What does FastSpring do?

Tool: FastSpring

Their Pitch

All-in-one payment & subscription platform.

It's a checkout system that handles all the annoying stuff — taxes, fraud, subscriptions — so you don't have to become a payments expert.

Deep Dive & Reality Check

+**Your Stripe setup breaks every time EU tax rules change** → FastSpring automatically handles VAT, sales tax, and compliance across 21 currencies
+**You're losing 10% of revenue to chargebacks and fraudulent orders** → Real-time fraud detection blocks suspicious transactions before they hit your account
+**Building subscription billing from scratch is eating your development time** → Pre-built dunning, upgrades, trials, and billing that just works
+Merchant of record service - they're legally responsible for taxes and compliance, not you
+Checkout upsells and bundles that boost average order value by 15-45% without custom coding

-Solo developers making under $10K/month — you'll overpay for global features you don't need yet
-Physical product sellers — this is built specifically for digital goods like software and SaaS
-Large enterprises with custom payment stacks — less flexible than building your own Stripe integration

*Zapier (to sync new customers and subscription changes to your CRM automatically)
*SoftwareKey (for instant license delivery after purchase so you're not manually emailing serial numbers)
*MailChimp (to add buyers to email sequences and nurture trial users)
*PayPal (as a backup payment option though it adds extra fees for non-US customers)
*Slack (where your team gets notifications about failed payments and subscription cancellations)

!Pricing is quote-only, typically 4-6% of revenue all-in (higher than basic Stripe but includes tax compliance)
!Custom checkout designs require developer help — non-technical users get stuck on webhook configuration
!You're giving up some control since they're the merchant of record, not you

Turns your checkout into a revenue machine while someone else deals with VAT nightmares.