Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy vs Polar — 2026 honest fee comparison

Real fee math at 5 GMV scenarios + 4 non-price dimensions most comparisons miss. Written by an indie dev who ships to all three.

✓5 GMV scenarios · 4 non-price dimensions | ✓2026 verified fees · updated May | ✓0 signup required · no data collected | → $25 bundle (4 packs, save 30%)

TL;DR

Polar (4%) is cheapest if you don't need PayPal. Gumroad 5% plan wins on trust signals and is nearly tied on fees. Lemon Squeezy looks cheap on paper (5% base) but stacks +1.5% intl, +0.5% subscription, +1.5% PayPal, +5% abandoned cart, often landing higher than the others in real scenarios.

If you're already on Gumroad and below $1k MRR, don't migrate — fee savings won't beat trust signal loss during cold start.

Real fee table (verified 2026-05)

Dimension	Gumroad	Lemon Squeezy	Polar
Base fee	10% (old) / 5% + $0.50 (new)	5% + $0.50	4% + $0.40
International card	included	+1.5%	+1.5%
PayPal	not supported	+1.5%	not supported
Subscription	n/a	+0.5%	+0.5%
Abandoned cart recovery	n/a	+5%	n/a
Affiliate referral	n/a	+3%	n/a
Chargeback	$15-25	$15	$15
Monthly fee	$0	$0	$0
Account approval	instant	2-7 days	instant
Min payout	$100	$50	$100
Merchant of Record	yes	yes	yes

5 real-scenario calculations

Scenario A: $25 one-time digital bundle (e.g. my Indie Toolkit)

Platform	Net per sale	Loss
Gumroad 10%	$22.50	$2.50
Gumroad 5%+$0.50	$23.25	$1.75
Lemon Squeezy (intl)	$22.42	$2.58
Polar (intl)	$22.73	$2.27

At $25 SKU, all three within $1. Pick on non-price factors below.

Scenario B: $99 one-time (e.g. consulting intake fee)

Platform	Net per sale	Loss
Gumroad 10%	$89.10	$9.90
Gumroad 5%+$0.50	$93.55	$5.45
Lemon Squeezy (intl)	$92.55	$6.45
Polar (intl)	$93.62	$5.38

Scenario C: $10/month SaaS subscription, international card

Platform	Monthly net	Annual net	12-mo loss
Lemon Squeezy	$8.80	$105.60	$99.40
Polar	$8.96	$107.52	$12.48

Gumroad doesn't support SaaS subscriptions well — excluded here.

Scenario D: $5,000/month GMV (mixed bundle + intake fees)

Platform	Monthly platform fee	Net
Gumroad 10%	$500	$4,500
Gumroad 5%+$0.50	$280	$4,720
Lemon Squeezy	$345	$4,655
Polar	$299	$4,701

At this scale, Polar ≈ Gumroad 5% > Lemon Squeezy > Gumroad 10%.

Scenario E: $25,000/month GMV (annual perspective)

Platform	Monthly fee	Annual fee
Gumroad 10%	$2,500	$30,000
Gumroad 5%+$0.50	$1,400	$16,800
Lemon Squeezy	$1,725	$20,700
Polar	$1,495	$17,940

At $300k/year, Gumroad 10% costs $12,060 more than Polar. If you're on the old Gumroad plan and crossing $5k/month, request the 5% plan or migrate.

4 non-price dimensions most comparisons skip

1. Trust signals (cold-start conversion impact)

Platform	Public reviews	Sales counter	Cold-start conversion
Gumroad	strong	visible by default	baseline (highest)
Lemon Squeezy	some per product	partial	−10-15%
Polar	none yet (too new)	not shown	−15-25%

For sub-$50 SKUs, Gumroad's trust signals often offset its higher fees. Polar is best when you have external brand (Twitter following, Substack list).

2. Asian buyer payment friction

Platform	China mainland	Hong Kong / Taiwan	Japan	Southeast Asia
Gumroad	card friction	OK	OK	OK (PayPal)
Lemon Squeezy	card friction	OK	OK	OK (PayPal)
Polar	card friction	OK	OK	no PayPal

3. Product type fit

Platform	One-time digital	SaaS subscription	Usage-based	License keys
Gumroad	★★★★★	★★	—	basic
Lemon Squeezy	★★★★	★★★★★	★★	complete
Polar	★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	complete + GitHub integration

4. Cross-currency settlement (matters for non-US sellers)

All three settle to Stripe Express or PayPal/wire. Tax filing still your responsibility in your jurisdiction (the MoR handles VAT/sales tax for the buyer side).

Decision matrix — which to pick

Pick Polar if: you have an external audience already (Twitter, Substack, blog), you sell SaaS or usage-based products, your buyers are US/EU and don't need PayPal.

Pick Gumroad if: you're cold-starting (no audience yet), you sell one-time digital products, your buyers include Southeast Asia (PayPal users), or you want trust signals (review counter, public sales).

Pick Lemon Squeezy if: you sell to EU and need bulletproof VAT compliance, you specifically need built-in affiliate management, or you've already invested in their integrations. Otherwise, Polar usually wins on fees and Gumroad on trust.

The most counterintuitive finding

Lemon Squeezy is often more expensive than its 5% base suggests. Stacked fees (international card +1.5%, subscription +0.5%, PayPal +1.5%, abandoned cart +5%, affiliate +3%) can push effective rates to 8-12% in realistic scenarios. Gumroad 5% plan is flat 5%; Polar is 4% + 1.5% intl = 5.5% flat. So LS's "lowest base fee" rarely translates to lowest actual fee.

Only scenario where LS clearly wins: EU customers are >50% of your buyers and you need their VAT compliance UX.

What I actually use

I'm an indie dev based in Japan, selling to a mixed China/US/JP audience. My current stack:

Gumroad for the $25 one-time bundle (cold-start trust signals matter more than 1% fee difference)
note.com for Japanese paid articles (10%+5% admin = 15% effective; only platform with real Japanese SEO and PayPay/d-barai support — see my note.com vs Gumroad research)
Polar reserved for when I add SaaS/subscription tier (to be evaluated at $1k MRR)
Stripe direct for B2B consulting (not MoR — I file my own taxes there)

Full transparency on revenue (currently $0 — yes, really) is at /transparency.

Need a decision matrix for your own toolkit?

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Resources

Gumroad — official
Lemon Squeezy — official
Polar.sh — official
My open-source toolkit (includes the research markdown sources for this page)