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As of October 1, 2025, we’re rolling out the biggest pricing change in Freemius’ history: simpler rates and lower fees for every single maker. 🎉
For more than a decade, our promise has been to take the pain of selling software off your shoulders, from payments and licensing to taxes. Today, that promise gets even stronger because you’ll keep more of what you earn, right from your first sale.
The New Pricing Model: What’s Changed
Our old structure worked, but it was complicated, especially if you were just getting started. Now, it’s simple, transparent, and built to reward growth.
Here’s what kicks in from October 1st:
- For SaaS and app makers: Starts at 4.7% (plus gateway fees).
- For WordPress makers: Starts at 4.7%, with an additional 2.3% for the full dedicated WordPress solution (total 7%).
- As you grow: Fees shrink all the way down to 0.5% for revenue over $100k/month.
It’s the clearest, fairest model we’ve ever offered — and it scales with you, not against you.
Our original model had steeper starter brackets: 27% on the first $1k, 17% up to $5k, and then 7%.
Freemius founder and CEO Vova Feldman explains: “Early on, we quickly realized onboarding support is extremely resource-intensive: code-level integration questions, strategic launch and positioning calls — all before charging anything or knowing if a maker would make a single sale. As a bootstrapped business, we had to ensure that kind of founder-level support delivered a return on investment.
“Ten years on, our systems, docs, and SDKs matured, and the cost of supporting each new maker went down. Instead of pocketing those gains, we’re passing them back to the community in the form of lower fees and a progressive pricing model that scales fairly with growth.”
Smaller businesses keep more of each sale; larger ones aren’t penalized for success. Either way, the math is fairer and easier.
Why We’re Doing This (and Why Now)
We didn’t lower fees to follow a trend. If anything, the industry is moving in the opposite direction as more platforms hike their rates.
We did this because it reflects who we are and what we’ve always believed: a partner should be aligned with the people building on it. If you grow, we grow.
A Bootstrapped Mindset Backed By Deep Technology
For more than 10 years, Freemius has been VC-free and profitable.
This independence gives us the freedom to make long-term decisions that serve makers first, not investors.
Lowering fees is one of those decisions.
This is more than philosophy — it’s how we stand apart. Paddle, for example, has raised $318.3 million in venture funding and focuses on enterprise customers.
That’s not us. Our focus is indie makers and small software businesses, with a model built for the long haul.
Freemius is now cheaper than Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad, and for subscription businesses selling globally, often more affordable than Stripe once you factor in the “bolt-ons” you’d need for subscriptions, cross-border transactions, invoicing, VAT & sales tax, and compliance.
Newer players can launch with headline rates of 3%–4%, but those margins don’t hold. When their VC money runs out, prices rise, ownership changes, or the platform disappears — and makers pay the price.
Where others stop at billing, invoices, and taxes, Freemius goes deeper into the entire customer lifecycle, maximizing conversions and ASP and fighting churn at every critical touchpoint: from pre-purchase exit-intent coupons and cart abandonment recovery, to failed renewal win-backs, pre-cancellation retention flows, and cancellation surveys with targeted discounting.
We want to offer the lowest sustainable price we can while keeping Freemius healthy to support makers for the long run.
When you put your revenue in our hands, you can be confident we’re treating it with the same care we would if it were our own.
The Hidden Costs of “Cheap” Options
On paper, a flat 3% — the headline rate you’ll see from processors like Stripe or PayPal — might look cheaper than Freemius’ 4.7%. But those are payment processors, not full merchant-of-record platforms.
Once you’re running a real global subscription business, it’s never just 3%.
Cross-border fees, invoicing costs, subscription management, compliance headaches, and tax obligations… all the hidden pieces that add up fast. Depending on where your customers are, those “extras” can push your real effective costs well above what you expected.
That’s where Freemius is different. Our pricing already includes VAT and sales tax handling, compliance, fraud protection, subscriptions, reporting, and more. All built in from the start.
Add it all up, Freemius’ 4.7% often ends up equal to — or lower than — the true cost of stitching everything together yourself. Plus, you get the peace of mind that everything is handled by the same people who built the product and know the maker journey inside out.
So while the headline number might seem higher, the reality is that Freemius delivers a more predictable, transparent, and sustainable pricing model, and one that shields you from hidden costs that quietly chip away at your revenue.
Migration Pain and Growth Pricing
Early on, a flat 5% might feel manageable. But as revenue grows into the tens or hundreds of thousands per month, that same percentage turns punishing.
To put it in perspective: 5% on $1k is $50; at $100k it’s $5,000; at $1M, $50,000. A rate that feels light early on can quietly become a heavy growth tax.
Founders consistently share the same frustration: renegotiating fees or migrating to a new platform once they’ve scaled is exhausting.
Vova recalls: “Negotiating fees is never fun. It’s time-consuming, distracting, and rarely transparent. I’ve been through that myself with Stripe and PayPal. By the time you realize you’re paying too much, you’re already locked in.”
That’s why Freemius baked transparent, growth-based pricing directly into the model from the start. Instead of locking you into a flat rate that grows more painful over time, our model scales with you: as your revenue climbs, your fees shrink.
Cross $100k/month, and the cost becomes almost negligible. You don’t need to argue over percentages or worry about being penalized for succeeding.
This is a fairer and future-proof approach. It gives you the clarity to plan long term, knowing your pricing partner won’t become a ceiling on growth.
A Sustainable Path Forward
Freemius has always been more than a way to process payments. It’s the infrastructure to run your business with confidence, backed by a team that works for your success.
When you’re just starting out, every percent matters. A few dollars here and there can be the difference between paying for design help, covering support, or giving yourself an extra month to keep going.
And as you grow, the model grows with you, so success never comes with a penalty.
Lower fees don’t just help individual businesses; they strengthen the ecosystem. As more makers succeed on Freemius, the platform grows healthier, which makes it possible to keep prices low and support even more makers.
To our community: Thanks for building with us. Here’s to keeping more, worrying less, and creating freely.
To those just discovering us: Welcome! We hope this shows what we stand for — a partner who puts makers first, from your first sale to wherever your journey takes you.
