Shopify vs Stripe vs LemonSqueezy: Which Payment Processor Are Indie Hackers Actually Using? (We Analyzed 708 Sites)

Every "how to accept payments" thread on the internet gives you the same answer: use Stripe. The data says otherwise. We analyzed 708 monetized websites and found Shopify appears on 63 sites — 6× more than Stripe's 10 . LemonSqueezy, despite years of hype, shows up on just 4. Here's what's actually being used. The Full Breakdown Processor Sites % of Monetized Shopify 63 8.9% BuyMeACoffee 16 2.3% Stripe 10 1.4% Ko-fi 7 1.0% Paddle 6 0.8% LemonSqueezy 4 0.6% Why Shopify Is Winning We assumed Shopify was for big e-commerce brands. The data disagrees. 29 of 46 monetized e-commerce sites use Shopify — a 63% capture rate within its category. No other processor comes close. The reason is obvious once you think about it: solo founders don't want to stitch together Stripe + tax handling + checkout UI separately. Shopify does all of it. The higher fees are worth it when you're building alone. Why Stripe's Footprint Is Surprisingly Small Stripe powers just 1.4% of monetized sites in our dataset.