Paddle vs Recurly

Paddle

• ✓Merchant of Record model eliminates global tax and compliance burden
• ✓Handles VAT, sales tax, and remittance in 200+ markets automatically
• ✓ProfitWell analytics and retention tools included
• ✓Reduces legal complexity of selling software internationally
• ✓One platform for billing, payments, tax, and compliance

Recurly

• ✓Industry-leading ML-powered revenue recovery (dunning) engine
• ✓Recovers average $13 for every $1 spent — strong ROI
• ✓Supports multiple payment gateways simultaneously
• ✓Robust analytics with churn analysis and cohort reporting
• ✓Enterprise-grade with SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliance

Paddle

• !Higher transaction fees than Stripe (5%+ vs 2.9%)
• !Less control over the payment experience since Paddle is the seller
• !Fewer payment method options than Stripe in some regions
• !Migrating away from Paddle is more complex due to MoR model

Recurly

• !Pricing is based on revenue — gets expensive as you scale
• !Setup requires more technical effort than Chargebee's no-code approach
• !Customer self-service portal customization is limited
• !Smaller integration ecosystem compared to Stripe or Chargebee

Paddle

• →SaaS companies selling globally wanting to avoid tax registration complexity
• →Small teams without resources to manage international tax compliance
• →B2C SaaS and developer tools needing simple global sales

Recurly

• →High-volume subscription businesses losing revenue to failed payments
• →Media and streaming companies managing millions of subscribers
• →Enterprise SaaS needing multi-gateway and advanced dunning

Paddle

Paddle acts as your merchant of record, handling payments, subscription billing, global tax compliance, and fraud protection as a single platform. Unlike Stripe (where you're the merchant of record), Paddle takes on the legal and tax responsibility for selling your software globally. This means Paddle handles VAT, sales tax, and compliance in 200+ markets — you don't need to register for tax in each country. Paddle recently acquired ProfitWell for analytics and retention.

Recurly

Recurly is an enterprise-grade subscription management platform known for its industry-leading revenue recovery (dunning). Recurly claims to recover an average of $13 for every $1 spent on the platform through its machine-learning-based dunning engine. The platform supports complex subscription scenarios, multiple payment gateways, and detailed analytics. Used by companies like Sling TV, BarkBox, and Twitch.