Ask a SaaS founder what Stripe costs and you'll hear "2.9% plus thirty cents." That's the payments line. The billing line — Stripe Billing at 0.7% of billing volume — sits on top of it. Then cross-border fees on US customer cards (+1.5%), currency conversion (1–4%), dispute fees ($15 each, non-refundable), and tax tooling. One analysis puts the fully stacked effective rate at 7.2% to 11.7%. The fees aren't hidden; they're just sold separately, which makes the total easy to underestimate on day one.
The Stripe stack, line by line, for a Canadian SaaS
| Line item | Published rate | What triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| Payments — domestic cards | 2.90% + CA$0.30 | Every Canadian card charge |
| Payments — international cards | 3.20% + CA$0.30 | US and other foreign cards (common for SaaS) |
| Stripe Billing | 0.70% of billing volume | Subscriptions, proration, invoicing |
| Disputes | $15 each, non-refundable | Every chargeback, win or lose |
| Tax | 0.50% where registered (Basic) | GST/HST/PST/VAT collection |
| Currency conversion | 1–4% | Settling foreign currencies to CAD |
Worked math: $20,000 MRR at 400 subscribers, Stripe vs Paddle
The setup: $20,000 MRR, 400 subscribers at $50. 70% Canadian cards, 30% US/international cards. Two disputes a month.
Stripe: domestic $14,000 × 2.90% = $406 + 280 × $0.30 = $84 → $490. International $6,000 × 3.20% = $192 + 120 × $0.30 = $36 → $228. Billing 0.70% × $20,000 = $140. Disputes 2 × $15 = $30. Total: ~$888/month (4.44% effective) — before tax tooling and FX.
Paddle (merchant of record): 5% × $20,000 = $1,000 + 400 × $0.50 = $200. Total: $1,200/month (6.00%) — with global tax compliance, billing, and dunning included.
The honest gap is ~$312/month, not the ~$600 the headline rates suggest — and it narrows further once Stripe Tax (0.5% where you're registered) and the hours spent on GST/HST/PST filings enter. At $10k MRR selling globally, independent analyses put the two at rough parity.
The cross-border and tax-compliance layers
Canadian SaaS sells to the US early and often — that's the 30% international slice above, each point of which costs an extra ~0.3% plus FX. Then there's the compliance workload Stripe doesn't do for you: registering, collecting, filing, and remitting GST/HST/PST across provinces and VAT abroad. A merchant of record absorbs that entire function; with Stripe, someone on your team owns it even when Stripe Tax calculates the numbers.
Failed payments: the hidden fee line
Cards fail — industry data puts card failure rates around 10–15% versus under 3% for bank debit — and every failed $50 renewal is $50 of MRR at risk plus retry and dunning cost. Stripe retries automatically, but an expired card still needs the customer to act. Price your involuntary churn: at 400 subscribers, a single point of monthly churn is $200 MRR walking out the door — more than the entire Billing line item. The cheapest billing stack is the one that recovers failed payments, not the one with the lowest percentage.
What SaaS founders say: real reviews
On G2, Paddle holds 4.5/5 from ~240 reviews: founders praise the ease of use, the merchant-of-record tax handling, and support responsiveness, while complaints focus on lengthy onboarding and undisclosed approval requirements that can block brand-new businesses (g2.com/products/paddle/details). Stripe Payments sits around 4.2/5 across hundreds of G2 reviews: consistent praise for ease of use and seamless integration, with recurring complaints about high transaction fees and payout/support friction (g2.com/products/stripe-stripe-payments/reviews). The Hacker News thread on Billing's pricing shows founders split: some call 0.7% a fair product tax, others see goodwill burned by turning recurring billing into a paid add-on (news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16766846).
The decision in one paragraph: mostly Canadian customers, simple plans, and someone to own tax filings → Stripe usually wins on cost. Meaningful US/EU volume, complex tax footprint, or no one to own compliance → price the merchant of record against the stacked Stripe total, not the 2.9% headline — the gap is smaller than it looks.
A note on steps: this is a cost-comparison guide, not a repair procedure — the decision paragraph above is the actionable part.
FAQ
What does Stripe Billing cost on top of payment processing?
0.70% of billing volume on pay-as-you-go, in addition to the 2.90% + $0.30 per transaction (Canada). On $20,000 MRR that's $140/month before any other line item.
Is Paddle actually cheaper than Stripe?
Rarely on headline rate alone (5% + $0.50 vs 2.9% + $0.30). It wins when you count what Stripe charges separately: Billing, Tax, cross-border, FX, and your own compliance hours.
Do failed subscription payments really matter that much?
Yes — involuntary churn from failed cards typically dwarfs the billing-platform fee. Recovery tooling (smart retries, card updaters, dunning) is worth more than a tenth of a point on the rate.