Integrations · Web subscriptions · merchant of record
Paddle MRR, churn & LTV analytics
Connect Paddle and Honest MRR builds monthly recurring revenue (MRR), movements, churn, lifetime value (LTV) and cohort reports from the records Paddle sends, with every MRR movement open to inspection — so you can show an investor where a number came from.
You connect with a Paddle API key with Read permissions. Honest MRR uses it only to read — it never moves money or changes your customers or subscriptions.
Before you connect: Paddle refuses to list transactions for an account with no default payment link. If the backfill stops on transactions, set one in Paddle → Checkout → Checkout settings, then resync.
How MRR is computed from Paddle
- Paddle is a merchant of record, so MRR uses each subscription's net pre-tax amount, read from its recurring transaction details on every backfill and resync.
- Discounts aren't subtracted: MRR reads each subscription's subtotal before discount, so a customer with a discount counts at the full price.
- Sandbox keys are detected automatically and connect to Paddle's sandbox.
- Every price is amortized to a monthly amount — annual plans divided by 12, weekly and daily plans scaled up — and past-due subscriptions still count but are flagged at-risk.
- Trials count as zero until they convert.
The full rule set is on how we calculate MRR.
How this differs from Paddle's subscription metrics
Paddle Billing includes subscription metrics in its dashboard with no setup — MRR, churn, LTV, ARPU and cohort reports from ProfitWell Metrics, which Paddle says update every 3–6 hours. (Paddle's docs, checked October 4, 2026)
Honest MRR reads the same Paddle records and adds:
- One ledger across billing providers — Paddle next to any of the nine we support.
- An audit trail an investor can follow: every MRR movement opens to its ledger entry, the webhook event when one recorded it, and the current Paddle record, and every version we receive is fingerprinted in a tamper-evident hash chain.
- Share links and monthly statements you can save as PDF, plus ad spend for CAC and payback, and costs for burn and runway.
ProfitWell Metrics subtracts discounts and coupons before calculating MRR, and Honest MRR doesn't, so with active discounts Paddle's figure can be lower than ours. (paddle.com )
If Paddle is your only billing source and you don't need an audit trail or investor statements, Paddle's subscription metrics may be all you need.
Staying current
Every subscription imports when you connect, dated from when it started — months before you connected show each one at its current price. A webhook keeps MRR current as events arrive; without one, Honest MRR resyncs daily.
Connect Paddle — step by step
These are the same steps the in-app guide shows on Settings → Connect after you sign in, where “the field below” and “your connection card above” refer to that page.
How to connect Paddle — step by step
- Open Paddle's Authentication page and sign in ↗
That's Developer Tools → Authentication. Using a sandbox account? Go to the same page on sandbox-vendors.paddle.com — sandbox keys are detected automatically when you paste them.
- Open the "API keys" tab and click "+ New API key"
Name it "Honest MRR" and add a short description so you can recognize it later.
- Set the expiry date — it defaults to 90 days
Click the "Expires on" field and pick a date far in the future. When the key expires, syncing stops until you paste a new one (re-keying is always allowed).
- Select read permissions
Tick the Read permission for customers, subscriptions, transactions, products, prices, adjustments, and discounts. Nothing needs write.
- Click Save, then copy the key immediately
Paddle shows the full key only once — copy it before leaving the page.
- Paste it in the field below and click "Connect Paddle"
The key is validated, encrypted, and only its last 4 characters are ever shown again.
- Wait for the backfill to finish
A connection card appears above (Queued → Backfilling → Synced). MRR uses each subscription's net pre-tax amounts — Paddle is a merchant of record, so tax is stripped out for you. If the backfill errors on transactions, set a default payment link in Paddle → Checkout → Checkout settings: Paddle refuses to list transactions for an account without one, then Resync.
- Live sync, part 1: add a notification destination
Recommended. Copy the webhook URL from your connection card above, then in Paddle go to Developer Tools → Notifications, click "New destination", pick type Webhook, and paste that URL.
- Live sync, part 2: choose events
Subscribe to the subscription and transaction event families (subscription.created/updated/canceled, transaction.completed, and friends).
- Live sync, part 3: paste the secret key
After saving, the destination shows a "Secret key" — paste it into the webhook field on your connection card above.
What happens to the data
Honest MRR keeps the latest verbatim copy of every object Paddle sends and fingerprints every version in your organization's append-only hash chain, so the MRR you show investors traces back to the records it came from — and a later edit to any of them is detectable. Credentials are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. Details are on the Security and Privacy pages.
Questions
Something not covered here? Email us and a person answers.
Try it on your own Paddle data
Free up to $2k MRR (a soft limit), with a 14-day Pro trial and no credit card.
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