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Who should be the legal seller?

This choice determines far more than the transaction fee. Pick the responsibility model first; compare providers second.

PATH 01

Another company sells to the buyer.

A Merchant of Record becomes the seller for approved transactions and takes on the documented tax, payment, dispute, and transaction-support duties.

Usually a fit when
  • You sell eligible software or digital products globally.
  • You do not want to build indirect-tax filing operations.
  • You accept higher bundled fees and less merchant control.
Explore MoR providers
PATH 02

Your company remains the seller.

A processor, wallet, gateway, or acquirer moves the payment. You retain the customer contract and the operating responsibilities around it.

Usually a fit when
  • You need checkout, product, or merchant flexibility.
  • Your team can run tax, disputes, billing, and support.
  • Direct customer ownership and unit economics matter most.
Explore direct payments
Country changes the value

The same bundled fee can be worthwhile in one country and unnecessary in another.

If direct payments leave your business with substantial VAT, invoicing, filing, accounting, and transaction-support administration, an MoR can be worth the higher fee. A business operating in Italy or Germany may value that relief more than one whose local obligations and existing support make the retained work manageable.

Assess the workload for your own legal entity, product, customer mix, and team. Country is a decision input—not a universal verdict.

Add your local workload to the matcher
Want a concrete shortlist?

Turn these tradeoffs into five provider candidates.

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Not a binary forever

You can use both.

Some businesses use an MoR for global consumer sales and remain the merchant for domestic B2B, invoiced contracts, or unsupported products. Stripe Managed Payments can even be enabled at the transaction level for eligible products. A mixed model adds reconciliation and customer-experience complexity, so document which entity sells each transaction.

Read the full responsibility guide