Freemius vs Tebex

Freemius is a merchant-of-record platform that handles software payments, subscriptions, taxes, licensing, fraud, and disputes. Its hosted or embedded checkout supports subscriptions, trials, licensing, cart recovery, and multiple currencies. Sellers can set trials of 7, 14, or 30 days, choose what features remain after expiry, and apply licensing rules that enable or disable features according to a customer’s plan. Customers can use a self-service portal to manage subscriptions, billing details, downloads, invoices, and licenses. Supported products include SaaS, desktop apps, Chrome extensions, Electron apps, and WordPress products. Named integrations include Zapier, Segment, Customer.io, HubSpot, and Mailchimp. Freemius says it calculates, collects, reports, and remits sales tax and VAT, and follows PCI DSS 4.0; it also says card details do not reach or remain on its servers. The company traces the platform to a micro-SaaS launched by its founder in 2010. Transaction pricing is 3.8% + 50¢ per transaction plus gateway fees; no setup or monthly fees are listed.

Tebex provides storefronts and payment processing for digital goods sold by game servers and studios. Its in-game stores and webstores can offer items, subscriptions, season passes, and DLCs, with options to customize the storefront. Developers can connect through Webstore Builder, Headless API, or Checkout API; the latter requires prior compliance approval and is not available to some user-generated-content creators, including FiveM and RedM creators. Tebex lists more than 130 local and global payment methods and says it acts as Merchant of Record, handling sales-tax calculation, collection, and remittance. Fraud detection and chargeback handling are included, and Tebex says it manages disputes. Official server plugins cover Minecraft, Hytale, Rust, ARK, and FiveM, which also has a built-in integration. The free Starter plan has a 5% platform fee for most games and 15% for FiveM. Plus costs £12.49/mo. New stores receive a free 90-day Plus trial without providing payment details.