When should I pick Lemon Squeezy over Stripe?

Pick Lemon Squeezy if: You're a developer selling SaaS subscriptions or license keys worldwide and don't want to register for tax.

When should I pick Stripe over Lemon Squeezy?

Pick Stripe if: You sell mainly in one country or can handle sales tax yourself, and want the lowest fees.

Which is cheaper, Lemon Squeezy or Stripe?

At revenue $10k, payments 400 payments: Lemon Squeezy $700/mo (Standard), Stripe $410/mo (Standard), at list prices.

Which do more makers use for payments?

Among makers' products we track: Lemon Squeezy 77, Stripe 891.

How do Lemon Squeezy and Stripe compare in cost as you grow?

At $500 a month Stripe costs less ($21 vs $35); and still does at $250k a month ($10,250 vs $17,500). Cheapest usable plan at each scale, at list prices.

Are people switching from Lemon Squeezy to Stripe?

Public GitHub pull requests since 2024-10-02: 5 from Lemon Squeezy to Stripe, 3 from Stripe to Lemon Squeezy.

Lemon Squeezy vs Stripe

Two sides of the payments decision: merchant of record and payment processor. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

Lemon SqueezyMerchant of record

Being migrated: Stripe, which owns it, is moving its sellers to Stripe Managed Payments; support and updates have slowed. source

StripePayment processorllms.txt MCP CLIIn Bolt, Lovable, Replit, v0

Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose Lemon Squeezy if

You're a developer selling SaaS subscriptions or license keys worldwide and don't want to register for tax

Use it whenYou want to start selling a download or subscription this weekend from a hosted checkout.

Trade-offStripe is moving this work to Stripe Managed Payments and plans to migrate Lemon Squeezy users there; support and updates have slowed.

Choose Stripe if

You sell mainly in one country or can handle sales tax yourself, and want the lowest fees

Use it whenYou can handle sales tax yourself, or sell mainly in one country.

Trade-offYou are the merchant of record — tax registration and filings are on you.

At a glance

	Lemon Squeezy	Stripe
Used by	77 makers' products · 4 open-source projects	891 makers' products · 175 open-source projects
Cost at default usagerevenue $10k, payments 400 payments	$700/mo Standard	$410/mo Standard
Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 2024	3 from Stripe	5 from Lemon Squeezy
Downloads	106k/wk+37% vs npm	17.8M/wk+37% vs npm
Pricing	Per-transaction fee; handles sales tax. · paid from 5% + 50¢ per transaction	Per-transaction fees; no monthly fee.
Free tier	No	No
Open source	No	No

Cost as you grow

At $500 a month Stripe costs less ($21 vs $35); and still does at $250k a month ($10,250 vs $17,500). They're different kinds of tool — merchant of record and payment processor — so the prices don't buy the same thing.

Stripe Lemon Squeezyx: revenue per month (USD), other usage scaled with it · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers

The numbers, plan by plan

Revenue per month	Lemon Squeezy	Stripe
500	$35 Standard	$21 Standard
1,000	$70 Standard	$41 Standard
5,000	$350 Standard	$205 Standard
10,000	$700 Standard	$410 Standard
25,000	$1,750 Standard	$1,025 Standard
50,000	$3,500 Standard	$2,050 Standard
100,000	$7,000 Standard	$4,100 Standard
250,000	$17,500 Standard	$10,250 Standard

From each vendor's pricing page: Lemon Squeezy, Stripe.

Who moves from one to the other

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "Lemon Squeezy to Stripe" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.

Stripe →

Lemon Squeezy3 PRs

Migrate platform billing from Stripe to Lemon Squeezyflgmindfulnessalive/WeWebinar · 2026-09-03
Migrate checkout from Stripe to Lemon Squeezysifoukhelif/bob · 2026-07-17
[FEAT] Migrate payment system from Stripe to Lemon Squeezy (#23)agentgram/agentgram · 2026-02-02

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

Lemon Squeezy →

Stripe5 PRs

Migrate billing from Lemon Squeezy to Stripeazmainraihan28-netizen/hirebest2 · 2026-09-30
Migrate the buy flow from Lemon Squeezy to direct Stripe CheckoutMarxal/obertura · 2026-08-17
swap lemon squeezy to stripe and fix beta code timezonenicomigu/runRename · 2026-06-02
Switch payment integration from Lemon Squeezy to Stripejddelia/thriftypigeon-v2 · 2025-10-09
fix: migrate lemon squeezy to stripeformizee/formizee · 2025-01-16

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

What makers say

Makers on using it for payments, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Lemon Squeezy

Thanks to LemonSqueezy, implementing payments was super easy. I can create discount codes effortlessly, and I don’t even have to worry about handling the bureaucratic side of things.

Fuego, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Perfect fit for SaaS payments and licensing. Handles taxes, subscriptions, coupons and invoicing for us so we can focus on the product instead of building billing from scratch.

Intrascope.app, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Selling worldwide as a solo dev would've meant drowning in tax and licensing. Lemon Squeezy's Merchant-of-Record model let me ship DockDuck globally and never touch VAT.

DockDuck, the makerSep 2026 ↗

57 more on the Lemon Squeezy page →

On Stripe

The voice that made Jinna feel alive. We use ElevenLabs to give Jinna her natural tone — calm, human, and full of personality. The first time we heard her speak, it stopped the room

Jinna.ai, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Stripe's payment infrastructure enables seamless transactions for our users' ChatGPT apps. Their robust APIs make it simple to monetize AI applications and handle payments securely.

Noodle Seed, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Stripe makes handling payments effortless. It powers all RewriteBar subscriptions and one-time licenses — super reliable, developer-friendly, and easy to integrate across platforms.

RewriteBar, the makerSep 2026 ↗

256 more on the Stripe page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Lemon Squeezy

Most loved

As merchant of record it handles VAT, sales tax and invoicing across countries for solo developers. PH
Pays individuals directly without a registered company, including in regions Stripe does not serve. PH HN
Built-in license keys and activation save desktop and digital-product sellers from building licensing. PH

Watch-outs

Store applications get rejected without a specific reason or sit in review for weeks. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Since the Stripe acquisition, development looks stalled and the service feels like it has declined. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Fees end up higher than expected, with hidden extras on top of the headline rate. HN HN 2

On Product Hunt: 4.8★, 81 reviews

Stripe

Most loved

Subscriptions, trials, invoices, refunds and taxes are handled in one place, so founders skip building billing. PH PH 2 PH 3 PH 4
The APIs, webhooks and documentation are reliable and accurate enough to feel like a product themselves. PH PH 2 PH 3 HN
Integration takes days, and card data never touches your servers, which keeps PCI scope small. PH PH 2 PH 3 HN

Watch-outs

Sudden revenue jumps can trigger balance freezes with slow reviews and no stated reason. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Merchant fees become painful at scale, and merchant-of-record style services cost much more than plain processing. HN HN 2 HN 3

On Product Hunt: 4.9★, 515 reviews · mentioned most: easy integration, secure payment processing, reliable service · complaints: poor customer support, complex setup