Why every "Stripe alternatives" article is vendor content

Search "stripe alternatives" or "merchant of record" and page one is Paddle, Stripe, FastSpring, GoCardless, Lemon Squeezy, Solidgate, Nuvei and Cleverbridge — every one a payment company writing about its own category — plus Forbes and Reddit. No independent site ranks. Search "whop fees" and the top independent result is Ruzuku, a course-platform competitor, followed by Kajabi and Dodo Payments.

How to read vendor comparisons

Check the date. Whop removed its 3% platform fee in early 2026; articles still adding it are stale.
Check what is included. "5%" from an MoR includes tax and disputes; "2.7%" from a processor does not.
Check who is paid. We are paid by Whop; Ruzuku is paid by Ruzuku; Paddle is paid by Paddle. All of us should show our sources.

What we do about it

Every rate on this site links to the provider's pricing page and states the date read. Tables are generated from those rates, so you can recompute any figure. And several of our migration guides conclude "stay". Editorial policy.

Sources checked September 2026

Written by Karel Moreau, editor of Migrate Payments. Fees and policies re-checked against the providers' published pricing pages on 20 September 2026. Spotted a change? karel.moreau@migratepayments.com.