How Merakio works.

Plans and pricing

There are three plans: Free (€0 per month), Personal (€29 per month), and Business (€69 per month). Paying yearly saves about 17%. You can cancel anytime in your settings.

The fees you pay

On the Free plan, Merakio keeps 5% of each completed order. On Personal and Business there is no platform fee on your sales; you pay the monthly fee instead.

On top of that, your client pays €0.50 in service costs on each order. This applies on every plan, is charged once per order, and is separate from the platform fee.

Getting paid

Your client pays up front with iDEAL or card. Merakio holds the money in escrow until you deliver the work and the client confirms it. If the client does not confirm, the payment is released automatically 48 hours after delivery.

After release, your net amount sits in your Merakio balance. You withdraw it to your own bank account yourself, whenever you want. Most withdrawals arrive within 1–2 business days.

Your very first payout can take about 7 days while Stripe verifies your account. That happens only once. For a new account, Stripe may also hold part of your balance as a temporary reserve.

Deposits

If you ask for a deposit, it is held in escrow like the rest. The deposit does not go to you straight away. It is released when the order completes or after the automatic release.

You set each service's deposit as refundable or non-refundable, and your client sees which one applies at checkout before they pay. A refundable deposit follows your cancellation policy like the rest of the price: within a free-cancellation window the client gets the deposit back, and outside it your policy decides. A non-refundable deposit is not returned if the client cancels, even within a free-cancellation window. It is forfeited to you and released to you, while any remaining balance the client paid is still refunded. The refundability in your cancellation policy applies only to refundable deposits: a non-refundable deposit is never returned on cancellation, whatever the policy or the timing.

Refunds and disputes

A refund usually reaches the client's original payment method within 5–10 business days. While a dispute or chargeback is open, your payouts are paused.

If a client opens a dispute, Merakio reviews the order, the messages, and the delivered work, and decides within 2 business days. The money stays in escrow until the dispute is resolved. As a professional, you are financially responsible for refunds and chargebacks.

Services and appointments

You can offer async services (no appointment) on every plan. Appointment services, where clients book a time slot, come with Business. The number of active services depends on your plan: 3 on Free, 10 on Personal, and unlimited on Business.

Each service has its own intake form: short questions, file uploads, and whatever else you need to get started. Messages and files stay attached to the order.

Employees, team, and rooms

On Business you can add employees and set permissions per person, for example who may manage orders or payouts. You can assign services to employees or to rooms and resources, and you get a business profile, an analytics dashboard, and data exports.

Your right of withdrawal

Most distance services come with a 14-day right of withdrawal (Article 6:230o of the Dutch Civil Code). It does not apply to fixed-date services (such as a booked time slot) and lapses once you expressly ask to start right away and the service is fully performed. The full rules are in the terms of service.

Taxes and reporting

Under the DAC7 rules, Merakio reports sellers' earnings to the Dutch tax authority. You remain responsible for your own VAT. If you sell regularly and earn money, the law treats you as an entrepreneur and you must register with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK), even when you work through Merakio.

Your subscription

A paid subscription renews automatically until you cancel. If you cancel, you keep access until the end of the current period and then move to the Free plan. On that switch, services above the new limit are turned off (the oldest stay active). Your data and customers are kept.

Trust and security

Payments run through Stripe. Merakio does not store card details itself. The money stays safely in escrow until you deliver. If our terms are broken, we can suspend a store and freeze payouts. Merakio is live in the Netherlands and charges in euros.