# Lemon Squeezy

> Merchant of record checkout for software, subscriptions and downloads

Lemon Squeezy sells digital products, software licenses and subscriptions through hosted checkouts, overlays and a simple store, acting as merchant of record so it collects, files and pays sales tax and VAT. There is no monthly fee for selling; it keeps a cut of each order. Stripe bought it in 2024, and its 2026 update says the team is now building Stripe Managed Payments and plans to help Lemon Squeezy users move there.

- **Category:** Selling Digital Products
- **Made by:** Link, LLC (formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC)
- **Website:** https://www.lemonsqueezy.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Lemon Squeezy has a free plan. Paid plans start at $10 per month for email marketing to 1,000 subscribers.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Selling is free to start with every ecommerce feature included; Lemon Squeezy keeps 5% + 50¢ of each order. Email marketing is free up to 500 subscribers.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ecommerce | $0 | No monthly charge. The seller pays 5% + 50¢ of each order, covering card fees and tax, plus 1.5% abroad, 1.5% on PayPal and 0.5% on subscriptions. |
| Email marketing | $10 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed monthly | Free up to 500 subscribers. The price rises with the list: $24 a month at 3,000 subscribers and $60 a month at 10,000. |

Read from https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Lemon Squeezy before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Two months free on yearly email marketing** (Annual discount): Lemon Squeezy prices yearly email marketing at ten times the monthly rate: $100 a year instead of $10 a month at 1,000 subscribers. Source: https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing

## Key features

- **Merchant of record:** Lemon Squeezy is the seller on each order: it calculates, collects, files and pays sales tax and VAT, and takes on the tax liability.
- **Subscriptions and usage billing:** Weekly, monthly or yearly plans with upgrades, downgrades, free trials, PayPal subscriptions, usage-based billing and a customer portal.
- **License keys and secure files:** License keys are issued after each sale and can be deactivated or reissued; download links are signed and throttled.
- **Checkout anywhere:** Hosted checkout links, an overlay checkout for any website, or a store on a custom domain, taking cards, PayPal and payments in many currencies.
- **Email marketing:** Broadcasts, signup forms, segments that update from purchase behavior and email reports, free up to 500 subscribers.
- **Affiliates and recovery:** A built-in affiliate program, discount codes, bundles and upsells, plus abandoned cart emails and failed payment recovery.

## Good for

- Software makers selling licenses or subscriptions worldwide
- Sellers who want sales tax and VAT filed for them
- Creators who want no monthly fee until they make sales

## Worth knowing

- Stripe's 2026 update admits slower support and fewer updates while the team builds Stripe Managed Payments, and plans a migration path for users.
- Each order costs 5% + 50¢, plus 1.5% for buyers outside the US, 1.5% for PayPal and 0.5% for subscription payments.
- Recovered abandoned carts add 5% and affiliate referrals add 3% to the fee; payouts to non-US banks cost 1% each.
- Products priced under $10 and high-volume sellers are asked to contact sales for custom pricing.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record for software, licenses and subscriptions: it collects and pays sales tax and VAT, and its 5% + 50¢ an order covers card fees too. There's no monthly charge, and email marketing is free up to 500 subscribers. The worry is its future, as Stripe's 2026 update admits slower support and plans to move users to Stripe Managed Payments.

- **Value for money: C.** No monthly fee. Each order costs 5% + 50¢, which covers card fees and sales tax, so $1,000 of sales costs $50 plus 50¢ an order. Buyers abroad add 1.5%, PayPal 1.5% and subscriptions 0.5%. That's above this category's dearer quarter, short of its dearest tenth.
- **Free plan and trial: A.** Selling is free to start with every ecommerce feature, and you only pay as orders come in. Email marketing is free up to 500 subscribers too, then $10 a month at 1,000.
- **Features: B.** Merchant of record, subscriptions with usage billing, license keys, signed download links, a store on your own domain, affiliates, upsells, cart recovery and email marketing. It covers the whole job.
- **Ease of use: C.** No App Store rating on record. It's a web dashboard where you set up products, checkouts and a store before your first sale, with nothing in the listing to say it's quicker than that.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with Zapier, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, WordPress and Laravel, checkout overlays for any site and a public API. No phone or desktop app is listed.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Lemon Squeezy's own pages on 18 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among tools for selling digital products

- Lemon Squeezy's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 12 of the 14 other tools for selling digital products we grade.
- It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 7 of 14) and worst on ease of use (C, above 1).
- Its paid plans start at $10 a month, against a middle price of $24.50 for the category: 2 of the 9 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 2 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/digital-products

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Lemon Squeezy you would be making selling as the merchant of record, so sales tax and VAT are handled everywhere. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 12 of the 14 other tools for selling digital products we grade. It costs $120 a year.

- You could make: Digital downloads: an app builder makes this well.
- You could not: Selling as the merchant of record, so sales tax and VAT are handled everywhere.
- You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- You could not: Newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox.
- You could not: Every click and sale traced back to the right partner.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Stripe, PayPal and Zapier among them, and has an API.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Stripe, PayPal, Zapier, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, WordPress, Laravel

**Tags:** Digital downloads, Merchant of record, Online store, Email campaigns, Affiliate tracking, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Gumroad](https://toolgpa.com/tools/gumroad): Sell downloads, memberships and courses for a cut of each sale. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gumroad-vs-lemon-squeezy)
- [Polar](https://toolgpa.com/tools/polar): Open-source billing and merchant of record for software sellers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lemon-squeezy-vs-polar)
- [Payhip](https://toolgpa.com/tools/payhip): Store for downloads, courses and memberships, with a free plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lemon-squeezy-vs-payhip)
- [SendOwl](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sendowl): Checkout and delivery for downloads, licenses and subscriptions. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lemon-squeezy-vs-sendowl)
- [Sellfy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sellfy): Store builder for selling downloads, subscriptions and print-on-demand. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lemon-squeezy-vs-sellfy)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing
- https://docs.lemonsqueezy.com/help/getting-started/fees
- https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/2026-update

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/lemon-squeezy
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).