Paddle
Ranked 5 of 11 payment processors by recommenders
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.
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.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 59%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Handles sales tax and VAT
“they're on the hook for remitting sales taxes to ALL the governments where your customers might reside”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Kiki – a tiny homepage construction kit with a small footprint” “Don't underestimate the benefit of it doing international VAT collection and payment.”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Linux boxes via SSH: suspended when disconected” “takes care of the payment and tax compliance”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick” Easy to set up
“Paddle kind of solves this by default, as a merchant of record there's barely any account state to configure”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Stripekit – Terraform-style declarative config for your Stripe account” “Paddle is quite easy to set up”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Selling Software Worldwide from Europe”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Takes a 5% cut
“given that paddle.com (your payment provider) takes 5% cut”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Linux boxes via SSH: suspended when disconected” “5% for paddle does sound like it kinda sucks”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Linux boxes via SSH: suspended when disconected” Lengthy approval with ID checks
“It took me two weeks, plus sending IDs, incorporating an ltd, to get a license to sell software with Paddle.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Kiki – a tiny homepage construction kit with a small footprint” “the form is not unlike Paddle's verification”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Kiki – a tiny homepage construction kit with a small footprint”
Other payment processors people recommend
The four most recommended other payment processors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 11 payment processors, rankedWhat people said
12 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Paddle is quite easy to set up”
“smoother approval process, live now”
“Paddle kind of solves this by default, as a merchant of record there's barely any account state to configure”
“takes care of the payment and tax compliance”
“Lack of answers was holding a months worth of income hostage with no real recourse for us other than trying to be loud online.”
“they're on the hook for remitting sales taxes to ALL the governments where your customers might reside”
“the form is not unlike Paddle's verification”
“It took me two weeks, plus sending IDs, incorporating an ltd, to get a license to sell software with Paddle.”
“they also try to sell us a bunch of stuff we don't need at ridiculous prices”
“Don't underestimate the benefit of it doing international VAT collection and payment.”
“5% for paddle does sound like it kinda sucks”
“given that paddle.com (your payment provider) takes 5% cut”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.