Foundlie Blog
LLCs, banking, payments and compliance, explained clearly for founders in Egypt and the Gulf.
Featured Payments ·
A US Airwallex account charges 2.8% + $0.30 on a US card and 4.3% + $0.30 on an international card, with no monthly fee on the Explore plan. Three costs are easy to miss: the $0.30 also applies to failed attempts, a sale that settles in a different currency costs a flat 1% more, and, since 12 October 2026, international local transfers on the free plan cost $1 or more in most currencies.
Payments The right way to get paid by a client abroad comes down to two questions: who is paying you, and how. Eight routes, with figures from the providers' own pages, a comparison table and a numbered path to your answer.
Payments PayPal Business in Egypt gives you a checkout on your site, payment links, invoices and subscriptions you can set up from the dashboard, with money landing in a PayPal balance rather than your bank and card services enabled at PayPal's discretion. If your customers are individuals abroad who already use PayPal, it may be enough. If a store or SaaS needs card fields on its own page and payouts to a bank account, look at a gateway.
Payments Stripe, PayPal and Airwallex are payment processors: you stay the seller, and the sales tax or VAT is yours. Paddle, Polar and Dodo Payments are merchants of record: they become the seller, handle that tax and pay you out, for a higher fee. On a $100 US-card sale, Stripe takes $3.20 and Dodo Payments $4.40. All three merchants of record exclude human services and physical goods, so agencies, freelancers and stores generally need a processor.
Payments Both are merchants of record, so the choice is about cost and payouts. On a $100 US card sale Dodo Payments keeps $4.40 and Polar's free Starter plan keeps $5.50, as published on 28 September 2026. For a $29 US subscription, Polar's $20-a-month Pro plan becomes cheaper than Dodo from about $2,857 of monthly subscription revenue, before payout costs.
Payments On a $100 US card sale, Airwallex keeps $3.10 and Polar's free Starter plan keeps $5.50, as published on 28 September 2026. Airwallex is cheaper per sale and holds balances in several currencies, but sales tax and VAT stay with you. Polar costs more because it sells as the merchant of record and handles that tax, then pays out through Stripe Connect.
Payments On a $100 US-card sale, Airwallex takes $3.10 and Dodo Payments takes $4.40; on a $1,000 international sale, $43.30 against $55.40, as published on 28 September 2026. Airwallex costs less but needs a company registered in an eligible country and leaves sales tax and VAT with you. Dodo Payments costs more and handles that tax as merchant of record.
Payments On a $100 US-card sale, PayPal Checkout takes $3.98 and Polar's free Starter plan takes $5.50, as published on 28 September 2026. PayPal leaves sales tax and VAT with you and brings buyers who already hold a PayPal account; Polar charges more but acts as the merchant of record for software and digital products, and its paid plans lower the per-sale rate.
Payments PayPal is a payment processor; Dodo Payments is a merchant of record that also handles sales tax and VAT. PayPal costs less on US and international card sales in dollars, but its conversion spread makes it costlier when the buyer pays in another currency: $8.48 against $5.90 on a $100 sale in our model.
Payments PayPal is a buyer-facing wallet with higher fees and a conversion spread of roughly 3–4% built into its exchange rate; Airwallex is a business account that also accepts cards, charges 1% when a sale converts and 0.5–1% above interbank when you convert a balance. On a $100 international sale paid in another currency, PayPal keeps $8.48 and Airwallex $5.60 in our model.
Payments On a $100 US-card sale, Stripe keeps $3.20 and Polar's free Starter plan keeps $5.50. Polar's paid plans lower its rate in exchange for a monthly fee, and on subscriptions the gap with Stripe Billing becomes small. Polar handles sales tax and VAT as merchant of record, but it pays out through Stripe Connect, so you must be able to receive Stripe Connect payouts where you are.
Payments On a $100 US-card sale, Stripe keeps $3.20 and Dodo Payments keeps $4.40. Stripe is cheaper per sale, but you remain the seller and own the sales tax and VAT work; Dodo costs more because it becomes the legal seller and handles that tax for you. Without a US company, a merchant of record is a way to start; with a US LLC, Stripe is usually cheaper as volume grows.
Payments Card pricing is almost identical: 2.9% + $0.30 on Stripe and 2.8% + $0.30 on Airwallex for a US card, so a $100 sale costs $3.20 or $3.10. Airwallex's edge is multi-currency accounts: keeping a sale in its own non-USD currency costs 0.5% rather than 1%. Stripe's is its integrations. A common setup uses Stripe for checkout and Airwallex to hold and convert currencies.
Payments On a $100 sale from a US card, Stripe keeps $3.20 and PayPal Checkout keeps $3.98; when the buyer pays in another currency the gap grows to $5.70 against $8.48. Stripe is the cheaper card processor with a wider product suite, while PayPal adds a button many buyers already trust. Many sellers run both.
Payments A bought Stripe account never becomes yours: Stripe verified the seller's entity and identity, payouts land in the seller's bank account, and the agreement lets Stripe close the account at any time. The legitimate route is your own company and your own application, which Stripe still reviews and may decline.
Payments Atlas is the better choice for a venture-track Delaware C corporation run by an English-comfortable founder. For an LLC built to take payments from Egypt, the state, the annual cost and the support language decide it. Neither route guarantees a Stripe account.
Payments Yes, you can accept payments without a commercial register — but not by every route. Five real options, each one right for some cases and wrong for others, with a comparison table to place yourself.
Payments Egypt is not on Shopify Payments' supported list, so an Egypt-located store uses a third-party provider, PayPal or manual payments. A US LLC opens the US route, but Shopify's US requirements include a physical US operating address and a US bank account, and Shopify decides after review.
Payments PayPal in Egypt works for receiving money and paying it out, with a free automatic transfer on the first of every month. Its fee stack and its account terms make it a secondary channel, not the foundation of a store or a subscription business.
Payments As of 20 September 2026, Stripe lists the UAE and not Egypt or Saudi Arabia. The list is about where the business is registered, so a UAE-licensed business can apply, while founders in Egypt or Saudi Arabia need an entity in a supported country, and Stripe still decides after its own review.
Payments A US company makes you eligible to apply to Stripe; it does not activate the account. This guide walks through Stripe's published requirements one by one and separates what a service does from what Stripe alone decides.