How to Choose a Payment Platform as an Indie Developer: 8 Compared, Plus What 200,000 Sellers Picked (2026)

Getting paid is often the first wall when you sell abroad. This post puts eight common platforms side by side: their fees, whether they handle sales tax worldwide for you (Merchant of Record, MoR below), and whether a person or company in mainland China can get paid. Then it looks at what about 200,000 sellers actually chose.

Fees and terms come from each platform's official pages, read on October 15, 2026. Platforms change their prices often; check the official page before you commit.

The short answer, by situation

• In mainland China without a company abroad: look at Creem, Dodo Payments and Waffo Pancake. All three are MoR and accept sellers in mainland China; Creem pays out to Alipay or a bank, Waffo to a mainland bank or Alipay. Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad pay mainland sellers through PayPal only.
• With a Hong Kong or US company: Stripe has the lowest fees, but it is not an MoR, so sales tax in each country is your job. Stripe Managed Payments (generally available since April 2026) handles the tax for an extra 3.5% a transaction. For setting up a US company, see Getting Paid Internationally for $168.
• Selling AI or software subscriptions and wanting the tax handled: an MoR such as Polar, Creem, Dodo or Paddle.
• Selling ebooks, courses or templates and wanting a ready-made store page: Gumroad is the easiest, and takes the largest cut.
• Think twice about Lemon Squeezy for a new project: Stripe bought it in 2024; in January 2026 its CEO acknowledged slower support and fewer product updates, and the team is steering users toward Stripe Managed Payments.

The eight compared

Platform	Fee (digital products / SaaS)	MoR (handles global sales tax)
Stripe	US 2.9% + 30¢; +1.5% international cards, +1% currency conversion	No (Managed Payments adds 3.5%)
Lemon Squeezy	5% + 50¢; +1.5% non-US, +1.5% PayPal, +0.5% subscriptions	Yes
Polar	New orgs 5% + 50¢ (since May 27, 2026), or monthly plans at 3.4–3.8%; +1.5% international	Yes
Creem	3.9% + 40¢, no international surcharge	Yes
Paddle	5% + 50¢, all-in	Yes
Gumroad	10% + 50¢ plus card processing 2.9% + 30¢; 30% on Discover sales	Yes (since 2025)
Dodo Payments	4% + 40¢; +1.5% international, +0.5% subscriptions	Yes
Waffo Pancake	3.9% + 50¢, no international or subscription surcharge	Yes

Who can get paid, and whether referring a new seller earns anything:

Platform	Mainland China sellers	Hong Kong sellers	Rewards for referring new sellers
Stripe	Not supported	Supported	No public cash program
Lemon Squeezy	PayPal payouts only	Supported	None found
Polar	Payouts not supported	Supported	None found
Creem	Supported (Alipay or bank)	Supported	Yes, credited to your Creem balance
Paddle	Supported	Supported	Yes, as Paddle credit
Gumroad	PayPal payouts only	Supported	No (rewards buyer referrals only)
Dodo Payments	Supported	Supported	Yes, recurring (rate shown only in the dashboard)
Waffo Pancake	Supported (bank or Alipay)	Supported	No cash; fee credits only

Details that are easy to miss:

• Stripe Hong Kong: 3.4% + HK$2.35 for domestic cards, +0.5% for international cards, +2% for currency conversion, and 1% on USD payouts.
• Polar: organisations created after May 12, 2026 have their funds held for 7 days.
• Creem: payouts cost 7 USD/EUR or 1%, whichever is higher, on the 1st and 15th of each month. Individuals in mainland China are paid through Alipay, up to CNY 50,000 a payout.
• Dodo: payouts under $1,000 cost $5; USD wires cost $25.
• Waffo Pancake: sales are held about 10 business days, payouts cost 1% (minimum $10), and payouts go only to mainland China, Hong Kong, the US, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
• Paddle: in June 2025 it paid $5 million to settle with the US Federal Trade Commission over processing for tech-support scam merchants.

What 200,000 sellers actually picked

I counted about 200,000 sellers across seven of these platforms (method in What 200,000 Checkout Links Say). New sellers since 2025:

Platform	New sellers since 2025	Selling software	Selling AI products
Stripe	102,590	9%	7%
Gumroad	28,860	11%	8%
Lemon Squeezy	4,637	36%	15%
Polar	1,664	58%	27%
Dodo Payments	441	71%	29%
Creem	249	65%	24%
Paddle (classic checkout links)	84	56%	5%

Stripe and Gumroad have the most sellers, mostly services, courses and content. People selling software and AI products increasingly pick Dodo, Polar and Creem, which are also growing fastest: Polar went from 55 new sellers in 2024 to 1,364 in 2026 by mid-October, and Dodo from 68 in 2025 to 373 in 2026. (Waffo Pancake is too new for its sellers to show in the link graph yet.)

Sources (read October 15, 2026)

• Stripe: Hong Kong pricing, supported countries, Managed Payments
• Lemon Squeezy: fees, supported countries, 2026 update
• Polar: pricing, supported countries
• Creem: payouts, supported countries, referral program
• Paddle: pricing, supported countries, referrals
• Gumroad: fees, getting paid
• Dodo Payments: pricing, accepted countries, partner program
• Waffo Pancake: fees, supported countries