tiun vs Lemon Squeezy: More System, Lower Fees

Compare tiun and Lemon Squeezy for SaaS billing. See how MoR coverage, authentication, customer database, and developer experience come together in one system, for less.

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Lower all-in billing

Lemon Squeezy starts at 5% + 50¢. International cards add 1.5%, PayPal adds 1.5% and subscriptions add 0.5%. tiun is 3.4% + 30¢, flat

LEMON SQUEEZY ALL-IN

7% + 50¢

TIUN ALL-IN

3.4% + 30¢

Auth, billing, customer data in one place

Lemon Squeezy handles billing and email marketing. tiun handles auth, customer data, billing, and AI analytics behind one SDK. Skip the Auth0 bill and the glue code that keeps login state in sync with billing state

Built-in AI analytics

Ask questions in plain English across signups, revenue, and product usage. No SQL, no BI vendor, no setup

Same MoR, wider scope

Both Lemon Squeezy and tiun act as your Merchant of Record for tax, VAT, refunds, and chargebacks. tiun also covers authentication, customer database, and analytics in the same system

tiun vs Lemon Squeezy, side by side

tiun	Lemon Squeezy
3.4% + 30¢ all-in · international subscription	7% + 50¢ all-in · international subscription
✓ Authentication included	✗ Auth is your responsibility (Auth0 ~$35/mo)
✓ International card fees included	✗ International cards fees +1.5%
✓ Customer database included	✗ You build the customer database
✓ MCP server + GitHub Skill for AI agents	✗ No agent-native integration
✓ AI analytics included	✗ Basic Analytics

	tiun	Lemon Squeezy
Merchant of Record	✓	✓
Platform Fee	Free	Free
Base Transaction	2.9% + $0.30	5% + $0.50
Subscription Billing	+0.5%	+0.5%
International cards	Included	+1.5%
Currency Conversion	Included	Included
Tax Compliance	Included	Included
Webhook & sync logic	Included	DIY
All-in Transaction Fees	~3.4% + $0.30	~7% + $0.50
	Additional Fees
Payout fees	1.5%	1% on international bank payouts
Per dispute	$15	$15

How much you save switching from Lemon Squeezy to tiun

Annual fees on international subscription revenue with currency conversion. The percentage looks small. The number doesn't

The fee gap compounds

A few percentage points sound small until you run the numbers. On $500k of international subscription revenue with a $50 AOV, Lemon Squeezy’s 7% + 50¢ pricing adds up to roughly $40,000 annually, compared to about $20,000 on tiun’s 3.4% + 30¢ pricing. That’s around $20,000 in annual savings before factoring in the engineering time spent building auth flows, webhooks, and entitlement infrastructure yourself.

tiun replaces Lemon Squeezy, Auth0, and your customer DB

Lemon Squeezy replaces Stripe + Stripe Tax. tiun replaces Stripe + Stripe Tax + Auth0 + your customer database + your analytics tool, in one system with one SDK

Skip the Auth0 bill and the webhook handlers

Lemon Squeezy handles billing. You still need auth (Clerk, Auth0, build-your-own) and the webhook handlers that keep auth state in sync with billing state. tiun ships authentication, social login, multifactor, and entitlements as part of the platform, queryable through the same SDK

Email + password login — included
Social SSO (Google, GitHub) — included
Multifactor auth (SMS + Email) — included
User profile + entitlements — live state

Customer, subscription, and payment state in one query

No more reconciling webhook payloads from Stripe, Auth0, and a tax service to figure out what your customer can access right now

{
  isAuthenticated: true,
  user: {
    userId: 'u-abc123',
    email: 'user@example.com',
    productAccess: ['p-live-light', 'p-live-pro']
  }
}

{
  isAuthenticated: true,
  user: {
    userId: 'u-abc123',
    email: 'user@example.com',
    productAccess: ['p-live-light', 'p-live-pro']
  }
}

{
  isAuthenticated: true,
  user: {
    userId: 'u-abc123',
    email: 'user@example.com',
    productAccess: ['p-live-light', 'p-live-pro']
  }
}

MCP server + GitHub Skill for AI coding agents

Install once. Your agent reads tiun's API as native context, wires up auth and billing in your codebase, and the integration is live in minutes

# Cursor, Claude Code,
# Copilot, Windsurf, +40

gh skill install tiun-app/skills tiun-sdk

# connect mcp https://mcp.tiun.business/

# done.

# Cursor, Claude Code,
# Copilot, Windsurf, +40

gh skill install tiun-app/skills tiun-sdk

# connect mcp https://mcp.tiun.business/

# done.

# Cursor, Claude Code,
# Copilot, Windsurf, +40

gh skill install tiun-app/skills tiun-sdk

# connect mcp https://mcp.tiun.business/

# done.

FAQs

Is Lemon Squeezy a Merchant of Record?

Yes. Lemon Squeezy is a Merchant of Record, and so is tiun. Both sell on your behalf and handle tax, VAT, refunds, and chargebacks, so the MoR coverage is not the deciding factor between them. The difference is what sits around the payment: tiun adds authentication, a customer database, and analytics that Lemon Squeezy leaves you to build.

Does tiun handle VAT and tax the way Lemon Squeezy does?

Yes. As a Merchant of Record, tiun remits VAT, GST, and sales tax across global jurisdictions, validates EU VAT IDs at checkout, and absorbs the tax liability, the same model Lemon Squeezy uses. You receive net revenue and never deal with the tax authority directly.

How hard is it to migrate from Lemon Squeezy to tiun?

tiun ships an MCP server and a GitHub Skill for AI coding agents, which Lemon Squeezy does not. Your agent reads tiun's API as native context, wires up auth and billing directly in your codebase, and the integration goes live in minutes rather than days of manual SDK work.

Is tiun a good Lemon Squeezy alternative for SaaS?

tiun is a strong fit if you want Merchant of Record coverage and the rest of your billing stack in one system. You get the same MoR tax handling as Lemon Squeezy at a lower 3.4% + 30¢ rate, plus authentication, a customer database, and AI analytics that would otherwise be three more vendors to integrate and reconcile.

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