6 ms·

Looks expensive, though. 5% + 50¢

adamnemecek 4y ago
They also do more AFAIK.
kc10 4y ago
They offer merchant of record services, which essentially means you can sell worldwide without worrying about tax issues. I have contemplated Stripe vs Paddle couple of months ago. But ultimately chose to stay with Stripe and deal with tax complexities when there is sizable revenue.
aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
It costs real money to provide real support. For those CTOs in the back: YOU NEED TO PAY REAL MONEY TO GET REAL SERVICE.
- el_nahual 4y ago
  Except the extra cost here is on the wrong side of the equation: it's on the variable side. So yes, CTO's should "pay real money to get real support," but that only makes sense if the costs don't scale with every dollar of revenue. A 5% fee is basically impossible to pay for anything that's not software (90%+) margins. Ecommerce, for example, has about 5%-10% net margins. 2%, net, extra payment processing fees is huge.
  - LionTamer 4y ago
    To be fair Paddle explicitly says that they are a payment solutions platform for SaaS companies
Silhouette 4y ago
Not really. It's an apples to oranges comparison. For one thing Paddle is a merchant of record so it's more like "outsource your entire payment system including all the processing of different payment methods and the global tax admin". For a lot of businesses, particularly smaller ones with international sales, that is going to be an attractive option compared to services like Stripe even at this price point. For another thing Stripe has introduced so many extras that bump up their cut now that some types of business will end up paying quite a bit more than the analogous headline rate. So even if it were an apples to apples comparison the difference on the bottom line still wouldn't be as wide as it might first appear for those merchants.
- GingerMidas 4y ago
  Thanks for the explanation, I missed the tax and other benefits at first glance. I don't have those tax complications personally but I do see the value now. Having a checkout bundled with paypal/apple pay/card is pretty compelling however.
  - candiddevmike 4y ago
    Just curious, how don't you have those tax complications?
    - GingerMidas 4y ago
      I'm referring to the international sales. We only sell within the US, state taxes are relatively easy
      - candiddevmike 4y ago
        You must have quite the setup to calculate state, county, and local taxes.
        dangrossman 4y ago
        Most online sellers don't have to handle that themselves, whether they're selling physical goods (your shopping cart like Shopify or WooCommerce will do all the sales tax calculations), or services (most locales don't tax them, and you have to get pretty big to worry about establishing economic nexus in places that do).
    - Silhouette 4y ago
      Not selling internationally perhaps? If you're only selling to customers in the same place then taxes are often much simpler. You might even be exempt from your country's whole sales tax system until you're big enough to cross a threshold.
  - NickRead 4y ago

They also do more AFAIK.

kc10 4y ago

They offer merchant of record services, which essentially means you can sell worldwide without worrying about tax issues. I have contemplated Stripe vs Paddle couple of months ago. But ultimately chose to stay with Stripe and deal with tax complexities when there is sizable revenue.

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago

It costs real money to provide real support. For those CTOs in the back: YOU NEED TO PAY REAL MONEY TO GET REAL SERVICE.

el_nahual 4y ago
Except the extra cost here is on the wrong side of the equation: it's on the variable side. So yes, CTO's should "pay real money to get real support," but that only makes sense if the costs don't scale with every dollar of revenue. A 5% fee is basically impossible to pay for anything that's not software (90%+) margins. Ecommerce, for example, has about 5%-10% net margins. 2%, net, extra payment processing fees is huge.
- LionTamer 4y ago
  To be fair Paddle explicitly says that they are a payment solutions platform for SaaS companies

Silhouette 4y ago

Not really. It's an apples to oranges comparison. For one thing Paddle is a merchant of record so it's more like "outsource your entire payment system including all the processing of different payment methods and the global tax admin". For a lot of businesses, particularly smaller ones with international sales, that is going to be an attractive option compared to services like Stripe even at this price point. For another thing Stripe has introduced so many extras that bump up their cut now that some types of business will end up paying quite a bit more than the analogous headline rate. So even if it were an apples to apples comparison the difference on the bottom line still wouldn't be as wide as it might first appear for those merchants.

GingerMidas 4y ago
Thanks for the explanation, I missed the tax and other benefits at first glance. I don't have those tax complications personally but I do see the value now. Having a checkout bundled with paypal/apple pay/card is pretty compelling however.
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  Just curious, how don't you have those tax complications?
  - GingerMidas 4y ago
    I'm referring to the international sales. We only sell within the US, state taxes are relatively easy
    - candiddevmike 4y ago
      You must have quite the setup to calculate state, county, and local taxes.
      - dangrossman 4y ago
        Most online sellers don't have to handle that themselves, whether they're selling physical goods (your shopping cart like Shopify or WooCommerce will do all the sales tax calculations), or services (most locales don't tax them, and you have to get pretty big to worry about establishing economic nexus in places that do).
  - Silhouette 4y ago
    Not selling internationally perhaps? If you're only selling to customers in the same place then taxes are often much simpler. You might even be exempt from your country's whole sales tax system until you're big enough to cross a threshold.
- NickRead 4y ago