In short
- Decide the model before the vendor. A merchant of record is the legal seller and handles tax and disputes at card network level; with a payment service provider you are the seller and carry both.
- Most game-focused merchants of record don’t publish a full price list, so the only way to compare them is to put the same questions to each and get the answers in writing.
- The 40 questions below cover every fee line, payouts and reserves, chargeback liability, tax coverage, payment methods by market, whether in-game currency is an allowed product, platform-rule support, data ownership and exit, contract terms, support and the provider’s own finances.
- The provider map is alphabetical and unranked. Tebex, which operates this site, is in it on the same terms as everyone else.
The shortlist is the easy part. Most providers on a studio’s list will say they cover your markets, handle tax and fight chargebacks. The differences sit in the fee lines they don’t print, the payout terms, who pays when a dispute is lost, and the contract. This page gives you a map of the main providers by type, then the questions that expose those differences. Send the same list to each provider and compare the written answers.
Decide the model first
Four kinds of company sell into a studio’s web shop, and many sell more than one of them.
- A merchant of record is the legal seller to the player. Its name is on the card statement, it registers for and remits sales tax and VAT, and disputes count against its merchant account. You sell to it and it resells to the player.
- A payment service provider processes the card for you. You are the seller: you register for tax in every market that requires it, file the returns, and carry the dispute ratios on your own merchant account.
- A web shop builder runs the storefront: catalog, player login, offers, and delivery of items to the game account. Several merchants of record bundle one.
- A payment orchestration layer routes each payment across several payment service providers to raise approval rates or cut cost. You remain the seller, and you pay the layer as well as each processor underneath it. We have not yet collected published pricing for orchestration providers.
The choice between the first two drives most of your cost and headcount. The merchant of record vs payment service provider guide sets out the full trade, and build or buy covers running the storefront yourself.
Provider map
The table lists providers that studios commonly evaluate, alphabetically, with what each publishes about itself. It is not a ranking, and it does not say who is cheapest. That depends on your order size and markets, and most rates are not published. Full fee lines, sources and check dates are in published provider fees.
| Provider | Type | Focus | Published pricing | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adyen | Payment service provider | Any online business | Yes, per method: $0.13 plus interchange, scheme fees and 0.60% on Visa and Mastercard | Chargeback fee amount not published; “a minimum invoice depending on industry or business model” |
| Aghanim | Merchant of record | Mobile games | Yes, full schedule in its Developer Terms: 5% + $0.50 | 5% rolling reserve, USD 1,000 minimum payout |
| Appcharge | Merchant of record with web stores | Mobile games | Commission not published; 1% conversion on non-USD | Converts refunds and disputes back “at the current exchange rate” |
| Braintree (PayPal) | Payment service provider | Any online business | Yes: 2.89% + 29¢ in the US | 1% for a foreign card, 1% for non-USD pricing |
| Checkout.com | Payment service provider | Any online business | No, quote-based | “Risk and fraud management tools included” |
| Coda | Merchant of record; payments, web store and distribution tiers | Mobile and online gaming, among other digital services | Headline tiers: Codapay from 1%, Coda Webstore 5%, Coda Distribution 15% | Does not say whether the Webstore rate stacks on Codapay’s |
| FastSpring | Merchant of record | Software, generalist | No; “fees vary depending on the transaction volume” | 45-day hold on new accounts, 14-day settlement delay, 2.5% payout conversion |
| Lemon Squeezy | Merchant of record, owned by Stripe | Software, generalist | Yes: 5% + 50¢, plus 1.5% outside the US | Stripe is building migration paths to Stripe Managed Payments |
| Neon | Merchant of record | Games | No; markets “All-in pricing that never changes” | |
| Nexus | Creator-code platform | Games | No | An adjacent tool for creator programs, not a general merchant of record |
| Paddle | Merchant of record | Software, including games | Yes: 5% + 50¢; custom pricing under $10 | Acceptable use policy lists virtual currency as prohibited; “your data is 100% yours” |
| PayPal | Payment service provider and wallet | Any online business | Yes: PayPal Checkout 3.49% + 49¢ in the US | Fees not returned on refunds; 3–4% conversion spread |
| Stash | Merchant of record | Games | Only a 2024 blog example: 5% of net revenue | Site says “Pricing depends on your transaction volume and preferred model” |
| Stripe | Payment service provider | Any online business | Yes: 2.9% + 30¢ in the US | Tax, fraud tooling and disputes priced separately |
| Stripe Managed Payments | Merchant of record | Software, including video games | Yes: 3.5% on top of Stripe processing, on the tax-inclusive amount | Stripe-hosted checkout only; players see Onelink as the seller |
| Tebex (operates this site) | Merchant of record with web store builder | Games: PC and community servers; mobile games through web links | Yes. One rate on all sales, set by annual sales (7%, 6% or 5%), plus $0.20 per order, all-inclusive | Chargebacks, conversion, payouts and tax included in the fee |
| Xsolla | Merchant of record, with payment service provider and gateway modes | Games | Merchant of record rate not published. Payment service provider mode: “5% + payment system fee”. Gateway mode: 1.25% + $0.10 | “We don’t pay out early” |
Mobile studios should weight questions about link-outs, deep links and account linking more heavily; PC studios, questions about key delivery, community servers and creator codes. Everyone should weight the fee and payout questions by order size. The smaller your average order, the more the fixed fee decides the result.
The questions to ask
Ask for each answer in writing. Where a provider says a cost does not apply, get that in writing too; a blank on a quote is a cost you find later.
Pricing and every fee line
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What is the fee per order, as a percentage and a fixed amount, and does either change with volume or order value? | At 5% + 50¢, fees take 55% of a $0.99 order. Paddle asks sellers of products under $10 to contact it for custom pricing. |
| 2 | Which payment methods are inside that fee, and what does each other method cost? | Xsolla’s payment service provider product is “5% + payment system fee”; Lemon Squeezy adds 1.5% on PayPal. |
| 3 | Which card countries count as international, and what is the surcharge? | For a US provider your European players are cross-border. Stripe US adds 1.5%, Aghanim 1.5% on non-US cards. |
| 4 | Where do you convert currency (checkout, payout or both), at what markup, and over which base rate? | Published conversion charges run from 1% to 4%, and some providers charge at both points. |
| 5 | Is your fee charged on the price before or after sales tax and VAT? | Stripe Managed Payments charges 3.5% on the tax-inclusive amount, which is 4.2% of your price at 20% VAT. |
| 6 | On a refund, do you return your percentage, fixed and conversion fees, and is there a separate refund fee? | Stripe and PayPal keep their fees on refunds. FastSpring’s legacy docs describe a 3.5% refund fee. |
| 7 | What do you bill outside the per-order fee: monthly fees, minimum invoices, fraud screening, tax, creator codes, cart recovery? | Adyen has a minimum invoice by industry. Lemon Squeezy adds 5% on recovered carts and 3% on affiliate referrals. |
Payouts, reserves and holds
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | How many days from a player’s purchase to cash in our bank account? | At $1 million a year, T+2 settlement leaves about $5,500 in transit; monthly payment up to 30 days after month end leaves about $123,000. |
| 9 | What is the minimum payout, and what does each transfer cost by country and currency? | Aghanim holds balances under USD 1,000. Paddle notes a $15 SWIFT fee in some countries. |
| 10 | Do you hold a reserve or put new accounts on hold? How much, and when is each part released? | Aghanim withholds 5% of monthly receipts; FastSpring holds new accounts for 45 days. |
| 11 | Which currencies can we hold and be paid in without conversion? | Each conversion costs 1% to 4%. Xsolla requires a contract amendment to change payout currency. |
| 12 | Where is our money held between the sale and the payout, and what happens to it if you fail? | Digital River said in January 2025 it could not draw on its credit facility, and wound down; former clients reported delayed or missed payouts. |
Chargebacks and fraud liability
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Who responds to disputes, and what evidence do you need from our game servers? | Visa’s Compelling Evidence 3.0 needs matching IP address, device or account data from earlier purchases; only you hold it. |
| 14 | What is the fee per dispute, and is it returned when we win? | Paddle’s $20 fee “will not be refunded”; Stripe returns its $15 countered fee on a win but not the $15 received fee. |
| 15 | On a lost dispute, who carries the sale value? Are any products, order sizes or reasons excluded? | Aghanim’s terms, for example, deduct lost chargebacks from your share. Most merchants of record don’t publish their rule, so get it in writing. |
| 16 | At what dispute or fraud rate do you act on our account, and what do you do? | Paddle’s acceptable rate is “Below 0.65% of transaction volume”; Visa’s Excessive threshold is 1.5%. |
| 17 | Which fraud tools are included, which are metered, and who carries the loss on an approved fraudulent payment? | Stripe includes Radar Lite; fuller screening starts at $0.05 per transaction. |
| 18 | Do you use pre-dispute alerts or resolution services, and what do they cost us? | Paddle charges its $20 fee on alerts it refunds; Stripe charges $15 to $29 per resolution. |
The chargebacks and fraud guide explains the Visa and Mastercard thresholds behind questions 16 and 18.
Tax coverage and who files
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | In which countries and US states are you registered and filing today, and which are pending? | The EU’s €10,000 threshold applies only to sellers established in one EU country, so a studio based outside the EU owes VAT from the first sale. A market the provider does not cover is a liability that stays with you. |
| 20 | Whose name appears on the player’s receipt and card statement as the seller? | The seller owes the tax and the consumer-law duties. Stripe Managed Payments shows Onelink as the seller and “LINK.COM*” on the statement. |
| 21 | How do you classify in-game currency, items and subscriptions for US state sales tax? | Taxability varies by state. Pennsylvania lists add-ons to apps and games as taxable; the provider’s classification decides what your players are charged. |
| 22 | Can we set tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive pricing by country? | It decides whether the player or your margin absorbs a VAT rise. The tax guide covers rates and thresholds. |
Payment methods and currencies by market
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | Which payment methods do you support in our five largest markets, and at what cost each? | A player who has no card can’t buy from a card-only checkout, and each added method has its own price: Stripe charges 2% for Pix and $0.80 for iDEAL. |
| 24 | In which currencies can players pay, and who pays for conversion when they do? | Stripe’s Adaptive Pricing puts a 2–4% conversion cost into the price the player sees. |
| 25 | What approval rate do you achieve for traffic like ours, by market and method, and will you share it in a pilot? | Declined good payments are lost sales that no fee comparison shows. |
The payment methods guide lists what players use in each market.
Product fit: virtual currency and platform rules
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | Is in-game currency an allowed product under your acceptable use policy, in writing? | Paddle says it serves games, but its prohibited list includes “Virtual currency or stored value, including but not limited to store credit, gift cards, vouchers”. |
| 27 | Can the game open your checkout with the player already logged in, on a specific offer? | Apple’s US rules allow logged-in deep links to a web offer. Without them, the player signs in again at checkout. See Apple’s US rules. |
| 28 | Can we show link-outs and web offers only to players on storefronts that allow them? | Apple’s guideline 3.1.1(a) still bars calls to action outside the US storefront unless a regional rule applies. |
| 29 | Can web purchases be credited to the same account the player uses on iOS, Android and PC? | Apple’s guideline 3.1.3(b) lets players use web-bought consumables in iOS games if the same items are sold in-app. |
Data ownership and exit
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Who owns player and transaction data, and can we export all of it at any time? | Paddle states “your data is 100% yours and can be migrated to another provider if needed”. Get the equivalent sentence from every provider. |
| 31 | Can saved cards and active subscriptions move to a new provider when we leave, and at what cost? | If they can’t, every repeat buyer re-enters card details after a switch. |
| 32 | What may you do with our players’ data for your own purposes, and what happens when a player asks for deletion? | At Stripe Managed Payments, a player’s deletion request removes data “including objects in your Stripe account”. |
Contract
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | What is the term, how does it renew, and how much notice does each side need to end it? | Aghanim’s terms run 12 months, renew each year, and let either side end the contract for convenience on 30 days’ written notice. |
| 34 | Who sets the retail price the player pays? | Aghanim may set price “in our sole discretion” after consulting “in good faith”. Pricing control also affects whether you report revenue gross or net; see merchant of record accounting. |
| 35 | What is your liability cap, and does it cover lost funds and tax errors? | Aghanim caps its liability at “one month of Aghanim’s fee”. |
| 36 | How much notice do you give before raising fees, and on what grounds can you? | PayPal may raise its percentage fees “after giving you 30 days prior notice”. |
| 37 | Is the contract exclusive, and can we run a second provider in some markets? | Aghanim’s licence is non-exclusive; a second provider is your fallback if the first has an outage or drops your account. |
Support, service levels and financial strength
| # | Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | Who answers players’ payment questions, in which languages, and within what time? | A slow refund route pushes players to their bank, and every chargeback costs a fee. |
| 39 | What uptime do you commit to, with what service credits, and how do you handle launch-day peaks? | A checkout outage during a launch or live event loses sales you can’t recover. |
| 40 | Who owns you, how are you funded, and will you share audited accounts? | Your unpaid balance is a debt the provider owes you. Digital River “processed over $30 billion” at its peak and still failed. |
What to do with the answers
- Pick your model first: merchant of record, payment service provider, or a merchant of record now with a plan to move later.
- Shortlist three providers from the map that fit your platform and markets.
- Send all 40 questions to each. Treat any unanswered fee question as the worst published figure for that line.
- Enter each provider’s answers into the calculator with your own revenue, order size and market mix, and compare the totals, not the headline rates. Check their numbers against published provider fees and the line-by-line explanations in hidden fees.
- Have counsel read the reserve, termination, liability, price-setting and data clauses before you sign.
- Run a pilot in one market or on one offer before you move your whole catalog, and measure approval rate and dispute rate from the first week. The launch checklist covers the rollout.
Questions studios ask
What should I ask a game payments provider before signing?
Ask for every fee line in writing (including the ones it says it does not charge), days from sale to cash, reserves and holds, who pays the fee and the lost sale on a chargeback, where it files tax, whether in-game currency is allowed under its policies, who owns the data, and how you leave.
Should a game studio use a merchant of record or a payment service provider?
A merchant of record costs more per transaction and takes on sales tax, VAT and card network dispute exposure as the seller. A payment service provider is cheaper per transaction, and you register for tax in each market, file the returns and carry the dispute ratios yourself. If you have no tax and payments team, a merchant of record removes the registrations and filings you would otherwise staff.
Can I sell in-game currency through any merchant of record?
No. Check each provider’s acceptable use policy. Paddle says it serves games, but its prohibited list includes virtual currency or stored value. Get written confirmation that your products are allowed before you integrate.
Which game payments provider is the best?
It depends on your platforms, markets, order size and team. This page does not rank providers. Put each shortlisted provider’s written answers into the calculator with your own order size and market mix, and compare the totals.
Sources
- Aghanim Developer Terms · Aghanim · checked 19 Sep 2026
- Paddle pricing · Paddle · checked 19 Sep 2026
- What am I not allowed to sell on Paddle? · Paddle · updated 13 Apr 2026
- Understanding chargebacks with Paddle · Paddle
- When and how do I get paid? · Paddle
- Stripe pricing (US) · Stripe · checked 19 Sep 2026
- Managed Payments pricing · Stripe
- How Managed Payments works · Stripe
- Managed Payments eligibility · Stripe
- Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 disputes · Stripe
- Receive payouts · FastSpring
- FastSpring pricing · FastSpring
- Fees · Lemon Squeezy
- Lemon Squeezy 2026 update · Lemon Squeezy · 28 Jan 2026
- Payment service provider · Xsolla
- Payments FAQ · Xsolla
- Costs and payouts FAQ · Xsolla
- Stash merchant of record · Stash
- Understanding and lowering game payment processing fees · Stash · Jun 2024
- View financial reports · Appcharge
- Coda pricing · Coda · checked 19 Sep 2026
- Neon payments · Neon
- Nexus · Nexus
- Adyen pricing · Adyen
- Checkout.com pricing · Checkout.com
- PayPal business fees (US) · PayPal
- PayPal Braintree fees (US) · PayPal
- App Review Guidelines, sections 3.1.1(a) and 3.1.3(b) · Apple · checked 19 Sep 2026
- Sales, use and hotel occupancy tax: digital products · Pennsylvania Department of Revenue
- Council Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of VAT (consolidated 14 Apr 2025) · EUR-Lex
- One Stop Shop · European Commission
- US paytech Digital River reportedly shutting down · Fintech Futures · 11 Feb 2025
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