Lemon Squeezy alternatives
Lemon Squeezy alternatives, with one that sells physical products.
Lemon Squeezy charges 5% + 50¢ per transaction and prohibits “physical goods of any kind.” It hasn’t announced a shutdown date, but in a January 28, 2026 post its co-founder wrote about “slower support responses and less frequent product updates” and said the goal is an easy migration to Stripe Managed Payments. For a US business selling physical goods, or physical and digital products together, Flint Pay is the alternative: 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment with no monthly fee, orders, variants, inventory held at payment, shipping, and subscriptions you can import without charging anyone twice.
3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card
last reviewed 2026-10-15 · sources
01The alternatives
Lemon Squeezy alternatives, ranked for US sellers.
Flint first, because it is the one on this list that sells physical goods. The other three are merchants of record for digital products; each figure is from the vendor's own page, linked under Sources.
- 01
Flint Pay
US businesses selling physical goods, services, or software on their own site, with orders, inventory, shipping, and subscriptions that ship. Your business is the seller.
- Cards
- 3.79% + 35¢
- Monthly
- No monthly fee
- Physical goods
- Supported
- Sales tax
- Calculated and collected
- 02
Paddle
A merchant of record built to serve software companies.
- Per transaction
- 5% + 50¢
- Monthly
- None
- Physical goods
- Prohibited
- 03
Polar
A merchant of record for digital products, with paid plans that lower the rate.
- Starter
- 5% + 50¢
- Pro
- $20/mo, 3.8% + 40¢
- Physical goods
- Prohibited
- 04
Stripe Managed Payments
Stripe's merchant of record for digital products. Lemon Squeezy's 2026 update says its goal is an easy migration there for its users.
- Fee
- 3.5% + Stripe processing
- Physical goods
- Not supported
- Access
- After eligibility review
02Side by side
Lemon Squeezy vs Flint, need by need.
The Lemon Squeezy column is what its own pricing page, docs, and blog say today. The Flint column is what a Flint account does, with the API name behind it.
| What you need | Lemon Squeezy | Flint |
|---|---|---|
| Price per payment | Lemon Squeezy: 5% + 50¢ per transaction, $0 a month. Transactions outside the US may carry small additional fees. | Flint: 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, no monthly fee. International cards add 1.50%. Every fee is itemized per payment.GET /v1/balance-transactions |
| Physical products | Lemon Squeezy: Prohibited: physical goods of any kind. The general rule allows digital goods fulfilled through Lemon Squeezy's website. | Flint: A catalog with options and variants, stock per location held at payment, and digital products on the same catalog.POST /v1/products |
| Shipping and pickup | Lemon Squeezy: Not part of what Lemon Squeezy sells, since physical goods are prohibited. | Flint: Region-priced shipping, free shipping over a threshold, in-store pickup, scheduled local delivery, and rate callbacks.POST /v1/delivery-methods |
| Subscription boxes | Lemon Squeezy: A box of physical goods falls under the same prohibited list: physical goods of any kind. | Flint: Each renewal is an order with shipping and tax for the subscriber's address, and subscribers can skip, pause, or change their address. 0.40% of subscription payments.subscription_delivery_method_ids |
| Moving subscribers | Lemon Squeezy: The January 2026 update says the goal is an easy migration to Stripe Managed Payments. | Flint: Import each subscriber onto the period they already paid for. Flint charges nothing until the next renewal.billing_start |
| Sales tax | Lemon Squeezy: Lemon Squeezy is the merchant of record: it calculates and collects tax and is registered to file and pay it. | Flint: Your business is the seller. Automatic tax calculates and collects US sales tax at checkout, at 0.50% on payments that carry tax, and you file it. Or pass your own rates. US addresses only: no VAT or GST.tax_money |
03The 2026 update
Is Lemon Squeezy shutting down?
Lemon Squeezy hasn't announced a shutdown or an end date. Here is what it has said, in its own words.
On January 28, 2026, co-founder JR Farr published “2026 Update: Lemon Squeezy + Stripe Managed Payments.” He wrote that building Stripe’s new merchant of record product “meant some tradeoffs for the Lemon Squeezy community: slower support responses and less frequent product updates,” and that “our goal is to provide Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate to Stripe Managed Payments.”
Stripe Managed Payments is Stripe’s merchant of record. Its eligibility page lists digital products such as software, digital media, and online courses, and lists physical goods, professional services, and live in-person events as unsupported. Its fee is 3.5% per successful transaction on top of Stripe’s standard processing fees.
So the path Lemon Squeezy describes stays digital-only. If you sell physical products, or want them beside your digital ones, move to a platform where your business is the seller and the order can ship.
04Physical goods
Which Lemon Squeezy alternative sells physical products?
Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar, and Stripe Managed Payments all exclude physical goods in their own policies. Flint is built for them: the order is the record, and it carries the stock, shipping, tax, and return.
Products carry options and variants, each with its own SKU, price, and stock.
POST /v1/productsStock is held per location when payment starts, committed when it succeeds, and released when it fails.
held_quantityShipping prices by region, goes free over a threshold, or switches to in-store pickup or scheduled local delivery.
POST /v1/delivery-methodsSubscription renewals are orders, so a box ships to the subscriber's address with shipping and tax every cycle.
subscription_delivery_method_idsReturns run from a policy, with inspections, restocking fees, exchanges, and buyer self-serve.
POST /v1/return-policiesDigital products sell from the same catalog, with orders that fulfill as a download.
POST /v1/orders/{order_id}/fulfillmentsPhysical products on merchant-of-record platforms →Selling physical goods on Flint →Flint vs Paddle →
05Worked example
What does Lemon Squeezy cost compared with Flint?
Lemon Squeezy's 5% + 50¢ is one price that includes its merchant-of-record tax handling. Flint's card rate is 3.79% + 35¢, with published add-ons for subscriptions and automatic tax. Here is a month of subscription renewals with every Flint add-on that applies.
| 500 renewals of $40.00, $20,000.00 a month | Lemon Squeezy | Flint | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of each payment | $1,000.00 | $758.00 | |
| Fixed fee per payment | $250.00 | $175.00 | |
| Subscriptions add-on, 0.40% | included | $80.00 | |
| Automatic tax, 0.50% | included | $100.00 | |
| Fees for the month | $1,250.00 | $1,113.00 | |
Assumptions
- 500 subscription renewals of $40.00 each, paid with US cards. The $40.00 includes the sales tax collected.
- Lemon Squeezy at its published 5% + 50¢ per transaction, without volume pricing.
- Flint at 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, plus 0.40% on subscription payments and 0.50% on every payment because each one carries tax.
- International cards add 1.50% on Flint; Lemon Squeezy lists small additional fees outside the US. Neither side has a monthly fee.
- Lemon Squeezy's price includes handling tax as the merchant of record. Flint's doesn't: you file the US sales tax it collected, from its tax reports.
06Who Flint is for
Flint is built for US businesses that sell on their own site.
If that describes you, the catalog, checkout, shipping, and subscriptions above are running the day you create your account.
US sellers, mainly US buyers
Flint onboards businesses in the US, pays out in USD to your own bank account, and is built for selling mainly to US buyers. Buyers can pay from anywhere with a card, but automatic tax covers US addresses only, so sellers who need VAT or GST collected and remitted on international digital sales aren't the fit.
Physical and digital
One catalog for products that ship, get picked up, or deliver locally, and for downloads, services, and subscriptions.
You are the seller
Automatic tax calculates and collects US sales tax at checkout and exports it for filing in the states where you're registered.
Developers and agents
A public OpenAPI spec, Node and PHP SDKs, a CLI, llms.txt, and MCP servers a coding agent can read.
07Switching
How do you move from Lemon Squeezy to Flint?
Recreate what you sell, bring subscribers over on the period they already paid for, then swap your checkout links.
Recreate the catalog
POST /v1/productsCreate each product with its options and variants. Physical items get an inventory item and stock at each location they ship from.
Recreate subscriptions as plans
POST /v1/subscription-plansCreate a subscription plan for each recurring price, with its interval, trial, and setup fee, and the delivery methods for a box that ships.
Have each subscriber save a card
POST /v1/payment-methodsFlint has no card import, so each subscriber saves a card on Flint once, in the hosted buyer account or on your own page, before their next renewal.
Import subscribers without a second charge
billing_startValidate each subscription with the preview call, then create it with an imported billing start set to the start of the period Lemon Squeezy already billed. Flint charges nothing for that period and takes over at the next renewal.
Swap your checkout links
POST /v1/payment-linksReplace each Lemon Squeezy checkout link with a Flint payment link or a hosted checkout, and connect automatic tax in the dashboard if you want Flint to calculate sales tax.
08Start
From a sandbox key to a paid test order in ten minutes.
Node
CLI
Test keys are prefixed flint_test_ and bound to a sandbox with its own data, so nothing you try there touches live money. Pay with 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC.
Then read these
- 01Physical products on merchant-of-record platformsLemon Squeezy, Paddle, and Polar side by side
- 02
- 03
- 04
- 05
Sources
Where each claim comes from.
5% + 50¢ per transaction, $0 a month, small additional fees on some transactions outside the US, merchant of record that files and pays tax, and the footer naming the seller as Link, LLC, formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC. Lemon Squeezy pricing
www.lemonsqueezy.com · checked 2026-10-15Digital goods fulfilled through Lemon Squeezy's website are allowed; physical goods of any kind and services of any kind are prohibited. Lemon Squeezy docs: Prohibited products
docs.lemonsqueezy.com · checked 2026-10-15January 28, 2026, by co-founder JR Farr: slower support responses and less frequent product updates, and the goal of an easy migration to Stripe Managed Payments. No shutdown or end date is given. 2026 Update: Lemon Squeezy + Stripe Managed Payments
www.lemonsqueezy.com · checked 2026-10-155% + 50¢ per checkout transaction, no monthly fee. Paddle pricing
www.paddle.com · checked 2026-10-15Built to serve software companies; physical products or products that require physical delivery are prohibited (last updated April 13, 2026). What am I not allowed to sell on Paddle?
www.paddle.com · checked 2026-10-15Starter free at 5% + 50¢; Pro $20 a month at 3.8% + 40¢. Polar pricing
polar.sh · checked 2026-10-15Effective March 25, 2026; the first prohibited business category is physical products. Polar acceptable use policy
polar.sh · checked 2026-10-153.5% per successful transaction, in addition to standard Stripe processing fees, calculated on the amount including indirect taxes. Stripe: Managed Payments pricing
support.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15Digital products only; physical goods, professional services, and live in-person events are unsupported; access follows an eligibility review. Stripe docs: Managed Payments eligibility
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
last reviewed 2026-10-15 · corrections: Flint Help
FAQ
Questions people ask.
Is Lemon Squeezy shutting down?
Lemon Squeezy hasn’t announced a shutdown or an end date. In a January 28, 2026 post, co-founder JR Farr wrote about slower support responses and less frequent product updates, and said the goal is to give Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate to Stripe Managed Payments, Stripe’s merchant of record for digital products.
What is the best Lemon Squeezy alternative for physical products?
Flint. Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar, and Stripe Managed Payments all exclude physical goods in their own policies. Flint sells them with a catalog of variants, inventory held at payment, shipping and pickup, returns, and subscription boxes that ship, at 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment with no monthly fee. Your business is the seller, and automatic tax collects US sales tax for you to file.
Is Flint a good alternative to Lemon Squeezy?
Yes, for a US business selling physical goods, or physical and digital products together, on its own site. Flint has orders, variants, inventory held at payment, shipping, returns, and subscriptions you can import without a double charge, at 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment. Sign up on the web or from the terminal with flint signup.
Can I move Lemon Squeezy subscribers to Flint without charging them twice?
Yes. Each subscriber saves a card on Flint once, because Flint has no card import. Then create the subscription with an imported billing start set to the start of the period Lemon Squeezy already billed. Flint charges nothing for that period, computes its end from the plan interval, and takes over at the next renewal. Import subscribers
Is Flint a merchant of record like Lemon Squeezy?
No. On Flint your business is the seller. Automatic tax calculates US sales tax after discounts for the states where you're registered, collects it at checkout, and exports it in tax reports. Flint doesn't decide where you owe tax, register you, or file and pay the returns. It is built for US sellers selling mainly to US buyers and doesn't handle VAT or GST, so sellers who need VAT or GST collected and remitted on international digital sales aren't the fit.
How do Flint's fees compare with Lemon Squeezy's 5% + 50¢?
A $100 US card payment costs $5.50 on Lemon Squeezy and $4.14 on Flint. Subscription payments add 0.40% on Flint, payments that carry automatic tax add 0.50%, and international cards add 1.50%. Lemon Squeezy's price includes handling tax as the merchant of record, which Flint's does not.
Move once, to a platform that ships what you sell.
Free sandbox, no credit card, no sales call. Create a product with variants, import a test subscriber, and ship a renewal.
Or run npm install -g @flintpay/cli && flint signup to create your account and a sandbox key from the terminal. CLI guide
More comparisons · last reviewed 2026-10-15