Facts read November 6, 2026
Paddle vs Stripe
Stripe is Cuely's default payments pick when your description doesn't favor either one: the broadest billing toolkit and the lowest base fee; you handle tax registration. Pick Paddle if you care most about having sales tax and VAT handled worldwide.
Side by side
| Fact | Paddle | Stripe |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Merchant of record for software: it sells to your customer and handles tax filing. | Payment processor with subscription billing, invoicing, a customer portal and tax add-ons. |
| Free plan | No monthly fee: 5% + 50¢ per checkout transaction. | No monthly fee. US cards: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic transaction; +1.5% international cards; +1% when currency conversion is needed. |
| Paid from | Not stated | Billing: 0.7% of billing volume (pay as you go). Stripe Tax: 0.5% per transaction where you're registered. |
| At 1,000 users | $0/month | $0/month |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Best for | Selling software internationally from day one; Founders who don't want tax registrations | Subscriptions, seats and usage-based billing; Lowest per-transaction fee; Invoices for B2B customers |
| Watch out | Higher fee than a plain processor (5% + 50¢). Less control over checkout and invoices than Stripe. | Not a merchant of record by default: sales tax and VAT registration are yours (Stripe Tax helps calculate). Billing adds 0.7% of billing volume on pay-as-you-go. |
Where they differ
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide which one Cuely picks for each need.
| Need | Paddle | Stripe |
|---|---|---|
| sells internationally and wants tax handled | +3 As merchant of record, Paddle collects and files sales tax and VAT. | −1 You register for and file sales tax and VAT yourself, unless you add Managed Payments (3.5% extra). |
| keep costs as low as possible | −1 5% + 50¢ is higher than a plain processor. | +2 Lowest base fee of the options here. |
| users pay each other and you take a cut | −3 A merchant of record for your own sales; it doesn't pay out to other sellers. | −1 Plain Stripe can't split a payment and pay providers out; that is Stripe Connect. |
| sells to businesses (organizations, roles, SSO) | +1 Subscriptions and invoices for software sales. | +3 Invoices, seats, usage billing and a hosted customer portal. |
| charges by usage | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Meters API for usage-based billing, up to 100M events a month included in Billing pricing. |
| regulated or compliance-sensitive | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Card data stays on Stripe, which keeps your PCI scope small. |
| high volume | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Percentage fees are the lowest here and negotiable at volume. |
Sources: Paddle pricing (read November 6, 2026), Stripe pricing (read November 6, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.