Billing platforms with EU data residency in 2026, and where a merchant of record fits

Chargebee (AWS Frankfurt), Recurly, Lago, Solvimon, Fenerum and Frisbii (formerly Billwerk+) all let you host billing data in the EU. That covers the platform; your payment processor, tax engine and email provider can hold billing data elsewhere. To hand off VAT and the seller role as well, compare merchants of record such as Paddle (UK) and us at tiun (Switzerland).

This guide is for founders and finance leads who have been told "EU hosting" is a requirement for their billing stack. The table compares the billing platforms and merchants of record covered here, then the sections below follow billing data through the rest of the stack.

EU billing platforms and merchants of record compared

We checked every row against the vendor's own pages on the date shown. "You" means you, the software company.

The first seven are billing platforms: you stay the seller and you file VAT. Paddle and we at tiun are merchants of record: the merchant of record is the seller to your buyer and collects and remits the VAT on that sale where it is registered.

The billing data map

Every system a sale passes through keeps some billing data. Each one has its own hosting region and runs under a contract with whoever engaged it: you, your billing platform or your merchant of record.

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The EU region you pick in a billing platform covers step 3 and whatever that platform runs for you. Payment processors and tax engines are often separate vendors you sign yourself, and checkout and email often run through the billing platform's own sub-processors. Our guide to European payment providers covers step 2. A merchant of record runs steps 1 to 5 under one contract with you and one sub-processor list; step 6 stays with you.

Billing platform vs merchant of record

A billing platform runs your subscriptions and invoices for you. A merchant of record (MoR) sells your product to the buyer in its own name, so the MoR is the seller. In our case, each sale is treated as you selling to us on the same terms we sell to the buyer (MSA 4.4). The seller role carries these with it:

• Seller of record: with a billing platform, you are the seller and the invoice carries your name. With us, the buyer's purchase contract is with tiun AG and we issue the invoice in our own name (MSA 4.1, 4.2(b), 4.3).

• VAT: with a billing platform, VAT is yours. For sales to consumers in other EU countries you register and file through the One Stop Shop or local registrations, once you pass the EU's €10,000 cross-border threshold or from the first sale if you're based outside the EU; for cross-border business sales within the EU the reverse charge generally applies. A tax engine can calculate the tax, and some services, such as Stripe Tax Complete, will register and file for you, but the registrations are in your name and the liability stays with you. With us, we are the seller and collect and remit VAT where we're registered. If sales in a country were below its threshold and later trigger our registration there, we take on the back-tax on those sales (MSA 8.1, 8.3). You keep income tax and corporate tax (MSA 8.4).

• GDPR role: with a billing platform, you are the controller for the sale and most vendors in your stack act as your processors; payment processors often act as independent controllers for parts of their work, such as fraud checks. We are an independent controller for the sale, not your processor (DPA 2.2, 2.3). That changes only for planned features where you push your own data into tiun (DPA 2.4). Your privacy notice must name us as merchant of record and independent controller (DPA 5.2).

• Chargebacks: with a billing platform, disputes are filed against you through your payment processor. With us, they are filed against us and we run the defence. When a chargeback is processed, the disputed amount, any recoverable tax on it and the dispute fee are deducted from your next payout. If we win, we credit the amount back, less the dispute fee (MSA 9.2).

For data residency, the practical difference is the number of contracts. With a billing platform, you pick and sign each system in the chain and check each one's hosting. With a merchant of record, checkout, payments, billing records, tax, invoices and emails sit under one contract and one sub-processor list. You still need to read that list.

Catches in "EU-hosted" billing

An EU region tells you where the main database sits. It doesn't settle who can access the data or where connected tools run.

• Chargebee's knowledge base says only In-app Checkout and the In-app Self-Serve Portal are supported on EU and Australian sites. Check that your checkout design works with that before you sign up. The region is chosen at sign-up, and Chargebee's data-centre docs say a later change goes through a support ticket and that using several regions needs a separate account in each. Recurly says it currently can't change a site's region or migrate its data to another region after the site is created.

• Integrations follow their own rules. Chargebee says data stored by the integrations it supports stays in your region, but tells you to ask the developers of integrations it didn't build about their hosting. Recurly also tells you to check hosting with the providers of integrations it didn't build, and adds that data "may also be processed outside" your chosen region. Its processing-locations page (updated 18 June 2026) lists Brazil, Colombia, the EU, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Ukraine, the UK and the US as places where it may process personal information to support the Recurly application.

• Hosting and access are separate questions. Chargebee's sub-processor list (15 February 2026) names group companies in India, the Netherlands, Australia and Ireland that provide support and maintenance. It also lists US-located providers, including Twilio SendGrid for email delivery and ClickHouse for usage events.

• The company behind the EU region matters to some buyers. Chargebee contracts as Chargebee Inc. of North Bethesda, Maryland, under Delaware law; Recurly as Recurly, Inc.; and Lago as Get Lago Corp., a Delaware corporation. If your customers' procurement teams ask for a European contracting entity as well as EU hosting, an EU region doesn't answer that.

We get asked the same questions. tiun AG is a Swiss company, not an EU one. We process personal data primarily in Switzerland and the EEA (DPA 8.1). Our cloud hosting is with Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd, which our list shows as EEA/Global with EU Data Boundary protections. Transfers to the UK, the US and elsewhere rely on adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses or other recognised mechanisms such as binding corporate rules (DPA 8.2, Privacy Policy 8). Our sub-processor list shows where each one processes: 7 of the 12 list a US location, and our Microsoft and Google entries (EEA/Global) also cover onward US transfers under the Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses. The seven with a US location are Stripe and PayPal (US backup and clearing), Stytch for login codes, Loops for email, OpenAI for internal AI tools, SigNoz for monitoring and Statsig for product analytics. Under the EU's adequacy decision for Switzerland, personal data can move from the EU to us without additional transfer safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

Choosing by situation

The right answer depends on who your buyers are and how they pay.

B2B invoicing on net terms

If you sell annual contracts to companies that pay by bank transfer against an invoice, use a billing platform and run your own VAT setup. This is the job billing platforms are built for; Chargebee, for example, lets you set net payment terms per customer. Fenerum, Frisbii and Solvimon contract through EU-registered companies and list EU hosting. Our subscription management guide compares billing platforms on features.

We are the wrong fit here. Under our merchant-of-record model every sale runs through our checkout, so we don't support external wire-transfer invoicing. We also don't currently sell to business buyers in the United States (Terms of Sale, Annex C.1).

Self-serve SaaS or AI tools sold worldwide

If buyers pay by card or wallet at checkout, come from many countries, and you have no tax team, a merchant of record fits better. In the countries it covers, it registers where sales trigger an obligation, collects and remits VAT and sales tax there, issues the invoices and holds the buyer contract. With us, payouts follow a monthly cycle, subject to a minimum amount, and each comes with a credit note showing transactions, fees and deductions (MSA 7.4). A merchant of record's fee covers payment processing, billing and tax compliance together, so compare it with what you would pay for those separately; our MoR fees comparison puts numbers on that.

Compare merchants of record on data the same way: read the sub-processor list. Our merchant of record comparison for EU SaaS covers the field. Paddle's list and ours are both public.

Usage-based AI pricing

Check metering before hosting. Lago and Solvimon are built around usage-based billing. Lago's sub-processor list names ClickHouse for usage metering, in the US or the EU depending on the region you choose; Chargebee's names ClickHouse, with a US location, for usage events in its usage-based billing. With us, you can offer usage-based pricing (API calls, tokens and similar), time-based billing (per minute, hour or session, with payment holds and optional monthly limits), or combine them with subscriptions (pricing; Terms of Sale 5).

You can also split the stack: a merchant of record for self-serve sales and a billing platform for negotiated enterprise contracts.

FAQ

Does Stripe Billing offer EU data residency?

No. Under Stripe's DPA (updated 28 September 2026), you transfer personal data to Stripe, LLC in the US, and Stripe doesn't offer an EU data residency option. Stripe Tax calculates VAT and, on its Tax Complete plan, can register and file for you, but with Stripe Billing you stay the seller and the VAT liability is yours. Stripe's separate Managed Payments product is its merchant-of-record option. Our Stripe Billing alternatives post covers the options.

Is Paddle hosted in the EU?

Paddle's privacy notice and terms don't name a hosting region, but its sub-processor list gives the United States for AWS, its cloud hosting provider, and for 12 of its 16 entries. Its privacy notice (16 March 2026) names controller entities in London, New York, Dublin and Toronto. Under its terms, Paddle sells through Paddle.com Market Ltd, a UK company, by default, and through Paddle.com Inc. for US buyers. Only sales by UK and Isle of Man sellers to non-US buyers go through Paddle Payments Ltd in Ireland.

Can I self-host billing?

Yes. Lago can be self-hosted as its free open-source edition (AGPL-3.0) or its commercial Premium edition, and its self-hosting docs say your team then runs the application, databases, upgrades and monitoring. By default, self-hosted Lago sends Lago basic usage events plus your organisation's name and email, but no financial data, and you can switch that off. Self-hosting decides where the billing database sits. Your payment processor, tax engine and email provider still keep their own copies, and VAT filing stays with you.

Does EU hosting make my billing GDPR-compliant?

No, and the GDPR doesn't require EU hosting. Its Chapter V allows transfers outside the EEA under an adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. What it does require includes a lawful basis for processing, a contract with each processor (Article 28), telling people who receives their data (Articles 13 and 14) and a valid basis for each transfer (Chapter V). When a customer asks for EU hosting, the requirement usually comes from their own policies, contracts or sector rules. We cover the controller question in Is your merchant of record a GDPR processor or a controller?

Can personal data go from the EU to a Swiss company?

Yes. Under Commission Decision 2000/518/EC, Switzerland provides adequate protection, and the Commission's list of adequacy decisions still includes it after its January 2024 review. Personal data can move from the EU to a Swiss company without additional transfer safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. It is still a transfer outside the EU, and privacy notices have to say so. Switzerland is not in the EU, so we don't describe ourselves as an EU company.

What about e-invoicing under ViDA?

The Council adopted the VAT in the Digital Age package on 11 March 2025. Under Directive (EU) 2025/516, e-invoicing and digital reporting become mandatory for sales between businesses in different EU countries from 1 July 2030, and since April 2025 member states can require domestic e-invoicing without first getting EU authorisation. If you invoice businesses through a billing platform, those invoices are yours to get right. For sales made through us, we issue the invoice in our name (MSA 4.2(b)). Our ViDA guide has the timeline.