Originally published at devtoolpicks.com
Stripe bought Lemon Squeezy in July 2024. At the time, most indie hackers shrugged. Stripe is developer-friendly, LS was growing fast, what's the worst that could happen?
Almost two years later: nothing catastrophic, but enough to make you uneasy. Feature velocity has slowed. The roadmap has gone quiet. A platform built for indie hackers now has a corporate parent with different priorities. And when your SaaS depends on a Merchant of Record for global tax compliance, "quiet roadmap" does not inspire confidence.
If you're thinking about moving, the timing is actually good. The MoR space got genuinely competitive after 2024. Polar, Creem, Paddle, and DodoPayments have all shipped real updates. One of them probably fits your situation better than Lemon Squeezy does right now.
Here's what I found comparing them honestly.
Quick verdict
| Tool | Best For | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polar | Solo devs, open-source projects | 4% + $0.40/txn | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Creem | EU founders, early-stage SaaS | 3.9% + $0.40/txn | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Paddle | Growing SaaS, $10k+ MRR | 5% + $0.50/txn | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| DodoPayments | India, APAC, global payment methods | 4% + $0.40/txn | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Gumroad | Creators, not SaaS | 10%/txn | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Polar: the developer's MoR
Polar launched in 2023 and has become the default choice for solo developers who want a clean MoR without Paddle's complexity or Lemon Squeezy's uncertainty.
The headline fee is 4% + $0.40 per transaction. It's open source. They ship native SDKs for Laravel, Next.js, and BetterAuth. Guillermo Rauch from Vercel has publicly endorsed it. Tailwind Labs uses it. The developer community has adopted Polar faster than almost anything else in the billing space since 2023.
The pricing has a catch worth knowing upfront: international card transactions add 1.5%, and subscription payments add 0.5%. So if you're billing a subscription customer with a non-US card, the effective rate is 4% + 1.5% + 0.5% + $0.40, which works out to 6% + $0.40. If a large share of your users are outside the US and paying monthly, that adds up meaningfully.
Polar pays out to around 120 countries via Stripe Connect. Solid coverage, but not global. Parts of Africa and Southeast Asia are not supported.
What's genuinely good: The developer experience is the best in this category by some distance. Six-line integration. Clean webhooks. Open source, so you can actually read the code if something goes weird. The Laravel SDK specifically is well-maintained and production-ready.
The honest con: Support can be slow. A February 2026 Reddit thread specifically flagged responsiveness issues during disputes. For billing infrastructure your entire revenue runs through, that matters.
Who should not use Polar: If most of your paying customers are outside the US and on subscriptions, do the math on effective fees before committing. At 6%+ for international subscriptions, Paddle starts looking competitive on price despite the higher headline rate.
Creem: the clean new option
Creem launched in 2024, built by a small team out of Estonia. The pitch is hard to argue with on the surface: 3.9% + $0.40 flat, all-inclusive, no international surcharges. Their pricing page even calls out competitors for hiding fees, which is a bold move.
There is fine print in the docs, though. Revenue splits add 2%. Affiliate-driven transactions add another 2%. Abandoned cart recovery adds 5% on whatever it recovers. Non-EU bank payouts cost $7 or 1%, whichever is higher.
For a solo founder without co-founders, no affiliate program, and a European bank account, Creem is genuinely cheap. For anyone running a more typical setup, run the numbers against your actual transaction mix before switching.
The product itself is good. The checkout converts well. Customer portal, license keys, subscription management, and dunning are all built in. The UI is cleaner than Lemon Squeezy, and probably the cleanest in this entire category. Payouts on the 1st and 15th of each month are consistent. Founders with EU and SEPA bank accounts get free payouts, which is a concrete advantage over Polar for European teams.
We compared Polar, Lemon Squeezy, and Creem in detail if you want the deep dive on just those three: Polar vs Lemon Squeezy vs Creem.
The honest con: Creem is new. Third-party reviews are still thin. Several planned features remain "coming soon." For billing infrastructure that your revenue depends on, you're making a bet on a young company with a thin track record.
Who should not use Creem: If you run revenue splits with a co-founder, an affiliate program, or have a non-EU bank account, the additional fees stack. Check the payout docs before you commit.
Paddle: the safe choice
Paddle has been around since 2012. That longevity is the whole pitch: it's boring, reliable, and mature in ways that newer MoRs are still catching up to.
The fee is 5% + $0.50 per transaction. Same headline rate as Lemon Squeezy. The difference is what you get for it. ProfitWell subscription analytics are built directly into the dashboard. Dunning and payment recovery are genuinely well-built. Customer support runs 24/7. For a growing SaaS with real churn problems, those tools justify the fee.
At $50k+ MRR, Paddle will negotiate. Rates in the 3.5-4.5% range are achievable with some volume.
The flip side: Paddle is more complex to set up than Polar or Creem. The dashboard takes time to learn. Support response times for small accounts can be frustratingly slow. The subscription API has improved significantly in 2025-2026, but the learning curve is real.
For the full fee comparison with Stripe and Lemon Squeezy, see our payment processor breakdown for solo devs.
The honest con: For a pre-revenue or early-stage product, Paddle is more than you need. The complexity and the 5% rate are hard to justify when Polar or Creem will do the job at 4% with less overhead.
Who should not use Paddle: Anyone under $5k MRR who doesn't need subscription analytics or advanced churn recovery. Start on Polar or Creem, migrate when the feature set actually applies to your situation.
DodoPayments: the global option
DodoPayments is built specifically for micro-SaaS founders selling to customers in India and Asia-Pacific. The fee is 4% + $0.40, same as Polar.
The differentiator is payment method coverage. Polar accepts cards only. DodoPayments supports UPI for India, SEPA for Europe, and other regional payment methods. If a significant chunk of your users are Indian or Southeast Asian, this is not a small detail. Stripe is invite-only in India. Paddle has limited reach there. Polar cannot help you at all.
Tax compliance covers 150+ countries. The API is clean and the docs are clear. The platform has enough maturity to trust with real revenue, though it does not have the long track record of Paddle.
The honest con: Brand recognition in Western markets is low. For customers who check the payment processor before completing a purchase, a less recognizable name can cause hesitation at checkout. Support is solid but the team is small.
Who should not use DodoPayments: If your customers are mostly in the US and EU and paying by card, Polar or Creem will do more for you. DodoPayments earns its place when you're specifically trying to grow in India or APAC.
Gumroad: stop, this is not for SaaS
Gumroad charges 10% per transaction. There is no tiered pricing, no volume discount until you're doing serious volume.
For a PDF, a Notion template, or a digital art pack: fine. The simplicity is real and the setup takes minutes. But for a subscription SaaS, 10% is roughly 2.5x what you'd pay on Polar or Creem. At $10k MRR, that's $1,000 extra in fees every single month going nowhere.
I'm including it here because it shows up in every "Lemon Squeezy alternatives" listicle and you should know to skip past it. If you're building SaaS, Gumroad is not your answer.
How to choose
You're launching your first SaaS: Go with Polar. The developer experience is the best in this category, the fee is honest for US-heavy customer bases, and the open-source codebase means no black boxes.
You're EU-based with a European bank account: Creem or Polar. Creem's free SEPA payouts are a concrete advantage if you're keeping it simple without co-founder splits or affiliates.
Your customers are in India or APAC: DodoPayments. The regional payment method support is the only reason to pick it over Polar, but for that market it's a real differentiator.
You're past $10k MRR and churn is the actual problem: Paddle. The subscription analytics and dunning tools are meaningfully better than anything else here. The fee is the same as Lemon Squeezy, but you get far more for it.
Whatever you pick, run the actual math with your transaction mix. Every platform has extra fees buried somewhere. The headline rate is just where the conversation starts.
FAQ
Is Lemon Squeezy still safe to use in 2026?
The platform works fine. Stripe has not dismantled it. The concern is the roadmap going quiet since the acquisition. If you're happy with the current feature set and are not worried about where it ends up, staying is a reasonable choice. Moving preemptively is also reasonable if you don't want to migrate under pressure later.
What's the cheapest Lemon Squeezy alternative?
Creem has the lowest headline rate at 3.9% + $0.40, but actual cost depends on your setup. Revenue splits, affiliates, and non-EU payouts each add fees. For most solo founders with a straightforward setup, Polar at 4% + $0.40 ends up being more predictable.
Do these MoRs handle EU VAT automatically?
Yes, all four (Polar, Creem, Paddle, DodoPayments) handle EU VAT collection and remittance. That's the core value of the Merchant of Record model. You do not register or file returns yourself.
Can I migrate existing subscribers from Lemon Squeezy?
Paddle offers a managed migration service for active subscriptions. Polar and Creem handle migrations case by case. Expect a transition window where some subscribers will need to re-enter payment details. Plan for it rather than hoping it goes smoothly.
Final recommendation
For most indie hackers starting fresh in 2026, Polar is the right default. Low fee, the best developer experience in this category, and enough platform maturity to trust with real revenue.
If you're EU-based and want the cleanest setup with free SEPA payouts, try Creem first. The 3.9% rate is hard to argue against for a simple operation.
Paddle is the right answer when you're past $10k MRR and need the subscription analytics and churn tools. Not before.
Run your real numbers before committing to any of them. The headline fees never tell the whole story.
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