From 3.9% all in · No monthly fee · Test mode is open today
| Merchant-of-record platforms | CANDI | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the seller | The platform. Their name is on the charge and the invoice. | You. Your name is on the charge. |
| Whose payment account | Theirs. Your customers pay them. | Yours. You connect your own account. |
| Where the money lands | With them, then paid out to you on their schedule. | In your account, on your own payout schedule. CANDI never holds it. |
| Sales tax / VAT | They calculate, collect and remit it. | Yours. CANDI does not calculate, collect, remit or file it. |
| Who verifies you | They do, as part of onboarding. | Your payment provider does. Not us. |
| Chargebacks | Theirs to fight, under their terms. | Yours, on your own account. |
This is a structural comparison of the two billing models, not a claim about any one vendor. Business models change — check the vendor's own pricing and terms before you decide.
Creem is a merchant of record. It becomes the legal seller: the charge carries its name, the money arrives in its account, it handles cross-border sales tax, and it pays you out on a schedule. When we checked Creem's pricing page in July 2026 it listed 3.9% + $0.40 with automatic VAT, GST and sales tax collection and remittance across 50+ countries. Verify it yourself before deciding — we are not going to keep a competitor's price accurate on our own site.
That is a genuinely good deal if tax is your problem. Selling software across borders drags in VAT thresholds, GST registrations and filings that scale badly for a small team. An MoR makes all of it someone else's job, and CANDI does not compete with that. We do not do tax at all.
Because an MoR buys that compliance with your position in the transaction. You are no longer the seller. The customer's statement shows the platform's name, not yours. Refunds, chargebacks and payout timing run on their terms. If they offboard you, your revenue stops with them.
CANDI leaves you as the seller. You connect your own payment account, the charge is yours, the payout is on your own schedule, and CANDI never touches the money. What you get from us is the billing layer that a raw payment account does not have — checkout, subscriptions, licence keys, usage credits, discounts, affiliates and signed webhooks behind one API.
The trade is straightforward: Creem takes the tax problem and some of your independence. CANDI leaves you both.
If cross-border sales tax is the problem you are actually trying to solve, a merchant of record solves it and CANDI does not. That is a real reason to choose Creem, and we would rather say so here than have you find out after you migrate. Check their current pricing and terms directly — we deliberately do not restate them, because a number we copied today is a number that is wrong later.
The established MoR for software, deep compliance.
Popular with indie sellers; surcharges on the headline rate.
Developer-first MoR with tiers that cut the rate.
Creator storefront and marketplace, MoR, at a much higher rate.
The underlying decision, without a vendor attached.
From 3.9% all in · No monthly fee · Test mode is open today
Not meaningfully, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Our floor is from 3.9% all in and Creem listed 3.9% + $0.40 when we checked in July 2026. If you factor in the tax compliance Creem includes and CANDI does not, Creem may well be the better value for your situation. Choose on the model, not the rate.
No. CANDI does not calculate, collect, remit or file any tax, and every order books a zero tax line. That is the main thing you give up by choosing us over an MoR.
Not for live payments — those are not switched on yet. You can build the whole integration in test mode now.