They own the customer. That is the whole trade.
A merchant of record sells to your customer on your behalf, handles the tax, and takes a percentage of every sale. It is a real service and it removes real work. What it also removes is the relationship: the card, the receipt and the account are theirs.
Lemon Squeezy
A merchant of record platform
A cut
of every sale, plus a fixed fee
Plus 1% on payments through Milo Payments, and nothing with your own gateway.
Merchant of record pricing: a percentage of each transaction rather than a licence. Their pricing page carries the current rate. Their pricing
| Milo | Lemon Squeezy | |
|---|---|---|
| Who the customer buys from | You | The platform, on your behalf |
| Where the card is stored | Your own gateway account | Their merchant account |
| Sales tax and VAT | Yours to handle, or an accountant’s | Handled for you |
| Fee per sale | 1% with Milo Payments, 0% with your own gateway | A percentage plus a fixed amount |
| Your customer list | In your WordPress | Exportable, but the payment relationship is not |
| Leaving | Migrator, in the free plugin | Subscribers must re-enter their card |
| Checkout on your own domain | Yes | Hosted, or embedded |
Where we actually differ
If handling VAT across sixty jurisdictions is the thing keeping you awake, a merchant of record earns its percentage. If you plan to still be selling in five years, the sentence that should worry you is the last row: leaving means asking every subscriber for their card again.
Decide with your own store, not our table.
The engine is free and the migrator runs on a staging copy, so you can see the result before committing anything.