Payment
Paddle
UK / wider Europe Report an errorPanel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars
Category median
Sovereignty: 1 of 4 dimensions proven
0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.
by Paddle.com Market Ltd · www.paddle.com
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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The panel's verdict
Paddle is a merchant-of-record billing platform for digital products, and the score spread is tight. Its strongest area is pricing transparency, scored 7 to 8: the core numbers are public and exact — "5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction", "3.5% of SRP" for invoiced bank transfers, FX margins from 2% to 3% by currency — so judges could compute an effective cost from public pages. Settlement and reconciliation follows at 6 to 7, with reports that itemise fees per row and tie summed movements to the remittance advice. The weakest readings are sovereignty, at 1 to 2 — judges found no public information on where payment and cardholder data is processed, on ownership or on subprocessors, and most non-US suppliers contract a London entity — with checkout and SCA and licence and account terms at 4. The splits are narrow and reasoned: settlement's 7s credit tax detail by invoice entity and API-generated reports, its 6s the fixed monthly payout cadence; pricing's 8s stress computability; sovereignty's 2s credit the Standard Contractual Clauses and Data Sharing Addendum in evidence. The flagged splits flagged none.
Speaks for it
- Headline pricing is public and exact — "5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction", "3.5% of SRP" for invoiced bank transfers, FX margins from 2% to 3% by currency, and no monthly fee.
- Payout reconciliation reports itemise the Paddle fee, FX fee, chargeback fee and tax per row, with summed balance movements tying to the remittance advice.
- Subscription billing is well evidenced, from automatic proration and pause-and-reactivate to a buyer self-service portal and failed-payment recovery via Retain.
- 3-D Secure 2 is handled by Paddle out of the box, with payments routed per sale to the best acquirer for success rates.
- The payment-method list is long and named — iDEAL | Wero, BLIK, MB WAY and Bancontact beside cards, PayPal and both wallets — with availability decided at runtime by country, currency and device.
Held against it
- Sovereignty scored 1 to 2: judges found no public information on where payment and cardholder data is processed, on ownership or on subprocessors, and most non-US suppliers contract Paddle.com Market Ltd in London.
- Fraud protection appears only as an automated one-line promise, and judges found no public information on SCA exemptions or PCI DSS scope per integration type.
- Judges found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit on any captured page, and per-method country, refund and subscription detail exists only for cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Bancontact.
- The licence is asserted as "licensed reseller / Merchant of Record" and judges found no public information on the supervisor, licence type or register number; the terms reserve sole-discretion rights to set resale prices, revoke discounts and apply an unstated dormancy charge after six months without sales.
- Judges found no public information on API idempotency, published rate limits or a versioning policy, and payouts run on a fixed monthly cycle only.
Best for
- You run a subscription SaaS and want tax collection, checkout and buyer-facing billing support handled under a merchant-of-record model — recurring billing sits at 6 with proration, a buyer portal and failed-payment recovery evidenced.
- You need to compute your effective cost before committing — pricing transparency scored 7 to 8 with the core rates public.
- Your finance team must tie payouts to bank lines — settlement and reconciliation scored 6 to 7, and reports can be generated via API into accounting and BI systems.
- You sell card- and wallet-based subscriptions globally and prefer the provider to decide which payment methods to show each buyer.
Avoid if
- You sell products under $10 or require invoicing — pricing moves to a custom conversation.
- Your compliance sign-off requires a subprocessor list and stated data-residency locations — the captured terms route most non-US suppliers to a London entity and point to Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers out of the UK/EEA.
- You need configurable payout timing or fraud rules you can tune — payouts are created on the 1st and sent by the 15th above a $100, €100 or £100 monthly minimum, and fraud protection is shown only as automated.
- You cannot accept terms under which the vendor may set your resale price, revoke discounts unilaterally and deactivate dormant accounts in its sole discretion.
The scores
Payment methods & local coverage
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How this is scored
Which methods a European customer can actually pay with — cards and wallets, SEPA Direct Debit, and the local methods that decide conversion per country — judged on the named list per market rather than on a method count.
0 — Cards only, or a method list with no statement of which countries and currencies each one covers.
3 — Major cards and wallets plus one or two European methods, with local coverage stated vaguely ("many local methods") and no SEPA Direct Debit.
5 — Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, SEPA Direct Debit, and the main local methods for DACH and Benelux (iDEAL or Wero, Bancontact, Klarna or invoice) listed by name with the countries they serve.
8 — Broad EU coverage named per country — including methods such as BLIK, TWINT, Przelewy24, EPS and Wero — multi-currency acceptance with settlement currencies stated, and which methods support refunds and recurring charges documented per method.
10 — Coverage is documented as a matrix a merchant can plan against: every method with its countries, currencies, refund, partial-capture and recurring support, and the provider's own acquiring versus third-party routing stated per method.
The Finance Lead
The named list is broad — cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay plus iDEAL|Wero, Bancontact, BLIK and MB WAY — and Bancontact gets a full breakdown of countries, currency, refunds, subscriptions and chargeback treatment. But we found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit, and country, refund and recurring detail is shown only for the cards and wallets plus Bancontact, not the rest of the list. Availability is decided by Paddle at runtime from the customer's country, currency and device, so I cannot plan coverage per market from these pages. 5 6 11
The E-Commerce Lead
The named list covers iDEAL | Wero, Bancontact, BLIK and MB WAY alongside cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Paddle decides at runtime which to show by customer country, currency and device so I write no routing logic myself. Bancontact gets a full per-method page — Belgium, EUR, refunds supported, subscriptions not supported — but only cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay get the comparison-matrix treatment, and I found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit, TWINT, EPS or Przelewy24, which my German, Austrian and Polish baskets need. 5 6
The SaaS Founder
The named list is genuinely broad — iDEAL | Wero, Bancontact, BLIK and MB WAY sit beside cards, PayPal and wallets, with a country, currency, refund and subscription matrix published for Bancontact and a compare table for cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. But we found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit support, which is the rail I need for European mandates, and the one local method with a full matrix (Bancontact) explicitly lists subscriptions as not supported. 4 5 6 7
The Payments Engineer
The published list names eighteen methods including cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, BLIK, iDEAL | Wero, Bancontact and MB WAY, with Bancontact documented per-method down to country (BE), currency (EUR), refunds and subscription support, and cards and wallets compared in a table covering countries, refunds, subscriptions and installments; payout currencies are listed as thirteen ISO codes. We found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit or any DACH-specific method such as EPS or TWINT, and per-method refund and recurring detail exists only for cards, the two wallets and Bancontact. 5 6 11 12
The Compliance Officer
The named list goes well beyond cards — BLIK, iDEAL|Wero, Bancontact and MB WAY alongside PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay — with refunds, chargebacks and subscription support documented per method for cards and both wallets, and full per-country detail for Bancontact (BE, EUR). We found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit, and per-country coverage for the other local methods is not stated. 5 6
The Skeptic
The method list is long and named — cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Bancontact, BLIK, iDEAL | Wero, MB WAY among them — but only cards, the two wallets and Bancontact get the per-method matrix with countries, refund and subscription support; for the remaining methods we found no public information on which countries and currencies each covers. We also found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit on any captured page. 5 6
Checkout, SCA & fraud
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How this is scored
The path from basket to authorised payment under PSD2: hosted and embedded checkout options, 3-D Secure and SCA exemption handling, fraud screening, and what the provider documents about keeping legitimate payments from failing.
0 — A single redirect page with no statement on 3-D Secure, SCA or fraud screening.
3 — Hosted checkout with 3-D Secure 2 mentioned, fraud screening as an unexplained add-on, and no word on exemptions or declined-payment handling.
5 — Hosted and embedded checkout options, 3-D Secure 2 with SCA handled by the provider, configurable fraud rules, and the resulting PCI DSS scope for each integration type stated.
8 — SCA exemptions (low value, transaction risk analysis, merchant-initiated) applied and documented, fraud tooling with rules and risk scores exposed to the merchant, network tokens or account updater, and liability shift explained per flow.
10 — Authorisation is engineered and shown: exemption strategy documented, soft-decline retry handled, authorisation-rate reporting by method and issuer country, and a checkout the merchant can run in their own domain while staying at the lowest PCI scope.
The Finance Lead
Embedded and hosted checkout both exist, and 3-D Secure 2 is stated as fully handled by Paddle, which is what I want for SCA. But fraud protection is a marketing line with no rules or risk scores exposed to the merchant, and we found no public information on SCA exemptions, declined-payment handling or the PCI scope that applies to each integration type. 2 4 7
The E-Commerce Lead
3-D Secure 2 is handled for me out of the box and the checkout is embeddable into my own site with multiple UI formats, which is the conversion story I want. But fraud protection is a single "automated" line with no rules or risk scores I can tune, and I found no public information on SCA exemptions, soft-decline handling or the PCI DSS scope per integration type — so I cannot tell whether legitimate customers are challenged only when they must be. 2 4 7
The SaaS Founder
Embedded checkout with multiple UI formats, 3-D Secure 2 "out-of-the-box" with compliance handled by the provider, and intelligent acquirer routing for success rates are all evidenced. But fraud protection appears only as a single marketing line with no rules or risk scores exposed to the merchant, and we found no public information on SCA exemption handling, soft-decline retry, or the PCI DSS scope of each integration type. 4 5 7
The Payments Engineer
Hosted and embeddable checkout are both documented, and 3-D Secure 2 is handled entirely by Paddle — "We take care of the entire process and all the compliance" — which is what I want to see. Fraud screening appears only as "automated fraud protection" with no rules or risk scores exposed, and we found no public information on SCA exemptions, PCI scope per integration type, soft-decline handling or authorisation-rate reporting. 1 2 7
The Compliance Officer
An embeddable checkout with multiple UI formats, 3-D Secure 2 handled entirely by Paddle and per-sale acquirer routing are documented. Fraud protection is described only as automated with no rules or risk scores exposed to the merchant, and we found no public information on SCA exemptions, declined-payment retry handling or the PCI scope of each integration type. 5 7
The Skeptic
3-D Secure 2 is handled out of the box with compliance taken care of, the checkout is embeddable in multiple formats, and payments are routed to the best acquirer for success — more than a bare redirect. But fraud protection is a one-line promise with no configurable rules shown, and we found no public information on SCA exemptions, PCI DSS scope per integration, liability shift or authorisation-rate reporting. 4 5 7
Subscriptions & recurring payments
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How this is scored
Charging the same customer again: card-on-file and merchant-initiated transactions, SEPA mandates, subscription logic and dunning — and whether the stored payment credentials can leave with the merchant.
0 — No stored payment methods; every charge needs the customer to pay again.
3 — Card-on-file tokens for repeat charges, but no SEPA mandate handling, no subscription logic, and failed-payment handling left entirely to the merchant.
5 — Stored cards and SEPA Direct Debit mandates, merchant-initiated transactions documented, and basic subscription plans with scheduled charges and failed-payment notifications.
8 — Subscription billing with trials, proration and plan changes, smart retries and dunning, card account updater, mandate management with pre-notification, and a documented process for exporting payment tokens to another provider.
10 — Recurring revenue is a first-class product: usage-based and invoice-based billing, dunning with measurable recovery, token migration in and out documented with a stated timeline and format, and recurring support stated for every local method that allows it.
The Finance Lead
Automatic proration, plan changes, pause-and-reactivate and a buyer self-service portal are all evidenced, and failed-payment recovery is a product in its own right rather than a promise — that is well beyond basic scheduled charges. However, we found no public information on SEPA mandate handling, card account updater or a documented process for exporting stored payment tokens to another provider; migration is sold as a service, and subscription support is stated as not available for Bancontact. 1 5 10
The E-Commerce Lead
Subscriptions are clearly a first-class product: automatic proration, pause and reactivate, seat-based plans and a buyer portal where customers change payment methods themselves, plus Retain for failed-payment recovery. What holds it back is that I found no public information on SEPA mandate handling or a card account updater, recurring support is documented as unavailable for Bancontact, and while a subscriber migration service is marketed, I found no public information on exporting stored payment tokens out to another provider. 1 2 5 6 10
The SaaS Founder
The subscription core is real: automatic proration, plan changes, pause and reactivate, a buyer self-service portal, and Retain for automated failed-payment recovery — the dunning I run my business on. But we found no public information on SEPA mandate handling, a card account updater, or a documented process for exporting stored payment tokens to another provider; the only migration service described is inbound, and under a merchant-of-record reseller model that is exactly the hostage situation I fear. 1 2 5 10
The Payments Engineer
Recurring revenue is clearly a core product: automatic proration, multi-seat plans with add-ons, a buyer self-service portal for updating payment methods, pause and reactivate, and a failed-payment recovery service. We found no public information on SEPA Direct Debit mandates, card account updater, or a documented process for exporting stored payment tokens to another provider — the migration service is described for bringing subscribers in, not out. 1 2 5 10
The Compliance Officer
Subscription billing is well evidenced — automatic proration, seat-based plans and add-ons, a buyer self-service portal, pause and reactivate, failed-payment recovery via Retain, and per-method subscription support stated for cards, wallets and Bancontact. We found no public information on SEPA mandate handling, a card account updater, or any process for a merchant to export stored payment credentials to another provider. 1 5 10
The Skeptic
Subscription logic is real — automatic proration, plan changes, a buyer self-service portal, saved payment methods, and a dedicated failed-payment recovery product — and subscription support is documented per method for cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, with Bancontact stated as not supporting them. We found no public information on SEPA mandates, card account updater, or a documented process for exporting payment tokens to another provider. 1 5 10
Settlement, reconciliation & API
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How this is scored
Getting the money and knowing what it was: payout cadence and currencies, fee itemisation per transaction, reports that match a bank statement, and an API and webhooks a team can build finance processes on.
0 — Payouts on an unstated schedule, one net amount per payout, and no API or report beyond an on-screen list.
3 — A stated payout schedule and CSV exports, but fees netted invisibly into payouts and an API with thin documentation.
5 — Payout frequency and delay stated, per-transaction fee breakdown in reports, a documented REST API with webhooks and a test mode, and exports that link each payout to its transactions.
8 — Configurable payout schedules and settlement currencies, reconciliation reports that match bank lines, accounting integrations or exports named, a versioned API with idempotency and published rate limits, and a public status page with incident history.
10 — Finance can close the month from the provider's data: interchange and scheme fees itemised per transaction, automated reconciliation to the ledger, a deprecation policy for the API, and full historical data exportable after the contract ends.
The Finance Lead
This is close to what I need to close a month: payouts are created on the 1st and paid by the 15th provided the balance clears a stated monthly minimum, reports itemise the Paddle fee, FX fee, chargeback fee and retained fee per row, and the documented check is that summed balance movements equal the remittance advice — a report I can tie to the bank line, generatable via API for accounting and BI. It stops short of configurable payout schedules, and we found no public information on API versioning, idempotency, published rate limits or any interchange and scheme fee split under the blended Paddle fee. 1 4 11 12
The E-Commerce Lead
The payout reconciliation story is genuinely strong: a documented formula from gross to payout, per-transaction columns for the Paddle fee, FX fee and chargeback fee, balance-movement types, and a payout.paid webhook, with payouts created on the 1st and sent by the 15th. But the cadence is fixed monthly rather than configurable, and I found no public information on API versioning, idempotency, published rate limits or accounting integrations by name. 4 11 12
The SaaS Founder
Finance can work with this: payout reconciliation reports itemise the Paddle fee, FX fee, chargeback fee and retained fee per transaction, sum to the remittance advice amount, split tax by invoice entity and US state/ZIP, and can be generated via API into accounting and BI systems; payouts are created on the 1st and sent by the 15th with a $100, €100 or £100 minimum, and a payout webhook plus status page exist. The schedule is fixed monthly only, and we found no public information on configurable payout cadences, API versioning with idempotency and published rate limits, or full historical export after the contract ends. 1 4 11 12
The Payments Engineer
The payout reconciliation reports are the strong part: itemised columns for the Paddle fee, FX fee, chargeback fee, retained fee and tax, a stated formula where summed movements must equal the remittance advice, report generation via API for accounting and BI systems, a webhook that fires when a payout is paid, and a developer sandbox. Payouts run on a fixed monthly cycle with a minimum monthly amount rather than a configurable schedule, and while a platform status link exists on the homepage, we found no public information on incident history, API versioning, idempotency keys or published rate limits. 1 4 11 12
The Compliance Officer
Payout cadence is fixed and stated — created on the 1st and sent by the 15th subject to a $100/€100/£100 minimum — across 13 payout currencies, with per-transaction columns for the Paddle fee, FX fee, chargeback fee and tax, and a reconciliation method that ties report totals to the remittance advice. We found no public information on configurable payout schedules, API idempotency and published rate limits, named accounting integrations or incident history for the status page. 1 4 11 12
The Skeptic
Payout terms are written down — created on the 1st, sent by the 15th, above a stated minimum of $100, €100 or £100 — and the reconciliation report itemises fees per row with a formula that sums to the remittance advice, backed by a sandbox and payout webhooks. But fees are Paddle's own blended columns rather than interchange and scheme fees itemised, the payout schedule is fixed monthly, and we found no public information on API idempotency, rate limits or a deprecation policy. 1 4 11 12
Licence, risk & account terms
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How this is scored
Who holds the merchant's money under which licence, and what the contract lets the provider do on a bad day: freezes, reserves, termination, chargebacks. Scored on what the terms and the imprint state, not on reputation.
0 — No regulated entity named; terms allow freezing funds and terminating the account at any time with no notice, reason or timeline.
3 — A licence mentioned without the entity, supervisor or register number, and terms that permit reserves and holds with no stated limits.
5 — The regulated entity named with its supervisor and licence type, safeguarding of merchant funds stated, chargeback fees and dispute process published, and a notice period for ordinary termination.
8 — Entity, supervisor, register number and passporting stated per country; reserve and rolling-hold conditions defined with limits and release timelines; freeze and termination terms with reasons and a route to appeal; PCI DSS level and attestation published.
10 — The bad day is written down: every regulated entity in the chain named with register links, reserve calculation disclosed, funds release timelines after termination committed, a documented complaint route to the supervisor, and exit terms that include handing back payment tokens and transaction history.
The Finance Lead
Four entities are named with addresses and a clear contracting rule, chargeback fees are capped in the terms, and either party may terminate on 30 days' written notice — that is real contract language. But we found no public information on licence type, supervisor or register number for any entity, and equally nothing on reserves, fund holds, freeze timelines or a route to appeal, while the terms reserve unilateral rights to change discounts and set the price at which my product is sold. 3 4
The E-Commerce Lead
Four entities are named with addresses and the contracting rule is published — US buyers to Paddle.com Inc., the rest of the world to the Dublin or London companies — with a 30-day termination notice, a published chargeback fee of up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR, and a commitment to maintain PCI certification. What I cannot see: no supervisor, licence type or register number anywhere, no statement on safeguarding of funds or reserves, and terms that let Paddle set my sale prices, unilaterally revoke discounts and deactivate dormant accounts in its sole discretion. 3 4
The SaaS Founder
Four contracting entities are named with addresses, ordinary termination carries a 30-day notice period, chargeback fees are capped at up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR, and the terms commit Paddle to maintaining PCI certification. But the licence appears only as "licensed reseller" with no supervisor, licence type or register number, we found no public information on safeguarding of merchant funds or reserve conditions, and the terms reserve discretionary rights to deactivate dormant accounts, revoke discounts unilaterally and set the resale price — bad-day powers with no stated limits. 3 4
The Payments Engineer
Four contracting entities are named with addresses and a clear rule for which one applies, termination takes 30 days' written notice either way, chargeback fees are published at up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR, and the terms commit Paddle to maintaining PCI certification. But the licence is asserted only as "licensed reseller / Merchant of Record" with no supervisor, licence type or register number, and we found no public information on reserve or rolling-hold conditions, account-freeze grounds or a route to appeal. 3 4
The Compliance Officer
Four operating entities are named with addresses and a contracting rule by buyer location, and a 30-day ordinary termination notice plus chargeback fees of up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR are published. We found no public information on any supervisor, register number or licence type, on safeguarding or reserve and hold limits, and PCI certification is committed to in the terms without a published level or attestation. 3 4
The Skeptic
Four entities with addresses are named with a published rule for which one contracts, chargebacks cost "up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR, or 40 AUD or CAD", and either side may terminate on 30 days' written notice. But we found no public information on the supervisor, register number or safeguarding behind the "licensed reseller" claim, and the terms reserve sole-discretion rights to change discounts, set your prices, and charge an unstated dormancy fee after six months without sales. 3 4
European sovereignty
panel opinion
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How this is scored
Who the contracting and regulated entity is, and where transaction and cardholder data are processed and stored. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline. The card schemes are US-based for every provider, so the scheme layer is not held against any one vendor; the part the vendor controls is.
0 — Non-EU contracting entity, no statement on where payment data is processed, and subprocessors unnamed.
3 — An EU licensed entity contracts, but payment and customer data is processed outside the EU by default without an explained safeguard, or the subprocessor list is absent.
5 — EU contracting and regulated entity, EU processing stated for core payment data, but the group parent or significant parts of the chain (fraud scoring, support, analytics) are non-EU without a stated safeguard.
8 — EU entity and EU licence, payment and cardholder data processed and stored in the EU on named infrastructure, subprocessor list published with locations, and a DPA covering the processing the provider does as processor versus as controller.
10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, EU entity and licence, every processing location and subprocessor European, European rails (SEPA, Wero or national schemes) offered alongside cards, and certifications published.
The Finance Lead
The contracting entity for most non-US suppliers is the London company, with New York and Toronto entities in the chain and Standard Contractual Clauses contemplated for transfers out of the UK/EEA. We found no public information on where payment and cardholder data are processed or stored, on ownership, or on subprocessors and their locations. 3 4
The E-Commerce Lead
For a non-US, non-UK-VAT supplier like me the contracting entity is Paddle.com Market Ltd in London, and Standard Contractual Clauses are acknowledged for transfers out of the UK/EEA — a hint that data leaves, while I found no public information on where payment and cardholder data are processed or stored, on hosting locations, or on any subprocessor list. The Dublin entity exists in the group, but the captured pages do not show it contracting for continental European merchants. 3 4
The SaaS Founder
The captured terms route every supplier outside UK-VAT purposes to Paddle.com Market Ltd in London, so a continental-European SaaS like mine contracts a UK entity; the Dublin-registered entity appears in the chain but contracts only UK-VAT suppliers. GDPR compliance, SCC-based transfer safeguards and a SOC 2 Type 2 claim are stated, yet we found no public information on where payment and cardholder data is processed, on ownership, or on subprocessor identities and locations. 3 4 7
The Payments Engineer
The default contracting entity is Paddle.com Market Ltd in London, with US buyers contracting Paddle.com Inc.; the Dublin entity appears in the chain, but we found no public information on its role, on where payment and cardholder data is processed and stored, on ownership, or on a subprocessor list. Standard Contractual Clauses for UK/EEA transfers are the only safeguard stated. 3 4
The Compliance Officer
For most merchants the contracting entity is Paddle.com Market Ltd in London (a US entity contracts for US buyers), Paddle processes as an independent controller, and we found no public information on where transaction and cardholder data are processed, on ownership, or on any subprocessor. Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers out of the UK/EEA and a published Data Sharing Addendum are the only safeguards in evidence. 3 4
The Skeptic
The default contracting entity for most non-US suppliers is Paddle.com Market Ltd in London, the Irish entity appears only for UK-VAT suppliers, and we found no public information on ownership, on where payment and cardholder data is processed, or on any subprocessor list. The only safeguard in evidence is that transfers from the UK/EEA to non-adequate jurisdictions use Standard Contractual Clauses. 3 4
Pricing transparency
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How this is scored
Whether a merchant can compute the effective fee for their own mix of cards, countries and methods — including cross-border and currency conversion markups, chargebacks, refunds, payouts and monthly fees — from public pages alone.
0 — No public prices at all; every rate is a sales conversation.
3 — A headline percentage exists, but it is unclear which cards and countries it covers, and cross-border, currency conversion or chargeback fees are unstated — the effective fee is unknowable.
5 — Rates published per main method with domestic and international cards distinguished, but at least one commonly incurred cost (currency conversion markup, chargeback fee, payout or monthly fee) is missing or "on request".
8 — Every method priced publicly, cross-border and currency conversion markups stated, chargeback, refund and payout fees listed, minimum monthly fees and contract term given, and whether the model is blended or interchange++ said plainly.
10 — Complete fee computability: the effective rate derivable for a given volume, card mix and country mix — interchange++ with the markup published or a blended rate with every exception listed — plus volume tiers, reserves and every ancillary fee on a public page.
The Finance Lead
The headline is a single blended rate — "5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction" and "3.5% of SRP" for invoicing by bank transfer — with FX margins of 2%, 2.5% or 3% by currency, a payout conversion margin of up to 1.5%, a chargeback fee of up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR, a $15 international transfer charge and no monthly fee, so I can work out my effective cost on a card sale. What I could not find: the amount retained on refunds, the dormancy charge, and the Retain fees, which the terms point to on a separate document. 2 4
The E-Commerce Lead
Unusually computable: 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction and 3.5% of SRP for invoiced bank transfers, an FX margin stated by currency tier, a conversion margin of up to 1.5%, chargeback fees of up to 20 GBP, USD or EUR, a $15 international transfer charge, no monthly fees and a 30-day exit. Retain's fees sit behind separate terms, the dormancy charge is stated without an amount, and sellers of products under $10 are asked to contact sales — so the last few basis points of my effective rate still need a conversation. 2 4
The SaaS Founder
This is plainly priced and plainly blended: 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction, 3.5% of SRP for invoicing by bank transfer, FX margins of 2% for major currencies and 2.5-3% for others, a payout-currency conversion margin of up to 1.5%, chargeback fees capped per currency, $15/€15/£15 international transfers, no monthly fee and 30-day termination — I can compute my effective cost for my card mix. The residual gaps: the fee retained on refunds and chargebacks is described but not quantified, the dormancy charge amount is unstated, and Retain's fees live in a separate document we found no figures for. 2 4
The Payments Engineer
Nearly every number is public and exact: 5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction, 3.5% of SRP for invoicing by bank transfer, FX margins of 2% on major currencies rising to 2.5% for CZK, DKK, NOK and THB and 3% for others off the Open Exchange Rates mid-market, a payout conversion margin of up to 1.5%, chargeback fees, a $15 international transfer charge (€15 or £15 by payment currency), and the $/€/£100 payout minimum. We found no published amount for the fee retained on refunds and chargebacks, Retain's fees are defined in separate terms, and products under $10 are pushed to custom pricing. 2 4 11
The Compliance Officer
The blended model is stated plainly — "5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction", 3.5% for invoiced bank transfers — with FX margins of 2% to 3% by currency, a conversion margin of up to 1.5%, chargebacks at up to 20 GBP/USD/EUR, a $15 international transfer charge and the payout minimum, so a merchant can compute an effective fee from public pages. We found no public information on volume tiers or reserve conditions, and the dormancy charge is disclosed without a stated amount. 2 4
The Skeptic
The core rates are public and unusually complete: "5% + 50¢ per Checkout transaction", "3.5% of SRP" for invoicing by bank transfer, FX margins of "2% for major currencies (USD / EUR / GBP)", "2.5% for CZK, DKK, NOK and THB" and "3% for all other currencies", a conversion margin of "up to 1.5%", and $15 international bank transfers with no monthly fee. What a merchant cannot compute from public pages: the fee retained on refunds and chargebacks, the dormancy charge, Retain's pricing on separate terms, and anything under $10 or needing invoicing goes to a custom-pricing conversation. 2 4 11
European sovereignty — proven facts
1 of 4 dimensions provenBuilt only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.
| Legal entity | Incorporated in GB ⚠ unverified | 1/3 pts | 4 Report an error |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Not determined | — | uncited Report an error |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | uncited Report an error |
| Subprocessors | Not determined ⚠ unverified | — | uncited Report an error |
Where this could be wrong
- Evidence ages. The oldest capture behind this page is from 22 Sep 2026. Vendors change pricing and policies without notice; every fact reflects its source as of the capture date shown in the registry.
- Weak sourcing — Legal entity. Paddle contracts through multiple entities (Paddle Payments Ltd. in Ireland, Paddle.com Inc. in the USA and Paddle.com Canada Ltd.), and the MSA assigns non-US-UK Suppliers to Paddle.com Market Ltd., so jurisdiction depends on the contracting entity chosen.
- Weak sourcing — Subprocessors. Not confirmed on the vendor’s own pages as captured.
- AI can misread a source. Extraction and judgement are automated; a citation guarantees traceability, not infallibility. If something here is wrong, say so — no account needed, every report is decided within 5 business days, and accepted corrections are published.
What we left out
A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.
- 13 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 11 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 2 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 2 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 1 integrations fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 1 support fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown. Know more? Tell us
Sources (13)
The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.
- 1 Vendor homepage www.paddle.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
- 2 Pricing page www.paddle.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
- 3 Privacy policy www.paddle.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
- 4 Terms of service www.paddle.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
- 5 Payment methods & local coverage — found from sitemap developer.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 6 Payment methods & local coverage — found from sitemap developer.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 7 Checkout, SCA & fraud — found from sitemap www.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 8 Checkout, SCA & fraud — found from sitemap www.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 9 Subscriptions & recurring payments — found from sitemap www.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 10 Subscriptions & recurring payments — found from sitemap www.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 11 Settlement, reconciliation & API — found from sitemap developer.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 12 Settlement, reconciliation & API — found from sitemap developer.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
- 13 Licence, risk & account terms — found from sitemap www.paddle.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →