Paddle vs Stripe: Cost and Fees Calculator
Enter your volumes to compare estimated monthly costs and fees for Paddle and Stripe across the selling types both offer, using published US pricing.
Selling online (eCommerce)
Estimates combine processing fees and monthly subscriptions on the plans noted above. One-time hardware, setup, and add-ons are excluded. Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and may have changed.
How the Paddle vs Stripe calculator works, and how the two compare
Paddle is a merchant of record for software and SaaS companies, handling payments, sales tax, and compliance in one fee. Paddle charges 5% + $0.50 per transaction as merchant of record, which includes payment processing, global sales tax handling, invoicing, and fraud liability, with no monthly fee. Stripe is a developer-focused online payments infrastructure company that also sells Terminal card readers for in-person sales. Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 for online card payments and 2.7% + $0.05 in person via Stripe Terminal (Reader M2 $59), with no monthly fee and volume discounts on request.
How they are similar: Where they overlap: both Paddle and Stripe cover selling online, which is what this calculator compares. Neither requires a monthly subscription on the plans compared here, so your cost scales purely with sales. In both cases the bill is driven by a percentage of each sale plus any fixed per-transaction fee, which is why your average transaction size changes the effective rate as much as the headline percentage does.
How they differ: Only Stripe offers in-person card readers, so that side of the business is not part of this comparison. Paddle operates as a merchant-of-record service whose single fee bundles processing with tax and compliance, while Stripe operates as flat-rate card processing with published per-transaction fees. Paddle's all-in fee looks expensive next to raw processing, but it legally takes on your global sales tax and compliance burden, which pure processors leave entirely to you. Stripe is built API-first: it has no storefront or POS software of its own, but offers unmatched flexibility, 135+ currencies, and dozens of payment methods for businesses that build their own checkout.
Assumptions used in this calculator
- Paddle is modeled on: Merchant of record: 5% + $0.50 all-in including tax compliance, no monthly fee.
- Stripe is modeled on: 2.9% + $0.30 per online card payment, no monthly fee.
- Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and change often; quote-based providers are modeled at representative rates. Always confirm current pricing with the provider.
- One-time hardware, setup, add-on apps, keyed-in transactions, international cards, and chargeback fees are excluded from the monthly figures.