Buyer's guide
How to actually choose a licensing setup
Most comparisons in this space put seven products in a table and let you guess. The useful move is to notice that they are not all the same kind of thing. Once you separate who takes the money from who validates the licence, the choice gets much smaller.
All seven, side by side
Every row comes from one of the six detailed comparisons below and keeps their sources. We haven't bought or signed up for the paid services, so their columns come from their own pricing and help pages.
✓ included✓ Pro+ only from that tier up~ partly (catch noted)✗ not availablenot tested hands-on paid screen we did not buy
7 products: scroll sideways to see them all.
Money and ownership3 rows
| Feature | LicensorPro | Freemius | EDD | Lemon Squeezy | Paddle | Gumroad | LicenseSpring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $199 to $799 a year, flat | 4.7% + gateway, +2.3% for WordPress | $299.50 first year, $599 after | 5% + 50¢ | 5% + 50¢ | 10% + 50¢ direct | From $199 a month |
| Merchant of record (files sales tax for you) | Through an MoR gateway you choose | ✓ Yes | No; EU VAT from Personal | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | No; checkout through integrations |
| Where customer and licence data lives | Your server | Freemius | Your WordPress site | Lemon Squeezy | Paddle | Gumroad | LicenseSpring (hosted) |
Licensing and updates4 rows
| Feature | LicensorPro | Freemius | EDD | Lemon Squeezy | Paddle | Gumroad | LicenseSpring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licence keys with activation limits | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | Professional | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | A uses counter your code checks | Free |
| WordPress plugin updates | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | Professional | Via their WordPress integration | ✗ No | ✗ No | not tested hands-on |
| Staged rollouts | Solo | ✓ Yes | Professional | not tested hands-on | ✗ No | ✗ No | not tested hands-on |
| Licensing outside WordPress | SDKs for PHP, Python, Java, .NET, JS | SaaS, desktop apps, extensions | JSON API with samples | License API | not tested hands-on | A verify API | SDKs for C++, .NET, Java, Python, Go and more |
Selling3 rows
| Feature | LicensorPro | Freemius | EDD | Lemon Squeezy | Paddle | Gumroad | LicenseSpring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer portal | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | not tested hands-on | ✓ Yes | Billing and subscriptions | not tested hands-on | ✓ Yes |
| Affiliate programme | Studio | ✓ Yes | not tested hands-on | ✓ Yes | not tested hands-on | not tested hands-on | not tested hands-on |
| Revenue reports | Revenue, MRR, churn, LTV, conversion | Payment analytics | Personal | MRR, refunds, order value | ✓ Yes | not tested hands-on | Advanced on Business Plus |
Sources (10)
- Freemius: https://freemius.com/pricing/
- LicensorPro: https://jnkplugins.com/licensorpro/pricing.php
- Easy Digital Downloads: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/pricing/
- Easy Digital Downloads: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/downloads/software-licensing/
- Lemon Squeezy: https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/pricing
- Paddle: https://www.paddle.com/pricing
- Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/pricing
- LicenseSpring: https://licensespring.com/pricing
- Lemon Squeezy: https://docs.lemonsqueezy.com/help/licensing/generating-license-keys
- Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/help/article/76-license-keys
First: these are three different products
| Category | What it solves | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant of record | Payments, and global sales tax as the legal seller | Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Gumroad, Freemius |
| Licensing server | Keys, activations, expiry, update delivery | LicensorPro, LicenseSpring, EDD Software Licensing |
| Both at once | One vendor for the whole chain | Freemius |
A merchant of record and a licensing server are not alternatives. Most working setups use one of each, joined by a webhook. The genuine either/or is between Freemius, which does both for a percentage, and assembling the two halves yourself.
Second: revenue share or flat fee
This is the axis that decides the money, and it is the one most comparison tables bury. A percentage costs nothing when you are starting and never stops when you are not.
| Option | Cost | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Freemius | 7.0% + gateway | % of revenue |
| Lemon Squeezy | 5% + 50¢ | % of revenue |
| Paddle | 5% + 50¢ | % of revenue |
| Gumroad | 10% + 50¢ — 30% via Discover | % of revenue |
| LicenseSpring | $199–$750/month | Flat, metered by requests |
| EDD Professional | $299.50 first year, $599/yr renewal | Flat |
| LicensorPro | $199–$799/year · Solo $149.25 with WELCOME25 | Flat |
The Freemius number most articles get wrong
Freemius is usually quoted at 4.7%. For WordPress products that is not the rate. Their pricing page lists “WordPress & Templates +2.3%”, and their FAQ confirms it: “Why is there an extra 2.3% charge for the WordPress solution?”
So a plugin seller pays 7.0% plus gateway fees. Their share does step down at higher volume — 4.5% above $50k/month, 4.0% above $60k, and so on — but those tiers are far above where most plugin businesses live. Full detail on the Freemius comparison page.
What a percentage costs over time
| Monthly revenue | Freemius at 7.0% | Per year | LicensorPro Studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $70 | $840 | $399 |
| $3,000 | $210 | $2,520 | $399 |
| $10,000 | $700 | $8,400 | $399 |
The caveat that belongs in the open, not in small print. Freemius is also taking the payment and handling your VAT in that column. LicensorPro is not. To match what they actually do you need a merchant of record in front of us, and that adds a percentage back.
With Polar at their entry rate of 5% + 50¢, the same rows come out at roughly $492 against Freemius's $500 at $5,000 a year — a wash — then $1,861 against $2,500 at $25,000, and $6,246 against $10,000 at $100,000. Below about $10,000 a year, if you want tax handled, Freemius is the simpler answer. The gap opens up after that. Full working on the Freemius page.
Read the specific comparison
- vs Freemius — the direct rival for WordPress plugin sellers, and the 7.0% question.
- vs Easy Digital Downloads — the other self-hosted option, and the closest contest here.
- vs Lemon Squeezy — a merchant of record, now a Stripe company. Most people want both.
- vs Paddle — merchant of record for scaling companies, with a catch under $10.
- vs Gumroad — the simplest option. Sometimes the right one.
- vs LicenseSpring — the closest functional match, hosted, at $199/month.
Switching from one in particular
The pages above answer “these two, which?”. If you are already on a platform and want to know what the whole field looks like — including the options we lose to — these answer that instead. Each one ranks six options and says where we are not the right pick.
- Freemius alternatives — the 7.0% WordPress rate, and who actually beats it.
- Easy Digital Downloads alternatives — nobody leaves EDD over fees. They leave over the pass price and the add-on sprawl.
- LicenseSpring alternatives — a licensing API rather than a store, which is why most lists for it compare the wrong products.
- Lemon Squeezy alternatives — leaving a merchant of record means taking EU VAT back in-house.
- Gumroad alternatives — 10%, or 30% through Discover. The fee is the second question.
Where we would not pick us
If you sell internationally and the thought of VAT registration is what is stopping you shipping, a merchant of record is worth its percentage and you should go and buy one today. If you ship native desktop software, LicenseSpring is built for that and we are not. If you already run a WordPress store you are happy with, EDD adds licensing to what you have rather than adding a second system. And if you are still finding out whether anyone wants the product, Gumroad this afternoon beats infrastructure this month.
Found something wrong on this page? Every vendor here changes pricing without notice and we would rather be corrected than be inaccurate. Tell us and we will fix it — [email protected].