Lemon Squeezy (Payments and Merchant of Record)
Created by: JR Farr and team (acquired by Stripe in 2024)

Lemon Squeezy collapses MoR plus checkout plus subscriptions into one percentage. The bundle hides the per-feature comparison.

TL;DR: Lemon Squeezy prices as a single percentage-plus-fixed-fee per transaction with Merchant of Record service included. There is no per-feature pricing page to compare against Stripe. The lesson: when you bundle multiple SaaS categories at one price, the buyer evaluates on outcome (compliance handled) rather than parts.

What they sell: Merchant of Record payments platform for digital products and SaaS.
Who it's for: Indie founders selling globally who do not want to register for VAT or sales tax in every jurisdiction.
Pricing model: Single transaction-based percentage plus fixed fee, MoR bundled
Payment frequency: Per-transaction; no monthly base fee
Free trial behavior: No subscription to trial — pricing is purely transactional. Account is free to create; you pay when you collect.
Number of tiers: 1

Anchor pattern: Single-line anchor
Pricing is one line. There is no anchor tier because there are no tiers. The page is structured so the reader cannot comparison-shop against Stripe's transaction fee in isolation — they must evaluate the bundled outcome (compliance + checkout + subscriptions) against the unbundled Stripe + Paddle Tax stack.

Upgrade trigger: First international sale
There is no upgrade trigger in the traditional sense. The structural upgrade trigger that drives a founder TO Lemon Squeezy is the first international sale that exposes them to VAT or sales-tax registration. Lemon Squeezy's pricing model is calibrated to be cheaper than the time-cost of handling that compliance themselves.

What's working:
Single price line removes the per-feature comparison shootout against Stripe.|Bundled MoR service captures buyers at the compliance pain spike, not at the payment-processor evaluation.|No subscription base fee aligns the platform's revenue with the customer's revenue, which lowers commitment friction.|Pricing page lists what is included extensively (15+ features at one price), inflating the perceived bundle value.|No annual commitment requirement, no minimum volume, fits the indie buyer's distrust of long-term contracts.

What to adapt:
If you sit in a category dominated by a price-leader incumbent, bundle compatible services at one price to escape the per-feature shootout.|Align your pricing with the customer's revenue when possible. Per-transaction or per-result pricing has lower commitment friction than monthly subscription.|List what is included extensively on the pricing page. A long bundle list inflates perceived value before the price is processed.

What to avoid:
Do not bundle features you do not ship at production quality. The bundle promise is fragile until each part is verifiable.|Do not use percentage-based pricing if your buyer's volume is unpredictable or low. The buyer's mental math fails and they overestimate their cost.|Do not adopt MoR positioning without the legal and operational capacity to back it. MoR is a regulatory commitment, not a marketing one.

Brunson lens:
Stack: Bundle stack — one price, 15+ included items listed individually to inflate perceived value.
Value ladder: Single transactional rung (no front-end free, no back-end high-ticket). Per-transaction recurring becomes the subscription dynamic.
Decoy/anchor: Single-line pricing eliminates anchor mechanics; the entire page is the anchor.
Payment mechanics: Pure transactional. No monthly base, no annual commitment. Aligned to customer revenue.

Pricing last verified: 2026-05-17