• Stripe, 2Checkout, and FastSpring all offer differing levels of services, especially when it comes to managing tax calculation, collection, and remittance. 
• Stripe is a payment services provider (PSP), not a merchant of record (MoR). 2Checkout offers both PSP and MoR options. FastSpring is an MoR and always includes tax calculation, collection, and remittance with its services.
• Businesses that want more comprehensive tax management services for selling digital products should opt for a merchant of record like FastSpring.

If you’re currently using 2Checkout (now part of Verifone) or Stripe to sell digital goods but are considering switching — from one to the other, or to other options such as FastSpring — you may be wondering whether there are substantial differences between the platforms and their services.

In fact, there are some major differences when comparing 2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring.

TL;DR: Stripe markets themselves as a payment services provider (PSP), 2Checkout is a payment service provider with an upgrade option to make them your merchant of record (MoR), and FastSpring is a comprehensive merchant of record from the outset.

What does all of that mean?

In this article, we’ll break down key differences between payment service providers and merchants of record, then we’ll explain what each of the above companies are and what main features they offer.

• Payment Service Providers vs. Merchants of Record: One Major Difference
• What Is Stripe and Who Is It For?
• What Is 2Checkout (by Verifone) and Who Is It For?
• What Is FastSpring and Who Is It For?
• Key Payment Processing Features of 2Checkout vs. Stripe vs FastSpring
• Key Platform Features of 2Checkout, Stripe, and FastSpring
• Handling Tax Calculation, Collection, and Remittance by 2Checkout, Stripe, and FastSpring
• Final Takeaways: 3 Different Levels of Service
• Partner With FastSpring, a Merchant of Record

If you’ve been looking at payment services providers but want a more comprehensive merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally, we can help. FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, and other digital products businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

Note: Information in this article was validated at time of publishing and is subject to change.

Payment Gateways, Payment Processing, PSPs, MoRs — What’s the Difference?

Step one of understanding the differences between 2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring means clarifying a few helpful definitions:

• Payment services provider (PSP).
• Merchant of record (MoR).

Payment Services Provider

A payment services provider (PSP) is a platform that serves as a bridge between businesses wanting to sell a product, and the more specialized services and networks you need on the back end such as payment gateways, payment processors, and a merchant account. 

A PSP makes it easier for those businesses to sell their products online because the businesses don’t have to directly interface with payment gateways and payment processors — the businesses can just use the PSP, and the PSP will handle payment connections in the background. 

TL;DR: What’s happening behind the scenes is all pretty complicated.

• A payment gateway acts as a secure super highway to connect businesses to payment processors. It collects, encrypts, and transmits the sensitive information needed for a transaction.
• A payment processor is the piece on the back end that connects the payment gateway with the merchant’s account and card association networks. The issuing and acquiring banks can then authorize or deny the transaction request.
• A merchant account is a business-specific bank account that allows you to accept and process payments from credit and debit cards; it’s where the funds are held until the transaction is completed.

If all of that sounds really complicated to you, that’s because it is — which explains the appeal of a payment services provider that can handle all of that for you.

Merchant of Record

A merchant of record (MoR) includes the services of a payment services provider, but much more — it becomes the entity technically selling the product.

This means the MoR becomes the entity worrying about card brand rules, regulatory rules in many geographies, risk, and even taxes — which means you don’t have to. FastSpring’s experts will use the latest tools and techniques to manage risk, and we’ll even be responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting taxes.

Merchant of record and payment services provider platforms may each offer varying levels of additional features, such as integrations and API connections, subscription management functionality, customer support, and more. 

If you’ve been looking at payment services providers but want a more comprehensive merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally, we can help. FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for digital-first businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring: What Are They and Who Are They For?

What Is Stripe and Who Is It For?

Stripe is a payment services provider that focuses on payments, payouts, and managing business online.

The many products on Stripe’s menu are sometimes bundled and sometimes separate for an additional cost, which can get a little confusing as you click through various product pages. 

The core offering for payments is their Payments product, which includes the products Checkout, Payment Links, and Elements, but there are many features even within those products that are additional costs, such as additional payment methods, bank debits and transfers, point-of-sale (POS) Terminal, and post-payment invoices. 

Stripe pricing starts low per transaction, but it will add up quickly if you’re looking for a more robust service.

Is Stripe a merchant of record? 

No. Stripe as a PSP does not assume the same responsibilities an MoR does, such as managing risk, assisting with chargebacks, and handling taxes. When rules change in any jurisdiction where your customers live, you’re responsible for updating your checkout to comply.

Stripe does offer Radar, a product with two different levels of fraud and risk management tools, but if you want the advanced tools, it will cost extra per transaction.

Stripe also offers a Tax product that will calculate, collect, and report taxes in 90+ countries, and they can register in various countries for you — but the price goes up very quickly as you add additional countries, and there are limits on the number of tax filings and registrations per year as well as the number of transactions per month. 

Because Stripe is not a merchant of record, it can be used for selling physical goods, but its platform and services may not be as tailored to businesses that were built to sell only digital goods, software, SaaS, and similar.

What Is 2Checkout and Who Is It For?

2Checkout (now part of Verifone) bills themselves as a monetization platform for both digital goods and retail businesses. The pricing page at 2checkout.com shows that with their 2Sell base product, you can “sell any type of product.”

They offer three different levels of products: 2Sell for mobile and online payments worldwide, 2Subscribe to add on subscription management features, and 2Monetize to further add features such as global tax and regulatory compliance, invoice management, and more payment methods. 

They also have additional add-ons for renewal recovery, premium support, affiliate partnering for 2Monetize, complex subscription billing for 2Sell, and an enterprise pricing package called 4Enterprise.

Is 2Checkout a merchant of record?

2Checkout offers both a payment services provider model and a merchant of record model. While their 2Monetize page and MoR guide page do not reference each other, 2Monetize is apparently 2Checkout’s MoR product.

What Is FastSpring and Who Is It For?

FastSpring is a merchant of record that for over two decades has been serving B2B and B2C sellers of SaaS, software, video games, mobile apps, AI, eLearning, and other digital goods. 

Our payments features help businesses go global instantly, but because we are inherently an MoR, we also help businesses increase profitability while mitigating risk — all while reducing your payments, sales tax, and subscription management tech stack down to one solution.

FastSpring offers global payments, multiple kinds of checkouts, subscription management tools for every stage of the subscription life cycle, fraud prevention, chargeback management, tax compliance, and more — all of which are included. 

We’re connected to multiple payment gateways (increasing payment authorization likelihood), and we’re laser focused on making it super easy to ensure you’re following all the rules — because our experts are responsible for risk and chargebacks. 

FastSpring’s pricing is a simple, single-package pricing model — not a base plan that requires lots of expensive add-ons. Our team will work with you to figure out a rate based on your transaction type and volume.

Note that there is no minimum transaction volume to use FastSpring, as we want to be the digital commerce partner that helps your business grow. 

For more pricing information, reach out to our team.

Is FastSpring a merchant of record?

Yes! FastSpring is a merchant of record, which means that we’ll handle payment services, but we’ll also become the party actually selling the product, so we’ll manage risk, chargebacks, and global VAT and taxes — so you don’t have to.

If you’ve been looking at payment services providers but want a more comprehensive merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally, we can help. FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for digital-first businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

Key Features

If you’re considering implementing a payment services provider or merchant of record for your business — or considering switching providers — there are many features you may need to know about before making a decision. 

Here are some important options to consider, with details on how 2Checkout, Stripe, and FastSpring handle each of them.

2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring: Payment Processing Features

Each provider’s basic payment capabilities include some combination of debit and credit card payments, alternative payment types, localized currencies, chargeback handling, fraud detection, and more to help ensure a successful sale. 

Stripe

Stripe accepts around 17 different cards, including global brands like Visa and Mastercard, Discover, Europe’s Cartes Bancaires, and Asia’s China Union Pay. They also take various bank debits such as ACH and SEPA, redirects, and transfers that connect directly to bank accounts, and they work with many popular wallet payment systems (such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal). To learn more, visit their documentation page on payment methods. 

Stripe supports processing charges in over 135 currencies. Currency conversions get a little complicated, so check out their documentation on currency conversions for all the details.

Additional fees are applied for currency conversion and cross-border transactions.

Chargeback protection and fraud protection are also available, both for additional fees per transaction. 

2Checkout

2Checkout accepts major worldwide credit and debit cards such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as various other regional cards across Europe, Asia, Brazil, and India. Various major digital wallets are also accepted, as are some online banking and direct debit payment options.

For offline payment methods, 2Checkout also facilitates wire/bank transfers, purchase orders, and a few region-specific options; visit the Verifone documentation page on payment methods for more details. 

On their documentation page for pricing localization, it details that pricing localization settings can be enabled to display different prices based on geolocation by IP address, but that this feature is only available to 2Checkout Enterprise Edition accounts. 2Checkout offers around 100 billing currencies.

Risk and fraud protection are included in all three packages, 2Sell, 2Subscribe, and 2Monetize. 2Checkout states that while banks handle chargebacks directly, 2Checkout is still involved in the resolution of the dispute, acting as a mediator between the bank/PayPal, the buyer, and you. 

FastSpring

FastSpring accepts many major worldwide credit cards and debit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and UnionPay, as well as ACH direct debit and SEPA direct debit. Wire availability is available in select countries and currencies, as well as PayPal, Apple Pay, SOFORT, and various other popular payment options which are detailed on FastSpring’s documentation page for payment methods.

FastSpring enables its users to set up their stores to display currency localization in many different ways, based on what’s best for your business. FastSpring can make the conversion, or you can set a fixed price in each currency for each of your products; which currency is displayed based on location can be chosen by FastSpring, by you, or by the shopper. 

To remain a leader in fraud and risk support, FastSpring is partnered with global risk analysis and fraud prevention leader Sift to ensure secure payment transactions and PCI compliance, with increased accuracy in fraud decisions and better approval rates (and fewer false positives). 

And since FastSpring is a merchant of record, we’re responsible for keeping fraud rates and chargebacks under certain thresholds.

If you need support assistance with chargebacks, our Risk team can help, and the FastSpring platform also includes a Chargeback Overview Dashboard to help you keep track of chargeback rates, which products are most frequently involved, and a comprehensive log of the most recent chargebacks with filters to help you drill down for analysis.

2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring: Platform Features

Besides the online payment processing features and services that are core to PSPs and MoRs for online businesses, the platforms and how they integrate with your business (and website) can make or break how well they help your business move product and support a successful sale. 

Here are rundowns on checkout, payouts, integrations, APIs, reporting, and analytics for 2Checkout, Stripe, and FastSpring. 

Stripe

Stripe offers a hosted, brandable checkout for both one-time payments and recurring billing, which can be embedded on your own site, or you can pay a monthly fee to use their hosted checkout with a custom URL of your own. They have a tool to walk prospects through the customizations they offer so you can see what the checkout page might look like. 

Many factors go into how and when you can receive payouts from Stripe, especially dependent on your country, so be sure to check out their documentation page for more information. But if you’re in an eligible country, you may be able to receive daily payouts (although weekly, monthly, or manual schedule options may also be available).

Stripe’s multi-currency support for payouts appears to include the same currencies as their presentment currencies, meaning that if you can process payments in a currency with Stripe, you can receive a payout in that currency.

Stripe has a directory of partners that may offer easy integrations or connections to Stripe for ease of use, but they offer limited support in this area and refer users to the third parties for assistance when needed. They also have a REST API, with Payment objects used to facilitate payments, as well as SDKs. 

Some of Stripe’s financial reports are free, but for more advanced tools, you’ll need to upgrade your account and/or request beta access. For example, Advanced Revenue Reporting is still in beta, and their custom reporting offering using SQL, called Sigma, starts at $15 per month for up to 250 charges (plus 6¢ per additional charge).

Stripe offers some strong analytics tools, such as via their payment authentication report, but that requires their Sigma product.

2Checkout

2Checkout offers a few checkout types. Users can choose between one-step or multi-step popup experiences with their Inline cart, or users can choose the hosted checkout option that redirects shoppers to a 2Checkout page.

A third option for users of popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, and Woocommerce is to integrate 2Checkout with that site’s native online shopping cart; a list of those sites can be found on their website.

2Checkout also offers a few integration connectors with popular CRMs like Salesforce and Adobe Analytics. Also available are an API and webhooks. 

By default, 2Checkout’s payouts occur on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis depending on the type of 2Checkout package you use, and minimums of 50 or 100 USD/EUR/GBP also apply. Those are the only three currencies in which 2Checkout will facilitate payouts.

2Checkout’s Business Intelligence, an engine for custom reporting and scheduled reports, is included in all three of their pricing packages, but advanced features like user log audits, subscription analysis, and financial reporting are not available in their base package of 2Sell. 

Analysis can be done using the reporting dashboard, and third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics can be connected to your account for cart web analytics (on request for 2Sell and 2Subscribe users; included in 2Monetize).

FastSpring

FastSpring offers three types of checkouts:

• A Web Storefront hosted by FastSpring serves as the default option, allowing users to use product catalogs from their own websites or to utilize FastSpring’s platform to display products.
• A Popup Checkout utilizes your own website’s catalog and then provides a same-page experience by displaying the checkout window in front of your webpage. 
• Embedded Checkout keeps the checkout experience on your site without the need for redirects or popups. 

For payouts, most FastSpring sellers have a two per month frequency, but this can also be set to monthly. FastSpring can also change the minimum payment amount at your request. There are five currencies available for payouts — USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, and CAD — but there is a small currency conversion fee for payouts in currencies other than USD.

FastSpring’s dashboards enable users to dig into reporting around revenue, subscriptions, and even chargebacks. See transaction rates, net sales, refund rates, and more to assess maximum revenue impacts by each product. Understand critical subscription trends across regions, over time, and by individual products with built-in widgets for MRR, customer lifetime value, rate of churn, and more.

That data can be exported to CSV or JSON, or you can use FastSpring’s data API and webhooks to generate revenue and subscription reports to take your data wherever you need it.

FastSpring offers many tools that work in combination to empower your integrations: extensions, webhooks, APIs, and the FastSpring Store Builder Library (our JavaScript library). These are the tools and systems that help businesses get up and running quickly on FastSpring, so they can go global faster.

The developer-friendly, ready-to-deploy FastSpring Store Builder Library (SBL) enables you to pass sensitive information in an encrypted format — which is great for integrations — but it’s also great for setting up your store initially. This highly customizable JavaScript library helps quickly embed FastSpring ecommerce experiences into your website or application. 

Webhooks work with your backend or third-party systems for advanced integration and tracking events, and the FastSpring API lets you easily query your sales and subscription data via GraphQL or REST format on a programmatic basis.

Extensions such as MailChimp for emails, AdRoll for retargeting, and Google’s Analytics, AdWords, and Tag Manager make it easy to integrate FastSpring’s platform with other helpful business tools.

2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring: Calculating, Collecting, and Remitting Taxes

Tax calculation, collection, and remittance are very important actions a business needs to take to stay compliant wherever its product is being sold. 

Each payment services provider may handle different combinations of those functions, while a merchant of record should handle all of them. Knowing which pieces your provider takes care of for you (and if you’ll need to handle any yourself) is key to keeping your business compliant — and avoiding hefty tax fines. 

Stripe

By default, Stripe won’t calculate or collect taxes for you, and it won’t file or remit any of those taxes either. 

If you upgrade to the Stripe Tax product at the Basic level, it will automatically calculate and collect taxes for you, but there are per-transaction fees that vary based on the kind of integration you use.

If you upgrade to Stripe Tax Complete, they will manage obligation monitoring, registrations, calculations, collections, and filings, starting at $90 per month with a minimum one-year contract, and additional fees if the registrations and filings are outside of the U.S. — but that only includes two registrations per year, 200 transactions per month, 2,000 calculation API calls per month, and four filings per year. The slider-bar pricing tool on the Stripe Tax page suggests that per-month fee will get expensive quickly based on the number of registrations, transactions, API calls, and filings you need. 

Key takeaway: If you’re looking for a turnkey tax solution, Stripe probably isn’t what you want.

2Checkout

Since 2Checkout offers either a PSP or a MoR model, there are different levels of tax handling with each type. 

For businesses using their PSP packages (2Sell or 2Subscribe), there is a tax calculator that can be activated, but it is based on your tax data supplied to 2Checkout and comes with a disclaimer to that end. There appears to be a rather lengthy process to get the tax calculation feature set up and activated. 

For businesses using their 2Monetize package, global VAT and sales tax collection and handling are included, and 2Checkout handles VAT and compliance.

FastSpring

FastSpring is intrinsically a merchant of record, so tax calculation, collection, and remittance in over 200 regions around the world is always included for businesses using our services. 

You also won’t need to register for tax purposes in all of those regions, since FastSpring is the entity actually selling your product. Our tax experts stay up to date on global VAT, GST, and sales taxes so you don’t have to, and we file and pay $50M+ in taxes for our customers every year.

Final Takeaways: 2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring

In summary, Stripe is an entry step into using a payment services provider, but it isn’t a merchant of record and won’t handle your taxes for you unless you upgrade with expensive add-ons. You can accept payments, but you’ll still have a lot of other business management to handle on your own or with additional partners besides Stripe. 

If you have a small business or startup, Stripe may be a serviceable option at first, but you could quickly outgrow it if you take your business global.

For starters, you’ll have dozens of jurisdictions to manage risk and taxes in, you’ll need to decide how to manage chargebacks, and you’ll need to set up subscription management tools and settings like dunning for rebilling, etc. — or you can watch the Stripe or third-party transaction fees stack up as you add on more products to cover as much of that as they can.

2Checkout offers either just PSP services or an upgrade to MoR services, but some platform features like pricing localization and certain reports are only available on a limited or upcharge basis. Their PSP-only services will calculate taxes for you, but that’s based entirely on tax data you supply to them, so you’ll still need to worry about those if you don’t upgrade to 2Monetize.

To compare, FastSpring handles both payments and taxes by offering one comprehensive MoR service. Choose between multiple checkout types with localized pricing, integrate with other important business tools, and stop worrying about global taxes as your business grows.

This makes FastSpring very user friendly for B2B and B2C SMBs selling SaaS, software, video games, mobile apps, AI, eLearning, and other digital goods.

FAQs

Partner With FastSpring 

If you’ve been looking at payment services providers but want a more comprehensive merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally, we can help.

FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for digital-first businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support.

If you think FastSpring could be the right payments and MoR solution for your business, reach out to our team or set up a free account.

Related reading: SaaS Companies: Four Signs You’ve Outgrown Stripe: Growth expert Fred Linfjärd (a former FastSpring user himself) explains the disadvantages of DIY-ing a payments solution with Stripe, and how FastSpring frees up dev resources to focus on your core product instead of payments and monetization.

This post was originally published in October 2023 and has been updated.

The post 2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring: Comparing Payments, Taxes, and Platform Features (+ Pricing) appeared first on FastSpring.

This does not replace your responsibility to report income earned through FastSpring. You’re still responsible for meeting any local income reporting requirements in your country.

Under IRS regulations, FastSpring is required to report certain payment transactions to the IRS. As a result, FastSpring will issue Form 1099-K to U.S. sellers who meet the applicable IRS reporting thresholds.

Where Can I Find My Total Earnings?

To view your year-to-date gross sales:

• Go to FastSpring App Dashboard > Account Summary.
• Weekly Summary Reports, when totaled, show your Gross Sales for the calendar year.

Gross Sales are calculated as gross proceeds minus discounts, returns, and FastSpring fees. Taxes are excluded, where applicable.

For more detailed reporting, you can also use Payout Statements, which include orders, refunds, fees, chargebacks, and adjustments.

Where to Find Your Payout Statements

Payout statements are available in the FastSpring App Dashboard:

1. Go to Account Summary.
2. Select Payout History.

From there:

• Click a date range under Payout Cycle to view a specific payout.
• Select Generate Statements to create monthly or annual statements.
• Use the download icon to save or share statements.

These statements are commonly used for reconciliation and year-end tax preparation.

1099-K Reporting: What’s Current for 2025 Reporting Year

Under updated IRS guidance, Form 1099-K is generally issued to U.S. sellers only if both of the following thresholds are met:

• More than $20,000 in gross payments, and
• More than 200 transactions in a calendar year.

Receiving a 1099-K does not mean you owe additional tax. The form reports gross proceeds, not net taxable income. You are taxed on net income after refunds, fees, and allowable deductions.

For more information, please see our Tax information reporting: Form 1099-K page. 

Update Your Tax Information (W-8 / W-9)

All sellers are required to complete and maintain a valid Form W-9 (U.S. sellers) or Form W-8 (non-U.S. sellers) in the FastSpring dashboard.

Sellers must promptly review and update their tax information whenever there is a change that could affect tax reporting or withholding, including but not limited to:

• A change in legal entity name or classification.
• A change in tax residency or country of incorporation.
• A change in authorized signatory.
• A change in permanent address or business address.
• Any other change that impacts the accuracy of the information provided on the W-9 or W-8.

Failure to keep tax information current may result in incorrect tax reporting, backup withholding, or delays in payment processing.

To update your tax information:

1. Log in to the FastSpring App.
2. Go to Account Summary > Manage Tax Information.
3. Complete or update your W-8 or W-9.

If your tax details or mailing address change after a 1099-K is issued, contact
support@fastspring.com.

Quick Tips for a Smooth Year End

• Track earnings consistently using weekly summaries and payout statements.
• Understand gross vs. net income when reviewing 1099-K data.
• Keep records of refunds, fees, and expenses.
• Reach out early if you need help accessing reports or tax documents.

The post 2025 Year-End US Tax Reporting With FastSpring appeared first on FastSpring.

• Unlike payment service providers (PSP), which handle only the processing of payments, a merchant of record (MoR) handles the end-to-end payment flow and takes on full liability for the transaction.
• Partnering with an MoR simplifies the financial and legal operation — and the timeline — required for digital-first businesses to sell globally, by handling tax collection and remittance, regulatory compliance, checkout localization, and more.
• The MoR model is often more cost-effective than ad hoc payments solutions.

Digital-first companies can easily sell to customers around the world, right? So why not market your product globally?

Anyone who does business across borders can tell you: It’s not that simple. 

• Do you need to translate your website?
• Do you accept their country’s form of currency?
• Do you know local privacy and tax regulations?

We spoke to a software entrepreneur based in the Caribbean who was facing this issue.

Customers liked his products, and his company was growing rapidly. “But my country has less than a million people,” he told us. “If I really want to grow my business, I need to expand to other markets.”

He knew that selling his software in other countries would create a variety of tax, transaction processing, and compliance problems.

“That’s why I need a merchant of record,” he explained.

In this piece, we’ll explain what a merchant of record is — and why using one can make it much easier for digital-first companies to go global.

If you’re looking for a merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally, we can help. FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment and subscription platform for thousands of SaaS, software, video games, and digital products businesses, including VAT, GST, and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

What Is a Merchant of Record?

A merchant of record (MoR) is the legal entity that sells goods or services to a customer. Companies can be their own MoR, but you can also outsource this work to entities that sell goods or services on behalf of a business and, by doing so, take on the legal liabilities related to the transaction for you.

The merchant of record model helps you stop worrying about the regulatory and tax compliance issues involved with accepting payments from around the globe — so you can skip the hassle and focus on what you do best: building great products.

How Is a Merchant of Record Different From a Payment Service Provider?

A payment service provider (PSP) such as PayPal or iDeal is a platform that acts as a bridge, connecting sellers with back-end networks required for processing payments, such as payment gateways, payment processors, and merchant accounts.

You’re probably already working with one or two PSPs — whichever are most popular in your country or the country of your customers.

A PSP only handles the processing of payments, not anything else that goes into an order process, such as VAT (value-added tax), GST (goods and services tax), and sales taxes or payment disputes.

Some PSPs like Stripe accept multiple currencies — which is a big step towards being able to support customers from multiple countries, regions, or jurisdictions.

But various PSPs are popular in different places. And while PSPs are equipped to accept payments in different countries, they’re not responsible for helping you comply with tax requirements for each jurisdiction.

In comparison, a merchant of record handles all of that. The MoR becomes the seller of record (SoR) and, as such, the one to worry about differing rules across credit and debit card brands, regulations in each jurisdiction, consumption taxes, and general risk and liability.

Unlike with a PSP, when you partner with a merchant of record, it takes the lead on risk management, chargebacks, and global VAT, GST, and sales taxes for every transaction.

8 Reasons to Use a Merchant of Record

For many digital-first companies, taking the business global is a no-brainer. But doing so isn’t as simple as just deciding to. You need to think about:

• Navigating sales tax, VAT, and GST regulations.
• Figuring out how to accept multiple currencies.
• Understanding the nuances of regulatory compliance in various countries.
• Staying up to date on all of the above as regulations flux and evolve.

Solving for the above — and more — can add unnecessary complexity to your operations and slow down expansion plans.

That’s where a merchant of record can help your business grow more quickly, and with less liability, too.

1. A Merchant of Record Handles Sales Tax, VAT, and GST for Digital Goods

It’s one thing to ignore transaction-related taxes or kick the can down the road on figuring them out. But it’s a common mistake for companies to assume that sellers of digital goods aren’t required to collect or remit sales taxes, VAT, GST, and other consumption taxes for digital goods sold via online payments.

That just isn’t true. Sales of digital goods — including software, video games, mobile apps, etc. — often require the same consumption taxes as sales of physical products.

Ignoring that fact or putting off figuring it out could have disastrous consequences that reach well beyond just back taxes, ranging from exorbitant interest fees and penalties to multi-million dollar valuation adjustments.

A merchant of record is the ideal solution, allowing you to offload the complexity of sales, VAT, and GST tax collection and remittance. You can expand into new markets and regions quickly, all while avoiding the consequences of ignoring global tax laws altogether.

2. An MoR Covers Your Foundational Billing Tasks

Even before you add global selling into the mix, many software and SaaS companies struggle with foundational billing tasks, such as:

• Ensuring compliance with PCI-DSS standards for cardholder information, along with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and Data Privacy Framework (DPF) requirements. (Visit our Trust Center here.)
• Decreasing payment failure rates.
• Managing and maintaining relationships with merchant banks, financial institutions, and payment processors.
• Negotiating payment processing fees.
• Handling payment disputes, refunds, and chargebacks.
• Calculating, filing, and remitting software sales tax, VAT, GST, and other consumption taxes.
• Risk analysis and fraud prevention.
• Reconciling transactions, payments, refunds, cash flow, and more.

Some of this work may be done for you by your accountant, subscription management platform, or payment processor, but they’re probably not doing everything — such as helping you decrease customer churn or issuing refunds.

Most likely (unless you’re already working with an MoR), you’re doing some of this work internally — or not at all.

All of the above is just one step. When you sell products to buyers in another country, things get even more complicated.

This kind of patchwork approach to billing tasks makes it easy for things to fall through the cracks — and it’s likely costlier than an all-in-one payments solution.

3. A Merchant of Record Calculates and Remits VAT, GST, and Sales Taxes for Digital Goods Based on the Buyer’s Location

When selling software or digital goods, VAT, GST, and sales tax are almost always calculated based on the location of your customer, not the location where you do business.

(This is different from professional services, which are often taxed based on where the service is performed, rather than the location of the buyer.)

For example, let’s say you sell software (or a digital product) and you choose a simple payment processor (such as Stripe or PayPal).

In that situation, if you have enough customers in Canada to meet the Canadian threshold for tax filing, then you must track, file, and remit taxes in Canada — regardless of your location or where your company is headquartered.

With a merchant of record, you’ll outsource the sales tax, GST/HST/QST, and many of the compliance responsibilities to your MoR — who will track, file, and remit taxes on your behalf, in Canada and in all the various countries where your customers live — instead of you doing that on your own.

(Did you know that, unlike the simpler VAT system that many countries and regions utilize, Canada actually has GST, HST, PST, QST, and even RST depending on the province? Canada applies several different tax types depending on the province or territory, so navigating compliance can get tricky quickly. If you didn’t already know that — and you don’t want to have to learn — a merchant of record might be what you need for your digital products business.)

If you multiply the above example by the number of countries where you have customers, you can see why so many digital-first companies choose the MoR model over simple payment processing when they expand globally.

With a merchant of record, you can grow your business much faster, with much less stress and hassle and much less cost from accountants and tax professionals.

4. A Merchant of Record Keeps Up With Ever-Changing Global Payment Rules for You

The specific requirements for doing business across borders vary from country to country, and they can vary further based on how much business you’re doing there, the structure of your business, and a variety of other factors.

Common steps for setting up successful cross-border business include, at a minimum:

• Learning the preferred local payment methods of a given region.
• Handling currency conversions when taking global payments.
• Understanding foreign tax requirements, including whether your offerings are subject to a value-added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST).
• Detecting and handling fraud, which can be more prevalent on international payments.

That’s work you do per country, which means if you have a lot of customers in ten different countries, that’s ten sets of the above steps to figure out — a timely and costly process.

And this is the most important reason why it’s so helpful to use a merchant of record service when you’re ready to go global.

At FastSpring, we build and maintain relationships with tax law specialists around the globe, so we’re always up to date on laws and regulations if and when they evolve.

5. An MoR Simplifies Your Financial Operations

You didn’t start a software company to spend your days figuring out complex tax rules in countries all over the world. You started it because you had a great idea for a product, and you knew how to build it.

A merchant of record focuses on the selling, so you can get back to what you do best: making a great product.

The MoR acts as a reseller, buying the software from you, then reselling it to your customer. Instead of working directly with customers and myriad financial service providers, you communicate with just one entity — your MoR.

Your customers will still visit your website to buy software, games, in-game items, mobile app subscriptions, or other digital products — or to update their subscriptions — but when they’re ready to check out, they buy the products from the MoR.

They’ll receive a receipt from the MoR, and the MoR will be the company name listed on their bank account/bank statement or credit card statement. This is how the MoR becomes the liable party for the sale.

MoRs maintain robust ecommerce platforms to manage payment and tax processes — in addition to checkout localization and optimization.

At FastSpring, we also provide other services such as digital invoices and interactive quotes that are a part of our customer’s financial system.

6. A Merchant of Record Is Cost-Effective

If you’re paying a lawyer or accountant to figure out the tax obligations and business regulations of each country where your customers live, those costs add up fast. That’s before you even start localizing your payment platform, such as making sure your site accepts the preferred payment method of each country.

As an MoR, FastSpring already has an understanding of local taxes, payment gateways, and more. This makes it the most cost-efficient way to collect customer payments and remit taxes from a global customer base.

In summary, cobbling together a payment infrastructure that encompasses all the functions an MoR handles is a lot more costly and complex than dealing with one MoR partner.

7. A Merchant of Record Enables You to Go Global Immediately

Localizing pricing, currency, and your checkout flow for an optimal customer experience is a project that often takes years for companies that build those features on their own.

Since an MoR already has everything set up and ready to go, as soon as you become a customer of a global MoR, the currency, preferred payment options (from credit cards to digital wallets to global PSPs), and checkout experience can be customized for your customers right from the start.

8. A Merchant of Record Helps You Stay Compliant

Each country has its own sales and privacy regulations, and they’re always changing. This means you’ll need to keep a lawyer on retainer who’s familiar with the ever-changing global tax regulations if you’re handling compliance internally.

Once again, an MoR will do this work for you, avoiding costly fines and lawyer fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Does It Mean to Be a Merchant of Record?

A merchant of record (MoR) is the legal entity that sells goods or services to a customer. Companies can be their own MoR, but you can also outsource this work to entities that sell goods or services on behalf of a business and, by doing so, take on the legal liabilities related to the transaction for you.

What Is the Difference Between a Merchant of Record and a Payment Service Provider?

A payment service provider (PSP) is a platform that acts as a bridge, connecting sellers with back-end networks required for processing payments, such as payment gateways, payment processors, and merchant accounts.

A PSP only handles the processing of payments, not anything else that goes into an order process, such as tax calculations and remittance, payment disputes, or regulatory compliance.

To compare, a merchant of record handles all of that. The MoR becomes the seller of record (SoR) and, as such, the one to worry about differing rules across credit and debit card brands, regulations in each jurisdiction, consumption taxes, and general risk and liability.

Your MoR, then, takes the lead on risk management, chargebacks, and global VAT, GST, and sales taxes for every transaction.

What Are the Benefits of Partnering With an MoR?

The most important benefits of partnering with an MoR include:

• Reducing the financial and legal burden on your company.
• Allowing you to expand globally immediately.
• Freeing you from having to calculate and remit taxes in every jurisdiction you sell to, and from having to stay up to date on ever-shifting regulations.
• Saving you money with a more cost-effective, all-in-one platform versus patchwork payment processing, subscription management, and accounting solutions.
• Improving your customer experience and boosting conversions thanks to features like advanced payment routing to mitigate payment failures, localized checkout, acceptance of preferred payment methods around the globe, consumer support, and more.

What Are the Key Responsibilities of an MoR?

Key responsibilities of an MoR include:

• Global online payment processing.
• Tax and regulatory compliance.
• Fraud prevention and risk management.
• Handling payment disputes, refunds, and chargebacks.
• Subscription management.

In summary, an MoR handles the end-to-end payment infrastructure, from localizing your checkout flow and processing payments to calculating and remitting consumption taxes like sales tax, VAT, GST, and more.

How FastSpring Can Help

FastSpring is the leading full-stack merchant of record service for growth-stage SaaS, software, video game, mobile app, and other digital products businesses. If you’re looking for a merchant of record to help your business expand globally, we’re here to help.

Our platform serves as an all-in-one payment and subscription platform that handles everything from payment and checkout localization; to sales, VAT, and GST tax management; to customer support for end consumers, and so much more.

Learn more about how FastSpring can help you grow your business globally: Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

This post was originally published in 2021 and has been updated.

The post What Is a Merchant of Record? (And Why Should You Care?) appeared first on FastSpring.

• Chargebee offers a number of subscription management features, but their customers are still responsible for handling key tasks like connecting to payment gateways, taxes, payment reconciliation, and chargebacks.
• As your merchant of record (MoR), FastSpring takes on the responsibility for these tasks, including payment processing, remitting taxes across jurisdictions, and more.
• Other Chargebee alternatives include Stripe, Maxio, Zoho Billing, Stax Bill, Zuora, Sticky.io, PayPal Enterprise Payments, Recurly, and Paddle.

Chargebee is a robust subscription management platform —  and if you’re looking for Chargebee alternatives, you’re likely already aware of many of its key features.

However, there are certain aspects of collecting recurring payments that you would still be responsible for when using Chargebee, such as:

• Connecting to payment gateways manually. While Chargebee supports several different payment gateways, you have to set up and configure each one.
• Remitting taxes at the end of the year. They will collect taxes for you, but you are ultimately held responsible for filing and paying taxes correctly within each jurisdiction you do business.
• Reconciling payments, fulfillment, refunds, etc. While Chargebee lets you automate many mundane accounting tasks and integrate with account software, you still have to track and record every transaction, refund, etc.
• Responding to and processing chargebacks. Chargebee only offers full chargeback support for limited vendors, so other vendors will need to manage chargebacks for themselves.

In this guide, we present 10 alternatives to Chargebee that help relieve some of these burdens for users, starting with an in-depth review of our solution, FastSpring. 

FastSpring handles the entire payment process from checkout to remitting end-of-year taxes for SaaS companies. To learn more about how FastSpring can help you scale quickly, sign up for a free account or request a demo today.

10 Chargebee Alternatives

1. FastSpring.
2. Stripe.
3. Maxio.
4. Zoho Billing.
5. Stax Bill.
6. Zuora.
7. Sticky.io.
8. PayPal Enterprise Payments.
9. Recurly.
10. Paddle.

1. FastSpring

As your merchant of record (MoR), FastSpring takes on the responsibility for payment processing, remitting taxes, and more for your software or SaaS business.

To compare, most Chargebee alternatives are either subscription billing platforms or payment gateways. 

Some of these providers may be able to help you connect to international payment gateways, alert you to chargebacks, and help you collect VAT and sales taxes. However, you’ll still be responsible for paying taxes, processing chargebacks, and for things like legal compliance, dunning, and more. 

FastSpring, on the other hand, handles everything from optimizing your checkout flow to remitting end-of-year taxes by acting as your merchant of record (MoR).

Next, we explain how an MoR is different from other payment service providers. 

What It Means to Have FastSpring as Your Merchant of Record

A merchant of record, or MoR, is the business entity that sells goods or services to the buyer. You can act as your own MoR, or you can outsource the entire process to FastSpring. Companies that haven’t thought about who their MoR is are probably acting as their own MoR.

When you outsource your transactions to FastSpring, your customers still visit your website to choose their software and/or subscription, but FastSpring takes over when the customer gets to the checkout. They’ll receive a receipt from FastSpring, and FastSpring will be listed on their bank or credit card statement.

The profits are yours, but FastSpring is the liable party for the sale.

That’s why FastSpring can do more than other types of service payment providers can:

• Collect and remit VAT, sales taxes, and other consumption taxes.
• Comply with local laws and regulations.
• Monitor chargebacks in real time.
• Reconcile transactions, payments, refunds, etc.
• And more, all on your behalf.

If something goes wrong with local or tax compliance, chargebacks, accounts not balancing, etc., FastSpring takes the lead to solve the issue on your behalf.

Instead of juggling multiple platforms and providers for a complete payment solution, you can work with just one provider: FastSpring. 

Plus, you can start selling in 200+ jurisdictions almost instantly — because we’ve already established the necessary processes in each region. You can learn more about how FastSpring helps you with international recurring payments here.

In summary, FastSpring focuses on the selling, so you can focus on making a great product.

In the next sections, we’ll dive deeper into how FastSpring helps you: 

• Create flexible free trials and recurring billing logic without code.
• Minimize payment failures with advanced payment routing and smart dunning.
• Increase conversions with branded, localized checkout.

We’ll also cover how FastSpring provides all features for one flat-rate price designed to fit your budget. 

Flexible No-Code Free Trials and Recurring Billing Logic

Not every business can use the same free trial model. Some businesses will see more success if they let customers sign up without payment details, while others will see more success if they require a payment method to sign up but don’t automatically charge the customer at the end of the trial.

Additionally, what worked for your small business to start may not be the right solution for you long term as you grow and adopt more complex billing. That’s why many software, gaming, digital product, mobile app, and SaaS companies need payment software that can support many different types of trial models, subscriptions, etc. 

However, most payment processors (sometimes interchangeably referred to as “payment gateways,” while technically being slightly different) only offer limited recurring billing and basic trial options — e.g., a free trial that automatically turns into monthly billing. This makes it difficult to optimize your trials and subscription plans for high conversions and what works best for your customers. It also makes it difficult to adapt as a business in the long run. 

FastSpring, on the other hand, delivers advanced features and a wide variety of flexible options for how you can set up trials, subscriptions, and more. Below, we provide an overview of FastSpring’s subscription management tools. 

Trial subscription options:

• Free or paid trial periods of any length.
• Set up free, paid, or usage-based trials.
• Choose whether or not to require a payment method when signing up for a trial.
• Choose to automatically bill the user after the trial has ended or let them manually start a paid subscription.
• Allow subscribers to reactivate expired trial accounts.
• Choose when FastSpring will send reminders of ending trials (e.g., three days before the trial ends).
• Offer a discounted trial period.
• Automatically detect when a single user tries to sign up for multiple trials, and only allow one trial account.
• And more.

Recurring billing options:

• Choose subscription frequency (weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom) and billing date (or let your customers choose).
• Set subscriptions to auto renewal, manual renewal (i.e., customers have to re-enter payment information each time they’re billed), or managed renewal (i.e., your team initiates the charge via the API, which is great for usage-based billing).
• Offer discounts and coupons.
• Allow prorated billing if a customer wants to upgrade, downgrade, or pause the service part-way through the billing cycle.
• Add one time purchases to the initial bill but not recurring billings.
• Manage upsell and cross-sell products at checkout.
• Give customers the option of whether or not to store payment information (or make the decision for all customers).
• Auto-renew to a different subscription.
• Offer subscription add-ons.
• And more.

Fulfillment options:

• Choose whether to share products and resources via a license key, product download, signed PDF, or email.
• Configure multiple fulfillment actions for one subscription (e.g., send a license key and product manual PDF via email).

FastSpring also provides your customers with an easy-to-access self-serve Customer Account Portal, where they can view their entire order history; upgrade, downgrade, or pause their subscriptions; and add or edit payment methods.

This self-serve portal is entirely managed by FastSpring but reflects the visual branding of your checkout for a cohesive and user-friendly interface and customer experience. 

Finally, some subscription management tools require a lot of technical skills to set up and use. 

But with ease of use in mind, FastSpring lets you set up many of the options mentioned above without code. If you have unique subscription management needs, you can also use our API and webhooks library for more control — our experienced developers are readily available to help you create the best solution for your subscription business model.

Don’t forget: Rules around recurring billing vary across the globe. Without a global MoR like FastSpring, it’s your responsibility to keep track of current and evolving local transaction laws and regulations and ensure your recurring billing model complies.

FastSpring handles this — and the liability for recurring transactions — for you.

Note: If you already have multiple subscriptions set up in another platform, we can help you easily migrate over to FastSpring. For subscription data migration with payment information included, click here for more info. For subscription data migration without payment information, click here for more info.

Advanced Payment Routing and Smart Dunning to Minimize Payment Failures

From the initial purchase to each subsequent rebill, failed payment is one of the main reasons for lost revenue.

Many payment service providers will automatically retry failed payments once or notify customers of failed payments. This is a good place to start, but there are more ways to meaningfully reduce involuntary churn due to failed payments. 

FastSpring helps you proactively minimize payment failures and reduce churn with flexible dunning management, which includes:

• Proactive reminders to update payment information (e.g., “Your subscription is due soon”).
• Multiple follow-up notifications (e.g., two, five, seven, 14, and 21 days after their payment method fails).
• A pre-made email template for reminders — or the ability to customize your own messages.
• Multiple payment retries before each follow-up notification is sent out.
• Automatic payment gateway rerouting (this solves many payment failures due to network or system errors.
• An intuitive self-serve portal (customers can easily update payment information from the same portal where they manage their subscription plan).

Plus, you can choose whether to pause or continue the service when a payment fails. If you keep the service going after a failed payment and give your customers a chance to update their payment information, you’ll have less churn and increase retention.

You can also choose to apply a pause rather than a full cancellation of their service after all reminders have been sent out. Pausing makes it easier for your customer to restart their subscription without the hassle of onboarding again.

You can read more about how one of our customers reduced churn by 50% in this case study. 

Branded, Localized Checkout to Increase Conversions

Friction at the purchase step can cause customers to fall off before completing a purchase. For example:

• If the price at checkout is different than it was on the website (e.g., different currency or different amount because additional fees have been added without a clear label), customers may decide not to buy.
• If the checkout is visually very different from the website, or if the checkout is on an entirely different website, the customer is less likely to believe the checkout is authentic and secure.
• If they have to create an account in order to purchase but don’t want to.
• If checkout translation and localization is incorrect, inconsistent, or missing, so the customer questions the store’s legitimacy.

These are just a few examples, but there are many reasons why a customer may decide against completing a purchase at the last minute.

FastSpring helps you anticipate objections and reduce friction at checkout in the following ways:

• Customizable checkout UI.
• The most popular payment methods.
• Local currency conversions and language translations.
• Conversion-optimized embedded, pop-up, or web storefront checkout experiences.
• Personalized developer support.

Read on for more details about each.

Customizable Checkout UI

Many subscription management platforms or payment processors only provide checkout templates where you can add your logo and choose basic color schemes. These solutions usually fail to match your visual branding and may not be optimized for increasing conversions. 

To create the best experience for your customers and get the highest conversion rates, you need more custom abilities.

FastSpring lets you customize the look and feel of your checkout with pre-built branding tools and CSS overrides. You have complete visual customization with our Store Builder Library (SBL), a JavaScript library that lets you customize, brand, and streamline your entire checkout workflow to build trust and eliminate friction throughout the buyer’s journey. This allows you to create the checkout experience that most aligns with your brand and highlights your product. 

The Most Popular Payment Methods

One of the biggest reasons customers fail to complete a purchase is because they can’t use their preferred payment method. 

However, offering different payment methods isn’t as simple as adding their logo to your checkout screen. 

You have to agree to certain terms and conditions before a payment network or issuing bank will approve transactions with your business. Each payment provider will have different regulations regarding fraud, chargebacks, privacy protection, etc. It can be a huge task to stay in good standing with many different payment providers on your own. 

If you want to transact internationally, there will be even more to manage.

While Visa and Mastercard may be popular payment methods in the U.S., buyers in other countries prefer different payment methods. To convert international customers, you need to provide many different types of preferred payment methods — which means more payment providers to maintain. 

For instance, Pix is a preferred payment method in Brazil, while AliPay is a preferred payment method in China.

FastSpring takes care of all of this — from staying in good standing with payment networks, to managing fraud and chargebacks — for you.

FastSpring already has good relationships with many different payment networks and issuing banks around the world, which means you can accept your customers’ preferred payment methods right away. 

Local Currency Conversions and Language Translations

Customers are more likely to trust a checkout experience that uses the same language and currency as what’s shown on your website. That’s why FastSpring lets you translate checkout into the local language and convert prices to the local currency. 

You can let each buyer select their preferred language from a dropdown menu featuring 21+ supported languages. Or, you can lock the language and FastSpring will automatically select the appropriate language based on the buyer’s location. 

You also have the option to set custom pricing strategies in each currency or let FastSpring automatically convert prices to the local currency (FastSpring supports 23+ currencies).

If you choose to let FastSpring convert product prices for you, we match the format of the original price. For example, if the original price is $12.99 and the conversion to Euros is €14.29, FastSpring would change it to €14.99.

Learn how Nelio increased growth by 50% with localized checkout in this case study.

Embedded, Pop-Up, or Web Storefront Checkout

With FastSpring, you can embed checkout directly on your website, insert a pop-up checkout, or send customers to a secure web storefront managed by FastSpring. This gives you the flexibility to choose the solution that’s best for your team and customers.

To compare, embedding checkout directly on your webpage ensures less disruption and typically decreases the likelihood of your buyers abandoning. Pop-up checkout requires less setup — simply insert a few lines of pre-written HTML and Javascript in your webpage.

Learn how DaisyDisk was able to spend less time managing their checkout while significantly increasing conversions by using FastSpring’s pop-up checkout, in this case study. 

To outsource the entire checkout process to FastSpring, you can choose the web storefront option.

With the web storefront option, customers will be redirected to a webpage entirely managed by FastSpring — but customized to match your visual brand identity — where they can view their cart and complete the purchase.

Personalized Developer Support

Many payment service providers only help with the initial setup and when something goes wrong with the software. Some companies only provide personalized support to their largest clients. This leaves you on your own to manage ongoing payment operations.

FastSpring is dedicated to providing you with the best experience throughout the entire engagement.

Our team is always available to help — regardless of how big or small your operation is. Whether that’s helping you build the best checkout experience for your business or expanding into a new region, our friendly customer support team will help you find and build out the best solutions for your business.

Robust Analytics and Reporting Dashboards

FastSpring’s Reporting and Analytics is a robust suite of reports and visualizations to keep you informed of important stats such as MRR, churn rate, new customers by product type, and more. 

For example, our Subscription Overview dashboard shows key subscription analytics including subscription churn, subscriber loss, MRR churn rate, active customers, and more. 

Use our Subscription Overview dashboard, Revenue dashboard, data export reporting and data API features, and more to better understand:

• How each product contributes to your bottom line. 
• When customers are most likely to drop off.
• What coupons or promotions are working.
• How individual trials are performing.
• Which subscription models generate the most revenue.
• Where your customers are located.
• What currencies and payment methods customers prefer.
• Chargeback rates by customer segment.
• Chargeback rates by product line.
• The status of your active webhooks.
• And much more.

All-in-One Pricing Without the Need for Additional Software

Chargebee separates its Billing features into three pricing plans, so you may eventually need the most expensive plan to get the features you need. For example, chargeback automation is not offered in Chargebee’s Starter plan. 

Plus, you’ll still have to pay for additional software solutions like payment gateways (sometimes interchangeably referred to as “payment processors,” although they are technically different) or tax software for a complete payment management system. Even with seamless integrations, it’s a hassle, an additional cost, and may even require additional headcount to manage it all. 

FastSpring, on the other hand, offers one flat-rate price that includes the entire platform — every feature and all services. Our team works with you to find an affordable price based on the volume of transactions you move through FastSpring (you’ll only be charged when successful transactions take place).

If you think FastSpring could be the right payment solution for your subscription-based business, sign up for a free account or request a demo today.

2. Stripe

Stripe’s main service is payment processing; however, they do offer a few other services, such as: 

• Checkout.
• Fraud and risk management.
• Automated invoicing.
• In-person payments.
• Subscription management.
• Virtual and physical card issuing.
• Business spend management.

Stripe billing has fewer options than Chargebee for recurring billing, but you can easily integrate the two software solutions if you want to use (and pay for) both. Stripe works with companies of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. 

3. Maxio

Maxio (formerly Chargify and SaasOptics) is another cloud-based financial operations platform for B2B SaaS. They offer solutions to automate financial systems on the back end, and features to help improve the order-to-revenue process. Their main services include: 

• Subscription management.
• Usage-based and global billing.
• Revenue recognition and revenue management tools.
• Billing system dashboard and metrics.
• Built-in integrations with various other software (e.g., accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero).
• International payment gateways.

Maxio advertises their ability to accommodate any go-to-market strategy (such as product-led or sales-led approaches).

4. Zoho Billing

Zoho offers a large suite of software to run your business, from a CRM and ERPs to a video meeting platform. Zoho Billing (formerly Zoho Subscriptions) is their payment processing and recurring billing solution. Some of their key features include: 

• Invoicing and invoice templates.
• Multi-currency support.
• 50+ pre-built analytic reports.
• Automatic online payment retries.
• Out-of-the-box integrations with other billing platforms (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, etc.).

Zoho Billing offers more pre-made solutions than other options on this list, which some companies may find limiting. However, Zoho Billing may be a good choice if you’re already embedded in the Zoho ecosystem.

5. Stax Bill 

Stax Bill (formerly Fusebill) provides subscription management software and a payment gateway in one platform. Other than offering a payment gateway with each plan, Fusebill offers many of the same features as Chargebee, including: 

• Dunning management.
• Flexible recurring billing options.
• Recurring revenue recognition features.
• Billing analytics.

Fusebill also offers flexible catalog pricing and inventory tracking tools. 

6. Zuora

Zuora is a monetization platform for B2C and B2B companies. Zuora’s key functionalities include: 

• Customer subscription management.
• Revenue reconciliation tools.
• Revenue analytics.
• Built-in integrations with lots of business software.
• Low-code SDKs and APIs to build your own integrations.
• Quoting software.

Zuora provides a lot of flexibility for building out your own solution on top of their platform; however, non-developers may find it difficult to manage.

7. Sticky.io

Sticky.io (formerly Limelight) is a subscription management platform that integrates with popular ecommerce platforms such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce, and Shopify. They advertise the ability to: 

• Support nearly any subscription or pricing model.
• Create coupons, discounts, and special promotions.
• Offer add-ons, upsells, etc.
• Fight fraud and chargebacks.
• Manage automated dunning.

Like Chargebee, Sticky.io doesn’t provide a payment gateway; however, they do offer pre-built integrations with several payment gateways. 

8. PayPal Enterprise Payments

PayPal Enterprise Payments (formerly Braintree by PayPal) is a payment gateway provider that also provides merchant accounts. Other features include: 

• Subscription billing management.
• Optimized checkout flow.
• Flexible risk mitigation options.
• Reporting and analytics.
• Third-party integrations for recurring billing, accounting, and more.

PayPal Enterprise Payments supports payment from PayPal, Venmo (in the U.S.), Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

9. Recurly

Recurly is a subscription management software and recurring billing platform. Recurly offers features such as:

• Multiple pricing models.
• Item catalog.
• Recurring billing.
• Payments orchestration.
• Subscriber management.
• Churn management.
• Reporting dashboards and analytics.

Like Chargebee, Recurly doesn’t include a native payment gateway, but the platform does offer pre-built integrations with popular gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, and more. Recurly also allows you to connect multiple gateways.

10. Paddle

Paddle is another Chargebee alternative that’s an MoR with a subscription billing platform, appropriate for use by SaaS and software companies. Paddle has features including: 

• Multiple payment gateways.
• Secure checkout.
• Recurring billing management.
• A robust payments toolkit.
• Fraud protection.
• Transaction and subscription reporting.
• Invoicing. 
• And more.

Learn more about Paddle alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions About Chargebee Alternatives

What’s the Difference Between Chargebee and FastSpring?

In short: Chargebee is a subscription management platform for SaaS companies, while FastSpring is an all-in-one payments and digital commerce platform (and merchant of record) built for digital-first businesses.

Who Are the Top Competitors to Chargebee in 2025?

Top Chargebee competitors include:

• FastSpring.
• Stripe.
• Maxio.
• Zoho Billing.
• Stax Bill.
• Zuora.
• Sticky.io.
• PayPal Enterprise Payments.
• Recurly.
• Paddle.

What Should I Consider When Choosing a Subscription Management Platform to Replace Chargebee?

The most important considerations include:

• Your business size, industry, and transaction volume.
• Support for localization and preferred payment methods in the jurisdictions where your customers live.
• Integrations with other tools in your payments and tech stack.
• Security and compliance.
• Budget, costs, and scalability.
• Customer support.

How Difficult Is It to Migrate From Chargebee to Another Platform?

In short, the complexity of migrating from Chargebee to another platform depends heavily on factors including:

• Your current Chargebee setup.
• The complexity of your subscription model.
• The platform you’re migrating to.

If you’re looking to migrate from Chargebee to FastSpring, FastSpring can import your subscriptions with payment details or without payment details. Either way, our team is always available to help — regardless of how big or small your operation is.

Need a Chargebee Alternative for Your SaaS, Software, Video Games, or Other Digital Products Business?

FastSpring can help!

Instead of managing a large software stack for just the subscription lifecycle, let FastSpring handle all of payment lifecycle management for you. FastSpring is more than a subscription management platform — we’re the merchant of record for global SaaS companies and many other digital businesses. 

Sign up for a free account or request a demo today.

This post was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated.

The post Chargebee Alternatives in 2025: 10 Competitors and How They Differ appeared first on FastSpring.

Many companies that expand globally reach a point where they can’t properly support their international customers with their current payment platform. They’ll start noticing issues like low conversion rates, low authorization rates, more chargebacks, and an overall plateau in global growth. That’s when many start looking at other solutions such as international payment gateways. 

Even the best international payment gateways can help with some of these issues, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. To accept payments internationally, you also need to offer local payment methods, collect and remit VAT and sales taxes, adhere to local transaction laws and regulations, and much more.

In this post, we clarify what an international payment gateway is, how it fits into the payment processing landscape, and how to choose the best one for your business. Then we compare nine of the top payment solutions, starting with a deep-dive into our solution, FastSpring. 

Table of Contents

• What is an international payment gateway?
• Factors to consider when choosing the best international payment gateway.
• FastSpring: Merchant of record for global SaaS companies.
• 8 other international payment gateways for SaaS and non-SaaS businesses.

FastSpring handles everything from maintaining high authorization rates to filing and remitting monthly and quarterly sales tax and VAT for SaaS companies. Sign up for a free account or request a demo today to see how FastSpring can help you expand globally.

FAQs About International Payment Gateways 

What Is an International Payment Gateway?

Traditionally, payment gateways and payment processors were offered as two separate services, and you would have different providers for each service:

• Payment gateways quickly and securely transfer the payment details from the checkout software to the payment processor.
• Payment processors verify that all necessary information is present and in the correct format and then carry it to the issuing bank or credit card network for final authorization. Some payment gateways integrate with multiple payment processors behind the scenes to optimize performance.

Fast forward to today, and these two services are often offered together, which is why many companies use these terms interchangeably.

For the remainder of this post, if we mention one, we assume the other is included.

Why Do You Want Your Payment Processor to Be International?

International payment processors let you immediately start accepting preferred payments from around the globe. Without an international payment processor, you could be locked out of cross-border transactions, your approval rates will suffer, and your associated transaction fees and processing fees will also suffer.

International payment processors take on the responsibility of staying in good standing with various payment schemes across different countries and localities, so you don’t have to.

Related: International Recurring Payments (How We Handle It for You)

Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best International Payment Gateway

When choosing an international payment gateway, the most important thing to consider is whether or not they also act as your merchant of record. 

A merchant of record (MoR) takes on the liability of SaaS transactions for you, which means they handle payment processing, collecting and remitting taxes, staying compliant with local laws and regulations, chargeback management, and much more. If something goes wrong in any of these areas, your MoR is liable and takes the lead to resolve it for you.

If your payment gateway does not act as your MoR, then you’re on your own to:

• Calculate tax, collect tax from your customers, and remit those taxes to the local government — everywhere you do business.
• Understand and adhere to local transaction laws and regulations.
• Improve conversions with an optimized checkout flow.
• Handle chargebacks and fraud.
• And make myriad more checkout, payment, and risk decisions.

Many payment processors will provide an API or built-in integrations with other solutions that will help you with those things. However, you’ll have to manage that entire software stack and you’ll still be held liable for everything from paying taxes to fraud prevention to remaining compliant with regulations everywhere your customers live. 

If taxes aren’t paid correctly, for example, you may face huge fines or be prevented from transacting in that region. 

Once you’ve determined if the payment gateway also acts as an MoR, there are two other factors to consider:  

1. What countries they let you transact in (it will differ with each payment gateway provider).
2. How they maintain high authorization rates (there are many reasons a payment can fail, even if you have a good relationship with the card network).

Next, we’ll take a deep dive into how FastSpring acts as your MoR, then we’ll compare nine other international payment gateway providers.

FastSpring: Merchant of Record for Global SaaS, Software, Gaming, and Mobile App Companies

Expanding your business globally is a very complex process that includes everything from localizing your website to learning about each region’s laws and regulations. To add to the complexity, many of these systems and regulations constantly change. 

The tax landscape for digital goods companies has dramatically shifted. Where once businesses selling SaaS, software, and apps faced fewer obligations than traditional brick-and-mortar stores, they now often contend with more stringent tax requirements. To complicate matters further, tax rates and filing requirements at the local level can change regularly and without warning. Businesses must diligently monitor these shifting regulations to prevent significant penalties from late, missed, or incorrect payments. 

And this is just one piece of what you need to manage international transactions. 

With FastSpring, you can scale almost instantly to over 200+ regions, because we:

• Stay in good standing with dozens of payment providers around the world so you can accept popular local payment methods (including but not limited to Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfers, SEPA, Amazon Pay, Pix, AliPay, UPI, and more).
• Collect and remit indirect tax (including GST, VAT, SST, etc.) for every transaction and file all necessary tax returns for you. 
• Take on the responsibility of adhering to local transaction laws and regulations. Our team of legal experts stays up to date on all relevant legalities and makes sure all the necessary procedures are in place for collecting payments. 
• Handle currency conversions and checkout localization.

FastSpring is fully compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Additionally, we renew our level one certification (which is the highest level possible) with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) every year. FastSpring also conducts an annual SOC 2 Type II assessment.

Visit FastSpring’s Trust Center for more information.

In the following sections, we cover in detail how FastSpring helps you: 

• Achieve high authorization rates in 200+ regions with advanced payment failure handling and local payment methods.
• Increase conversions with an optimized checkout experience.
• Reduce involuntary churn with proactive dunning.
• Handle complex billing logic and free trials without code.
• Scale quickly with transparent flat-rate pricing.

Achieve High Authorization Rates in 200+ Regions with Advanced Payment Failure Handling and Local Payment Processing

Many companies are able to maintain high authorization rates in their home country but quickly see a decline in authorization rates when they expand internationally. 

This is because transacting globally is much more complicated — so more things can go wrong. 

For example, the card network or issuing bank could mark the transaction as suspicious (and therefore deny authorization) because the seller isn’t in the same country as the buyer.

It can be very difficult — and a drain on resources — to identify what’s making the payments fail and find a way to solve those issues on your own. 

As your payment processing solution and MoR, FastSpring takes care of maintaining high authorization rates for you. Here are two ways that we maintain high authorization rates. 

1. Payment Processor Rerouting

While payments can fail for simple reasons like low funds or inaccurate payment details, payments can also fail because of network or system failures. If a payment fails on the first attempt, FastSpring tries again using a secondary processor. While this won’t solve issues like low funds, it often solves the issue of network or system failures. 

2. Local Payment Processors

Card networks and issuing banks are more likely to authorize transactions when the payment processor is in the same country as the buyer. FastSpring connects with multiple international payment gateways and uses intelligent payment routing to send payments through the gateway that offers the highest authorization rates for that location (and payment method).

Increase Conversions With an Optimized Checkout Experience

Before the payment details are even sent to the payment gateway, there are many reasons a customer may abandon the checkout process. For example:  

• They have to create an account in order to purchase and don’t want to.
• Additional fees and taxes are added but not clearly labeled, so the customer doesn’t know why the price is different.
• The checkout screen isn’t clearly labeled as secure, so the customer doesn’t feel safe entering personal information.
• Checkout translation and localization is incorrect, inconsistent, or missing, so the customer questions the store’s legitimacy.

FastSpring helps you reduce checkout abandonment and improve conversion rates with:

• Localized checkout. FastSpring can automatically convert currency for you, or you can choose your own fixed price for each product in each currency. You can let FastSpring select the language and local currency based on the customer’s location, set your own language and currency for each, or allow customers to select their preference from the 21+ languages and many local currencies FastSpring supports.

• Complete visual customization with Store Builder Library (SBL). Most payment gateways only provide checkout templates with a few basic options for customization (like adding your logo or choosing from a preset list of colors). FastSpring gives you the tools, functionality, and personalized support needed to customize, brand, and streamline your entire checkout flow. (We also provide a pre-built template that is optimized for high conversion rates.)
• An embedded, pop-up, or web storefront checkout. With FastSpring, you can embed checkout directly on your website, insert a popup checkout, or send customers to a secure web storefront managed by FastSpring. This gives you the flexibility to choose the solution that’s best for your team and customers. 

Reduce Involuntary Churn With Proactive Dunning Management and Revenue Recovery

Successfully converting potential buyers to paying customers is just the first step. For SaaS businesses, additional payment issues often come up between that initial purchase and subsequent billings. The most common way to deal with payment failures is to simply notify the customer; however, you’ll need to do more — like send out multiple reminders — if you want to significantly reduce involuntary churn.

FastSpring provides flexible dunning management, which includes: 

• Proactive reminders to update payment information. FastSpring will notify customers with flexible, custom email reminders when their debit or credit card is expiring. You can use our pre-made email template or customize your own message to be sent two, five, seven, 14, and 21 days after the initial failure.
• Multiple automatic payment retries. Before sending out each reminder, FastSpring automatically retries the existing payment method, minimizing disruption for customers and protecting your business from unnecessary failed transactions. 

• Easy to access self-serve Customer Account Portal. FastSpring provides an easy-to-access website where your customers can view their complete order history and manage their subscriptions and payment methods. This self-serve website is entirely managed by FastSpring, but the appearance of the portal will match the branding of your checkout to provide customers with a cohesive and user-friendly customer experience.

You can choose how many reminders it takes before the customer’s service is paused. We’ve found that allowing the service to continue through the first several reminders reduces involuntary churn and provides a better user experience. 

After the final reminder, you have the flexibility to choose whether to pause or cancel their service if they fail to update their payment information. Pausing their service makes it easier for them to restart service without going through the entire onboarding process again. 

Handle Complex Billing Logic and Trials Without Code

Building out recurring billing logic internally is often a drain on developer time, and it’s difficult to maintain. While some international payment gateways will support subscription billing, most providers only offer basic options (e.g., a free trial that automatically turns into monthly billing).

FastSpring, on the other hand, offers a wide variety of flexible subscription management options for free trials, billing periods, and payment — built specifically with SaaS and digital product companies in mind. Here’s an overview of the options you have with FastSpring’s recurring billing feature: 

• Free or paid trial periods of any length.
• Trials with or without collecting payment information upfront.
• Upsells, cross-sells, one-time add-ons, and discounts.
• Prorated billing to accommodate mid-cycle upgrades — or downgrades.
• Automatic weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom recurring billing cycles.
• Automatic or manual renewal.
• Automatic failure handling, notifications, and retries to reduce involuntary churn.
• B2B digital invoicing.
• And many more.

Most of these options can be set up in just a few clicks, without writing any code.

If you need custom subscription logic, you’ll have access to our API and webhooks library. Plus, our experienced developers are readily available to help you create the best solution for your business model.

Don’t forget: Without a global MoR like FastSpring, you’re responsible for ensuring your recurring billing models follow any and all local transaction laws and regulations. FastSpring handles this — and takes on the associated liability — for you.

Note: If you already have subscriptions set up on another ecommerce platform, our team can help you migrate over to FastSpring. Learn more here.

Related: Create, Manage, and Localize Your Digital Invoices

Scale Quickly With a Single Comprehensive Package 

With most payment processors, you’ll have to add additional software to your stack to manage recurring billing, taxes, dunning, etc. Additionally, many payment processors charge extra for each feature beyond processing payments. This makes it difficult to know what you’ll be paying, and the costs can rack up quickly as you grow.

FastSpring doesn’t charge extra for each feature. With FastSpring, you get access to the entire platform — and all services — for one simple, flat-rate price. Instead of charging per feature, our team works with you to find an affordable, monthly fee based on the volume of transactions you move through FastSpring. Plus, you won’t need to pay for or manage any additional software or headcount to handle things such as sales tax and VAT.

FastSpring is more than just an international payment gateway or payment services provider — we’re a merchant of record that can help grow your business internationally. FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, and digital products businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

8 Other International Payment Gateways and Other Payments Options

Verifone

Verifone (formerly 2Checkout) is a secure payment platform for digital goods and retail. Their solutions include: 

• Subscription management.
• Reporting and analytics.
• Global tax and financial services.
• Risk management and compliance.
• Partner sales channel management.

Some of these features are offered for an additional price as an add-on. Verifone is the only other option in this list that offers MoR services. They let you choose between an MoR model and payment service provider model. 

Stripe

Stripe is a popular cross-border payment processing platform that offers many different solutions, including: 

• A prebuilt or customizable payment form and checkout flow.
• Simple subscription management.
• Fraud prevention and risk management.
• Online invoicing.
• In-person payments.

Stripe can also assist you in issuing virtual and physical cards and help you manage business spend. It’s also fairly easy to set up and integrate with other systems. However, Stripe does not act as an MoR, and many of their features are à la carte and must be bundled, which can create a higher cost than it initially appears.

PayPal

PayPal is both a payment processor and a popular digital wallet (not an MoR). PayPal supports online businesses and brick-and-mortar businesses, with services including: 

• QR code and POS systems.
• Invoicing.
• Installment payment management.
• Support for preferred payment methods (other than PayPal’s digital wallet).
• Crypto payments.
• Risk management and chargeback protection.

PayPal now also has Braintree under its umbrella as PayPal Enterprise Payments.

Authorize.net

Authorize.net offers payment solutions for ecommerce merchants and in-person sales. Authorize.net’s products include: 

• Recurring payments.
• Virtual and mobile point of sale.
• Online payment processing.
• Advanced fraud detection.
• Simple checkout button.

They offer a package for payment gateways, or you can choose a bundle that includes a merchant account (different from a business bank account). Authorize.net serves companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Adyen

Adyen is an end-to-end payment processing, data, and financial management solution. Here’s an overview of Adyen’s features:

• Online and in-person debit card and credit card payments.
• Fraud detection.
• Intelligent payment routing.
• Automated dunning.
• Subscription management.

Adyen serves companies offering digital goods, transportation services, retail, food and beverage, hospitality, and SaaS and subscription businesses. 

WorldPay (Formerly by FIS)

WorldPay, a global payment processing solution, announced in February 2024 that it had separated from Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. to become its own independent company. WorldPay’s features include:

• Hosted payment page.
• Multi-currency support.
• Support for many alternative payment methods, including mobile payments, digital wallets, pre-pay, and more.
• 24/7 support in most global regions.

While WorldPay can give you instant global reach, payment processing is just one of their many offerings, so you may not receive as personalized attention as if you used a more specialized payments company or MoR. 

Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay lets your customers use the account they’ve already set up on Amazon to pay you. When customers go to checkout on your ecommerce site, they’ll see Amazon Pay as an option and will be able to use the payment options and contact information already stored in their account. Amazon Pay includes: 

• Payment processing.
• Optimized checkout flow (modeled after Amazon’s own checkout experience).
• Recurring billing and subscription management.
• Fraud protection.
• Express payouts.

You do not need to become a seller on Amazon Marketplace to use Amazon Pay. Amazon Pay may be a good option for small businesses and online stores that are just getting started. 

Note: You can accept Amazon Pay with FastSpring. 

Checkout.com

Checkout.com offers: 

• Payment processing.
• Fraud detection.
• Chargeback protection and dispute management.
• Customizable checkout blocks and mobile SDK.

They also offer flexible incoming payment options that let you choose how to allocate money from split payments to commission fees. Checkout.com partners with over 50+ other vendors so you can build your global payment system. 

Looking at International Payment Gateways for Your SaaS, Software, Video Games, or Digital Products Business? 

Let FastSpring be your merchant of record!

If you’re looking for an international payments solution that lets you manage every aspect of global SaaS payments from one platform — and handles taxes and compliance for you — FastSpring can help.

Our all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, and digital products businesses includes VAT and sales tax management, payment and checkout localization, and customer support — so you can focus on building a great product. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

This post was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated.

The post International Payment Gateways: An In-Depth Guide and 9 Payments Options appeared first on FastSpring.

Or, you can simplify the system with one global merchant of record. 

When Excire became a popular enough product line that it was being sold in both Europe and the U.S., Managing Director Mathias Martinetz and CTO Thomas Käster knew their current online checkout setup — having one solution for Europe and one for the U.S. — was not efficient. 

“And we had a lot of manual work,” Mathias says. “Basically, each and every sale had to be manually organized and given to our tax advisor.”

And if they wanted to continue scaling their business and expanding into more countries, they needed a better system. 

That’s when they discovered the merchant of record model and, subsequently, FastSpring.

Completely switching online commerce systems can be daunting, especially when switching from one type (such as a very basic online checkout or web shop system) to another (such as a comprehensive merchant of record). But Mathias and Thomas did their due diligence, and they’re glad they found FastSpring.

Here’s what they did to ensure they’d find the right merchant of record (MoR) and have a successful transition.

Are you looking for a merchant of record that will partner with you to grow your business internationally? FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video game, and other digital goods businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

Excire Needed a Simpler Payments and Taxes System

Excire is an award-winning line of photo and video management software products that help photographers organize, find, and cull their photos at lightning speed. With Excire Foto as a standalone product or with Excire Search as an Adobe Lightroom plugin, photographers can leverage meta data and AI for keyword search, facial recognition, grouping shots, image analysis, and more.

As the product line grew in popularity and the team was able to move from only selling Excire in Europe to selling it in the U.S., they found themselves with two separate shop systems. 

“As we were growing and wanted to grow more, we were looking for a solution that would allow us to have only one shop, but that could also be used around the world,” Mathias recalls. 

Thomas adds, “We encountered some technical challenges, which is to be expected when managing an ecommerce system independently. Additionally, we faced issues with our tax workflows, which were no longer sufficient to support the level of growth and scaling we had already achieved.”

They appreciated the value of offering localized currencies and payments to buyers, but as it was already unwieldy to have two online shops for two regions, they didn’t want to add more shops as they moved into new regions. They also knew they didn’t like managing all the sales taxes the way they had been, and that more growth would only make that even more difficult.

There had to be a better way, so they started looking around to see what other companies were using. 

Similar Software Companies Recommended FastSpring

Mathias and Thomas reached out to some contacts of theirs at another software company, and that company referred them to FastSpring. 

“The interesting thing for us is,” Thomas says, “if I see similar companies using FastSpring in the same way as we’d like to use it, that’s a good sign that FastSpring was the right decision for us.”

Without having to think for very long about it, they can easily list a handful of software companies in their industry who also use FastSpring, which makes them even more confident about their decision. 

Talk to Similar Businesses About THEIR Experiences

Besides just noting that many businesses like theirs were already using FastSpring, Mathias and Thomas recommend asking them for more information about what it’s actually like to use a particular payments platform or merchant of record. “Get their experience,” Mathias advises. 

Thomas adds, “In the end, you never know, right? When you decide to switch off an existing technical system completely and onto a completely new system, you never know if it will be the right decision.” So besides just observing what your own competitors are using, reach out to businesses you’re friendly with and “Talk a lot to the people.”

Pay Attention to the Responsiveness of Each MoR’s Team as You Begin Reaching Out

Excire was fortunate to have a very short list of possible ecommerce solutions, as FastSpring seemed like the clear winner just based on how many other companies were already using it. 

But if you have a few options on your list — or if you want to validate that the one you’re leaning toward is eager to meet your needs – you can learn a lot from how a possible vendor’s team responds to your initial inquiry. 

This may seem counterintuitive, as most people and organizations will be eager to ensure the first experience you have with them is excellent. And Thomas says that it’s not always easy to make a decision based on those first impressions. 

But he clarifies, “Even from a first impression, the FastSpring team does a better job than the competitors.” The Excire team had also approached an MoR company that had a team based in Germany, so Thomas and Mathias could speak with that team in their native language. 

“But the first contact with them was not as good as the first contact with FastSpring,” he continues. Besides the technical requirements he wanted to ensure were met, “The way the team took care was very important for the final decision to go with FastSpring.”

Define Your Needs Clearly and Communicate Them to Potential Vendors

Observing competitors, talking to similar businesses, and initiating contact with various vendors are all important parts of the external planning phase when evaluating a new ecommerce system, but there’s an important internal planning phase too. 

As Chief Technical Officer, Thomas is very hands on with the technical aspects of their various systems, so he knows how important it is to know what you need and communicate that to potential payments platforms. 

He explains it this way: “Summarize and describe your own necessities, or the aspects that are most important to you. Especially, what are the requirements of such an ecommerce system? When you explain it in the best way you can, then you’ll get the best, most concrete answer from the FastSpring team.”

There were several sessions back and forth between the Excire team and FastSpring as they worked through the technical details of what their team needed and how FastSpring could meet those needs. Thomas said those sessions helped them “come to the point where we were really sure about our decision to go with FastSpring.”

He continues, “I guess this is something every company needs to do on its own first: to check all the aspects that are important to them, and to communicate those aspects in a clear manner.” 

Besides wanting to combine their international payment systems into one simpler system that could continue expanding their global sales, Thomas and Mathias were also looking closely at competitive pricing, payment failure systems, ease of international pricing management, newsletter systems, subscription capabilities, and integrations. 

The Excire team also found FastSpring’s pricing better than the other merchants of record they evaluated.

Upgrade to a Merchant of Record Like FastSpring

It was looking at and talking to companies similar to Excire that tipped off Mathias and Thomas to the merchant of record model as the answer to their global payments and taxes question.

“That’s how we found out that the solution could be a merchant of record,” Mathias says. “So that’s how we got more into it and found out that there is an advantage: that all tax and currency related activities can be handled much, much easier than if we would do it on our own.”

Switching from separate systems for different regions to one global solution would be an upgrade, but finding an ecommerce model that also managed sales taxes and VAT for Excire sales would provide an even greater improvement to their operations.

FastSpring has also made many of the smaller, day-to-day management tasks easier. For example, Mathias says that “We can easily define prices worldwide; that’s quite smooth. And it was helpful to implement a subscription model, right, Thomas?” 

“Yeah, that’s for sure,” Thomas adds.

When Excire initially launched on FastSpring in 2023, they ran into some challenges with email and analytics integrations. The FastSpring team worked hard to meet Mathias’ and Thomas’ needs, prioritizing additional help for the Excire store integrations and finding ways to meet their needs.

Thomas says of their more recent subscription launch, “This kind of integration was very easy.” He says that their integration requirements may be more complicated to fulfill than some companies’, but that the communication between FastSpring and their licensing vendor has been “really easy and robust.”

Partner With FastSpring to Simplify Your International Software Sales

Are you looking for a merchant of record that will partner with you to grow your business internationally? 

FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, gaming, and other digital goods businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. 

Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

The post How Excire Simplified Their International Software Sales (and Taxes) With FastSpring appeared first on FastSpring.

• How much of the payment lifecycle each platform handles (e.g. payment processing, gathering and remitting taxes, subscription management, etc.), plus any additional software you’ll need to add to your tech stack.
• Use cases, companies, and industries each solution is best for.
• A detailed comparison of key features, such as checkout and reporting.
• Basic information on pricing models for each.

TL;DR: Stripe primarily deals with payment processing, whereas FastSpring and Paddle handle payment processing, subscription management, collecting and remitting tax, fraud protection, and much more — without the need for additional software.

Table of Contents

• What areas of the payment lifecycle will you be able to manage, and what other software will you need for a complete payment solution?
• What types of businesses and which industries can use each platform?
• Functionality and feature comparisons:
  • Payment Processing
  • Calculating and remitting sales tax, VAT, and GST
  • Checkout
  • Subscription Management
  • Reporting and Analytics
• Pricing.
• Customer reviews.

Note: Information in this article was validated at time of publishing and is subject to change.

If you’ve been looking at payment services providers but want a more comprehensive merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally, we can help. FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, and digital products businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

Stripe vs. Paddle vs. FastSpring: How Comprehensive Is Each Payment Solution?

What areas of the payment lifecycle will you be able to manage with each, and will you need other software or services for a complete payment solution?

Stripe

Stripe is best known for payment processing, meaning they help you collect payment details and get payments authorized. Stripe enables you to accept payments online (or in-person with the Stripe Terminal) for any type of product. 

Stripe also offers a few basic features for subscription management, fraud detection, and invoicing, among other features. That said, you’ll need additional software to manage complex recurring billing needs, accept more payment methods around the world, or create a customized checkout process.

With Stripe, you’re responsible for remitting sales tax and VAT. Plus, it’s on you to stay up to date and compliant with local laws and regulations everywhere your customers live. (More on this later.) You may even need additional headcount to manage these aspects yourself.

FastSpring

Unlike Stripe, FastSpring offers a complete payment solution, ready “out of the box.” With FastSpring, you can outsource your entire checkout process from end to end — and we take on the liability for sales tax and VAT remittance, fraud prevention, and tax compliance.

With FastSpring, you’ll have access to:

• Multiple payment processors (to improve authorization rates and make global transactions easier).
• Flexible subscription management and recurring billing tools.
• Done-for-you tax compliance.
• B2B digital invoicing.
• Advanced fraud detection.
• Fully customizable checkout.
• Chargeback management.
• Detailed reports and analytics.
• And much more.

We act as your merchant of record (MoR), meaning we take on transaction liability for you. We take the lead on risk management, chargebacks, and global VAT and taxes — because we’re ultimately responsible for every transaction.

You’ll be able to manage all aspects of the payment lifecycle from your FastSpring dashboard — without adding extra software or headcount.

Paddle

Paddle offers solutions for payment processing, subscription management, and fraud detection, and is more feature-rich than Stripe’s solutions. Like FastSpring, Paddle is an MoR.

Related: SaaS Billing Software: 7 Tools in 3 Categories & How to Choose

Stripe vs. Paddle vs. FastSpring: Who Is Each Platform Best For?

Stripe: Nearly Any Business

Stripe can be used by nearly any type of business in nearly any industry, including both ecommerce and in-person sales.

While smaller companies and startups may get by with Stripe for a while, growing SaaS companies are likely to run into a few struggles while using Stripe, particularly around sales tax and VAT.

In the past, SaaS companies didn’t have to remit sales tax or VAT, but that changed when the European Union (EU) began requiring software sellers to collect and remit VAT based on the buyer’s location and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can charge sales tax on purchases from out-of-state sellers.

Now SaaS companies have to keep track of — and adhere to — constantly changing tax laws in every locality where you have customers. That’s why SaaS and digital products companies are better off choosing an MoR (such as FastSpring) that will handle sales tax and VAT collection, remittance, and general compliance for you.

FastSpring: B2C and B2B SaaS and Digital Goods Companies

For 20 years, FastSpring has been serving both B2C and B2B companies selling software and digital products. We’ve been here throughout the growth of the subscription business and have an in-depth understanding of the unique complexities of subscription selling and billing.

• Mailbird achieved over 100% growth by switching from Stripe to FastSpring. The flexibility of the platform and the ability to stay compliant with tax laws, were the main reasons Mailbird chose FastSpring. Read the Mailbird case study here.
• Capture One increased their conversion rate by 40% by switching from an in-house solution to FastSpring to help them with global payments. FastSpring offers localized checkout experiences that automatically display accurate pricing, language, currency, and taxes around the world. Plus, it was clear FastSpring is a partner in growth, ready to help migrate from another payment processing platform, optimize checkout flows, or help expand into new global marketplaces. Read the Capture One case study here.
• SocialBee doubled their monthly recurring revenue and managed tax compliance by switching from Braintree to FastSpring. Once the SocialBee team realized they needed more than a payment processor, partnering with FastSpring was an easy choice. Read the SocialBee case study here.

Paddle: SaaS Companies

Paddle has been serving SaaS companies for about ten years. While Paddle’s platform was historically better suited for B2C companies, they’ve added more features for B2B companies such as automated invoicing.

Stripe vs. Paddle vs. FastSpring: Key Features

Payment Processing (Payment Methods, Currencies, and More)

Stripe

To start processing payments with Stripe, you have to configure each location with the currency and payment methods you want to offer in that location. Once set up, Stripe will automatically convert product prices and display the correct currency and payment options at checkout.

Stripe supports 135+ currencies. 

You’ll be able to accept payments from major credit card networks (including MasterCard and Visa), bank transfers, vouchers, and popular wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Stripe also supports in-person transactions via the Stripe Terminal and mobile SDKs.

FastSpring

FastSpring makes it simple for SaaS and ecommerce companies to accept payments in most currencies and preferred payment methods around the world. Instead of configuring each one individually, FastSpring sellers can simply turn on localized payments and start accepting global payments right away.

While Stripe automatically converts prices to the local currency for you, FastSpring provides more flexibility:

• You can let FastSpring make the conversions for you, or you can set a fixed price for each of your products in each currency.
• You can let FastSpring choose the appropriate currency based on the user’s location, choose a specific currency for each location, or let the customer choose their preferred currency. FastSpring supports 23+ currencies.

With FastSpring, customers can make payments using: 

• Credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, WeChat Pay, Kakao Pay, and UnionPay.
• ACH.
• SEPA Direct Debit.
• Wire transfers.
• Wallets including PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon, Alipay, and more.

FastSpring also connects to multiple international payment gateways, improving the likelihood of authorization.

Payments have a higher success rate when the payment gateway is in the same location as the buyer. FastSpring automatically uses intelligent payment routing to route online payments through the gateway with the highest authorization rates for that payment method and location. 

Plus, using multiple payment gateways solves most failed payment issues that are due to network errors. If a payment gateway is experiencing a technical failure, FastSpring automatically retries the payment using a different gateway — without your team having to lift a finger. 

Bonus: FastSpring Partners with Sift

FastSpring takes the lead on fraud and risk activities (including chargebacks). We partner with Sift, a global leader in risk analysis and fraud prevention, to keep your transaction secure. Sift uses machine learning and AI to:

• Increase accuracy in fraud decisions.
• Improve approval rates and result in fewer false positives.
• Stop bad actors before a transaction is even processed.

FastSpring also blocks transactions from countries and jurisdictions where companies are currently not allowed to do business.

Paddle

Paddle also utilizes multiple payment gateways and lets companies accept global payments with minimal setup. 

Paddle supports 30+ currencies, popular credit cards (including MasterCard, Union Pay, and more), wire transfers, and wallets (including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Alipay) — although some of these options are still in beta testing. Paddle does not accept checks or Pix.

Calculating and Remitting Sales Tax, VAT, and GST

Stripe

Stripe Tax can help you calculate sales tax, VAT, and GST. While Stripe can help handle U.S. tax registrations, they only provide instructions for enabling tax features and assigning tax codes in other localities. You are responsible for the decisions and implications of using those features (e.g., knowing how your product is classified under tax law and if/where you have nexus, need to register, collect, file, and submit consumption tax).

If you have questions about how to optimize tax rates, qualify for reduced tax rates, or any other tax-related question, you’ll likely be told to consult your tax advisor or read through the help articles. 

If you accidentally set it up incorrectly and collect the wrong amount (or type) of tax, you’ll be held liable. 

Plus, remitting sales taxes is often more involved than filling out a simple spreadsheet and writing a check. More and more countries are mandating additional requirements to stay compliant. For example: 

• Countries such as Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Serbia, and others require local representation, meaning you have to hire someone with a physical presence in that country to be responsible for your tax liability. This can cost anywhere from US$5k to US$15k per year.
• Countries such as India, Indonesia, Japan, and others require your account to be “pre-funded” meaning you have to predict the amount of tax you will owe and keep that money in your account until it’s time to file (up to three months in advance).
• Countries such as Serbia, United Kingdom, Taiwan, and others require electronic invoicing (it applies to non-resident companies, as well). An average sized company will pay around US$10k annual for these services.  Note: E-invoicing mandates are increasing at an alarming rate — with the EU rolling out universal electronic invoicing requirements by 2028.
• Countries such as Taiwan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, and others require you to file corporate income tax in addition to VAT, regardless if you have a physical presence or permanent establishment. (This can increase a country’s compliance burden from 5%-20% based on local tax rates).  

Finally, wiring international tax payments isn’t easy or free. The corresponding and receiving banks both charge fees, and there’s the additional risk involved with foreign transactions.

So, while Stripe has taken important steps toward helping you collect sales tax, they’re a long way from providing an end-to-end solution for sales tax and international tax.

FastSpring

FastSpring handles the entire process of gathering and remitting sales tax, VAT, and GST for you.

With 20 years of experience filing 1,200+ tax returns each year, our team ensures the correct amount of sales tax and VAT is being collected at checkout — we even handle tax-exempt transactions in the U.S. and B2B reverse charges when allowed internationally. 

FastSpring files and collects taxes in over 55 countries, 13 provinces, and all 45 U.S. states that collect sales tax (five states don’t collect any sales tax). 

Then, our team remits those taxes for you and ensures all the necessary procedures are in place to stay compliant. If a country or state approaches you about tax compliance, our team will advise you on how to respond — even as far as providing copy-and-paste responses.

We build and maintain relationships with tax law specialists across the world to make sure we are aware of laws and regulations as they change.

Bonus: Custom Tax Codes

Tools like TaxJar, Avalara, and other tax software provide you with tax codes for most products and services. If you want to offer a product or service that doesn’t fit neatly into those codes (e.g., an in-person conference with some virtual attendees and speakers), you’ll be on your own to calculate and collect the right tax rate. 

This isn’t an issue for FastSpring sellers: we build unique product tax codes customized by use case — within minutes. Just tell us about your product or service, and we’ll create the tax code for you.

Paddle

Like FastSpring, Paddle takes the lead on gathering and remitting sales tax, VAT, and GST for you. Unlike FastSpring, Paddle doesn’t support tax exempt cases in the U.S.

Checkout

Stripe

Stripe Checkout is a prebuilt payment page designed for use on any device. You have a few options for customization (e.g., font, block shapes, colors, etc.) but it’s pretty limited. Stripe automatically translates Checkout to the appropriate language (35+ options) and currency (135+) based on the buyer’s location.

FastSpring

FastSpring lets you customize your checkout, from custom fields to custom colors using our branding tools and CSS overrides. You also have the flexibility to choose whether you want to give your developer complete control over checkout or let FastSpring manage it for you (or somewhere in between). 

Here’s an overview of FastSpring’s checkout options: 

• Three versions: You have the option to embed checkout directly on your webpage, use a popup checkout, or redirect your customers to a Web Storefront managed by FastSpring.

• Store Builder Library (SBL): FastSpring’s JavaScript library lets you customize, brand, and streamline your entire checkout flow to build trust and eliminate friction throughout the buyer’s journey.
• Localized Checkout: Let customers choose their preferred language or let FastSpring choose the appropriate language based on the buyer’s location. FastSpring supports 21+ languages and 23+ currencies to help expand your global reach.
• Built-in tracking and testing tools: With FastSpring’s built-in tracking tools, you can easily identify ways to improve conversion rates.
• Personalized customer support: Our team is always available to help you build the best checkout experience for your business. Some companies only provide personalized support to their largest clients. At FastSpring, we don’t play favorites — our team is always happy to help in any way they can.

Paddle

Paddle provides two versions of checkout: 

• Pop-up overlay.
• Inline embedded on your webpage.

Customization is pretty limited with the overlay checkout option, but the inline version allows you more control of the look and feel. Paddle supports 17 languages and automatically translates your checkout.

Subscription Management

Stripe

Stripe Billing includes a few different subscription options: 

• Flat-rate billing (for a monthly or annual price).
• Multiple price billing (where a single product is sold for different prices in different locations).
• Per seat billing (based on active users during the billing cycle).
• Usage-based billing (single unit or tiered).
• Flat-rate + overage (a combination of flat-rate and usage-based billing).

These options work for some companies that only have a few simple subscription-based products, but companies with more complex recurring billing needs (read: SaaS) often need an additional tool, meaning you’ll have to manage and pay for both separately.

Finally, Stripe offers a customer portal where customers can manage their accounts (both FastSpring and Paddle offer this as well). 

Related: 8 Best Chargebee Alternatives and Competitors (And How They’re Different)

FastSpring

FastSpring provides a wide variety of subscription management options built specifically for SaaS and other digital product companies. 

Plus, most of these options can be set up without writing any code. For example, you can set up: 

• Automatic weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom recurring billing.
• Prorated billing to accommodate upgrades — and downgrades — mid cycle.
• Free or paid trials of any length.
• Trials with or without collecting payment details.
• Automatic or manual renewal.
• Upsells, cross-sells, one-time add-ons, and discounts.
• Automatic failure handling, notifications, and retries to reduce churn.
• B2B digital invoicing
• And much more.

 You’ll also have access to our API and webhooks library for more customization options. 

Don’t forget: If you don’t use an MoR like FastSpring, you’ll still need to worry about your recurring billing model following local transaction laws and regulations. 

For example, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) limits most automatic recurring payments to ₹15,000 (approximately US$180). If a payment is over that amount, the customer must approve each transaction manually. You also have to file an official mandate with the RBI that outlines the procedures you have in place to ensure compliance — or face heavy fines or be prevented from selling to customers in India.

While some subscription management tools will release community updates whenever they learn about new regulations, you’re the one held responsible for keeping track of and adhering to all laws and regulations.

FastSpring customers don’t have to worry about this because we take on transaction liability for you. 

Our team of legal experts stays up to date on all relevant legalities, ensures the necessary procedures are in place, takes the lead on audits, and offers individual guidance on how to stay compliant — all at no additional cost. 

Related: International Recurring Payments (How We Handle It for You)

Paddle

Using a series of webhooks and their API, Paddle claims to support “any billing model.” 

Paddle supports free or paid trials; however, it looks like customers will be required to provide payment details in order to start the trial. Paddle also automatically applies prorated amounts when customers change their plan mid-cycle (e.g., add new users or upgrade). 

Related: An In-Depth Guide to Subscription Billing Platforms (+ 5 Options)

Reporting and Analytics

Stripe

Stripe offers a suite of revenue recognition tools to help you streamline accounting, including: 

• Standard accounting reports, such as balance sheets and income statements.
• Configurable revenue rules, such as excluding passthrough fees and auto-adjusting recognition schedules.
• Revenue overview reports.
• Query your Stripe data using SQL.

All reports can be viewed in your Stripe dashboard, and some reports can be downloaded as a CSV file. You can also integrate with popular accounting tools such as QuickBooks Desktop and Xero. However, the ability to import data from other revenue recognition providers into Stripe is still in beta. 

FastSpring

FastSpring Reporting and Analytics is a robust suite that helps you understand: 

• How each product contributes to your bottom line. 
• When customers are most likely to drop off.
• What coupons or promotions are working.
• Which subscription models generate the most revenue.
• Where your customers are located.
• What currencies and payment methods customers prefer.
• Chargeback rates by customer segment.
• Chargeback rates by product line.
• The status of your active webhooks.
• And much more.

Most of this information can be found in one of FastSpring’s several dashboards, including: 

• Revenue Overview.
• Subscription Overview. 
• Revenue Recognition (Beta).
• Chargeback Overview.
• Webhook Status.

For example, the revenue overview dashboard contains more general information, such as total transactions by country or net sales by product. 

For another example, the subscription overview dashboard lets you drill down into more specific details, such as active customers or monthly recurring revenue (MRR) over time. 

If you don’t see the exact report you need in the dashboards, you can create and save custom reports. Or, you can reach out to our team and we’ll help you find (or build) the report you need. Any report can be viewed in your dashboard or downloaded as a CSV, PNG, or XLSX file. 

Paddle

Paddle acquired ProfitWell to provide reporting and analytics features. A few of the things you can do with ProfitWell Metrics include:

• Automatically track and report on key performance indicators, such as MRR.
• Monitor user engagement and churn.
• Use benchmarking and segmentation tools.

Stripe vs. Paddle vs. FastSpring: Pricing Models

Stripe

For Stripe, pricing works loosely on an a la carte model. Payment processing is priced based on transactions, with the exact transaction fee varying based on payment method (e.g., credit card, digital wallet, Buy Now Pay Later, ACH, etc.).

By using Stripe payment processing, you’ll gain access to a number of features, such as checkout and payment links. Other key features, such as recurring billing, invoicing, instant payouts, and tax features incur additional fees.

With Stripe, you may also need to pay for additional software and headcount to manage other aspects of the billing lifecycle such as advanced fraud detection, subscription management, remitting sales tax and VAT, and more.

To learn more about Stripe pricing, check out their pricing page.

FastSpring

With FastSpring, you’ll have access to the entire platform (and all services) for one flat-rate fee. Since we take on transaction liability for you and take the lead on sales tax and VAT, you won’t need any additional software or headcount. 

Our team works with you to find an affordable price based on the volume of transactions you move through FastSpring. Plus, you’ll only be charged when successful transactions take place.

Reach out to our team to find the rate that works for you. You can also preview FastSpring features by setting up a free account. 

Paddle

Paddle advertises a flat-rate fee of 5% + 50¢ per transaction for their core product, which includes most of the features you’ll need — payments processing, checkout, subscriptions, global tax and compliance, fraud protection, reporting, and more — but it doesn’t include everything. 

Invoicing, for example, is an extra charge.

To learn more about Paddle pricing, visit their website.

Customer Reviews

Stripe

Stripe currently has 4.4 stars on G2 (a popular software review site) with 125+ reviews.

FastSpring

FastSpring currently has 4.5 stars on G2 with 185+ reviews.

Here’s what some of our customers had to say:

Paddle

Paddle currently has 4.5 stars on G2 with 171+ reviews.

Conclusion: FastSpring vs. Paddle vs. Stripe

If you’re selling physical products or services, FastSpring and Paddle are not an option, making Stripe the best choice out of the three options discussed here. If you are selling digital products, Stripe may not be the best choice because you’ll be on your own to build out a complete payment solution (which is costly and time-consuming). 

FastSpring has been serving SaaS businesses for twenty years and is well prepared to support B2C and B2B business needs.

If you’re looking for a payments solution that also handles taxes — so you can focus on building great products — FastSpring can help. Our all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, and digital products businesses includes VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Interested? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

This post was originally published in January 2023 and has been updated.

The post A Detailed Comparison of Stripe vs. Paddle vs. FastSpring appeared first on FastSpring.

When we ask our customers, “Why did you choose a merchant of record (MoR) over a traditional PSP?,” one of the most common responses is the ease of tax compliance — the ability to “set it and forget it.”

But tax is far from a static topic. In fact, it shapes economies and influences global commerce. That’s why we continuously monitor tax regulations worldwide — tracking threshold changes, new legislation, and tax rate adjustments — so that our platform remains compliant and seamlessly supports your business.

One of the key areas of tax compliance we manage is VAT (value-added tax) on sales of digital services. Many countries issue separate guidance to regulate the supply of digital goods and services, when provided by a foreign company. (Sometimes this is referred to as ESS, or electronically supplied services regulations.) And the tax treatment can differ from rules followed by a resident company. It’s important to understand the nuances to remain tax compliant. 

These regulations often broaden the scope of transactions subject to VAT and can include services such as:

• Streaming platforms (e.g., Netflix, Spotify).
• Online advertising (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook Ads).
• Cloud computing services.
• eLearning platforms.
• Software and app subscriptions.

Other requirements can include engaging a local representative to act on your behalf, triggering income tax nexus (in addition to VAT nexus) and may even require you to settle any outstanding balances prior registration. But each country has a unique approach to global tax compliance.

Upcoming Regulations

On January 17, 2025, the Philippines extended its VAT legislation to cover digital services supplied by foreign companies to consumers in the Philippines. They’ve issued several interim deadlines, but the important date is June 1, 2025. Companies should register and be ready to collect 12% VAT at the very latest by June 1, 2025.

We’ll be ready — will you?

Want a Payments Platform That Will Worry About Taxes for You?

You can stay up to date by reading complex tax regulations — or you can partner with FastSpring. As your global commerce partner, we stay ahead of these changes so you can focus on growing your business without tax-related worries. 

For more details on tax compliance with FastSpring, visit our tax documentation or reach out to FastSpring Support.

About FastSpring

FastSpring is how SaaS, software, digital products, and video game companies sell online in more places around the world. We handle every payment need — from subscription management to tax collection, remittance, and more — so your business can go farther, faster. We’re also the leading merchant of record for global software companies, powering over a billion dollars in worldwide transactions every year. We’ll manage your checkout, VAT and sales taxes, compliance, and more, freeing you to focus on what you do best: building great software.

Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

The post The Nuances of VAT on Digital Services Sold Internationally appeared first on FastSpring.

However, taking advantage of this shift means that you become responsible for everything that comes with selling games in whatever jurisdictions you sell them in — including setting up an online store and displaying products, having a way to accept and process payments, and especially, taxes. 

In this article, we focus on how selling mobile apps and games D2C via web shops can affect your indirect taxes (sales tax and VAT) and what developers need to consider as they start diversifying game monetization.

Whether you want to start big or start small with the D2C model, it’s important for developers and publishers to understand the sales tax and VAT implications of selling D2C via web shops.

Payments Options for Selling Games D2C

When game companies decide to sell D2C, they typically choose between two key service models: using a merchant of record (MOR) model, or by leveraging a payment service provider (PSP). Each model comes with distinct tax responsibilities.

Merchants of Record

A merchant of record is a comprehensive payments and taxes service that becomes the legal entity selling the product. That means the MoR becomes responsible for worrying about the regulatory and sales tax and VAT implications of accepting payments from any of the countries where it sells the product — instead of the software maker or game publisher.

Payment Services Providers

A payment services provider can help businesses sell a product, but it only bridges the gap between the seller and the specialized payments services and networks needed to accept payments, such as payment gateways, payment processors, and a merchant account. 

So a PSP simplifies the process of accepting payments, but that’s usually all it does. A PSP will not worry about international taxes and regulations (some PSPs may have add-on services to help with taxes, but those costs can pile up as the package of services becomes more complex). 

The Tax Implications of Selling D2C With a PSP or MoR

Payment Service Providers and Taxes: Missing Pieces

A PSP facilitates payment processing but leaves most sales tax and VAT related duties to the game publisher.

Here are a few of the tax responsibilities that PSPs won’t take care of:

• Tax Registration: Registering in U.S. states or international countries where the developer has sales tax and VAT nexus.
• Tax Calculation and Collection: Ensuring that sales tax and VAT is calculated, collected, and remitted accurately.
• Liability Management: Bearing full responsibility for sales tax and VAT related issues, including audits.
• Compliance and Audit Costs: Covering the expenses of in-house or outsourced sales tax and VAT compliance services and audit related fees. 
• Invoice Disclosures: Providing correct sales tax and VAT disclosures on invoices.
• E-Invoicing: Issuing e-invoices in countries requiring them.
• Legal Representation: Appointing legal representatives where required.

Merchants of Records and Taxes: Handled for You

An MoR assumes full responsibility of sales tax and VAT compliance because it’s the entity actually selling the product, allowing developers to focus on what matters: game development.

The many benefits of using an MOR include:

• The MoR takes care of all the bulleted points above that a PSP won’t.
• Reduced Legal Exposure: Developers are shielded from direct interactions with tax authorities.
  • For example, when one of our customers faced aggressive sales tax and VAT inquiries, FastSpring’s tax team intervened, providing expert representation and achieving a favorable resolution (read more here). Without the kind of tax support an MoR provides, a regular inquiry could lead to a full audit if these taxes are handled in house.
• Expert Tax Support: A dedicated tax team ensures developers stay compliant and can resolve disputes with sales tax and VAT authorities effectively.

Why Choose FastSpring as Your MOR? 

FastSpring is how gaming publishers sell in more places around the world. For nearly two decades, FastSpring has been a trusted payment provider you can use to sell games or in-game items on your website, web shop, or embedded directly into your game with fully customizable and branded checkouts just for you. 

To further invest in our commitment to supporting game developers, FastSpring hired Chip Thurston as our Head of Gaming. Read the press release here. 

FastSpring allows you to offload the complexity of global payments, sales tax and VAT compliance, player payments support, and many other aspects of payments management. Choose A Partner You Can Trust With Your Players™ and spend less time managing your payments and compliance and more time making great games! To learn more about how FastSpring supports game developers, visit fastspring.gg.

Ready to get started? Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

The post The Tax Implications of Selling Games D2C via Your Own Web Shop appeared first on FastSpring.

However, navigating these expansion journeys requires strategic planning, local market knowledge, and the right technology infrastructure.

In this guide, we explore five proven strategies that successful LATAM companies have used to establish their presence in Western EU and U.S. markets, with practical insights on overcoming common challenges.

FastSpring is how SaaS, software, digital products, and video game companies sell online in more places around the world. We handle every payment need — from subscription management to tax collection, remittance, and more — so your business can go farther, faster. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself. 

5 Ways LATAM Companies Can Accelerate Their Growth in US and EU Markets

1. Localize Your Payment Infrastructure

One of the most critical factors for successful market entry is adapting your payment infrastructure to meet local expectations and requirements.

Why it matters: Payment preferences vary significantly across regions. While cards dominate in the U.S. (with credit and debit cards accounting for a total of 62% of all payments), European consumers often prefer local payment methods like iDEAL in the Netherlands or Klarna in Sweden.

Success strategy: 

Implement a flexible payment platform (such as a merchant of record) that supports:

• Multiple currencies with dynamic pricing.
• Region-specific payment methods.
• Local tax compliance automation.
• Subscription management across different regulations.

2. Adapt Your Go-to-Market Strategy for Each Region

The marketing and sales approaches that work in LATAM markets often need significant adjustment for Western markets.

Why it matters: Business cultures, buying processes, and customer expectations differ substantially between regions. U.S. businesses typically have faster decision cycles but demand more comprehensive support, while EU organizations often have longer, more committee-driven purchasing processes.

Success strategy:

• Develop region-specific value propositions.
• Adjust pricing strategies based on local market conditions.
• Create localized content marketing strategies.
• Build region-appropriate sales cycles.

3. Navigate Complex Regulatory Landscapes

Companies often face significant regulatory hurdles when expanding to EU and U.S. markets.

Why it matters: Western European markets operate under GDPR, while different U.S. states have varying data protection laws. Additionally, each region has specific requirements regarding financial transactions, business registration, and consumer rights.

Success strategy:

• Implement comprehensive subscription management systems with built-in compliance.
• Automate tax collection and reporting.
• Develop clear data handling policies that meet different regional requirements.
• Partner with experts who understand multi-regional compliance.

4. Build Strategic Partnerships in Target Markets

Successful LATAM companies rarely enter Western markets alone — they leverage strategic partnerships.

Why it matters: Local partners provide invaluable market knowledge, established distribution channels, and credibility in new markets where your brand may be unknown.

Success strategy:

• Identify complementary businesses in target markets.
• Create joint offerings that leverage each company’s strengths.
• Establish integration partnerships with popular local platforms.
• Consider channel sales models where appropriate.

5. Implement Scalable Subscription and Pricing Models

The subscription economy has revolutionized how software and digital services are sold globally, but requirements vary significantly by region.

Why it matters: Different markets have varying tolerance for pricing levels, subscription terms, and billing frequencies. Additionally, managing subscriptions across multiple currencies and tax jurisdictions presents significant operational challenges.

Success strategy:

• Create flexible subscription management systems.
• Implement smart dunning processes to reduce voluntary and involuntary churn.
• Automate currency conversion and regional pricing.
• Build analytics dashboards to track performance by region.
• Design subscription models that align with regional expectations.

The Technology Foundation for Global Expansion

At the core of successful international expansion lies the right technology infrastructure. Many LATAM companies falter not because their product isn’t competitive, but because their backend systems can’t handle the complexities of multi-regional operations.

Key technology requirements include:

• Supporting regional payment methods.
• Multi-currency support with automatic exchange rate updates.
• Global tax calculation and compliance automation.
• Localized checkout experiences.
• Subscription management across different regulatory environments.
• Fraud prevention adapted to regional risk profiles.

Ready to Take Your LATAM Business Global?

Expanding from Latin America into Western European and U.S. markets represents a tremendous growth opportunity, but it requires careful planning and the right infrastructure. The most successful companies recognize that payment processing, subscription management, and compliance aren’t just operational details — they’re strategic advantages when implemented correctly.

FastSpring’s all-in-one merchant of record platform is designed specifically to help companies like yours navigate international expansion with confidence. Our platform handles the complexities of global payments, subscription management, tax compliance, and fraud prevention, allowing you to focus on what you do best: building great products and services.

Talk with a FastSpring expert today to create your customized global expansion strategy and learn how our platform can accelerate your growth in Western European and U.S. markets.

FastSpring is how SaaS, software, digital products, and video game companies sell online in more places around the world. We handle every payment need — from subscription management to tax collection, remittance, and more — so your business can go farther, faster. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself. 

The post 5 Proven Strategies for LATAM Companies to Successfully Enter Western EU and US Markets appeared first on FastSpring.

Are you a Digital River customer in emergency need of a new payment and subscription provider ASAP? Click here — our team of specialists is standing by, and requests are prioritized and routed by geo to ensure you have a fast, smooth experience.

There are a lot of Digital River alternatives on the market, and you may not know what makes any of them stand out in particular. 

It’s especially important to note that Digital River is a merchant of record (MoR), which means that many payment service providers may not include the kind of comprehensive services you’re used to with an MoR. 

In this post, we cover: 

• What a merchant of record is, and why it’s so important to make sure your MoR-level service isn’t disrupted if you’re thinking of switching providers.
• Why FastSpring is an excellent Digital River alternative.
• Three other payments options in 2024.

FastSpring handles the entire payment process from checkout to remitting end-of-year taxes for SaaS companies. To learn more about how FastSpring can help you scale quickly, sign up for a free account or request a demo today.

Why the Best Digital River Alternative Is a Merchant of Record

If you’re familiar with Digital River but aren’t familiar with the term “merchant of record,”  you might not be familiar with exactly how many benefits come with using one. 

Here’s a refresher on what an MoR is and why — if your business is currently using one to monetize your SaaS, software, or other digital product — you probably want to ensure you keep using one.

What Is a Merchant of Record?

A merchant of record (MoR) is the entity that actually sells the goods and services to the customer. Companies can serve as their own MoR, but many opt to outsource that responsibility to a company like Digital River or FastSpring to sell goods and services on their behalf.

The MoR takes on the liability of SaaS transactions for you, meaning they handle everything from payment processing, to chargeback management, to collection and remittance of taxes, and even compliance with local laws and regulations. And because the MoR is liable for issues in those areas, they handle resolving those issues so you don’t have to. 

Digital-commerce-reliant businesses that utilize an MoR can focus less on ecommerce and more on making great software, SaaS, video games, mobile games, or other digital goods. 

What Makes a Merchant of Record Different From Payment Service Providers?

Payment service providers (PSPs), like MoRs, serve as a bridge between businesses that want to sell a product, and the specialized networks and services that are needed on the back end to make those transactions happen. Those specialized networks and services may include payment gateways, payment processing, a merchant account to accept debit and credit card payments, and others.

PSPs usually also include some sort of ecommerce platform and/or integration functionality (such as APIs, plugins, special integrations, etc.) to integrate their payments platform or checkout with your online store or website, but options will vary.

However, payment service providers usually stop short of managing risk, handling taxes, and assisting with chargebacks. If rules and regulations change in any of the regions or countries where you sell your product, you’d be responsible for keeping track of those changes and updating your PSP processes and checkout accordingly. 

Some PSPs may offer upgradeable payment solutions to get their services closer to those that an MoR includes automatically, but they are often bolt-on features, and they will come with upgrade fees. For example, Stripe has a fraud prevention upgrade called Radar, but it comes with additional costs per transaction fees.

Grow With FastSpring, an Experienced Merchant of Record

FastSpring is the leading merchant of record for global software companies, powering over a billion dollars in worldwide transactions every year.

Here are just a few of the reasons we’ve earned that reputation.

We Have Decades of Experience

Founded in 2005, FastSpring has two decades of experience with enabling global payments, and we’ve been a part of the SaaS landscape as it has grown. 

Because of this, our team deeply understands the complexities of selling digital goods and software, including subscription management and all of the nuanced needs that come with it.

We’re Backed by Great Investors

You don’t need to worry about FastSpring being profitable or reliable. Along with our experience, we also offer the peace of mind that comes with being backed by a top-performing, highly reputable investment firm. 

Thanks to Accel-KKR, FastSpring has the resources and proceeds needed to help scale your business with online payments, while providing excellent corporate, privacy, and security governance.

We Grow When You Grow

Our many years in the global payments platform industry has also enabled FastSpring to grow over time — but that growth has only happened because of our great customers. 

That’s for two reasons: because we work on a revenue-sharing model, and because we’re a partner who wants to help you continue growing.

1. FastSpring Makes Money When You Make Money

Thanks to FastSpring’s revenue sharing model, we make money when you do. When your buyer makes a purchase, we charge a small commission fee on that transaction.

That means that if you’re not transacting, we’re not charging that commission.

Our team will work with you to determine simple, flat-rate pricing based on your volume of business and transaction time, and that pricing includes all of our platform’s features and tools. 

Learn more about FastSpring’s pricing here, or request a meeting to discuss more details. 

2. FastSpring Wants to Be Your Partner, Not Just Your Payments Solution

Stardock was able to make the transition to SaaS subscriptions thanks to FastSpring’s ready-to-use existing subscription infrastructure, but they saw the mutual investments that we were putting back into our own platform to continue developing new features and products. 

This made Brad Sams of Stardock feel secure in Stardock’s partnership with FastSpring, because he could see we were in it for the long haul. “Because the better we do, the better FastSpring is going to do. We’ve got to make sure that everybody’s winning, and things with FastSpring just felt aligned.”

“FastSpring was on that path of continued investment and wasn’t just collecting the paycheck every month and doing nothing.”

– Brad Sams, Stardock

Read more about Stardock’s experience with FastSpring here.

TestDome has also been very happy with FastSpring’s support, noting that it goes from assistance with buyer issues and chargebacks all the way up to the top of the company and our CEO. 

TestDome CEO and co-founder Mario Zivic is happy to have been using FastSpring for a decade, saying that FastSpring has been the clear and easy choice for their merchant of record needs. 

Besides more common support for buyer issues like chargebacks, credit card issues, and refund requests, Mario even received an offer of advice from FastSpring’s CEO. That resulted in a personal phone call and “an extremely valuable piece of advice,” noting that he has seen firsthand that “the willingness to help and support was not limited to Support — it went all the way up to the CEO.”

Read more of TestDome’s story about our partnership.

Award-Winning Customer Support and Customer Success

The high level of support and service has not only been recognized by our customers — it has also been recognized in our industry. 

In April of this year, FastSpring’s support team won a Silver Stevie® award for Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year in the “Technology Industries – Computer Software” category.

Then in June, FastSpring’s customer success team won a gold Globee® award for Customer Excellence in the “Achievement in Team Customer Success” category.

We don’t just say we want to be a partner — we set out to prove it. 

Our Hands-On Migration Team Strives for Your Success

FastSpring support isn’t only there for you after you’ve onboarded — we want to ensure you get up and running on our payments platform as quickly and easily as possible.

Our implementation team of hands-on, highly efficient sales engineers are experts in FastSpring’s pre-built web storefront solution, the flexible and extensive FastSpring API, webhook features, and more. They’re there to help you make a seamless transition through migration and integration. 

FastSpring has powerful integrations with best-in-class third-party solutions, including WordPress, Zapier, and multiple Google services. Learn more about FastSpring integrations here. 

Other Great FastSpring Features

Here are a few more great reasons to use FastSpring: 

• You’ll automatically be compliant with sales tax, VAT, and privacy regulations around the world.
• FastSpring accepts the top payment methods in 200+ regions across the globe with 23+ currencies and in 21+ languages.
• You can customize seamless embedded or modal popup checkout experiences on your website.
• We make it easy to offer coupons, discounts, and dynamic price points for promotions.
• Checkout can be streamlined to a single click with 1ClickPay.
• Strong documentation that includes AI-powered search for precise, relevant responses in real time.
• And so much more!

To learn more, check out our product overview, or sign up to check out our platform yourself. Want personalized answers? Request a demo with one of our experts.

3 More Digital River Alternatives

The following options are common alternatives you might look at if you’re assessing Digital River competitors. Keep in mind that none of the below options are merchants of record, so you may need to supplement their services, either internally or with additional vendors and services.

Stripe

Stripe is a well-known payment processor that allows businesses to accept debit cards, credit cards, and mobile payments, with features such as:

• Payment processing.
• A customizable UI and pre-built checkout flows.
• Simple subscription management.
• Online invoicing.

You may be wondering if it’s an option for your business simply because it’s so ubiquitous, and it may appear at first to have lower pricing than the merchant of record you’re currently using. But that’s because Stripe isn’t a merchant of record. 

If you’re looking to lower your transaction costs and you have the scale, expertise, time, and teams to support the many services you’ll be losing by switching from an MoR to Stripe, this may be a good option for your business. But you’ll need to make up the difference in services lost, including tax compliance, fraud management, and more. Stripe does offer products to cover some of those needs, but they are add-ons that will increase your overall cost — so any initial cost savings might quickly disappear.

However, if you want to switch from Digital River to a business in the same category with the features and peace of mind an MoR provides, Stripe probably isn’t the right Digital River competitor for you.

Adyen

Adyen bills itself as an “end-to-end payments, data, and financial management in a single solution.” Its payment solutions and financial services include features and products such as:

• In-person and online payments in one system.
• Revenue optimization with intelligent payment routing to improve conversion rates.
• Subscription management features like dunning automation.
• Risk management with fraud detection and prevention.

While Adyen has some of the features a merchant of record offers, you will still need to manage your own company accounts and merchant accounts.

PayPal for Business

PayPal is a well-known digital wallet for personal online payments, but they also offer a payment processing option for small business. PayPal for Business is both an in-person and ecommerce solution.

(SaaS companies using FastSpring can also process payments using PayPal.)

Other features of PayPal for Business include but are not limited to: 

• Built-in integrations with major online shopping carts (such as Shopify). 
• QR code and POS systems.
• Invoicing.
• Chargeback protection (only available for business accounts with Advanced Credit and Debit Card checkout).

Besides PayPal for Business, PayPal also has a payment processor specifically for SaaS called Braintree.

How FastSpring Can Help

Need a merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally? FastSpring is a full-stack, all-in-one payment solution for SaaS, software, video games, and other digital product businesses. 

Our services include VAT and sales tax calculation, collection, and remittance; payment localization; regulation compliance; award winning consumer support; and so much more! 

Sign up for a free account or request a demo today.

Other Articles You Might Be Interested In

• 2Checkout vs. Stripe vs. FastSpring: Comparing Payments, Taxes, and Platform Features (+ Pricing)
• Stripe Alternatives for 2024: In-Depth Guide and 8 Options
• International Payment Gateways: An In-Depth Guide and 10 Payments Options

The post Digital River Alternatives for 2024 appeared first on FastSpring.

Form 1099-K is used by third-party platforms or settlement organizations (including popular payment apps and online marketplaces) to report payments to merchants whose annual activity exceeds $20,000 in gross payments and has at least 200 transactions in a calendar year. The forms are usually issued the following year by March 31.

Reduce and Delay

With the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the threshold was dropped to $600 in total gross payments with the transaction count test scrapped entirely. However, implementation of the reduced threshold has been delayed several times, initially in 2022 and then again in 2023. So what’s the deal for 2024? 

The Scoop on 2024

Late last year, the IRS all but scrapped the $600 threshold and instead landed on an arbitrary $5,000 threshold, with no test for total transaction count. They are calling it a phased approach of the $600 threshold, but we aren’t holding our breath. All we know is that the reporting threshold for 2024 will be $5,000 — period.

This marks a substantial departure from the previous $20,000 and 200 transaction requirement, encompassing a much larger group of merchants than ever before.

How This Impacts FastSpring Sellers

In 2023, FastSpring sellers were only subject to 1099-K reporting if they surpassed $20,000 in gross payments and 200 transactions. However, with the threshold dropping to $5,000 for 2024, we anticipate a dramatic rise in the number of sellers receiving this form, with over half likely receiving this form for the very first time. 

At FastSpring, we keep up with the constant shifts in tax rules and regulations so that you don’t have to, allowing you to focus on growth while we manage the complexities of global tax.

 Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

For more information, you can view the IRS’s official announcement here.

The post Form 1099-K Reporting Thresholds: $20,000? $600? $5,000? Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on FastSpring.