Originally published on the Keylight blog.
If you are an indie developer about to charge for an app, you have three names in front of you: Stripe, Paddle, and Lemon Squeezy. They get discussed as if they are the same kind of choice. They are not. This post lays out the real differences so you can pick deliberately.
They are not the same kind of thing
The single most important distinction is processor versus merchant of record.
Stripe is a payment processor. It moves money from your customer's card to your bank account. You are the legal seller. The customer relationship, and the sales-tax liability, are yours.
