Lemon Squeezy vs ReadMe
Merchant of record for digital products and SaaS
vs. Developer hub: interactive API reference + guides with usage analytics
Pricing tiers
Lemon Squeezy
Pay-as-you-go
No monthly fees. 5% + 50¢ per transaction. Includes tax handling.
$0 base (usage-based)
ReadMe
Free
$0. 1 project. ReadMe branding. Public docs only. Basic features. Intended for evaluation.
Free
Startup
$99/mo. 1 project. Custom domain, remove branding, 3 admins, API Explorer.
$99/mo
Business
$399/mo. Unlimited projects, SSO, usage analytics (Metrics Starter), versioning.
$399/mo
Enterprise
Custom (typically $10k+/yr). SLA, SAML, advanced metrics, large teams, localization.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing payg on Lemon Squeezy vs free on ReadMe.
| Metric | Lemon Squeezy | ReadMe |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Lemon Squeezy · 12 features
- Abandoned Cart Recovery — Email retry campaigns (+5% fee on recovered).
- Affiliate Program — Built-in affiliate/referral program with payouts.
- Custom Checkout Domain — Checkout at checkout.yourbrand.com.
- Customer Portal — Self-service subscription + invoice management UI.
- Discounts / Coupons — Percentage / fixed / trial discount codes.
- Global Tax (included) — Automatic VAT/GST/sales tax calc + remittance. LS files taxes on your behalf.
- Hosted Checkout — Hosted + embeddable checkout. Customize color + logo.
- License Keys — Generate + validate license keys for software sales.
- One-off Sales — Digital products with license keys, file delivery.
- Reports & Analytics — Revenue, MRR, churn, LTV.
- Subscriptions — Recurring billing with trials, proration, discounts.
- Webhooks — Standard resource events (order_created, subscription_created/updated/cancelled,…
ReadMe · 15 features
- API Reference — OpenAPI → interactive reference.
- Changelog — Versioned release notes.
- Custom Branding — Logo, colors, fonts.
- Custom Domain — docs.yourco.com.
- Discussion Forum — Developer community.
- Guides — Markdown-style conceptual docs.
- Interactive Tutorials — Guided walkthroughs.
- Localization — Multi-language docs (Enterprise).
- Metrics — API usage logging + analytics.
- Recipes — Multi-step tutorials.
- Search — Full-text search.
- SSO — SAML + OIDC.
- Suggested Edits — Community-contributed edits.
- Try It Console — In-browser request runner.
- Versioning — Multi-version docs.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Lemon Squeezy | ReadMe |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | — | rdme CLI |
| SDK | @lemonsqueezy/lemonsqueezy.js | Metrics SDK |
| REST | Lemon Squeezy REST API | ReadMe API v2 |
| OTHER | Webhooks | OpenAPI Upload, ReadMe Dashboard, ReadMe Webhooks |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Lemon Squeezy and ReadMe may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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