AI Indexes
Finance AI Index
Index › Receivables and billing › Merchants of record › Small business › October 2026 Edition

Merchants of record for small business buyers

Asked as “merchant of record”, and as “reseller that handles global sales tax and payments”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
29%
Contested · FastSpring 24%
29Paddle24FastSpring12Lemon Squeezy35others

29% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Paddle29%16%63accepted challenger
02FastSpring24%15%52accepted challenger
03Lemon Squeezy12%26%46criticized challenger
04PayPro Global12%0%15accepted challenger
05Dodo Payments6%0%14accepted challenger
06Freemius4%7%14accepted challenger
07Cleverbridge2%13%15accepted challenger
08Stripe2%28%25criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Gumroad0%75%20criticized challenger
09Polar0%0%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Paddle29%
02FastSpring24%
03Lemon Squeezy12%
04PayPro Global12%
05Dodo Payments6%
06Freemius4%
07Cleverbridge2%
08Stripe2%
09Polar0%
10Gumroad0%

What they warned about

One of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Lemon Squeezy
26%
12 of 46 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“If you are launching a new product, avoid Lemon Squeezy. The risk of getting stuck in a support loop with frozen payouts is currently too high.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Paddle
16%
10 of 63 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Paddle similarly stopped paying merchants for extended periods with only automated responses” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Gumroad
75%
15 of 20 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 4 hard negative
“Alternatives to Avoid if You Are on a Tight Budget ... Gumroad's flat 10% fee + processing fees ... prohibitively expensive” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
FastSpring
15%
8 of 52 labels negative · 7 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“they charge roughly 8.9% ... making them too expensive for a bootstrap budget” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

80 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1055 links across 229 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

vendor site · Guideflow45 answers · 45 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Cleverbridge43 answers · 55 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Freemius42 answers · 58 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Fungies.io37 answers · 65 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Paddle36 answers · 52 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Dodo Payments23 answers · 41 citations · 11 models
vendor site · eBrands21 answers · 21 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G220 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Quaderno20 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Creem19 answers · 20 citations · 11 models
vendor site · PayPro Global17 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Stripe17 answers · 24 citations · 12 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best merchant of record”, “merchant of record”, “merchants of record”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Paddle paddle.com29%20660,50069,116172,079312
FastSpring fastspring.com24%1453,6002358,511$29,868153
Lemon Squeezy lemonsqueezy.com12%969,9004197,17408
PayPro Global payproglobal.com12%772,9005714,4167
Dodo Payments dodopayments.com6%48880282,40008
Whop whop.com6%36110,0001,336352,81229
Freemius freemius.com4%221,000232,051
Cleverbridge cleverbridge.com2%886,6002469,4930
Fungies fungies.io
Fungies.io 2%, Fungies 0%
2%96
Creem creem.io2%162,4001691,126$6321

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 23 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (dodopayments.com, ebrands.com, fungies.io, paddle.com, stripe.com). The first result for “best merchant of record” is connectpay.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best merchant of record for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which reseller that handles global sales tax and payments would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top merchants of record for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best merchant of record for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a merchant of record. What should we look at?”Negative“Which merchants of record should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5FastSpring
Three alternativesCleverbridge, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
PayPro GlobalChanged
Three alternativesKintsugi, Taxwire, Zamp
Lemon Squeezy
Three alternativesCreem, Fungies.io, Paddle
Creem, Dodo Payments
One alternativeFungies.io
against: Lemon Squeezy
no first choiceagainst: Digital River, Paddle
GPT-5.4 miniFastSpring, PaddleFastSpringChanged
One alternativePaddle
Paddle
Two alternativesFastSpring, Lemon Squeezy
Paddle
One alternativeFastSpring
against: Lemon Squeezy, Stripe
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashPaddle
Three alternativesFastSpring, Lemon Squeezy, PayPro Global
against: Stripe, Stripe Managed Payments
FastSpringChanged
Two alternativesPaddle, PayPro Global
Lemon Squeezy
Three alternativesDodo Payments, Paddle, Polar
against: Gumroad
Lemon Squeezy
Two alternativesDodo Payments, Paddle
against: FastSpring, Gumroad, Payhip
Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Two alternativesFastSpring, Polar
against: Stripe
against: 2Checkout / Verifone, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Perplexity SonarPaddle
Two alternativesCleverbridge, FastSpring
FastSpringChanged
Two alternatives2Checkout, PayPro Global
Square
Four alternativesHelcim, PayPal, Shopify Payments, Stripe
Dodo Payments
Three alternativesLemon Squeezy, Paddle, Stripe Tax
against: Freemius
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastPaddle
Two alternativesFastSpring, Lemon Squeezy
against: Cleverbridge, Stripe
PaddleHeld
Four alternatives2Checkout, FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy, PayPro Global
against: Quaderno, Stripe Tax
Fungies.io, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
One alternativeFastSpring
against: Gumroad
Lemon Squeezy
Two alternativesFreemius, Paddle
against: FastSpring, Gumroad, Stripe Managed Payments
Cleverbridge, FastSpring, Paddle, Stripeagainst: FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Mistral SmallPaddle
Two alternativesCleverbridge, FastSpring
PayPro GlobalChanged
One alternativeFastSpring
Creem, Fungies
Three alternativesDodo Payments, FastSpring, Paddle
FastSpring
One alternativeStripe Tax
no first choiceagainst: FastSpring
DeepSeek V4 FlashFastSpring
Two alternativesPaddle, PayPro Global
against: Lemon Squeezy
PaddleChanged
Four alternatives2Checkout, FastSpring, Stripe, Stripe Tax
against: Adyen
Dodo Payments
Three alternativesCreem, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
against: FastSpring
Dodo Payments, Whop
Two alternativesFreemius, Lemon Squeezy
against: Paddle
no first choiceagainst: Lemon Squeezynothing named
Llama 4 Maverickno first choicePayPro GlobalChangedFungies
Four alternativesBeancount.io, Dodo Payments, Freemius, Sphere
Freemius
Four alternativesFastSpring, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Whop
no first choiceagainst: Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Qwen 3.7 FlashLemon Squeezy
One alternativePaddle
against: Gumroad
PaddleChanged
Five alternativesAvalara, FastSpring, Stripe, Stripe Invoicing, TaxJar
Lemon Squeezy
Three alternativesFreemius, Gumroad, Paddle
Freemius
One alternativeDodo Payments
against: Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
no first choiceagainst: Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Kimi K2FastSpring
Two alternativesDodo Payments, Paddle
against: Chargebee, Stripe
PaddleChanged
Three alternatives2Checkout, FastSpring, PayPro Global
Lemon Squeezy
Three alternativesFastSpring, Paddle, Polar.sh
against: Gumroad
Fungies.io
Two alternativesPaddle, Whop
against: FastSpring, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Payhip
no first choiceagainst: 2Checkout / Verifone, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, PayPal, Square, Stripe
GLM 4.7 FlashXFastSpring
Four alternativesFreemius, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Stripe
PayPro GlobalChanged
Two alternatives2Checkout, FastSpring
Lemon Squeezy
Five alternativesDodo Payments, FastSpring, Paddle, Polar, Stripe Managed Payments
Whop
Four alternativesAdyen, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Stripe
against: Gumroad
no first choiceagainst: Digital River, Flurly, Humboldt Merchant Services, MerchNow
MiniMax M2.5FastSpring
Two alternativesCleverbridge, PayPro Global
against: Paddle
PayPro GlobalChanged
Three alternativesCleverbridge, FastSpring, Paddle
Fungies.io, Lemon Squeezy
Three alternativesFreemius, Gumroad, Paddle
Lemon Squeezy, Whop
Three alternativesCreem, Freemius, Paddle
no first choiceagainst: Conekta, EBANX, Mercado Pago, Paystack, Square, Stripe, WePay
GPT-6 LunaPaddle
One alternativeFastSpring
FastSpringChangedPaddle, Stripe Managed Payments
Three alternativesFastSpring, Lemon Squeezy, Polar
Paddle
One alternativeLemon Squeezy
no first choiceagainst: FastSpring, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
Muse Glimmer 30BPaddle
Four alternativesCleverbridge, FastSpring, Fungies, Lemon Squeezy
PayPro GlobalChanged
Two alternativesFastSpring, Paddle
Dodo Payments, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle
One alternativeFastSpring
Lemon Squeezy
Two alternativesFreemius, Polar
against: Gumroad
no first choiceagainst: Cleverbridge, FastSpring, Gumroad, Paddle
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:20yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:23yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:40yes1728 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:39yes174 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:37yes2010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:43yes53 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:33yes1317 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:37yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:22no029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:39yes1844 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:29yes1932 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:20yes1357 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:24yes226 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:20yes2027 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:38yes188 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:26yes48 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:42yes1726 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:29yes172 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:33yes2411 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:29yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:38yes2425 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:35yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:27yes19100 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:34yes1720 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:47yes2226 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:34yes1657 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:25yes114 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:25yes1021 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:27yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:41yes36 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:40yes2533 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:26yes206 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:37yes1911 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:23yes98 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:29yes2324 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:37yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:29yes1038 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:34yes1320 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:25yes1823 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:28yes1629 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:30yes530 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:25yes1422 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:22yes1510 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:19yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:42yes1821 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:37yes153 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:40yes2111 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:23yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:20yes2318 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:29yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:21yes535 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:42yes1324 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:19yes2533 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:21yes1131 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:33yes322 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:33yes2032 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:25yes99 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:36no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:26yes1128 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:21yes167 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:19yes129 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:32no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:42yes1837 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:26yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:25no026 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:22yes1415 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:25yes1036 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:39yes514 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:26yes217 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:39yes1324 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:35yes1611 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:39yes36 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:36yes2730 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:35yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:31yes1913 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:25yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:35yes2163 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:42yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:40yes942 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:36yes2224 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:35yes2321 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:28yes1739 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:35yes530 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:25yes1832 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
Beancount.io
Conekta
EBANX
Mercado Pago
MerchNow
Passport
Thrive
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← Invoicing softwarePayment orchestration →