SAAS PAYMENTS
How Chinese Developers Can Accept Global Payments Without an Overseas Company
Anyway Team
· 9 min read ·
Chinese developers can accept global payments without opening an overseas company by applying to a Merchant of Record that supports individual merchants and China payout accounts. With Anyway, an eligible developer verifies their identity and product, publishes a hosted card-payment link, connects paid orders to the webapp, then requests available revenue to Alipay or a mainland China bank account.
The short version
Publish a live product site with pricing and support details.
Apply to Anyway as an Individual.
Complete identity and product verification.
Create a product and hosted payment link.
Connect the link to the webapp with an order reference.
Confirm payments with signed webhooks or the Merchant API.
Add Alipay or a China bank account and request the available balance.
What you need before you start
A no-overseas-company route still needs a real seller application. Prepare these items first:
A product that is ready for customers
An HTTPS website or product URL
Public pricing
A customer-support email
A clear description of what the buyer receives
Your legal name, Chinese citizen ID details, tax residency, phone number, and residential address
The identity document requested by the current verification form
A payout account held by the correct beneficiary
The website is part of the review. A placeholder page with no price, no product explanation, and no support contact gives the reviewer very little to verify.
Step 1: Choose the Merchant of Record model
A global checkout must have a legal seller. If you use a standard payment processor, you or your company normally remain the seller and own the tax, invoice, refund, and dispute operation.
A Merchant of Record takes the seller position for covered transactions. The customer pays the MoR, the MoR issues the invoice and handles applicable indirect tax, and the developer receives net revenue under the merchant agreement.
Anyway states that it is the Merchant of Record on each Business sale. It calculates, collects, and files applicable sales tax, VAT, and GST, then records the merchant's net amount after tax and fees.
For a China-based developer without an overseas entity, that model joins two problems that are often treated separately: accepting the customer's payment and receiving the resulting payout.
Read what a Merchant of Record does before you connect production checkout.
Step 2: Build a reviewable product website
Use your real domain and describe the product in plain language. The site should answer:
What does the software do?
Who uses it?
What does each plan cost?
Is the purchase one-time or recurring?
How does the customer receive access?
How can the customer contact support?
What is the refund policy?
Keep the website and application consistent. If the site sells a $19 monthly image tool, the merchant application and checkout should describe that same product.
Anyway's verification documentation asks for a product name, an HTTPS website or product URL, a support email, confirmation that pricing is publicly visible, and confirmation that the intended use is ethical.
Step 3: Apply as an Individual
Anyway's verification screen offers Business and Individual account types. Choose Individual when you are applying under your own legal identity.
The current documentation lists these registration details for an Individual:
Legal name
Tax residency
Personal tax or registration number
Product and support information
Identity and residential-address details
For China, the documentation recognizes a citizen ID with 17 digits followed by a digit or X. Follow the current in-app upload request for the identity image because the required field can be more specific than the registration-number field.
Enter accurate information. Do not use a borrowed company, another person's identity, or a false overseas address. Merchant eligibility comes from the verified applicant and product, not the IP address used to open the page.
Step 4: Create the product and payment link
After opening Anyway Business, create a product with its name, description, price, and currency. Publish it and copy the returned paymentLinkUrl.
The payment link is the customer-facing checkout URL. Put it behind the main pricing-page button or send it directly during a small launch.
Anyway supports one-time payments and recurring subscriptions. Choose the billing model that matches the promise on your site. A lifetime license should not be configured as a monthly renewal, and a subscription should clearly tell the customer how often it renews.
Step 5: Connect each payment to the correct user
If several users buy through one link, the checkout needs a stable reference to your own database record.
Create a pending purchase first, then append its ID and the internal user ID to the Anyway URL:
Anyway stores the parameters in merchantMetadata. It also exposes merchant_reference as the top-level merchantReference, which makes order lookup easier.
Use a URL builder to encode names and values. Do not add a password, session cookie, API key, identity number, or other secret. Query parameters can appear in the browser and logs.
Step 6: Confirm the order on your server
The browser returning to a success page is not enough proof for high-value fulfillment. The user can close the tab, refresh it, or edit visible query parameters.
Use a signed Anyway webhook or query the order through the Merchant API. Before granting access, compare:
Order status
Product ID
Amount
Currency
Your merchant reference
Make fulfillment idempotent. If the same paid event arrives twice, the system should still create only one license, credit bundle, or subscription entitlement.
A practical database key is your own purchase_id with a unique constraint on the Anyway order ID. That turns webhook retries into safe updates instead of duplicate delivery.
Step 7: Test the complete customer lifecycle
Run more than one successful card payment. Test the events that can break access later:
Successful one-time purchase
Successful subscription start
Duplicate paid webhook
Failed renewal
Cancellation
Refund
Payout reconciliation
Check the buyer-facing receipt and your internal order record at the same time. The product, amount, customer, entitlement, and Finance entry should tell the same story.
Step 8: Add Alipay or a mainland China bank account
Once business verification is approved, open Finance and add a payout account. Anyway's current official documentation lists both Alipay and China bank as supported payout account types.
For Alipay, the form requests the account-holder name and Alipay account. For a China bank account, it requests the account-holder name, bank name, and account number; branch name and CNAPS code are optional fields in the current documentation.
Payout requests are denominated against the available USD balance. The minimum payout request is $50. The account must be active, and the available balance must be high enough after unsettled orders and open payout requests are withheld.
Enter full payout details only through the secure Finance form. Anyway explicitly advises merchants not to send full bank or Alipay account information through email, chat, support tickets, or screenshots.
What happens to tax on global sales?
Anyway is the Merchant of Record for the covered customer transaction. Its published Business page says it calculates, collects, and files applicable sales tax, VAT, and GST and issues the customer invoice.
The developer receives the net revenue recorded for the sale. They still keep payout and business-income records in China and obtain local accounting advice when appropriate. The customer's VAT or sales tax and the developer's own income reporting are different tax layers.
For the transaction-tax side, read SaaS sales tax for indie developers.
How much does Anyway cost?
Anyway's published Business pricing is 3.9% + $0.50 per transaction. The homepage states there is no monthly fee and no setup fee. The plan includes the MoR service, global tax and compliance, billing, and subscriptions.
Finance records the gross amount paid by the buyer, the Anyway fee, the merchant's net amount, and the related order ID. Use the fee recorded for the completed order when reconciling; do not hard-code a rate into accounting logic.
Common launch mistakes
Building the integration before verification
Get the product and applicant reviewed early. Approval and payout readiness are separate setup steps, so confirm both before planning a launch date.
Trusting the success redirect alone
Use the server-side order status. The redirect improves the user experience; the verified order controls delivery.
Putting sensitive data in checkout metadata
Metadata is useful for correlation, not secrets. Store sensitive data in your own database and pass only an opaque record ID.
Granting access twice
Webhooks can be retried. Make the event handler idempotent and keep one stable relationship between the Anyway order and your purchase record.
Looking only at the total balance
Finance separates total balance from available balance. Only the available amount can fund a payout request.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Chinese individual register with Anyway?
Anyway's current Business verification supports Individual applications and documents China-specific citizen-ID formatting. Each application is reviewed for identity, product, website, and compliance requirements.
Do I need a US company or USD bank account?
An eligible individual can apply without setting up an overseas company. Anyway's documented Alipay and mainland China bank payout routes also mean a USD bank account is not required for those receiving methods.
Can I withdraw Anyway revenue to Alipay?
Yes. Alipay is listed in Anyway's supported payout accounts. Add it through Finance after approval using the account-holder name and Alipay account requested by the form.
Can I withdraw to a Chinese bank card?
Anyway documents a China bank payout account type. The form requests the account-holder name, bank name, and account number, with optional branch and CNAPS information.
What is the minimum payout?
The current minimum payout request is $50. The request also depends on the available USD balance, approved verification, and an active payout account.
Can I use one payment link for many users?
Yes. Append a stable merchant_reference and other non-sensitive string parameters. Anyway preserves them in the order metadata so your server can match the paid order to the correct user and purchase.
Put the first global checkout on your product
The shortest compliant route is a verified product, a named Merchant of Record, a server-confirmed order, and a payout account that works where you live.
Anyway combines those pieces for eligible Chinese developers. Create an Anyway account, submit the live product, and connect the first hosted payment link to your webapp.
Related reading: