Dev tools · September 10, 2025
Small Transfers – charge from 0.000001 USD per request for your SaaS
Hi HN, I built Small Transfers, a payments platform for SaaS / API makers who want to bill customers per request instead of pushing them into subscriptions or pre-buy packages. *Why?* - Many customers hate subscriptions and/or want to use a service occasionally. - Traditional payment processors add a fixed fee to every charge, making charges below 1 USD impractical. - Stripe UBB tracks usage, but you still need to write your own auth, add spending limits, and each merchant charges cards separately (extra fees for customers). *How it works?* - Each merchant has a Small Transfers…
In plain words
Small Transfers is a payments platform for SaaS and API makers that enables per-request billing starting at 0.000001 USD, eliminating the need for subscriptions or prepaid packages. It addresses the problem of traditional payment processors making micropayments impractical through fixed fees. The platform connects merchants to Stripe, manages customer accounts with fraud verification via Google Sign-In and 3-D Secure, and handles billing and payouts automatically. It is designed for developers seeking flexible payment options for occasional or light users.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN, I built Small Transfers, a payments platform for SaaS / API makers who want to bill customers per request instead of pushing them into subscriptions or pre-buy packages. *Why?* - Many customers hate subscriptions and/or want to use a service occasionally. - Traditional payment processors add a fixed fee to every charge, making charges below 1 USD impractical. - Stripe UBB tracks usage, but you still need to write your own auth, add spending limits, and each merchant charges cards separately (extra fees for customers). *How it works?* - Each merchant has a Small Transfers account linked to their Stripe account via Stripe Connect, which is used to transfer payouts to merchants. - Each customer has a Small Transfers account where we verify them using Google Sign-In, 3-D Secure, and Stripe Radar to minimise the chances of a customer not paying their balance. - Customers allow your service to identify and charge them via platform's own OAuth. This also removes the need for your service to implement its own auth. (Simple services don't even need their own database.) - Merchants call a simple REST API to authorize and capture a charge with a minimum amount of 0.000001 USD. Note that you can authorize more than you capture, allowing you to authorize the max amount your request might use, and then capture your actual cost plus margin (great for many use cases, e.g., AI). - The platform takes care of charging customers and sending payouts to merchants. - Merchants pay a flat 3% fee. Customers pay payment processing fees when they pay for their balance. There's a Next.js Starter project (https://github.com/smalltransfers/nextjs-starter) and a live demo (https://nextjs-starter.smalltransfers.com/). I've been dog-fooding the platform with my own service (https://unattach.com/) and would love your feedback, specifically: - The general approach and whether there is anything I should do differently. - Any concerns and how I could mitigate them. - Any other feedback. I'm also looking for more merchants to try out the platform, and can help you with the integration. Thank you for your time! Happy to answer questions here.
Does the same job
all alternatives →
Open-source Stripe Connect alternative17d ago · zoneless.com · ▲83Hey, I'm Ben. I built Zoneless because I was paying so much to use Stripe Connect on my own marketplace. The fees were really, really bad, and it was also limiting in terms of the seller countries I could onboard. To give you an idea, I was paying around $9,000 per month in fees just to run payouts. Using Zoneless, that cost goes down to around $6. I've been using it personally for the past few months, and onboarded 5,000+ sellers and done 3,000+ payouts. 74% of new sellers on my marketplace choose Zoneless over Stripe, which is really interesting. I appreciate crypto and stablecoins are a…
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