Payment Comparison Tool

What is the Payment Comparison Tool?

The Payment Comparison Tool helps SaaS businesses evaluate how different payment providers impact net revenue. By entering your recurring revenue profile, transaction mix, and operating region, you can compare provider-level fees, payment success rates, and payout costs side by side, giving you a clear picture of what you actually keep after platform costs.

Why Compare Payment Providers?

Payment costs are rarely a single line item. They fragment across transaction fees, subscription billing charges, invoicing fees, tax handling, payout costs, and revenue lost to failed transactions. Two providers with similar headline rates can produce very different net revenue outcomes depending on your transaction mix, international exposure, and billing model.

This tool consolidates those costs into one comparison view so you can estimate total platform impact before committing to a provider, or evaluate whether your current provider is costing you more than it should.

How Does This Tool Work?

Enter your revenue profile in the sidebar form, then click Calculate Fee to generate a side-by-side comparison table. You can add or remove providers using the Add more platforms button (up to 4 at a time).

Input Metrics

• Total Monthly Recurring Revenue: Your total MRR in USD. This is the baseline used to calculate fees across all providers.
• % International Revenue (Outside USA): The share of your revenue that comes from customers outside the United States. International transactions typically incur higher processing fees and may have lower success rates.
• Average Price of Product Sold: The average transaction amount in USD. This affects per-transaction fixed fees. A $0.30 fixed fee matters more on a $5 product than a $200 one.
• % of Recurring Transactions (Subscriptions): The percentage of your transactions that are subscription-based rather than one-time purchases. Some providers charge additional fees for subscription billing.
• Do You Operate Out of US?: Whether your business is based in the United States. This affects payout fees and currency conversion costs on several platforms.

Output Metrics

• What You Get After Platform Fees: The bottom line. Your net revenue after all platform costs are deducted. This is the most important number for comparing providers.
• Success Rate (USA / RoW): Estimated payment success rates for domestic and international transactions. Failed payments directly reduce your collectible revenue.
• Revenue Lost Due to Failed Transactions: The dollar amount of revenue you lose because payments don’t go through, based on each provider’s estimated success rates.
• Transaction Fees (USA / RoW): The percentage-based and per-transaction fees charged on each successful payment, split by region.
• Billing and Invoicing Fees: Additional charges some providers apply for generating invoices or managing billing workflows.
• Subscription Fees: Extra fees charged on top of transaction fees for processing recurring or subscription payments.
• Tax Fees: Fees for automated tax calculation, collection, and remittance. Merchant of Record providers typically include this in their base fee.
• Additional Fees: Miscellaneous charges like dispute fees, refund processing fees, or platform surcharges.
• Payout Fees: Costs to transfer your collected revenue to your bank account. These vary significantly based on your location and payout frequency.
• Total Platform Fees: The sum of all fees charged by the provider, giving you a single number to compare against other platforms.

Platforms Compared

Stripe. The most widely used payment processor for SaaS. Stripe offers granular control and extensive API capabilities, but costs can add up quickly when you factor in billing, tax, invoicing, and international surcharges on top of the base transaction fee.

Paddle. A Merchant of Record that handles payments, tax, and compliance as a single package. The 5% + $0.50 headline rate includes tax remittance and invoicing, but the all-in cost may still be higher than it appears once payout fees are considered.

Razorpay. India’s leading payment gateway, optimized for domestic INR transactions. For SaaS businesses with primarily international (non-India) customers, success rates and supported payment methods may be limited.

Gumroad. A simple creator-focused platform with a flat 10% fee that includes everything. Easy to get started, but the fee is significantly higher than alternatives, especially at scale.

Lemon Squeezy. A Merchant of Record similar to Paddle, offering 5% + $0.50 with tax and compliance included. A solid option for indie developers and small SaaS businesses who want simplicity.

PayPal. A well-known payment option with high brand recognition. PayPal’s domestic rates are competitive, but international surcharges and lower processing success rates for certain card types can reduce net revenue.

Dodo Payments. A Merchant of Record built specifically for digital products and SaaS. Dodo Payments handles tax compliance, invoicing, and global payment methods at competitive rates, with high success rates across both US and international transactions.