Best Platform to Sell Digital Products: Fees Compared

For most people starting out, the best platform to sell digital products is one with no monthly fee that also handles VAT: Payhip, Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad. On a $29 sale in November 2026 they leave you $26.41, $27.05 and $24.46. Once you sell steadily, a flat-fee store like Stan Store ($29 a month, 0% commission) keeps more per sale.

That answer hides three separate costs, and platforms advertise whichever one looks best: a percentage per sale, a monthly subscription, and the tax work. This page prices all three on the same $29 product so you can compare like with like. If you have already chosen Gumroad, our Gumroad guide covers what sells there and how to price it.

What do you keep from a $29 sale on each platform?

The table assumes one $29 sale to a US buyer paying with a US card, no discount code, no affiliate and no sales tax. Where a platform uses Stripe or PayPal for payments, we used Stripe's standard US rate of 2.9% + 30 cents.

The fees are our arithmetic from each platform's own page, checked 2 November 2026: Lemon Squeezy, Payhip, Gumroad pricing and Gumroad's fee article, Stan Store, Whop, Etsy and Shopify.

Gumroad's card processing line settles a question that comes up a lot. Its help centre says the 10% + 50 cent fee "does not include: Credit card processing (2.9% + $0.30)", so budget for both.

How do the fees change on a $9 and a $99 product?

Fixed fees punish cheap products and percentages punish expensive ones. The same platforms at two other prices, no monthly fee included:

Our arithmetic from the same fee pages. At $9, Gumroad keeps 22% of the sale. At $99 it keeps 14%. A flat-fee store such as Stan keeps you 94% to 97% of every sale, but only after the subscription is covered.

The practical rule: if most of your products sell under $15, bundle them or use a low-fixed-fee platform. If most sell for $50 or more, the percentage matters more than the fixed fee, and a subscription plan pays for itself sooner.

When does a monthly fee pay for itself?

A subscription is a fixed cost, so the more you sell, the less it costs per sale. Spread over your monthly sales, here is what each subscription plan adds to every $29 sale:

Our arithmetic. Compare it with the fee gap. On Gumroad you pay $4.54 a sale. On Stan you pay $1.14 plus the subscription. The two cross at about 9 sales of $29 a month: below that Gumroad is cheaper, above it Stan is. Payhip Plus against Payhip Free crosses at about 34 sales a month, because the plan only saves 3% ($0.87) a sale. Payhip Pro, at $99, saves $1.45 a sale against the free plan, so it only pays at about 69 sales of $29 a month, and against Plus it needs about 121, because it saves just 58 cents more per sale for $70 more a month.

If you have not sold anything yet, the monthly-fee platforms are a bet on your future volume. Start on a free plan and switch when the arithmetic says so. Moving a few products between platforms takes an afternoon.

Which platforms handle VAT and sales tax for you?

This is the cost that does not show up in a fee table. Under EU rules, a business outside the EU that sells digital services to EU consumers owes VAT at the buyer's country rate, and declares it through the EU's One Stop Shop non-Union scheme. The UK has its own rules, and US states set their own sales tax rules for digital goods.

A merchant of record is the company legally selling to your buyer. It collects the tax, files it and takes the liability, and you get paid as its supplier.

• Gumroad has been merchant of record since 1 January 2025. Its pricing page says it handles "sales tax collection and remittance worldwide".
• Lemon Squeezy says it is "your merchant of record" and takes on "tax collection and calculation liability across all jurisdictions".
• Payhip says it "automatically collects, reports and remits digital EU/UK VAT as well as US/Canadian sales tax on your behalf", on every plan.
• Etsy collects and remits US sales tax on orders, and VAT on digital downloads in countries where the law requires it, according to its fees policy.
• Whop charges an optional 2% "when enabled and tax is collected", per its fee page.
• Stan Store and Shopify: Stan's pricing page and help article say nothing about sales tax or VAT, so assume it is yours to handle. On Shopify you configure tax yourself.

If you sell mostly to US buyers at a few hundred dollars a month, the tax gap is small. If you sell templates or courses worldwide, the merchant-of-record platforms save you a registration and a quarterly return in each place you owe tax.

Is Gumroad still worth it?

For a first product, often yes. It has no monthly fee, it is the merchant of record, so tax is handled, and its Discover marketplace can bring buyers you did not find yourself. Against that, it has the highest per-sale fee of the no-subscription options here: $4.54 on a $29 sale, against $1.95 on Lemon Squeezy and $2.59 on Payhip's free plan. If you already bring your own buyers and want tax handled, Lemon Squeezy and Payhip do the same job for less. If marketplace traffic is what you want, compare Discover's 30% with Etsy's fees and Offsite Ads before choosing.

Which platform suits which product?

Templates, planners and small files ($5 to $30): Payhip or Lemon Squeezy on the free tier, because the per-sale fee is low and tax is handled. Etsy is worth adding for search traffic. Our guide to Notion templates covers what sells in that niche, and the same pricing logic applies to planners.

Products sold from a social media bio link: Stan Store is built around a mobile storefront that lives in your bio, with upsells, order bumps and email flows on the $99 Creator Pro plan. Our Stan Store review covers its fees, complaints and who it suits in detail.

Paid communities, memberships and Discord access: Whop, which prices each feature separately. The Whop guide covers its costs, the dispute fees and the ceiling on a single community.

Digital downloads people search for: Etsy digital products. Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee is high, but its buyers arrive already searching. A Gumroad Discover sale works the same way at 30%.

Ebooks you want found in Kindle search: Amazon KDP, covered in our Amazon KDP guide. It pays a royalty rather than charging a fee, so it does not compare like for like with the table above.

A brand store with physical and digital products: Shopify, at $29 a month billed yearly, plus card fees of 2.9% + 30 cents on the Basic plan.

To check any card-processing line at your own price, including international cards (Stripe adds 1.5%) and currency conversion (another 1%), use the Stripe fee calculator.

Can you sell on more than one platform?

Yes, and it is common. A typical setup is Etsy for buyers who search there, plus your own storefront on Payhip, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad or Stan for buyers who come from your social posts or email list. The same file can sit on both. The cost is keeping prices and product versions in sync, and remembering that Etsy's policy prohibits moving a transaction off Etsy once a buyer found you there.

If you sell memberships or a paid community rather than downloads, the choice is different again: our Skool vs Kajabi comparison prices the community platforms at 50, 200 and 1,000 members.

What do platforms not tell you up front?

• Refunds keep some fees. Gumroad's chargeback article says the creator covers the refunded amount and any payment processing fees, and Gumroad returns its platform fee.
• International cards cost more. Stripe adds 1.5% for international cards and 1% for currency conversion. Whop adds 1.5% and 1%. Lemon Squeezy says non-US transactions "may incur additional fees" without listing them.
• Marketplace sales cost more than your own traffic. Gumroad charges 30% on a Discover sale and Etsy charges an extra 15% Offsite Ads fee on attributed orders for shops under $10,000 a year.

Disclosure: RichTactic hosts its own free guides on Gumroad.

Who should skip this?

• Anyone without a product yet. Platform choice is the last decision, not the first. Pick a product you can make in a week and a buyer you can reach.
• Anyone expecting the platform to bring buyers. Marketplace traffic costs extra where it exists (Etsy's Offsite Ads, Gumroad Discover's 30%). On a storefront such as Stan, Payhip or Shopify, the traffic is yours to find.
• Anyone selling under $5. Fixed fees (30 cents to 50 cents a sale) eat a large share of cheap products. Bundle them.

Your first week, dated

• Mon 2 Nov: Write down one product, one price and one place your buyers already gather.
• Tue 3 Nov: Make the product. A template or a checklist can be done in a day.
• Wed 4 Nov: Open a free account on Payhip, Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad. Upload the file and set the price.
• Thu 5 Nov: Post a preview where your buyers gather, with the link.
• Fri 6 Nov to Sun 8 Nov: Answer every comment and message. Note where each sale came from.
• Mon 9 Nov: Count sales. If you are past 9 a month at $29 and selling from a bio link, price out Stan Store. Otherwise stay where you are and make product two.