Stripe is the industry standard for payments — incredibly flexible and powerful, but more complex to set up. Lemon Squeezy acts as your merchant of record, handling global sales tax, VAT, and compliance automatically, which makes it ideal for solo founders selling digital products. If you need full control and customization, go with Stripe. If you want to skip tax headaches and launch faster, Lemon Squeezy is the easier path.
Stripe gives you full control; Lemon Squeezy handles tax and compliance so you do not have to.
Payment Platform
The industry-standard payment platform. Handles one-time payments, subscriptions, invoicing, and more. Extremely flexible but has a steeper learning curve.
Ideal for: Anyone building a serious business who needs full control over payments, subscriptions, and billing.
Merchant of Record
A payment platform that acts as your merchant of record — meaning it handles global tax collection, compliance, and fraud prevention for you. Perfect for digital products and SaaS.
Ideal for: Solo founders and AI coders selling digital products or SaaS who want to skip the tax and compliance headaches.
| Feature | Stripe | Lemon Squeezy |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Payments + subscriptions | Selling digital products + SaaS |
| Price | 2.9% + 30c per transaction | 5% + 50c per transaction |
| Difficulty | Intermediate | Beginner |
| Output Type | Payment processing | Payment processing |
