Why Shieldz is free

Free isn't a promo or a loss-leader — it falls out of how Shieldz is built. Here's the honest version.

We never hold your money

Shieldz is non-custodial. Payments go straight from your buyer's wallet to yours; we just watch the chain and tell you it landed. There's no balance to take a percentage of, no float to earn interest on, no payout to delay. The usual ways a payment company makes money simply don't exist here — so we don't charge for them.

So how do we pay the bills?

Running hosted checkout, blockchain nodes, and watchers costs money. We cover it with one brief sponsored card shown on the checkout's "payment confirmed" screen, while your buyer waits for the network to settle. It's clean, crypto-relevant, and never blocks the payment. That's the whole model — no percentage of your sales, ever.

The $99 option

Prefer a completely unbranded, ad-free checkout? Pro is $99/year — same $0 fees, same non-custodial settlement; you're just paying to remove the sponsored card. Larger merchants who choose it help keep the free tier free for everyone else.

Why "free" isn't a red flag here

"0% fees" is a classic scam hook when a service holds your funds — the catch shows up at withdrawal. Shieldz never holds your funds, so there's nothing to withhold: a confirmed payment is already in your wallet. No withdrawal fees, no "verification deposit," no locked balances. See pricing → · More questions →