How to Take Payments for a Web App Without Stripe (2026)
To take payments for a web app without Stripe, use a merchant of record that accepts founders in your country. Pocketsflow works from 160+ countries, including Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco, Vietnam, the Philippines and Turkey, where Stripe is not available. It charges 4.7% + $0.30 per payment with card processing and sales tax included, and gives your app a checkout link, an SDK and signed webhooks. Paddle is the other option for software businesses, and Stripe Atlas works if you set up a US company.
Where Stripe is not available
Stripe's own list shows 51 countries and regions. Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco, Vietnam, the Philippines, Turkey and Ukraine are not on it. India and Indonesia are marked as preview, and Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and South Africa go through Stripe's extended network. If your company and bank account are in a country outside the list, you cannot open a Stripe account for it, so every tutorial that starts with "add your Stripe key" stops there.
Your three options compared
Competitor facts are from their own pages, read November 14, 2026.
| Web app founder | Pocketsflow | Paddle | Stripe via Atlas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where you can be based | 160+ countries | Anywhere except 28 countries | Anywhere, through a US company |
| Fee per card payment | 4.7% + $0.30, all in | 5% + 50¢ | Stripe's fees, plus tax tools |
| Sales tax and VAT | Handled | Handled | Your job |
| Setup cost | Free | Free | $500, then $100 a year |
| Payouts | Your currency, to a bank in your country | Not on pricing page | Through your US company |
Pocketsflow and Paddle are merchants of record: they sell to your customer, so they collect and pay VAT and sales tax for you. With Stripe through Atlas, you own a Delaware company that is the seller, so tax registrations and filings are yours, and Atlas notes that a US tax ID can take weeks without a US address or Social Security number.
What each payment costs on Pocketsflow and Paddle
Most web apps sell a monthly plan between $9 and $99. The chart shows the fee on one subscription payment as a share of the price, on a US card.
| Point | Pocketsflow | Paddle |
|---|---|---|
| $9/mo | 8% | 10.6% |
| $19/mo | 6.3% | 7.6% |
| $49/mo | 5.3% | 6% |
| $99/mo | 5% | 5.5% |
Source: Pocketsflow pricing (www.pocketsflow.com/pricing), 4.7% + $0.30; paddle.com/pricing, 5% + 50¢ per checkout transaction, read November 14, 2026. One payment, US card.
On a $9 plan, Pocketsflow takes $0.72 (8%) and Paddle $0.95 (10.6%). On a $99 plan, Pocketsflow takes $4.95 (5%) and Paddle $5.45 (5.5%). The gap is widest on cheap plans, where Paddle's 50¢ fixed fee weighs most. Pocketsflow's rate is an estimate that international cards and currency conversion can change.
How to add Pocketsflow to your web app
- Sign up and choose your country. Create a subscription for each plan, with a free trial if you want one, or a Credits product for pay-as-you-go usage.
- Install the
pocketsflowSDK on your server and create a checkout session for the signed-in user, with their user ID inmetadata. Redirect them to the session URL, or open the checkout over your page with the embed script. - Add a webhook endpoint. Grant access on
customer.subscription.created, remove it oncustomer.subscription.deleted, and verify the signature on every event. Your user ID comes back in the metadata. - Build everything with a
pk_test_key, which never charges a real card, then switch to your live key.
Checkout, the API and webhooks work on every Pocketsflow plan, including the free one. Connect your payout account in your own country before launch; payouts arrive in your local currency. The full walkthrough, with code, is in how to add payments to an AI app.
Charging customers in other countries
A founder outside Stripe's list usually sells to customers everywhere else, so the checkout has to work for them. On Pocketsflow, you set one account currency, such as USD or EUR, and one price per plan. Buyers are charged in their own currency by default, converted from yours. Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay show up automatically, and local methods such as iDEAL, Bancontact and SEPA appear for buyers in the countries that use them. Pocketsflow handles tax in 130+ countries, so a German customer pays VAT and a US customer pays sales tax where their state charges it, and none of it is your income or your filing. Each order stores the buyer's amount and currency, your payout amount, and the exchange rate used, so refunds come out right.
When Paddle or Stripe Atlas is the better choice
Pocketsflow cannot take sellers from Pakistan, Brazil or countries under sanctions. Paddle accepts software businesses from Pakistan, so it is the merchant-of-record option there. Stripe Atlas fits a founder who wants a US company anyway and can handle US tax filings, or who needs Stripe-only tools. Atlas costs $500 up front and $100 a year for the registered agent, plus Delaware's own annual taxes, before you charge a single customer.
The short answer
If Stripe doesn't support your country, sign up for Pocketsflow, create your plans, wire up the checkout and one webhook, and verify your payout account. You then charge customers worldwide, with tax handled, and get paid in your own currency. Check your country on the countries page, see how Pocketsflow bills SaaS plans, or read Stripe vs a merchant of record.