tiun vs Stripe: The Whole Backend, Not Just Payments

Compare tiun and Stripe for SaaS billing. Stripe Managed Payments now acts as your Merchant of Record, but it is a 3.5% add-on that stacks with billing, international cards, and conversion to near 9.6% on international subscriptions, and still leaves auth, your customer database, and analytics to build. See how tiun bundles MoR coverage, authentication, customer database, and AI analytics into one system at a flat 3.4%

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Lower all-in pricing

Stripe Managed Payments is an add-on, not a bundled rate. It charges 3.5% per successful transaction, then stacks subscription billing, international cards, and currency conversion on top of 2.9% + $0.30 processing. An international subscription lands near 9.6% + 30¢. tiun is 3.4% + $0.30, flat. International cards, currency conversion, and tax are already inside that rate

STRIPE ALL-IN

9.6% + 30¢

TIUN ALL-IN

 3.4% + 30¢

Auth, billing, customer data, and analytics in one place

Stripe is a payment processor. It does not ship authentication, a customer database, or product analytics. tiun does, and it queries them through the same SDK that runs checkout, so you stop reconciling Stripe webhooks against an Clerk tenant and a database you built

Same MoR, wider stack

Stripe Managed Payments makes Stripe your Merchant of Record for tax, VAT, refunds, and chargebacks. tiun does the same, then extends the model to authentication, customer database, and AI analytics in one system behind one SDK

AI-powered analytics, built in

Stripe gives you Sigma and a fixed dashboard. tiun lets you ask plain-language questions across signups, revenue, and product usage. No SQL, no separate BI tool

tiun vs Stripe, side by side

tiun

Stripe

3.4% + 30¢

all-in · international subscription

9.6% + 30¢

all-in · international subscription

✓ Merchant of Record Included

✗ Merchant of Record is a +3.5% add-on

✓ Authentication included

✗ Clerk ~$35/mo + $0.07/MAU beyond 500

✓ Currency conversion included

✗ Currency conversion +1%

✓ Customer database included

✗ You build and maintain it

✓ Webhook & sync logic included

✗ You build and maintain webhook handlers


tiun

Stripe

Merchant of record

3.5%

Platform fee

Free

Free

Base Transaction

2.9% + $0.30

2.9% + $0.30

Subscription Billing

+0.5%

+0.7%

International cards

Included

+1.5%

Currency conversion

Included

Included

Tax compliance

Included

+1%

Webhook & sync logic

Included

DIY

All-in, Transaction Fees

~3.4% + $0.30

~9.6% + $0.30


Additional Fees


Payout fees

1.5%

Free

Per dispute

$15

$15

How much you save switching from Stripe to tiun

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

The fee gap compounds

Stripe Managed Payments stacks 3.5% on top of 2.9% + $0.30, then adds subscription billing, international cards, and currency conversion. An international subscription lands near 9.6%. On $500k of international subscription revenue, that's about $31,000 a year over tiun's 3.4%. The bigger bill is still the engineer you have writing auth glue, a customer database, and the webhook handlers Stripe doesn't ship

Stripe handles the card transaction. tiun handles the stack around it

Stripe + Stripe Billing + Stripe Tax + Clerk + your customer database is five products from three vendors, each with its own dashboard, its own pricing, and its own way of representing the same user. tiun ships the whole stack, sold as MoR, behind one SDK

Skip the Clerk bill and the webhook handlers

Stripe gives you a Customer object and a webhook stream. To get a usable customer record you wire up an auth provider, a database, and the webhook handlers that keep all three in sync as subscriptions renew, fail, get refunded, cancel, or upgrade. tiun ships authentication, social login, multifactor, and entitlements as part of the platform

  • 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, Clerk, 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 Stripe a Merchant of Record?

Stripe is a Merchant of Record only through Stripe Managed Payments, which is a 3.5% add-on on top of standard processing. tiun includes Merchant of Record coverage in its rate. Both handle tax, VAT, refunds, and chargebacks once enabled, but Stripe still leaves authentication, a customer database, and analytics for you to build, while tiun ships them in the same system.

Does tiun handle VAT and tax the way Stripe does?

Yes, and it is included rather than billed separately. 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. Stripe reaches the same coverage only once you turn on Managed Payments at 3.5% or bolt on Stripe Tax, where tiun keeps it inside the flat rate.

How hard is it to migrate from Stripe to tiun?

tiun ships an MCP server and a GitHub Skill for AI coding agents. 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 Stripe 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 full MoR tax handling at a flat 3.4% + 30¢, versus the roughly 9.6% Stripe reaches once Managed Payments, billing, international cards, and conversion stack up, plus authentication, a customer database, and AI analytics that Stripe leaves you to assemble from Clerk, a database, and a separate BI tool.

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