Lemon Squeezy vs PayWhirl
Lemon Squeezy
lemonsqueezy.com
PayWhirl
paywhirl.comSide by side
| Figure | Lemon Squeezy | PayWhirl |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $9/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 11 |
| Spec score · Subscription Ecommerce Software | 8.9 (#3) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Analytics | The dashboard reports metrics including MRR, refunds and average order value. | Reporting includes MRR, ARR, customer lifetime value, churn, payment calendars, geographic data and growth forecasts. |
| Integrations | Official integrations listed are ConvertKit, Mailchimp and Zapier; external tutorials cover Framer and ParityDeals. | The integration directory lists Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, ShipStation, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Zapier, ReferralCandy and ShareASale. |
| Legal entity | The website footer identifies the operating entity as Sold through Link, LLC, formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC. | Crunchbase identifies the legal name as PayWhirl Inc., with founders Ryan Pfleger and Brandon Swift and a 1–10-person headcount. |
| Payment recovery | Built-in tools target abandoned carts and failed payments with timed emails, retries and analytics. | The product supports automatic retries and actions for failed recurring payments. |
| Product | Lemon Squeezy is an all-in-one platform for SaaS businesses selling digital downloads, subscriptions, and software licenses. | PayWhirl provides subscription billing software for subscriptions, memberships, payment plans, and recurring invoices. |
| Rating on Capterra | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. | 4.3 out of 5 from 16 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. | 4.2 out of 5 from 12 reviews |
| Security | Terms state that Lemon Squeezy uses encryption, incident-management and backup processes and is responsible for cardholder-data security under PCI-DSS. | PayWhirl says its platform uses HTTPS with TLS 1.2 and reports PCI DSS 4.0 compliance. |
| Webhooks | Webhooks provide real-time event notifications, including customer, order, subscription and license events. | Webhooks send JSON event notifications to merchant servers and can feed third-party services through their APIs. |
| What it does | Lemon Squeezy is a merchant-of-record platform for selling digital products, software, subscriptions and licenses. | PayWhirl provides subscription management and recurring-billing software for ecommerce merchants and custom websites. |
| Who it serves | The company describes its platform as serving startups, software companies, and digital creators selling digital products. | The service is described for merchants using BigCommerce, custom websites, and a separate Shopify application. |
Plans
Lemon Squeezy
- EcommerceFree
- Email marketingFree
- ecommerce$550, paid once
- Ecommerce$550, paid once
- email marketingPrice not published
- Email marketingPrice not published
PayWhirl
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- StarterFree
- StarterFree
- Pro$9 a month
- Traction$29 a month
- Business Pro$49 a month
- Business Plus$149 a month
- Scale$149 a month
- Business Ultimate$249 a month
In their own words
Lemon Squeezy
Lemon Squeezy is an all-in-one platform for SaaS businesses selling digital downloads, subscriptions, and software licenses. It says it acts as merchant of record for digital sales taxes and compliance. Merchants can embed no-code checkout forms on an existing site or share checkout links; its no-code and API solutions support 20+ payment methods and global bank payouts. Subscription billing can run weekly, monthly, or yearly, with management for upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, and free trials. The platform can issue software license keys and provides signed, throttled download links. Lemon Squeezy says its fraud protections use machine learning and real-time analytics to identify suspicious transactions. Its REST API documentation states a limit of 300 calls per minute, and documented integrations include ConvertKit, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Ecommerce has no monthly charge and costs 5% + $0.50 per transaction when sales are generated, with sales tax collection and remittance included. Email marketing is free for up to 500 subscribers. Lemon Squeezy was founded in 2019.
PayWhirl
PayWhirl provides subscription billing software for memberships, payment plans, recurring invoices, and recurring subscriptions. It also supports installments, retainers, pre-orders, donations, manual subscriptions, and one-time payments. For recurring billing, it automates scheduled charges, invoices, emails, retries, and dunning. Customers can manage payment methods, billing details, and subscription changes in a self-service portal, subject to merchant settings. Reporting covers MRR and ARR, customer lifetime value, churn, payment calendars, geographic reporting, and growth forecasting. Merchants can connect through embeddable widgets, hosted payment links, API access, webhooks, or custom scripts. Listed integrations include Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Stripe, Square, PayPal, Authorize.Net, Braintree, ShipStation, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, and Zapier. PayWhirl says it supports over 10 gateways and major cards in more than 100 currencies, depending on gateway capabilities. Plans include free options and paid plans from $9 a month; a 14-day free trial is available for paid plans. Transaction fees are additional to payment gateway or processor fees.