Guide · Payments
Merchant of Record examples, counted
112 of the 851 products in our library (13.2%) use a merchant of record instead of collecting payments themselves. That is not a niche — one product in eight has handed tax, refunds and chargeback liability to someone else. Here is who they picked, and how the four roles actually differ.
Revenue as of 2026-10-30 · sample: 851 products that publish revenue · 435 report a non-zero MRR
Products using a MoR
112
13.2% of 851
Most used MoR
Dodo
46 products
Stripe users (PSP)
341
40.1% — still the default
Who uses which
Counted from the payment provider each product declares, plus the billing SDKs detected in its tech stack. A product can use more than one, so the column does not add up to 100%.
| Provider | Type | Products | Share of sample | Median MRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | PSP | 341 | 40.1% | $183 |
| RevenueCat | Billing / IAP | 74 | 8.7% | $77 |
| Dodo Payments | MoR | 46 | 5.4% | $84 |
| Polar | MoR | 38 | 4.5% | $39 |
| Lemon Squeezy | MoR | 14 | 1.6% | $66 |
| Paddle | MoR | 12 | 1.4% | $30 |
| Creem | MoR | 6 | 0.7% | $24 |
| Superwall | Billing / IAP | 4 | 0.5% | $54 |
This is a lower bound, not market share: only products that list the provider in their stack or verification record are counted.
Four roles, one table
The confusion around "merchant of record" comes from mixing four different jobs into one word. They differ on exactly two things: who is the legal seller, and who absorbs the loss.
| Role | Legal seller | Tax & remittance | Chargebacks / refunds | Name on statement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant of record | Provider | Provider | Provider | Provider |
| Payment processor (PSP) | You | You (tools only) | You | Your brand |
| Payment facilitator (PayFac) | Provider (sub-merchant) | Provider | Provider | Provider |
| Seller of record | You | You | You | Your brand |
Stripe is a PSP by default. Stripe Tax computes tax; it does not make Stripe the seller. MoR-by-Stripe exists only in specific products.
When a MoR is worth it
Use a MoR when
- You sell digital subscriptions in many countries at once, and VAT/GST registration is the bottleneck.
- You have no finance person and no appetite for chargeback paperwork.
- Your buyers are consumers, where card disputes are a routine cost.
- You want one invoice and one tax line per country.
Stripe is enough when
- You sell B2B to a handful of countries and buyers can self-account for tax.
- You need the lowest effective rate and are willing to own compliance.
- You rely on Stripe-specific features (Radar, Connect, billing portals).
- You already have an accountant who files in those jurisdictions.
Products on a MoR, with numbers
Ten products from the same sample that declare a MoR. Rates change, so we do not publish any — check each provider’s current page before deciding.
| Product | Category | MRR | Revenue · 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| KitchenDesign | SaaS | $2,056 | $2,008 |
| Aarivi | AI | $1,609 | $2,043 |
| AI Toolbox | AI | $1,314 | $22,722 |
| ApparelAI | Mobile Apps | $1,020 | $1,394 |
| AssignmentGPT.AI | Education | $605 | $421 |
| AI Directories | Marketing | $554 | $7,890 |
| AgenKit | Dev Tools | $473 | $3,080 |
| FLEART AI | AI | $243 | $124 |
| AnyTest | Dev Tools | $228 | $224 |
| AnyRouter | Dev Tools | $144 | $162 |
The number that matters is not the rate
Questions people actually search
Merchant of record examples?
In our library 112 of 851 products (13.2%) use a MoR. Dodo Payments leads with 46, then Polar 38, Lemon Squeezy 14, Paddle 12, Creem 6.
What is a merchant of record?
The legal seller of the product to the end customer. The MoR takes on tax registration and remittance, chargeback liability and refunds, and its name appears on the customer statement.
Merchant of record vs payment processor?
A payment processor only moves money and settles to your account; you remain the seller, so tax and chargebacks stay with you. A MoR replaces you as the seller of record. Stripe is a processor plus tax tooling — it is not a MoR by default.
Is Stripe a merchant of record?
No, by default. Stripe processes payments and sells tax calculation, but the seller of record is you. Stripe can act as MoR only through specific products (for example Stripe Managed Payments), which is a different contract.
Merchant of record for digital products?
Digital goods are where MoR usage concentrates, because VAT/GST on intangible sales hits every country at once. That is also why most products in our sample that sell worldwide digital subscriptions end up on a MoR.
Best merchant of record for SaaS?
There is no single answer, and we do not rank providers. What the data shows: 13.2% of products use one, and the mix is fragmented — no provider in our sample is used by more than 5.4% of products.
Related: Dodo Payments vs Stripe · Polar vs Stripe · Creem vs Stripe
Method: 851 products in our library that publish revenue through a payment provider, crawled 2026-10-30. 435 of them report a non-zero MRR; medians and percentiles are computed on that subset only. Missing values are never treated as zero. This is the population that chooses to publish revenue — not the whole market.