A Lemon Squeezy alternative for subscriptions that outgrew 5%.
Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record for digital products: 5% plus 50 cents per transaction, half a percent more on subscription payments, and Stripe owns it now. Teams look for an alternative when the percentage stops matching the value, when they need real invoicing, or when they want billing that is not in transition. yRecurring is a flat priced billing engine on your own payment account.
Lemon Squeezy is the seller of record: it charges the customer, handles tax, and pays you out, for a percentage of every sale. yRecurring does not sell on your behalf; it runs subscriptions, invoices and recovery on a Stripe, PayPal, Braintree or GoCardless account you own, for a flat monthly price. Since Stripe's acquisition, Lemon Squeezy has said it is building a migration path to Stripe Managed Payments (January 2026), which is worth weighing when choosing where to move.
Side by side
| Lemon Squeezy | yRecurring | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | 5% plus 50 cents per transaction, plus 0.5% on subscription payments and 1.5% on international or PayPal payments | Launch: $39/mo flat, up to $10,000/mo billed; $99 and $299 bands above |
| At $25,000 a month, $50 average sale | About $1,625 a month on subscriptions | $99 a month, plus your own gateway's processing fee |
| Who the customer pays | Lemon Squeezy, as merchant of record | You, through your own payment account |
| Invoicing | Order receipts and subscription invoices | Invoices with net terms, bank transfer, credit notes, consolidated billing |
| Usage and credits | Usage based billing per subscription | Metered usage, prepaid credits, per million token prices, cost passthrough |
| Saved cards when you leave | Held by the merchant of record; no self-serve path to another provider, ask their support | Held by your own gateway; they were never anywhere else |
| Why is this amount X? | Order totals | A receipt on every amount: formula, inputs, each step |
Competitor pricing is taken from their public pricing page, checked 24 September 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it. Lemon Squeezy's fee includes payment processing and tax handling, which you pay separately with yRecurring.
Where Lemon Squeezy is the better fit
- You sell a digital product to consumers worldwide and want tax and compliance handled as one service.
- Your volume is small enough that a percentage costs less than a flat plan.
- You plan to be on Stripe Managed Payments and want the migration path Lemon Squeezy says it is building.
Where yRecurring differs
Every sale on a merchant of record costs a share plus a fixed fee, and subscriptions cost half a percent more. yRecurring's price is the band you are in, and a growth month is capped at the next band.
Net terms, bank transfers and consolidated invoices are built in, so the first business customer who asks for an invoice does not force a second tool.
Cards live with your gateway and records leave in open formats any month; nothing about leaving needs a request to anyone.
Every yRecurring amount links to its calculation: the formula, the inputs, each intermediate step.
Questions teams ask
Can I move my Lemon Squeezy subscriptions over?
Yes. Export orders and subscriptions from the store as CSV, import them with the dry run, and rebuild the products and prices in a few minutes. Saved cards are the one thing that cannot be exported from a merchant of record without its cooperation; the switching guide explains how to handle the first renewal.
Does yRecurring handle sales tax and VAT?
It applies the rates you configure at invoice time and can hand calculation to a tax provider. Registering and remitting stay with you, as with any billing engine that is not the seller of record.
Does yRecurring charge a percentage of my revenue?
Plans are flat: $39, $99, or $299 per month, banded by how much you bill through the platform. If you grow past your band mid month, the overage is capped at the next tier's price, so the most a growth month can cost you is the plan you would upgrade to anyway. Your effective rate falls as you grow. Above the Scale band, pricing is custom.
Is yRecurring a merchant of record?
No. Your customers pay through your own payment gateway accounts (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, GoCardless, and more), so the money and the gateway relationship stay yours. yRecurring is the billing engine: subscriptions, invoices, recovery, and reporting.
See your own pricing in it.
The fastest comparison is your real catalog inside the trial: import your data, dry run first, and look at an invoice with the calculation open.