Payments · working at 10,000 users · rates as read 29 Sept 2026
On free tier, Stripe is $0/month: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge and Creem is $0/month: 3.9% + $0.40 per successful transaction. On cheapest paid plan, Stripe does not publish it and Creem does not publish it. On rate above what's included, Stripe is +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is required, +0.5% for manually entered cards and Creem is No international-card surcharge. StackTab sells neither of these and takes no referral fee on either: it scores them. Every figure was read off the named company's own page on or since 2026-09-28; the URLs and the dates are at the foot of this page, and a job re-fetches each one on a schedule and fails when a figure is no longer on the page it came from.
2 compared · 3 criteria, identical for every column · every competitor figure read off that company's own page · last verified 2026-09-28
| Service | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| StripeThe default PSP. You stay the merchant, so sales tax and VAT stay yours.verified 21 Sept 2026stripe.com/pricing | $ | $ | $ |
| CreemMerchant of record at a flat 3.9%, aimed squarely at indie SaaS.drifted, last true 17 Sept 2026creem.io/pricing | $ | $ | $ |
- Sorted by the total at
- The default PSP. You stay the merchant, so sales tax and VAT stay yours.verified 21 Sept 2026stripe.com/pricing
- 1,000 users
- $
2121 Standard - 10,000 users
- $
214214 Standard - 100,000 users
- $
2,1402,140 Standard
- Merchant of record at a flat 3.9%, aimed squarely at indie SaaS.drifted, last true 17 Sept 2026creem.io/pricing
- 1,000 users
- $
2424 Standard · drifted - 10,000 users
- $
236236 Standard · drifted - 100,000 users
- $
2,3602,360 Standard · drifted
| Criterion | Stripe | Creem |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0/month: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge"No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees." The cost is entirely in the rate. | $0/month: 3.9% + $0.40 per successful transaction"Monthly fees $0. Setup fees $0." The FAQ states "You pay 3.9% + $0.40 per successful transaction. No setup fees, no monthly fees." The rate is unchanged since 8 September 2026; the page stopped abbreviating it as "per txn". |
| Cheapest paid plan | Not publishedStripe publishes one standard rate rather than a ladder of paid tiers; the page offers "Custom: design a custom package" for businesses with large payments volume, without a figure. | Not published"One simple price, pay as you go." Creem publishes a single rate and no paid tiers above it. A Partner plan for higher volume sits at the foot of the page at "Custom pricing", behind a call, with no figure on it. |
| Rate above what's included | +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is required, +0.5% for manually entered cardsThe headline 2.9% + 30¢ is the domestic-card floor. Every one of these surcharges is published as a number, which is the reason the arithmetic on this page works at all. | No international-card surchargeCreem's comparison table lists "No international card fees" as a difference from the others, which is why its effective rate on a worldwide customer base can land below a nominally similar 5% competitor. |
“Not published” means that company does not state the figure on the page cited at the foot of this page. It is not a claim that no such figure exists. A company that publishes no limit most likely has none, but “most likely” is not a fact, and this table prints what was read rather than what was inferred.
- Free tier: what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words
- Rate above what's included: the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one
Stripe: $0/month: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge. "No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees." The cost is entirely in the rate. Creem: $0/month: 3.9% + $0.40 per successful transaction. "Monthly fees $0. Setup fees $0." The FAQ states "You pay 3.9% + $0.40 per successful transaction. No setup fees, no monthly fees." The rate is unchanged since 8 September 2026; the page stopped abbreviating it as "per txn". Read from stripe.com and creem.io on 2026-09-28. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.
Stripe does not state it on stripe.com. Stripe publishes one standard rate rather than a ladder of paid tiers; the page offers "Custom: design a custom package" for businesses with large payments volume, without a figure. Creem does not state it on creem.io. "One simple price, pay as you go." Creem publishes a single rate and no paid tiers above it. A Partner plan for higher volume sits at the foot of the page at "Custom pricing", behind a call, with no figure on it. Read from stripe.com and creem.io on 2026-09-28.
Stripe: +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is required, +0.5% for manually entered cards. The headline 2.9% + 30¢ is the domestic-card floor. Every one of these surcharges is published as a number, which is the reason the arithmetic on this page works at all. Creem: No international-card surcharge. Creem's comparison table lists "No international card fees" as a difference from the others, which is why its effective rate on a worldwide customer base can land below a nominally similar 5% competitor. Read from stripe.com and creem.io on 2026-09-28. Rate above what's included here means the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one.
Stripe: Your customers are in the United States and will be for a while. Sales tax in a handful of states is a much smaller job than global VAT, Stripe is two points cheaper than every merchant of record here, and two points on real revenue is real money. Creem: You are selling worldwide and the lowest published rate is the thing that decides it. Creem is 3.9% + $0.40 with no monthly fee and states it charges no international-card surcharge: which on a customer base outside the United States makes it cheaper than the 5% providers by more than the headline gap suggests.
StackTab does not sell any of these and has nothing to gain from which one you choose: it scores them. Each case below is the one that option genuinely wins.
- Stripe: Your customers are in the United States and will be for a while. Sales tax in a handful of states is a much smaller job than global VAT, Stripe is two points cheaper than every merchant of record here, and two points on real revenue is real money.
- Creem: You are selling worldwide and the lowest published rate is the thing that decides it. Creem is 3.9% + $0.40 with no monthly fee and states it charges no international-card surcharge: which on a customer base outside the United States makes it cheaper than the 5% providers by more than the headline gap suggests.
Prices and limits move, and a page quoting a stale one is worth less than a page quoting none. Every source is printed here so a reader can check it against the day they are reading this, and a job re-fetches each of these URLs on a schedule and fails when a figure above no longer appears on the page it came from.
- Stripe: stripe.com/pricing: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-28.
- Creem: www.creem.io/pricing: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-28.
Last verified 2026-09-28. https://stacktab.thecompound.tech/compare/stripe-vs-creem