How Much Does a Merchant of Record Cost? Fees, and the Ones They Don't Advertise
Most Merchant of Record pricing looks simple on the homepage: a percentage plus a small fixed fee. Then reality adds a few line items nobody put on the slide. Here's what you actually pay, and what that money buys.
The headline: percentage plus fixed
Most MoRs charge a percentage of each transaction plus a small fixed amount. Real rates today: Paddle and Lemon Squeezy at 5% plus 50¢, Polar at 4% plus 40¢, Creem at 3.9% plus 40¢, Fungies at 5% plus 50¢. Gumroad breaks the pattern with a flat 10% and almost no setup, which is friendly at low volume and expensive once you scale.
Why it's more than a plain processor
Plain Stripe is around 2.9% plus 30¢, and a Merchant of Record costs more because it does more. It becomes the seller, calculates and remits your tax, issues invoices, absorbs chargebacks and handles refunds. You're paying to make tax and compliance someone else's problem, not just to move money. Whether that's worth it depends on how painful your tax situation is without it.
The fees that don't make the homepage
The headline rate is rarely the whole bill. Budget for the extras that show up once you're live and selling across borders:
- • Currency conversion on cross-border sales and on payouts in another currency.
- • Payout fees or minimums, depending on how and where you get paid.
- • Chargeback fees charged per dispute — a real cost in games and high-ticket sales.
- • Refund handling, where some providers keep the fixed fee even when you refund.
Enterprise and custom quotes
FastSpring, PayPro Global, Coda, Nexway and Reach quote custom pricing, often revenue-share or negotiated, and sometimes landing in the 5 to 9% all-in range. You get more coverage and more hand-holding in exchange for less transparency, so you have to actually ask for a number rather than read it off a page.
Reseller platforms price differently
Coaching and course resellers look pricier per transaction — Digistore24 from 7.9% plus €1, CopeCart from roughly 5.9% plus a fixed fee — but they bundle things like affiliate networks and installment plans that can pay for themselves. Judge them on the whole package, not the percentage alone.
How to compare honestly
Don't line up the percentages and pick the smallest. Add the fixed fee at your average order value, factor in currency conversion and chargebacks, and weigh the total against what you'd spend doing tax, invoicing and disputes yourself. A 5% Merchant of Record can genuinely come out cheaper than a 2.9% processor once you price in a tax advisor and your own hours.
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