What is the best payment gateway for a SaaS in 2026?

Most SaaS companies start on Stripe, and the reasons hold up. A domestic US card costs 2.9% + 30¢, international cards add 1.5%, and currency conversion adds 1%. There's no monthly fee and no contract.

For subscriptions you need two more pieces. Billing handles plans, upgrades, prorations and invoices for 0.7% of billing volume. Stripe Tax works out the right rate for each buyer's location for 0.5% per transaction. Stack them and a US card lands near 4.1% + 30¢. Here's the catch founders learn late: Stripe Tax calculates, it doesn't file. Registering in each state or country and filing returns is still on you.

For failed payments, Smart Retries uses machine learning to pick when to retry a declined card, inside a window you set. When retries run out, the subscription is canceled or paused, your call. Customer emails about expired cards are a separate setting in Billing: turn them on.

The weak spot is account freezes. Public seller reviews describe accounts closed with thin explanations and funds held for weeks, with support replying from templates. In France, for example, the first payout lands 7 to 14 days after your first charge. Stripe also offers Managed Payments, where Stripe acts as the merchant of record: budget an extra 3.5% per successful transaction on top of standard and Billing fees.

Tip: if you push new subscribers into a CRM, our Stripe in Make guide shows the setup.

Paddle doesn't just process the card. It becomes the legal seller of your software. Your customer buys from Paddle, Paddle charges and remits VAT in the EU, the UK, Australia and Canada, and you receive the rest. You stop juggling foreign tax registrations and you stop fighting disputes yourself.

Pricing is one line: 5% + 50¢ per transaction, no monthly fee. That covers payments, invoicing, subscriptions, tax, fraud, disputes, buyer support and migration help. For products under $10, Paddle offers custom pricing, because a fixed 50¢ hurts too much there.

The honest math: against Stripe with Billing and Tax on US cards, Paddle costs about 0.9 points more plus an extra 20¢ per charge. That gap is small for a US founder selling abroad. If your buyers outside the US are a real share of revenue, Paddle often wins on total cost once you count the hours. If you sell only to US businesses, check which states Paddle covers before assuming it removes your sales tax work.

Its weak spot is the door. Several sellers report verification stuck for weeks, or a rejection from the risk team after an initial approval. Do this before launch week. Paddle's payout timing wasn't published in a readable form when we compared: ask for it before signing.

Tip: our Paddle in Make guide sends every new subscriber to your CRM or email tool.

Mollie is a Dutch processor with strong footing in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It charges 1.80% + €0.25 for an EEA consumer card, 2.90% + €0.25 for a business card, 3.25% + €0.25 outside the EEA, and €0.35 per SEPA direct debit. Recurring charges cost nothing extra.

Subscriptions only exist through the API, not in the web app. A first payment (it can be €0 by card or PayPal) creates a mandate, then Mollie charges on schedule. If a charge fails, Mollie retries up to five times, once a day, then cancels the subscription.

The gaps matter for SaaS. No webhook (an event your code receives) fires when a subscription changes status, so you poll the API. Mollie doesn't handle VAT or invoices. You need a billing tool next to it.

Payouts run daily, weekly or monthly. Under €500,000 a year, five payouts a month are free, then €0.25 each. Reviewers like its named, quick support, but some describe payouts held during an account review.

Polar is an open source merchant of record built for developers. Like Paddle, it sells on your behalf and handles tax. The difference is its plan ladder: Starter is free at 5% + 50¢, Pro is $20 a month at 3.8% + 40¢, Growth $100 at 3.6% + 35¢, and Scale $400 at 3.4% + 30¢.

Add-ons apply. Non-US cards add 1.5%. Currency conversion runs from 0.25% (EU) to 1%. Payouts cost $2 per active month plus 0.25% + 25¢ per payout. For a mostly US audience, Starter stays at 5% + 50¢.

Polar says Pro pays for itself at around $1,379 in monthly sales. Past that point, paying the plan lowers your total bill. No other MoR in this ranking rewards growth this clearly.

The limit is dispute tolerance. Each dispute costs $15, not refunded even if you win, and accounts can be suspended above roughly 0.7% chargebacks (payments a customer reverses through their bank). A consumer app with many free trials needs to watch that ratio.

GoCardless only does bank payments, and that's the point in B2B. Cards expire, hit limits and get reissued after fraud. A bank debit authorization stays valid until the customer revokes it. On a $300-a-month business plan, that means fewer failures and fewer chase emails.

In the US, Standard costs 0.5% + 5¢ per payment, capped at $5, with no monthly fee. On a $1,000 annual invoice, you pay $5, against $29.30 on a domestic card at Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢.

Success+, the smart retry tool, starts on the Advanced plan. GoCardless claims it recovers about 70% of failed payments. It isn't on Standard.

The limits: no cards, so no impulse purchases from consumers, and fewer integrations than Stripe. Seller reviews mention payouts stuck as pending, closures after verification, and email-only support. Payout timing isn't on its pricing page, so ask.

PayPal is rarely a SaaS's only gateway, but buyers notice when it's missing. In the US, PayPal Checkout costs 3.49% + 49¢ and advanced card processing 2.89% + 29¢. That checkout rate is the highest headline fee in this ranking.

PayPal doesn't publish a specific subscription price. For developers, Braintree, its technical platform, handles recurring billing and several wallets. Its rate card wasn't readable when we compared, so request a quote.

Its weak point is support and freeze risk, among the lowest scores here. Treat it as an extra payment method plugged into Stripe or a MoR, not as your main subscription engine.

Adyen serves large accounts. Pricing runs on Interchange++: you pay the real cost from the card network and the customer's bank, plus a fixed processing fee and a markup per payment method. No setup fee, no monthly fee.

The detail that matters: a minimum invoice by industry. For a SaaS processing $5,000 a month, that minimum can exceed all your fees. Adyen doesn't publish dispute costs either. It's built for teams with a payments lead and the volume to negotiate.

It doesn't ship SaaS billing or tax handling for small vendors, so you'd pair it with Chargebee or Recurly. On support and freeze risk, it scores better than Stripe or Mollie in our comparison.

Lemon Squeezy, now owned by Stripe, is a merchant of record like Paddle. It sells for you and handles tax. Its promise is speed: a store, license keys and subscriptions without a developer.

The base fee is 5% + 50¢, then add-ons stack. Subscription payments add 0.5%. Buyers outside the US add 1.5%, and PayPal adds 1.5%. A US subscriber paying by card costs 5.5% + 50¢; a European one, 7% + 50¢. Payouts to a US bank via Stripe are free, while non-US banks pay 1% per payout. Other paid extras: 5% on recovered abandoned carts, 3% on affiliate sales.

Trust is the problem. Public seller reviews are harsh: payouts held for months, accounts frozen under a vague review, identity checks rejected, silent support. One founder thread warns that sellers outside the US pay far more than they expect. It has the lowest support and freeze score here.

Payouts go out twice a month, which is slow for a small vendor's cash flow.