# [081] Counter-case: another general-purpose Merchant of Record (collecting payments as merchant for indie devs): five or six already charge 3.9%–5% and are funded; the gap is only among "people they reject"

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/o/081.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> Payments is a hurdle every indie dev hits, and "a more emerging-market-friendly Stripe alternative" looks like certain demand and a low barrier

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# Not promising: yet another general Merchant of Record, collecting payments for indie devs as the merchant. Five or six players have already saturated the 3.9%–5% fee range and are all raising money. The only open slot is 'people they've rejected'.

Closed Inspiring (counter-case) · Looks low-barrier, but actually gated by capital and compliance First spotted 2026-11-01 · Last updated 2026-11-02

Status

Closed (don't follow: running an MoR means absorbing chargebacks and fraud for long-tail merchants, so you end up tightening review; it runs on capital and risk control, not product).

Why this is written up

Payments is a hurdle every indie dev hits, and "a more emerging-market-friendly Stripe alternative" looks like certain demand and low barrier. But the MoR structure means absorbing chargebacks: the longer the tail, the more fraud, and review inevitably tightens. Creem went from "approved in 8 hours" to "rejected is final" in two years, and users cursed it for flipping, which is exactly this path.

Confidence

高(对「别做通用款」);「区域型空位」那半句中低,只有一条 X 证据。推翻条件(什么情况下对小团队变得可做):某家大 MoR 退出或大规模停服独立开发者,出现 2024-09 Lemon Squeezy 被收购那样的真空;或某个区域收款(中文、印度)的小团队公开 ARR 过 $50 万,证明区域型位置能养活小团队。

## Evidence

Grouped by store. Each group starts with the charts that can be graphed (real curves, data dates below the chart), then the scanner's original notes and source links.

### Indie product revenue (TrustMRR)2 evidence · 1 products with curves

[Effortless Backlinks](https://trustmrr.com/startup/effortlessbacklinks) effortlessbacklinks.com

TrustMRR · 30-day revenue $7,109 (−10%)

Monthly revenue (verified by payment platform)

2025-11 → 2026-11 (13 pts). Light bars = current month, not yet complete

Daily revenue (UTC day)

Data 2026-09-29 → 2026-11-06 (39 days, 39 observations). Single-day swings are big, so look at the trend in the monthly breakdown above.

- indie (11-02 check): 166 merchants on Creem (161 of them syncing), $30,144 combined in 30 days, median $0,98 at 0, only 6 at ≥$1,000 (top: Effortless Backlinks $9,918, see [083]). Comparison: Dodo 1,503, Polar 960, Lemon Squeezy 472, Paddle 260, Whop 113 merchants, medians all $0.

- indie (as of 10-31): of 216 new revenue-making products, Dodo + Polar + Whop + Creem + Lemon Squeezy together process payments for 42 (19%). MoR is already standard; supply is not the problem.

### Product Hunt2 pieces of evidence

- PH (2026-09-17): [CREEM 2.0](https://stringers.io/worth/p/creem.html) 628 votes (533 today), daily chart #1, all three launches above 600 votes. Company of 16 people, €7M raised in total (€1.8M + €5M, per tech.eu 2026-09-17), €2M ARR (self-reported in funding announcement).

- PH (since 2026-05): at least 4 other MoRs launched in the same period (CREEM, tiun., Kelviq, [PaymentKit](https://stringers.io/worth/p/paymentkit.html)), plus Polar, Dodo, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle and Stripe's own MoR.

### Other sources (official sites, press releases, web pages) 1 pieces of evidence

- Web (Trustpilot, 2026-11-01): creem.io 2.8 / 5, 51 reviews, 53% one-star. Four of the five most recent are negative, all about review rejections with no reason given, accounts closed months later for "risk profile changes", and balances withheld. Official docs state "rejected is final, no re-review".

### X1 pieces of evidence

- X (2026-10-15 / 10-20): Gefei @gefei55 (67k followers) "Creem is no longer recommended" 302 likes, reason: "new accounts and new sites hard to get approved, paid success rate drops for old sites", retweeting Waffo / Subotiz; @GoSailGlobal weekly: in the 18 days before October, new sellers: Polar 358, Lemon Squeezy 572, Dodo 111, Creem 55.

## Already doing it

Creem, Polar, Dodo Payments, Lemon Squeezy (now part of Stripe), Paddle, Whop, Stripe MoR; the Chinese-speaking community is moving toward Waffo and Subotiz.

In our product dossiers: [CREEM 2.0](https://stringers.io/worth/p/creem.html), [PaymentKit](https://stringers.io/worth/p/paymentkit.html)

## The hardest step

Risk control and compliance. Global tax remittance, absorbing chargebacks and KYC all require capital and compliance teams; product experience is not the bottleneck.

## Who it's for

Not for small teams. The gap is only among "people they reject": a regional payments service that accepts individuals from certain countries and has native-language support, and it has to say clearly from day one who can't pay. For anyone building a product: integrate at least two payment providers as backup.

## Should every product builder know this?

Yes. Anyone collecting through an MoR should know it will tighten review and may shut accounts, and prepare a backup provider in advance.

## Change log

2026-11-02

Backfill check: Creem merchants unchanged at 166, 30-day total $29,705 → $30,144, median still $0; Polar 956 → 960, Lemon Squeezy 470 → 472, Dodo 1,495 → 1,503, Whop 112 → 113. No changes.

2026-11-01

First recorded (backfill: from Product Hunt Roundup v1 4.2 item #6, ph-dossiers/creem.md, Stringers section 4, data as of 2026-11-01).

Original: Scanner opportunity library #081 (updated daily, 06:00); this page was generated on the 2026-11-08 edition.