Paddle

Paddle is a merchant of record for companies that sell software, apps and other digital products. It does not sit beside the seller as a payment gateway: it becomes the seller of record for each transaction, taking payment from the end customer, tracking sales-tax and VAT obligations in every jurisdiction the seller reaches, filing and remitting what is owed, and settling with the vendor. Checkout, subscription billing, payment routing, fraud screening and chargeback handling all run through one integration, so a vendor does not have to assemble a tax service, an acquirer and a billing system separately.

Selling is possible in 300+ markets on one all-inclusive price of 5% plus 50 cents per checkout transaction, with no monthly fee. Two further parts ship with the platform: ProfitWell Metrics, for subscription, retention and growth reporting, and Retain, which retries failed payments and works on reducing cancellations. Paddle reports 190 million transactions processed, more than 10,000 digital businesses as customers, a 94% average payment acceptance rate, and 24/7 billing support with a 93% CSAT score. Customer write-ups on the site name Renderforest, Kaleido, MacPaw and Tailwind Labs.

The service is run by Paddle.com Market Limited, a UK company. It is proprietary and hosted only: there is no open-source edition to run yourself, and because Paddle is the merchant of record it carries the tax and compliance obligation as the seller. Vendors are not tied into a term — the pricing FAQ states there are no lock-in periods and that data can be migrated to another provider.