Digital River Alternatives for 2024 --

Sep 24, 2024

There's a wide array of Digital River alternatives on the market, and you may not understand what makes one among them distinguish themselves from others.

It's especially important to note that Digital River is a merchant of record (MoR) that means that many payment services providers don't include the kind of comprehensive features you're accustomed to when using an MoR.

In this article, we go over:

What makes HTML0 the best Digital River Alternative Is a Merchant of Record

If you're already familiar with Digital River but aren't familiar with the concept of "merchant of record" you may not be familiar with exactly how many advantages are associated with one.

Here's a refresher on what an MoR is and what it is for it's important to know if your company has one in place to make money from your SaaS, software, or another digital product- you probably want to be sure to remain using one.

 What Is a Merchant of Record?

A merchant of record (MoR) is the entity that actually sells the goods and services to the customer. The company can function as its own MoR, but many opt to contract out this task to a company like Digital River or to sell goods and services on their behalf.

The MoR takes on the liability of SaaS transactions for you which means they take care of everything from payment processing, charging back management, tax collection and the remittance as well as conformity with local laws and regulations. Since the MoR is liable for issues related to these fields, they handle resolving the issues for you so there is no need to.

Digital-commerce-reliant businesses that utilize an MoR can focus less on ecommerce and more on making great software, SaaS, video games, mobile games, or other digital goods.

What Makes a Merchant of Record Different From the Payment Service Service Providers ?

Payment service providers (PSPs) similar to MoRs are an intermediary between companies that wish to sell their product and the specific systems and services needed on the back end in order to facilitate those transactions. The specialized networks and the services may include payment gateways, payment processing, a merchant account to take credit or debit card payments, and others.

PSPs usually also include an e-commerce system and/or integration capability (such like APIs, plugins and special integrations.) for integrating their payment platform or check-out with your online store or your website, though the choices will differ.

However, payment service companies generally fall short of controlling risk, handling tax issues, and assisting with chargebacks. When regulations and rules alter within any one of the regions or countries where you sell your products, you'll have to keep up with the changes and making changes to your PSP processes and checkout accordingly.

Some PSPs may provide upgradeable payment options in order to bring their offerings closer to those that an MoR offers automatically. However, these are typically bolt-on functions, and they will be accompanied by upgrade costs. For example, Stripe offers a fraud-prevention upgrade called Radar, but it comes with extra costs per transaction fees.

 Grow With , an Expertly-Trained Merchant of Record

is the largest merchant of record for global software companies, facilitating more than a billion dollars in worldwide transactions per year.

Here's a selection of the ways the reputation we've built for ourselves.

 We Have Decades of Expertise

In 2005, the company was founded and has over two decades of expertise in making payments globally accessible, and have been a component of the SaaS scene as it's grown.

Because of this, our team is well-versed in the intricacies of selling digital items and applications, which includes subscription management and all of the nuanced needs that come with it.

 We're backed by Great Investors

You don't need to worry about the possibility of being reliable or profitable. Along with our experience and expertise, we can also provide the peace of mind that comes with being backed by an extremely successful, top-performing and respected investment company.

With the help of Accel-KKR, you can access the funds and resources to grow your business with online payments as well as providing superior business, privacy, and security management.

 We Get Growing When You Get

Our long-standing presence working in the international payments platform industry has also enabled to grow over time however, this expansion has been possible due to our loyal customers.

That's for two reasons that we operate on the revenue-sharing model and because we're a partner who wants to help you continue growing.

 1. Makes Money When You Make Cash

Thanks to 's revenue sharing structure, we make money when you make. When your buyer purchases something, we charge a small commission on the transaction.

If you're not transacting or transferring money, we're not charging you that commission.

Our team will work together with you to establish the most affordable flat-rate price depending on your amount of transactions as well as the duration, and the pricing includes every feature of our platform and tools.

2. We Want to be your Partner and Not Just Your Payments Solutions

Stardock was able to complete the switch into SaaS subscriptions because of's already-in-hand subscription infrastructure that is ready to use, but they were also aware of the investment we made in our own platform in order to develop new products and features.

This made Brad Sams of Stardock feel confident in his partnership with Stardock  the company, as he knew we were in it for the long haul. "Because the more we improve, the better is going to come. We've got to make sure that everyone's on the winning side, and everything's aligned."

" was going down that route that was a continuous investment, not just taking a pay check every month but doing nothing."

 -- Brad Sams, Stardock

TestDome is also happy with 's support which ranges all the way from helping with issues for buyers and chargebacks all the way through to the highest levels of the company and our CEO.

 Award-Winning Customer Support and Customer Success

The exceptional level of support and services hasn't just been acknowledged by our clients, it's also recognized in our business.

We don't say just that we'd like to be a partner -- we've set out to prove that.

 Our Hands-On Migration Team Strives for Your Success

Support isn't just for the first time after you've joined We want to help you get into the running of our payment platform as swiftly and effortlessly as you can.

Our hands-on implementation team comprised of, highly efficient sales engineers are experts on 's pre-built web storefront solution with its flexible and expansive webhook API including webhooks. They'll help to make the transition seamless by integrating and migrating.

 Other Great Features

Here are some additional great reasons for using :

  • You'll automatically be compliant with sales tax, VAT as well as privacy laws across the globe.
  • accepts the top most popular payment options that are used in more than 185 countries around the globe, in 21+ languages.
  • It is possible to customize seamless embedded or modal popup checkout pages on your website.
  • We make it easy to offer coupons, discounts, and dynamic price points for promotions.
  • Checkout can be streamlined to one click using 1ClickPay.
  • Plus much plus!

3 More Digital River Alternatives

The options below are typical choices to look into if you're assessing Digital River competitors. Keep in mind that none of the below alternatives are merchants of records Therefore, you'll have to add additional services through internal channels or the help of other suppliers and services.

 Stripe

Screenshot of Digital River alternative Stripe's homepage, with a colorful red, purple, and yellow background, large black text on the left, and photos of a smartphone screen and an analytics dashboard on the right.

Stripe is a well-known and trusted payment processor, which allows companies to accept credit and debit cards, and mobile payments that include features such as:

  • Payment processing.
  • The user interface can be made customizable and comes with pre-built checkout flow.
  • Simple management of subscriptions.
  • Online invoicing.

You may be wondering whether this is a viable alternative to your business because it's ubiquitous and could seem at first like it has less expensive prices than the retailer that you're using. This is because Stripe is not a merchant of record.

If you're trying to reduce your transaction costs and you've got the capacity and expertise, as well as the time and staff to handle the numerous services you'll be losing when you switch from MoR account to Stripe, it could be a good option for your organization. However, you'll have to compensate for the loss in the services you'll lose, such as taxes compliance, fraud prevention, and more. Stripe offers products that meet some of these needs, but they are additional services that increase your overall cost -- so any initial cost savings may quickly vanish.

However, if you want to change to Digital River to a business that is in the same class with the features and comfort that MoR gives, Stripe probably isn't the best Digital River competitor for you.

 Adyen

Screenshot of Digital River alternative Adyen's homepage, white background with black or green text and a close-up image of a small digital device and stylus.

Adyen describes itself as "end-to-end payments, data, and financial management, all within one solution." The company's solutions for payment and financial services include features and products such as:

  • Payments in person and on the internet all in one system.
  • Optimization of revenue through intelligent payment routing, which improves conversion rates.
  • Subscription management features like dunning automation.
  • The management of risk includes the detection of fraud and prevention.

While Adyen includes some of the features the merchant of record has, you will still need to handle your own business accounts as well as merchant accounts.

PayPal is a great option for business

Screenshot of Digital River alternative PayPal for Business' homepage, white background with black and blue text and photos of people and digital devices.

PayPal is a well-known online payment service for online personal payments However, they also offer a payment processing option for small-sized businesses. PayPal for Business is both an in-person as well as ecommerce solution.

(SaaS businesses that use it can take payments via PayPal.)

Other features that are part of PayPal for Business include but are not limited to:

  • Built-in integrations with major internet-based carts for shopping (such like Shopify).
  • QR codes and POS system.
  • Invoicing.
  • Chargeback protection (only only available to accounts for businesses that have Advanced Credit and Debit Card payment).

Apart from PayPal for Business, PayPal also has a payment processor specifically for SaaS known as Braintree.

 How Can Help

Need a merchant of record to help you grow your business internationally? It is a complete, integrated payments solution that works for SaaS software, video games and various other digital product businesses.

Our offerings include VAT and sales tax calculation collections, remittance, and VAT calculation; payment localization; regulation compliance; award-winning consumer service; and lots more!

Katie Stephan

Katie Stephan   Katie Stephan is the Senior Content Strategist for . In addition to her vast experience in marketing and expertise, she also holds acquired an MFA in creative nonfiction writing and has worked in her local communities as a college writing instructor.