When Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy in 2024, it sparked curiosity among Lemon Squeezy users and others in the industry about what changes lay ahead.
On April 29th, 2025, the first big announcement came: a new product called Stripe Managed Payments, Stripe’s take on the Merchant of Record (MoR) model.
It’s designed to simplify taxes, compliance, and international payments, but with some added flexibility, like choosing when to use MoR on a transaction-by-transaction basis.
There's a lot to like about this new offering from Stripe. But the bigger question for most sellers should be this:
Is giving up control to a Merchant of Record the right move for your digital product business?
Here at Checkout Page, we don’t think so. And we'll explain why.
What is Stripe Managed Payments?
Due for release this summer, Managed Payments is Stripe’s new built-in Merchant of Record solution, which can be selectively applied to transactions.
It handles the complex parts of global selling for anyone selling digital products such as SaaS, software, downloads, and other digital content.
Stripe Managed Payments will:
- Collect and remit sales tax and VAT
- Provide fraud protection and chargeback resolution
- Manage compliance with international financial laws
- Offer support services for customers
- Take on the legal liability for transactions
Who is not eligible for Stripe Managed Payments?
Products that are not eligible for the service are:
❌ Physical goods of any kind
❌ Donations or charitable giving where no specific product exists
❌ Services including marketing, design, web development, consulting, or other related services
How does Stripe Managed Payments work?
Stripe Managed Payments works by making Stripe the legal Merchant of Record for a transaction. This means Stripe—not you—is the official seller responsible for tax, compliance, and customer support. You can apply it selectively per transaction, allowing flexibility across products or regions.
The idea is that you can offload these responsibilities and "focus on growing your business," as Lemon Squeezy’s team put it.
Perhaps the most innovative feature is its transaction-level MoR structure. Instead of turning your whole Stripe account into an MoR relationship, you can selectively apply it by product, region, or use case.
This adaptability seems like smart infrastructure and represents an impressive technical accomplishment. However, the MoR model, no matter how flexible, still introduces structural disadvantages that most sellers don’t fully recognize initially.
The disadvantages of using a Merchant of Record service like Stripe Managed Payments
Based on first impressions, the Merchant of Record model can seem like a dream: everything is handled for you, there is little risk, and there is no need to navigate the tangled web of global tax compliance.
Phew!
But.. the price of that convenience is a loss of control, and, ultimately, ownership.
Here are the significant trade-offs sellers must accept when they choose a MoR platform like Stripe Managed Payments:
1. You are no longer the seller, legally or practically
With MoR, the provider becomes the merchant. That means:
- They appear on the buyer’s bank statement
- They take legal responsibility for the sale
- They may set or influence transaction policies
From the customer’s point of view, the purchase is with Stripe or Lemon Squeezy, not you. This dilutes your brand visibility at a critical point in the buyer journey and impedes your customer relationships on an ongoing basis.
2. Your customer is not really your customer
The most overlooked consequence of MoR platforms is customer ownership. Because MoR is the legal seller, the relationship belongs to them, not you.
What does this mean?
- Customer emails are routed through the MoR
- Support channels are branded to them, not you
- Refunds, disputes, and post-purchase interactions may bypass you entirely.
As a result, your ability to build loyalty, gather feedback, and remarket is severely limited. You’re essentially licensing customer access from someone else.
3. You sacrifice transparency and insight
MoR platforms typically limit your access to detailed customer transaction data. That’s a problem for any seller trying to optimize product-market fit or build a high-converting sales funnel.
Without complete insight into:
- Buyer behavior
- Purchase frequency
- Refund trends
- Funnel drop-off points
…it becomes much harder to improve your product or tailor your messaging.
4. You lose pricing, refund, and dispute flexibility
Stripe Managed Payments promises ease of use, but that ease comes with guardrails. MoR platforms often enforce standardized refund windows, tax policies, or dispute handling workflows.
While that may seem fine for one-size-fits-all digital products, it becomes a limitation when you:
- Sell high-ticket items or limited-access content
- Operate in niche or regulated spaces
- Need flexibility in billing, trials, or subscription management
Particularly as your business matures, these constraints often turn into frustrating bottlenecks.
5. Platform dependency increases your operational risk
When Stripe is your MoR, they control the transaction. That creates exposure:
- If Stripe changes MoR pricing, your margins shrink
- If they alter the terms of service, you have to adapt quickly
- If there’s a service outage or policy shift, your revenue pipeline is affected
Over time, MoR relationships centralize risk in one provider. The convenience you gain can turn into a liability down the line.
Why Checkout Page doesn't act as an MoR
Our platform takes a fundamentally different approach. We are built for sellers who want complete control of their revenue, customer relationships, and growth. That’s why we intentionally do not act as a Merchant of Record.
Instead, we give you all the tools you need to:
- Accept payments globally through Stripe
- Manage subscriptions, products, and checkout experiences
- Handle tax collection and compliance with add-ons like Stripe Tax
- Control refunds, dispute processes, and customer communication
The key difference? You are always the seller.
That means:
- Your name is on every transaction
- Payments go straight to your Stripe account, not ours
- You decide your refund policy, your price points, and your business rules.
- You own your customer data and relationship forever.
We support your business, but don’t insert ourselves into it by acting as a middleman.
We’re not saying Stripe Managed Payments has no value. It can be a fantastic stepping stone for specific creators and teams, especially those new to selling internationally.
It could be helpful if:
- You’re testing a new product or market and need fast compliance coverage
- You want a no-maintenance solution for taxes and billing
- You’re willing to trade ownership for simplicity
But if you aim to build a sustainable, brand-first business where you control the customer experience and grow on your terms, we believe a non-MoR model is the better choice.
We believe the future belongs to independent sellers
Stripe and Lemon Squeezy are building innovative, scalable tools, and Stripe Managed Payments is a clever way to evolve the Merchant of Record model. However, for many digital sellers, MoR models solve one problem while creating another: dependency.
At our core, we believe sellers should own their brand, data, and customer relationships.
🤹🏽♂️ No middleman.
🔒 No lock-in.
⚡ Just powerful, flexible tools that help you grow on your own terms.
How Checkout Page helps sellers who value total control and flexibility
Checkout Page offers a fundamentally different approach for creators, educators, and digital entrepreneurs who want to maintain full control over their business.
Here's how we support sellers who want maximum ownership, transparency, and customization:
1. You're always the legal seller
With Checkout Page, you remain the merchant of record. That means:
- Your name appears on your customer’s bank statement
- You control every transaction and refund policy
- Funds go directly to your own Stripe account
- You own the customer relationship from start to finish
We provide the infrastructure to help you scale, but we never take ownership of your revenue, data, or brand experience.
2. Fully white-labeled branding
You can fully brand your checkout experience; no Checkout Page logos or links. Add your logo, colors, and favicon, use your custom domain, and even send confirmation emails from a custom email domain.
3. Unlimited, embeddable checkout pages
You’re not limited to one checkout setup. Create unlimited checkout pages, event registration pages, and form-based checkouts and embed them anywhere:
- Your website
- A sales funnel
- A landing page
- A blog post
You can also create hosted links, pop-ups, and QR code checkouts, giving you total distribution flexibility.
4. Completely custom payment flows
Checkout Page lets you design checkouts your way, with:
- One-time payments
- Subscriptions
- Payment plans
- Pay-what-you-want models
- Donations
- Trial periods, setup fees, billing anchors, and more
We also support multi-step checkouts, enabling complex workflows like forms before payment and custom fields without writing a line of code.
5. Full control over customer data and fields
You can collect exactly the data you need with custom fields, including:
- Text input, dropdowns, checkboxes, and multi-selects
- Shipping address, Tax ID, and hidden prefilled fields
- Required fields and conditional logic
This means you can personalize the checkout experience, qualify leads, or trigger follow-up workflows using tools like Zapier, webhooks, or Google Sheets.
6. Unlimited product variants and inventory management
Checkout Page gives you fine-grained control over your digital products:
- Offer unlimited product variants and pricing tiers
- Attach different file downloads to each variant
- Set stock limits and manage SKUs
- Use conditional logic to show or hide options based on buyer input
Perfect for creators selling courses, licenses, downloadable content, or limited-run products.
7. Built-in revenue boosters
Boost order value with:
- Unlimited order bumps: Cross-sell additional products on the checkout page
- One-click upsells: Post-checkout offers without re-entering card info
- Discount codes: Create fixed, percentage-based, or volume discounts
- Tiered pricing and dynamic "from" pricing display
These tools let you test pricing strategies and grow revenue without depending on platform fees or rigid structures.
8. Global payments
Checkout Page connects directly to your Stripe account to accept:
- Credit/debit cards
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- ACH, SEPA, and international bank debits
- Buy now, pay later services (Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm)
- Invoice payments and cash on delivery
- Deposits, split payments, and pay-in-full options
You can also enable Stripe Tax to automate global tax collection while retaining full control.
9. Transparent analytics and customer insights
With full access to your data, you can:
- Track conversion rates, page views, UTM sources, and referrers
- View payment history and performance breakdowns
- Export customer and sales data to CSV
- Receive a weekly sales summary by email
There’s no guessing. You see exactly what’s working and where your customers come from, which gives you a huge advantage.
10. A better customer experience on your terms
Your customers get a fully branded customer portal where they can:
- View payment history
- Download files
- Manage subscriptions
- Update payment methods
- Cancel subscriptions on your terms (immediate or end-of-cycle)
With magic link login, there’s no need for passwords. It’s a frictionless, on-brand experience that feels like a natural extension of your business.
Concluding thoughts
There’s no doubt that Stripe Managed Payments is a thoughtful, well-engineered evolution of the Merchant of Record model. Its transaction-level flexibility makes it a potentially valuable solution for digital sellers looking to simplify global compliance, tax management, and customer support.
It could be a smart, low-maintenance choice for some, especially solo creators testing new markets or early-stage teams prioritizing simplicity.
But there are two sides to every coin. Managed Payments' convenience comes at a cost: control.
Checkout Page champions independent sellers, creators, educators, and digital entrepreneurs who want to build resilient, innovative businesses with strong customer connections and minimal platform dependency.
If you want to grow a brand that’s fully in your hands, then a non-MoR model isn’t just a technical choice. It’s a strategic one.
Ready to take full ownership of your business?
👉 Start your free 7-day trial — no credit card required.
