# Paddle

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Paddle and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend Paddle because, as merchant of record, it handles payments and sales tax or VAT collection, so sellers have little account setup. Critics point to its 5% cut.

## Why people recommend it

- Handles sales tax and VAT (3 comments): "they're on the hook for remitting sales taxes to ALL the governments where your customers might reside" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48403769)) "Don't underestimate the benefit of it doing international VAT collection and payment." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46642100)) "takes care of the payment and tax compliance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49120663))
- Easy to set up (2 comments): "Paddle kind of solves this by default, as a merchant of record there's barely any account state to configure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49201407)) "Paddle is quite easy to set up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49555318))

## What people warn about

- Takes a 5% cut (2 comments): "given that paddle.com (your payment provider) takes 5% cut" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46640121)) "5% for paddle does sound like it kinda sucks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46640640))
- Lengthy approval with ID checks (2 comments): "It took me two weeks, plus sending IDs, incorporating an ltd, to get a license to sell software with Paddle." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48398812)) "the form is not unlike Paddle's verification" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48399252))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Stripe](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stripe.md): 143 recommend
- [PayPal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/paypal.md): 103 recommend
- [Adyen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adyen.md): 17 recommend
- [Mollie](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mollie.md): 11 recommend
- [Agree payment processor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/open-source-zero-webhooks-payment-processor.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.paddle.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Paddle", https://hackerapproved.com/p/paddle/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).