Stripe vs Paddle

Side-by-side — pricing, strengths, tradeoffs, and fit.

Stripe

Financial infrastructure for the internet

Paddle

The complete payments infrastructure for SaaS

At a glance

Free Tier
· Not enough data·From 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction
· Not enough data·From 5% + 50¢ per checkout transaction

Overview

One-liner

Financial infrastructure for the internet

One-liner

The complete payments infrastructure for SaaS

Maturity

Not enough data

Maturity

Not enough data

Open source

✕ No

Open source

✕ No

Pricing

Free tier

✓ Available

Free tier

✕ None

Starts at

2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction

Starts at

5% + 50¢ per checkout transaction

Model

Usage-based

Model

Usage-based

Enterprise

✕ None

Enterprise

✕ None

Best for

✓ Best for

Developers building payment flows, SaaS billing, marketplaces, and e-commerce platforms

✓ Best for

SaaS companies wanting a merchant of record to handle global tax and compliance

Not ideal for

✕ Not for

Offline-only businesses with no internet payment needs

✕ Not for

—

Strengths

↑ Strengths

Payment processing
Subscription billing
Connect for marketplaces
Invoicing

↑ Strengths

Acts as merchant of record for global sales tax obligations
Fraud protection: blocks card attacks, fights chargebacks, screens fraudsters
Subscription billing in 20+ currencies with multiple payment methods
Includes free subscription analytics for revenue reporting

Weaknesses

↓ Weaknesses

Not available in every country — Stripe publishes the countries and regions it supports
India and Indonesia are still in preview

↓ Weaknesses

Standard pricing is not available for low-value products or invoicing requirements
High transaction fees for low-value items
Cannot be used to sell physical products or anything that needs physical delivery
Not for human services unrelated to software, such as pure consulting
Full Stripe profile →Full Paddle profile →