Paddle vs Vandly: Best Merchant of Record for Creators?

The Paddle vs Vandly question comes down to one thing: which platform was actually built for you.

Selling digital products globally sounds straightforward. Build something, set a price, get paid. But the moment you try to do it compliantly, collecting the right VAT in Germany, handling sales tax in Texas, issuing a proper invoice for a customer in Japan, things get complicated fast.

Merchant of Record platforms exist to solve this problem. They become the legal seller in your transactions, handling taxes, invoices, and compliance on your behalf.

Paddle is one of the most well-known MoR platforms and it’s excellent for what it was built for: established SaaS companies with engineering teams and consistent revenue. But if you’re a freelancer, indie developer, or digital creator without a registered company, Paddle wasn’t built with you in mind.

That’s exactly the gap Vandly was designed to fill.

Related: Merchant of Record for Creators: 7 Things You Must Know

What is a Merchant of Record?

Before comparing Paddle vs Vandly directly, it helps to understand what both platforms do. A Merchant of Record (MoR) is a company that acts as the legal seller of your products to end customers. When someone buys your template, app, or ebook, they’re technically buying from the MoR — not directly from you.

This means the MoR takes on responsibility for:

• Calculating and collecting the correct VAT, GST, or sales tax based on the customer’s location
• Remitting those taxes to the relevant authorities globally
• Issuing compliant invoices and receipts
• Managing chargebacks and payment disputes

You can handle all of this yourself or you can partner with a Merchant of Record platform and focus entirely on building and selling.

Related: Sales Tax on Digital Products: 15 Key Countries

Paddle vs Vandly: Platform Backgrounds

Paddle is a UK-based Merchant of Record that’s become the go-to billing infrastructure for SaaS companies scaling globally. For a software business with consistent monthly recurring revenue, a development team, and a need for enterprise-grade compliance, Paddle delivers.

According to Paddle’s own positioning, the platform targets “software companies at every stage” that has notably shifted away from the indie creator audience it once served.

Vandly is an EU-based Merchant of Record (registered in Estonia) built specifically for individual creators, freelancers, and small digital product businesses. The premise: you create and sell — Vandly handles everything else.

Related: Sell Digital Products Without a Company: 5 Proven Steps

Paddle vs Vandly: 5 Key Differences

Difference #1: Who Can Use It

In the Paddle vs Vandly comparison, this is the first wall most creators hit with Paddle.

Paddle’s onboarding process typically requires business details, a company registration, or a tax ID. Many individual creators and freelancers find they can’t complete onboarding without a formal business entity. Minimum revenue requirements apply in some cases.

Vandly is designed from the ground up for individuals. No company registration. No business account. No waiting for manual approval. Sign up, create a payment link, and start selling the same day.

Difference #2: Fees

The Paddle vs Vandly fee comparison looks very different depending on what you’re selling.

Paddle charges 5% + $0.50 per transaction. The fixed $0.50 hits especially hard on low-ticket products — on a $9 template, that’s $0.95 in fixed fees alone before the percentage is applied. Combined fees can exceed 10% at lower price points.

Vandly charges 2% + payment processing per transaction. No fixed per-sale fee. No international surcharge. The same rate applies whether your customer is in Germany, Australia, or the US — predictable and significantly cheaper across most creator price points.

On a $49 product: Paddle charges ~$2.95 (6%+), Vandly charges ~$0.98 (2%) plus payment processing. On a $9 product: Paddle charges ~$0.95 (10%+), Vandly charges ~$0.18 (2%) plus payment processing.

Difference #3: Setup Speed 

Getting approved on Paddle can take days or longer. The process requires business details, product descriptions, and manual review. For a creator who wants to launch today, that friction is a real barrier.

In the Paddle vs Vandly setup comparison, Vandly takes minutes. Create your account, create a payment link for your product, and share it anywhere — your website, social bio, email list, or community. No coding, no complex integration, no waiting period.

Difference #4: VAT Compliance

Both Paddle and Vandly handle VAT and sales tax as Merchant of Record platforms. But for creators just starting out, the Paddle vs Vandly compliance comparison favours Vandly in accessibility. Vandly’s coverage kicks in automatically from sale one — no minimum revenue threshold, no manual setup, no VAT registration required from you.

Under the EU’s ViDA 2025 rules, VAT applies from the very first sale to an EU customer, regardless of revenue. Both platforms cover this — but Vandly is purpose-built to make it seamless for individuals, whereas Paddle assumes a business infrastructure already exists behind the seller.

Difference #5: Product Flexibility — Subscriptions-First vs. Everything

Paddle’s infrastructure is optimised for subscription billing — recurring revenue, churn analytics, and subscription lifecycle management. This is powerful for SaaS, but most creators don’t primarily sell subscriptions. They sell templates, ebooks, courses, plugins, and one-time digital downloads.

The Paddle vs Vandly flexibility gap is clearest here. Vandly supports both one-time products and subscriptions from a simple payment link model. Share a link, customer pays, you get paid. No subscription-first architecture standing between you and a straightforward sale.

Paddle vs Vandly — Feature Comparison

Why Creators Choose Vandly Over Paddle

For creators evaluating both platforms, the decision usually comes down to five things:

• No barriers. Start selling without registering a company
• Lower cost. Keep significantly more of each sale with lower, transparent fees
• Product flexibility. Sell one-time products, digital services, and downloads — not just subscriptions
• Compliance from day one. VAT, Sales Tax, and invoicing handled automatically from the first sale
• Faster launch. Get a payment link live in minutes, not after a week-long approval process

For freelancers packaging their expertise, indie developers launching tools, or designers selling templates — Vandly removes every bureaucratic barrier between you and your first sale.

Who Should Use Which Platform?

Conclusion

Paddle is a well-built platform — for the right audience. If you’re running an established SaaS company with recurring revenue, an engineering team, and a need for enterprise-level billing infrastructure, Paddle delivers.

But for the growing population of global creators, freelancers, and indie developers who want to sell digital products without setting up a company, navigating complex onboarding, or paying 5–10% per transaction — Paddle simply wasn’t designed for you.

Vandly was. Lower fees, instant setup, automatic tax compliance, global payouts, and no company required. It’s everything you need to sell your first digital product today — and scale from there.

Sell smarter. Stay compliant. And keep more of what you earn.

Your product is ready. Your customers are global. If you want to sell digital products worldwide without dealing with payment infrastructure, VAT registrations, or tax filings in countries you’ve never heard of — Vandly takes care of all of it.

Create your free payment link at Vandly