Digital River Alternatives for 2024 Digital River Alternatives for 2024

Sep 24, 2024

There's an abundance of Digital River alternatives on the market, and you may not know what makes any of them stand out in particular.

It's important to know that Digital River is a merchant of record (MoR) that means that many payment services providers don't include the kind of comprehensive services you're used to with an MoR.

In this blog this post, we will go over:

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

If you're a fan of Digital River but aren't familiar with the term "merchant of record" you might not be aware of the many advantages come from using it.

This article will help you understand the definition of MoR and why is it important for your business uses one currently to monetize your SaaS software or other digital product -it's likely you want to make sure you remain making use of it.

 What Is a Merchant of Record?

The merchant of record (MoR) will be the entity who sells goods and services that the client purchases. The company can function as its own MoR, but many opt to delegate this responsibility to a company like Digital River or to sell items or services on behalf of their company.

The MoR assumes the responsibility of SaaS transactions on your behalf which means they take care of everything from processing payments, and chargeback management to the collection and payment of taxes, and even conformity with local laws and regulations. In addition, since the MoR is liable for issues related to these fields that they resolve, they can handle 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 Payment Service Providers ?

Payment service providers (PSPs) similar to MoRs, serve as the bridge between business owners who want to sell a product and the specific network and the services necessary on the back end in order to facilitate those transactions. These specialized networks and products may include payment gateways, payments processing and merchant accounts to take credit or debit card payments, and others.

PSPs usually also include some sort of ecommerce platform and/or integration functionality (such such as APIs plug-ins or special integrations.) for integrating their payment platform or payment gateway with your store or website, but different options are available.

However, payment service providers generally fall in the middle of managing risk, handling taxes as well as assisting in chargebacks. If rules and regulations change in any of the areas or countries where you sell your product, you'd be accountable for keeping track of those changes and making changes to your PSP procedures and your checkout to reflect those changes.

A few PSPs could provide upgradeable payment options in order to bring their offerings closer to what an MoR offers automatically. However, they're usually bolt-on options that be accompanied by upgrade costs. In the case of Stripe, for instance. Stripe offers a fraud-prevention upgrade known as Radar, but it comes with extra costs per transaction charges.

 Grow With , an Experienced Merchant of Record

is the largest retailer of record for the world's software companies, powering over a billion dollars in worldwide transactions every year.

Here are just a few of the many reasons why the reputation we've built for ourselves.

 We have Decades of Experience

Founded in 2005, has over two decades of expertise in enabling global payments, and have been a component of the SaaS scene as it's grown.

This is why our team deeply understands the intricacies selling digital products and applications, which includes subscription management and all of the nuances that go with it.

 We're backed By Great Investors

You don't need to worry about the possibility of being reliable or profitable. With our years of experience, we also offer the peace of mind by being protected by an extremely successful, top-performing and reliable investment company.

Thanks to Accel-KKR, has the money 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

The many years we have spent working in the international market of payments platforms has allowed us to expand over time However, that growth has only happened thanks to our wonderful customers.

That's for two reasons that we operate on the revenue-sharing model and also because we're a business company that wants to assist grow your business.

 1. Makes Money When You Make Money

With's revenue sharing structure that we use, we earn money whenever you complete. When your buyer completes a purchase, we charge a small commission for that purchase.

If there's no transaction the transaction, we're not charged the commission.

Our team will work with you to determine simple, flat-rate pricing based on your volume of business and transaction time. The price includes every feature of our platform and tools.

2. Would Like to Be Your Partner, Not Just Your Payments Solution

Stardock was able to complete the switch to SaaS subscriptions thanks to 's pre-built subscription infrastructure but they saw the mutual investments that we were putting in our own platform to continue developing innovative products and features.

This helped Brad Sams of Stardock feel secure in Stardock's partnership with  the company, as he knew that we were there for the long run. "Because the better we do the better we're going to come. It's important to ensure everyone is winning and everything's right."

" was on that path of investing in the future and wasn't simply collecting a paycheck each month and doing nothing."

 -- Brad Sams, Stardock

TestDome is also pleased with the support they provide, noting that it goes all the way from helping with issues for buyers and chargebacks all the way to the top of the organization and our CEO.

 Award-Winning Customer Support and Customer Retention

Our high-quality support and service has not just been recognized by our customers -- it has also been recognised in our own business.

We don't just say we want to be partners, we've made it our mission to show it.

 Our hands-on Migration Team is determined to help you succeed.

Support isn't just for you after you've onboarded We want to ensure you get up and running on our platform for payments as fast and as easily as is possible.

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

 Other Amazing Features

Below are other great benefits to using :

  • It will be automatically compliant in compliance with VAT, sales tax as well as privacy laws across the globe.
  • Accepts the highest 98% of payment methods that are used in 185 countries across the world, and in more than 21 different languages.
  • It is possible to customize seamless, modal or embedded pop-up checkout experience on your site.
  • We make it easy to give coupons, discounts, and the ability to offer price points that change with promotions.
  • It is possible to make checkout as simple as one click using 1ClickPay.
  • Plus much and more!

3 more Digital River Alternatives

The following options are common alternatives you might look at in the case of evaluating Digital River competitors. Remember that none of the below alternatives are merchants of records, so you may require to augment their offerings, either internally or with 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 payment processor that allows businesses to accept credit and debit cards, as well as mobile payments and features like:

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

Perhaps you're thinking if it's an alternative for your company because it's widely used, and could initially appear to offer less expensive prices than the retailer of record that you're currently working with. But that's because Stripe isn't a merchant of record.

If you're seeking to cut the cost of transactions and you've got the capacity experience, knowledge, and resources to provide the numerous services you'll be losing by switching from an MoR to Stripe, it could be the best option for your business. But you'll need to make up the difference in the services you'll lose, such as tax compliance, fraud management, and more. Stripe has products available to cover some of those needs, but they are add-ons that will add to your overall costs -and any initial savings may quickly vanish.

However, if you want to switch to Digital River to a business that is in the same class with the features and comfort that MoR offers, 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 bills itself as an "end-to-end transactions, data and financial management, all within all-in-one solution." Its payment solutions as well as financial services come with features and products such as:

  • Online and in-person payments are all one platform.
  • Optimizing revenue with smart payment routing that improves the conversion rate.
  • Subscription management features like dunning automation.
  • Management of risk through fraud prevention and detection.

While Adyen has some of the features the merchant of record has however, you'll still have to control your company accounts as well as merchant accounts.

PayPal to 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 account for making personal online transactions, but they also offer an option to process payments for small-sized businesses. PayPal for Business is both an in-person as well as electronic commerce solution.

(SaaS companies that utilize it also accept payments through PayPal.)

Other functions offered by PayPal for Business include but are not limited to:

  • Integrated integrations to the most popular web-based shopping carts (such like Shopify).
  • QR codes as well as POS devices and QR code.
  • Invoicing.
  • Protection against chargeback (only offered to business accounts with Advanced Credit and Debit Card checkout).

Besides PayPal for Business, PayPal also has a payment processor specifically for SaaS named Braintree.

 How Do I Help?

Are you looking for a reliable merchant that can help expand your international business? This is a fully-stack and all-in-one payment system to SaaS software, games, games, and other businesses that sell digital products.

Our services cover calculations for sales tax and VAT as well as collection and remittance Payment localization, regulation compliance; top-rated consumer support; and so much more!

Katie Stephan

Katie Stephan   Katie Stephan is the Senior Content Strategist of . In addition to her vast experience in marketing as well, she holds earned an MFA in non-fiction creative writing and has served the communities she lives in by teaching writing at the college level.