% or below. Paddle’s own comparison page shows only the framing that favors Paddle. The calculator below computes both directions with your numbers. The one-sentence fee story is that Stripe is clearly cheaper on domestic volume, the two reach near parity on international subscriptions, and Paddle pulls ahead once compliance work is priced in.
Paddle breakdown
- Base fee (5% + 50¢) $5.50
Stripe breakdown
- Base fee (2.9% + 30¢) $3.20
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 Paddle vs Stripe fee side by side
| Paddle | Stripe | |
|---|---|---|
| Base transaction fee | 5% + 50¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| International cards | No surcharge | +1.5% |
| Currency conversion | No surcharge | +1% |
| Subscription billing | Included | +0.7% |
| PayPal | Included | Not offered |
| Monthly fee | None | None |
| Payout fees | 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) | Free standard payouts to US bank accounts (Instant payouts cost 1.5% (min 50¢)) |
| Dispute / chargeback fee | Chargeback fees absorbed by Paddle | $15.00 |
| Sales tax / VAT handling | MoR Paddle handles global sales tax and VAT as the legal seller | You register, file, and remit sales tax/VAT (Stripe Tax adds 0.5%) |
| Source | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 (US rates. stripe.com geo-serves pricing by visitor location) |
| Platform | $10 sale | $50 sale | $500 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paddle | $1.00 | $3.00 | $25.50 |
| Stripe | $0.59 | $1.75 | $14.80 |
The headline rates measure different things
Stripe’s 2.9% + 30¢ prices card processing and nothing else. Paddle’s 5% + 50¢ prices processing plus subscription billing, tax calculation and remittance, chargeback liability, and localized payment methods. Rebuilding Paddle’s coverage on Stripe means stacking add-ons.
| Cost | Stripe | Paddle |
|---|---|---|
| Card processing | 2.9% + 30¢ | included in 5% + 50¢ |
| Subscription billing | +0.7% (Billing) | included |
| Tax calculation | +0.5% (Stripe Tax, optional) | included |
| International cards | +1.5% | included |
| Currency conversion | +1% | included |
| Tax registration and filing | your responsibility | Paddle’s responsibility |
| Chargebacks | $15 each, your liability | $0, Paddle’s liability |
Fully stacked, an international subscription on Stripe costs 6.6% + 30¢, and the registration and filing work still isn’t done for you.
Two sales, two different winners
$100 domestic one-time sale. Stripe charges $3.20 (3.2%), and Paddle charges $5.50 (5.5%). Stripe keeps $2.30 more of every sale like this, because a one-time domestic USD charge triggers no Billing, FX, or international add-ons at all.
$49 international subscription. Stripe’s stack (2.9% base, 0.7% Billing, 1.5% international, 1% FX) comes to 6.1% + 30¢, or $3.29 per renewal, rising to $3.53 with Stripe Tax enabled. Paddle takes $2.95. The processor that looked 2.1 points cheaper is now 34-58¢ more expensive per charge.
Where the break-even actually sits
For a fully international subscription with Stripe Tax on, the two cost curves cross at exactly $12.50, the point where 6.6% + 30¢ equals 5% + 50¢. Paddle is cheaper at every higher price.
Customer mix moves that crossover dramatically. At $19/month with 40% international subscribers, Stripe’s blended rate is 5.1% + 30¢, or $1.27 per charge at a 6.7% effective rate, while Paddle takes $1.45 (7.6%). At that mix the crossover price jumps to $200, so Stripe wins essentially every realistic SaaS price point. The general rule is that below roughly 36% international revenue, Stripe (with Billing and Tax) is cheaper at any price. Above it, the winner depends on where you’ve set your price.
What neither headline number includes
On Stripe, you must register for sales tax and VAT wherever you cross thresholds and file returns on schedule. Stripe Tax calculates and collects, but registration, filing, and liability stay with you, and those costs are per-jurisdiction and never appear on a Stripe invoice.
On Paddle, checkout shows no surcharges, but payouts can. Revenue collected in currencies other than your payout currency passes through Paddle’s FX conversion at a margin of roughly 1.5-3%, and SWIFT wires can add $15. Price points under $10 require contacting Paddle’s sales team, which matters for low-cost add-ons and microtransactions.
Paddle’s own Stripe comparison page presents only the stacked-Stripe scenario. The calculator above runs both directions against your actual price and customer mix, which is the only comparison that settles it.
Verdict
Choose Stripe when your revenue is mostly domestic and you can handle tax compliance. A $100 US sale costs $3.20 against Paddle’s $5.50, and below roughly 36% international revenue Stripe is cheaper at every price point even with Billing and Stripe Tax enabled. Choose Paddle when international subscriptions dominate or you have no capacity for tax operations. At $49 fully international, Paddle’s $2.95 undercuts Stripe’s fully loaded $3.53, and Paddle also absorbs chargeback liability, registrations, and every filing deadline. The fee gap between them is smaller than either headline suggests (often under one point of revenue in either direction for mixed businesses), so the real decision is who does the compliance work, you or Paddle. If you would need to hire help or buy software to file taxes across jurisdictions, Paddle becomes cheaper in total cost well before the transaction fees say so.What’s the best alternative?
Paddle and Stripe 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 Paddle and $3.20 on Stripe, 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 Paddle and Kelviq vs Stripe.