Payment platform picker

Pick who holds the account and what you sell. Below you get which platforms you can open, whether they take your kind of product, what a $20 sale to a buyer abroad leaves you, and the steps to open the top ones. Every line comes from the platform's own pages, linked.

1. Who holds the account?

Not sure? Individual or company, first →

2. What do you sell?

An individual in mainland China · Software sold by subscription

First on the platforms' own terms (opens for you, takes the product, keeps the most)

Creem

Opening: ✅ yesThis product: ✅ allowed$18.82 kept from a $20 sale✅ Merchant of Record

Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): No longer recommended since August 2026; new sites pick another

Every platform

Platform	Can you open it	Takes this product	Merchant of Record	Kept from $20	Sellers like you use it
Creem	✅ yes	✅ allowed	✅	$18.82	1.1%
PayPal	✅ yes	✅ allowed	–	$18.82	–
Waffo Pancake	✅ yes	✅ allowed	✅	$18.72	–
Paddle	✅ yes	✅ allowed	✅	$18.50	0.3% (undercounted)
Dodo Payments	✅ yes	✅ allowed	✅	$18.40	2%
Gumroad	🟡 likely	✅ allowed	✅	$16.62	18.7%
Lemon Squeezy	❔ not stated	✅ allowed	✅	$18.10	10.9%

Left out

Stripe: no accounts for mainland China source
Polar: payouts go only through Stripe Connect Express, which does not reach mainland China source

How to open an account

Creem

Fill in the business details: your full name as an individual, or the company's name.
Verify your identity (KYC).
Add a payout account: Alipay for a mainland individual.
Creem's team reviews the store and the website, in 1–2 working days. A rejection is final for that store and that business, so check the site first.
Live payments are turned on.

Have ready: an identity document for KYC; an Alipay account in your name; a live website that meets the review checklist

PayPal

Register on PayPal.cn and accept the PayPal China cross-border agreement (with 贝宝支付（北京）有限公司).
Choose the personal seller account and pass personal real-name verification (China residents aged 18 or over).
Add PayPal checkout to your site; payments from abroad cost 4.40% + US$0.30.
Bind a personal bank card for CNY collection: from US$20 a request, usually the same day before 13:00 Beijing time, 0.5% to the end of 2026 (1.0% standard) plus 6% VAT on the fee.
Keep disputes low: a dispute rate of 1.5% or more, with over 100 sales in three months, brings the high dispute fee, and a new seller's payments can be held up to 30 days.

Have ready: personal real-name verification as a China resident (the document list is in PayPal.cn's individual seller guide); a personal bank card in mainland China; a website with PayPal checkout

Waffo Pancake

Sign up on the Pancake dashboard with Google, GitHub or a magic link; the first login creates a store. No company registration is needed.
Build and take test payments in test mode; that needs no review.
In Settings → Business Details, verify the support email (a 6-digit code) and the website's domain (a DNS TXT record, an HTML meta tag, a .well-known file or a matching email domain).
Fill in the business details as Individual / Solo developer and submit: the review usually takes 1–3 business days, and the store switches to live payments by itself once approved.
Verify your identity on your profile: your legal name exactly as on the ID, and a mainland China national ID (a passport for other nationalities).
Add a payout account: a bank card or Alipay in mainland China (Alipay up to RMB 50,000 a payout and RMB 300,000 a year per recipient). Payouts are in US dollars, 1% (minimum US$10).
Each sale waits about 10 business days before it can be paid out; bank-card payouts requested before 15:00 Beijing time on a business day arrive the same day.

Have ready: a mainland China national ID, and your name exactly as on it; a bank card or Alipay in your own name; a live website that meets the review checklist

Each platform

Creem

Opening: payouts to Alipay, up to CNY 50,000 a payout and CNY 300,000–600,000 a year source
Fees: 3.9% + 40¢, no international surcharge.
Payouts: 1st and 15th of the month after a 7–12-day risk hold; fee US$/€7 or 1%, whichever is higher; minimum US$/€50
Review: 1–2 working days
Chargebacks: excessive chargebacks can suspend the account; US$/€25 per chargeback
A rejection is final for that store and that business.
Restricted products (services, API resellers, generative AI) need earlier processor history and chargeback and refund rates.
Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): No longer recommended since August 2026; new sites pick another source

PayPal

Opening: PayPal.cn's personal seller account, opened with real-name verification (China residents aged 18 or over); personal accounts registered on paypal.com after 30 June 2026 cannot take payments for goods source
Fees: China accounts: 4.40% + US$0.30 for payments from abroad. CNY withdrawals to a Chinese bank cost 0.5% to the end of 2026 (1.0% standard) plus 6% VAT on the fee; a USD wire costs US$35.
Payouts: CNY to a Chinese bank account through PayPal cross-border collection (from US$20 a request, usually the same day before 13:00 Beijing time; individuals can use a personal bank card), or USD by wire (US$35 each, minimum US$150, 3–7 business days)
Review: no website review is described; a new seller's payments can be held up to 30 days
Chargebacks: a dispute rate of 1.5% or more, with over 100 sales in three months, brings the high dispute fee (US$16 instead of US$8); high claims and chargebacks can limit the account
Not a Merchant of Record: you handle sales tax and VAT yourself.
Its prohibited list was not checked for this tool, so its category stances read as not addressed.
Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): A mainland ID can sign up (as a personal seller); problems can be talked through and fixed; keep disputes low or the account gets limited source

Waffo Pancake

Opening: payouts to a bank card or Alipay in mainland China source
Fees: 3.9% + 50¢, no international or subscription surcharge.
Payouts: after about 10 business days; 1% (minimum US$10); to mainland China (bank card or Alipay, Alipay up to RMB 50,000 a payout and RMB 300,000 a year), Hong Kong, the US, Japan, Korea and Singapore only
Review: 1–3 business days
Also takes WeChat Pay for one-time orders in USD or CNY.
Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): Recommended: mainland individuals can sign up and withdraw to Alipay, reviews often take hours; no deepfakes of real people source

Paddle

Opening: individuals and sole traders are accepted (they skip business verification), China is not on the unsupported list, and CNY is paid by bank wire source
Fees: 5% + 50¢, all included.
Payouts: monthly by wire or Payoneer, minimum US$100; CNY by bank wire
Review: most checkout domains are approved automatically; a manual review takes 5–7 business days
Chargebacks: keep chargebacks under 0.65% of volume; US$20 per chargeback
Identity is checked through Sumsub (ID, proof of address, sometimes a selfie).
Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): Few in the group use it yet source

Dodo Payments

Opening: China is on the accepted list (from 23 March 2026); ID and selfie through Persona source
Fees: 4% + 40¢; international +1.5%, subscriptions +0.5%.
Payouts: SWIFT or local transfer to an account in your own or your company's name, minimum US$50; US$5 under US$1,000; US$25 for USD wires
Review: 1–3 business days; one appeal
Chargebacks: high refund or dispute rates trigger a review; alerts can refund buyers before a chargeback
Payouts start only after a separate monitoring review.
Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): Few in the group use it yet source

Gumroad

Opening: payouts to mainland China only through PayPal source
Fees: 10% + 50¢ plus card processing 2.9% + 30¢; sales that come from Gumroad Discover pay 30%.
Payouts: to a local bank account in a listed country, or PayPal where banks are not supported (US dollars, 2%); minimum US$100, a 7-day hold
Review: no website review: Gumroad hosts the product page; an account review of 1–3 weeks before the first payout
A Merchant of Record since 2025; its prohibited list was not checked for this tool, so its category stances read as not addressed.

Lemon Squeezy

Opening: payouts reach mainland China only through PayPal; signing up from mainland China is not stated source
Fees: 5% + 50¢; non-US buyers +1.5%, PayPal +1.5%, subscriptions +0.5%.
Payouts: twice a month in USD after a 13-day hold, minimum US$50; bank payouts outside the US 1%, PayPal 3% capped at US$30
Review: 2–3 business days
Chargebacks: too many chargebacks can suspend the account; US$15 per dispute
Owned by Stripe; in January 2026 its CEO said the team is building toward Stripe Managed Payments and that support has slowed (https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/2026-update).
Community experience (Gefei's community, 2026-10): Owned by Stripe now; its reviews follow Stripe's rules source

Before you apply, check the site against this platform's list

The platform reviews your website. payment-guard checks it line by line against each platform's published review list: free, open source, and it never signs up or submits anything.

payment-guard check yoursite.com --for creem,paypal,waffo

Install and use it →

"Sellers like you": 13,746 sellers of this kind since 2025-01-01 (to 2026-10-15).Counted from public checkout links found in backlink data, sellers worldwide. Checkouts a page opens with a script (Paddle.js, Stripe Checkout sessions) leave no link, so Paddle and embedded Stripe are undercounted; Gumroad and Stripe Payment Links are overcounted for the same reason. Fees, eligibility and payouts read on 2026-10-17; platforms change them, so open the official links before you apply.

From the community

How Gefei's community picks a payment platform, after a year of trying

This is experience from a group of builders, not platform rules: read it next to the results from the official pages. Source: @gefei55, "How does an AI SaaS get paid?", 2026-10. Original post

Only a mainland Chinese ID

PayPal.cn (as a personal seller) or Waffo (waffo.ai); with a passport and a Hong Kong bank card, a Stripe personal account too

Checked: PayPal.cn's personal seller account opens with real-name verification (China residents, 18 and over); payments from abroad cost 4.40% + US$0.30; withdraw in CNY to a Chinese bank card (0.5% cap through 2026, 1.0% standard, plus 6% VAT on the fee) or by USD wire (US$35 each). Personal accounts opened on paypal.com after 30 June 2026 cannot take payments for goods. source

Checked: Stripe Hong Kong needs an HKID number for an individual; without one, a Hong Kong Business Registration Number as a sole proprietorship, plus a Hong Kong address and a Hong Kong bank account in your name. A passport and a Hong Kong bank card are not enough. source

A company (abroad or in China) or a sole proprietorship

Stripe (one merchant per website) or PayPal.cn, or Subotiz

Checked: Stripe: websites or businesses run independently need separate Stripe accounts, and a suspended user may not open a new one without Stripe's approval. source

Checked: Subotiz describes itself as a Merchant of Record for SaaS (5% + 50¢); it connects PayPal, Checkout.com, Airwallex and others, with no Stripe in that list; one account holds up to 100 stores. source

Face swap, deepfakes, NSFW

The main channels refuse it; do not risk your main account

Rules of thumb

Never test with a real payment in live mode; use the sandbox, or risk control will flag you
Keep chargebacks and disputes low: most closed stores involved NSFW or high dispute rates
One website, one merchant: several sites on one merchant read as misuse
After a ban, do not reopen with the same domain right away: that counts as evasion
Keep a second payment channel for emergencies
Getting paid reliably matters more than one or two points of fees
Start with one, then add channels by region: Europe uses PayPal a lot, the US pays by card; offering PayPal and Stripe together lifts conversion, and euro prices help in the euro area

Where this comes from

The ranking, fees, eligibility and steps come from the open-source tool payment-guard, which reads each platform's own documentation; this page and the command line use the same data. GitHub

All eight platforms compared, and what 200,000 sellers chose: how to choose a payment platform; what 200,000 checkout links say