200+ paying customers and endless headaches with Lemon Squeezy later, we switched to Paddle: Not all that glitters is gold! 💔
I have a story that might save you some headaches (and money). You know those moments when you think, "I SHOULD've KNOWN BETTER"? Yeah, this is one of those... 🫠
The Setup:
Launched our pricing plans for PostNitro in May 2024. Being excited (and a bit naive), we went with Lemon Squeezy because:
- Everyone was raving about it
- Super quick onboarding (like, ready in a week!)
- Advertised fees seemed reasonable (5% + 50¢)
- The modern interface looked promising
Fast forward 6 months, 200+ customers later...
The Plot Twist(s):
Remember those "reasonable" fees? Turns out there were some surprise guests at the party:
- Cart recovery fees
- Payout fees
- The advertised processing fee
All these little "surprises" start adding up when you're processing serious revenue. Fun times! 🙃
But fees weren't even the main issue. The real nightmare?
Things started breaking. A lot.
- Payouts randomly moved to the next month
- Previous month's refunds appeared unexpectedly in the new payout
- Users getting refunded, expired, and resumed all in one minute (???)
- Users getting flagged for "possible" chargeback and getting refunded automatically with no heads-up
- Complete checkout failures lasting HOURS
- Support responding with "We're overloaded due to Stripe acquisition."
As a founder, watching your payment system glitch while you're trying to scale... it's a special kind of stress. The kind that keeps you up at 3 AM wondering if you'll wake up to more surprises. 😮💨
The Breaking Point:
After one too many issues and support conversations leading nowhere, we made the call: time to switch.
Plot Twist 2 - The Good One:
I moved to Paddle last week (specifically Paddle Billing, which is way better than their classic version). I was honestly scared about the transition, but:
- Quick onboarding (also about a week)
- Super responsive support (they even reply on Twitter!)
- Clear pricing structure
- And most importantly? Everything. Just. Works.
4 new customers since switching last Friday, and for the first time in months, I'm not checking my payment system every hour expecting something to break. 😅
Lessons Learned (so you don't have to):
- Research BEYOND the advertised fees - ask about ALL possible charges
- Don't fall for the hype - new doesn't always mean better
- Test customer support BEFORE committing (seriously, send them some questions)
- Look for detailed product documentation
- Ask other founders about their experiences (with actual revenue)
For founders evaluating payment providers:
- Be skeptical of everything that looks too good to be true
- Document ALL your requirements (including edge cases)
- Think about scale - what works at 10 customers might break at 100
- Consider support quality as a MAJOR factor
- Read those terms of service (yeah, the boring stuff)
I'm still a bit skeptical (trauma does that to you 😅), but it feels good to finally have this sorted.
I would love to hear about your payment provider experiences—good or bad. Let's help each other avoid these expensive lessons!
Also, we are still maintaining our old customers on Lemon Squeezy and have decided to keep all new customers on Paddle starting 1 November.
