Paddle is a merchant of record (MoR) for companies that sell software, apps and other digital products, made by Paddle.com Market Ltd. A merchant of record is the legal entity that sells to the end customer: its name appears on the card statement, and it carries the duties of the sale, such as collecting sales tax, PCI compliance (the card industry's security rules), refunds and chargebacks.
With an MoR, each sale is two transactions: the customer buys from Paddle, which acts as a reseller, and a second transaction runs between Paddle and the software company. Paddle Billing provides a localized checkout that a business embeds in its website or app, multi-product subscriptions, invoicing, fraud protection and reporting; Paddle says it manages payments, tax and compliance in more than 300 markets. Two further products are ProfitWell Metrics, free subscription analytics, and Retain, which recovers failed payments and reduces cancellations.
Paddle is a hosted service. The standard price is a fee on each checkout transaction, with no monthly fee; high-volume businesses can ask for custom pricing.