LemonSqueezy

Handles end-to-end payment processing where LemonSqueezy acts as the merchant-of-record, automatically calculating and remitting sales tax, VAT, and GST across 190+ countries. The system abstracts away tax jurisdiction complexity by maintaining a centralized tax database that updates with regulatory changes, eliminating the need for developers to implement per-region tax logic. Payments are processed through integrated payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal) with automatic currency conversion and local payment method support.

Manages subscription lifecycle including creation, renewal, pause, resume, and cancellation with support for custom billing intervals (monthly, quarterly, annual, or custom days). The system tracks subscription state across multiple tiers, handles proration for mid-cycle upgrades/downgrades, and manages dunning (retry logic) for failed payments with configurable retry schedules. Webhooks notify your application of subscription state changes in real-time, enabling synchronization with your user entitlements system.

Generates cryptographically signed license keys tied to specific products, customers, and activation limits. The system supports product-specific validation rules (e.g., seat limits, expiration dates, feature flags) embedded in the license key itself. Validation can be performed offline (by verifying the cryptographic signature) or online (by querying the LemonSqueezy API), enabling both air-gapped and always-online licensing models. License keys can be revoked, suspended, or reactivated through the API.

Provides two checkout integration patterns: hosted checkout (redirect to LemonSqueezy-hosted page) and embedded checkout (iframe or JavaScript widget embedded in your site). Both patterns support custom branding, product selection, discount codes, and pre-filled customer data. The checkout flow handles payment collection, tax calculation, and subscription setup in a single interaction. Webhooks confirm checkout completion, enabling your application to activate licenses or subscriptions immediately after purchase.

Provides REST API endpoints to query orders, invoices, and transaction history with filtering by customer, product, date range, and status. Each order record includes line items, tax breakdown, payment method, and settlement details. Invoices can be retrieved in PDF format or as structured data. The API supports bulk operations (e.g., refunding multiple orders) and exports transaction data for accounting/reconciliation purposes. All data is accessible via paginated API responses with optional sorting and filtering.

Delivers real-time notifications to your application via HTTP webhooks whenever payment, subscription, or license events occur. The system guarantees backwards compatibility: new event types and optional response properties are added without breaking existing webhook handlers. Webhooks include cryptographic signatures (HMAC) for verification, allowing you to validate that events originated from LemonSqueezy. Failed deliveries are retried with exponential backoff; webhook delivery status is queryable via the API.

Provides official SDKs for JavaScript (@lmsqueezy/lemonsqueezy.js) and Laravel (@lmsqueezy/laravel) with native bindings for API methods, type safety, and error handling. Community SDKs exist for Go, Ruby, Rust, Swift, Python, PHP, Elixir, and Java, enabling integration across diverse tech stacks. SDKs abstract HTTP request/response handling, authentication, and pagination, reducing boilerplate code. Official SDKs are maintained by LemonSqueezy; community SDKs are community-maintained with varying levels of support.

Enforces a hard rate limit of 300 API calls per minute across all endpoints. Rate limit status is communicated via HTTP response headers (X-Ratelimit-Limit, X-Ratelimit-Remaining) on every request, allowing clients to implement adaptive backoff strategies. Exceeding the limit returns HTTP 429 Too Many Requests. The rate limit is shared across all API keys for a single account, not per-key, requiring coordination if multiple services call the API simultaneously.

Provides separate test and live mode API keys that operate on isolated data environments. Test mode allows full API functionality (orders, subscriptions, licenses) without processing real payments or charging customers. Test mode data does not affect live mode records, enabling safe integration testing and development. Switching between modes requires only changing the API key; no code changes are necessary. Both modes support the same API endpoints and features.

Uses major version prefixes in all API endpoints (e.g., /v1) to signal breaking changes. The versioning strategy guarantees backwards compatibility for: new resources, optional parameters, new response properties, property order changes, and new webhook event types. Breaking changes (removing fields, changing parameter types, modifying required fields) trigger a new major version with a documented deprecation period before the old version is sunset. This allows clients to upgrade at their own pace without forced migrations.