As Gumroad plans to increase its fees to 10% on January 31, 2023, many people are searching for alternatives to sell their products or services online.
Whether you sell physical products, digital goods, or services, various Gumroad alternatives can meet your needs - without paying unnecessary fees to the platform.
In this article, I will compare some of the most popular Gumroad options to help you choose the best one for your business.
What Are The Best Gumroad Alternatives?
Here are some of the most popular Gumroad alternative platforms to consider.
1. Stan
Best Overall Gumroad Alternative
A Stan store is an online platform that helps creators quickly sell digital products and services they know their audience will love. It allows creators to quickly set up their stores in just minutes to start making money immediately. The best part is that it costs nothing to get started; you only need an internet connection.
Stan offers everything you need at one great price. The platform allows creators to access powerful tools such as analytics, campaigns, automated sales emails, and integrated payment systems. Additionally, their customer service team is available if any issues arise.
By leveraging the power of Stan's tools and features, it's easy for creators to turn their followers into paying customers quickly and effectively. Start by creating an engaging product or service that your audience will love.
Once your offering is ready to go live on the platform, utilize features such as analytics and campaigns to track performance metrics like sales numbers and customer engagement levels in real time. You can also set up automated sales emails so that customers receive personalized messages whenever they purchase something from your store, which helps build trust and loyalty over time.
Key Features:
Pricing:
You can test drive the platform with a 14-day trial.
After that, you can choose one of the following plans:
2. Thrive Cart
Best For Analytics
ThriveCart is an excellent alternative to Gumroad and other online sales platforms, with its “profit boosters” like one-click upsells, abandoned cart reminders, and built-in integration with almost any payment processor.
ThriveCart helps online businesses increase revenue by creating high-converting cart pages, funnels, affiliate campaigns, courses, and more.
Plus, you’ll get access to features like coupon codes, discounts, and abandoned cart recovery that will help you further maximize your profits.
ThriveCart also simplifies handling customer payments by seamlessly integrating with services like PayPal and Stripe for easy checkout and payment processing. Finally, it comes with built-in analytics tools that allow you to track your progress and tweak where necessary to get the most out of every sale. All of these features make it easier than ever before for businesses to succeed online!
Key Features:
Pricing:
ThriveCart is currently offering a one-time price for a lifetime membership of $495 or a pro account for $690.
3. Podia
Best For Building An Engaged Community
Podia is a platform that makes it easy to create beautiful websites, share digital products and courses, and build communities in minutes.
Podia's website builder lets you create a beautiful website in minutes. You don't need any tech skills - drag and drop elements into place, customize your design with their easy-to-use tools, and add content from your blog or YouTube channel.
Plus, you can use their templates and themes to get started quickly. Once your website is up and running, you'll be able to manage it from one central dashboard. You can accept payments through PayPal or Stripe (or both), meaning customers can pay with their credit cards or bank accounts.
If you also want to offer discounts on specific items or services, Podia has covered you there too! Their discount code feature lets you set up promotional codes that customers can enter at checkout for a percentage off their purchase.
Podia also allows you to create paid or free communities for discussion purposes. These communities are great for engaging with customers and building relationships between them. Plus, they're an excellent way to generate additional revenue from monthly memberships or offer exclusive content to members only.
You can also use these communities to provide customer support by creating a private space where users can quickly ask questions and receive answers from fellow community members or moderators.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Podia offers four different pricing plans for its platform:
4. Lemon Squeezy
Best For Tax Compliance
As the merchant of record, Lemon Squeezy handles the burden of tax compliance so that you can focus on what matters most—generating revenue and avoiding headaches. With Lemon Squeezy, you don't have to worry about ensuring that your taxes are up to date in every country where you do business. They take care of it for you so that your customers get charged correctly, and there are no unpleasant surprises when filing taxes come due.
Moreover, Lemon Squeezy provides tools to help you increase sales by growing your audience with integrated marketing tools. You can launch a secure ecommerce website without worrying about design or mobile optimization in minutes with no-code checkout links.
Finally, they provide payment processing services and PayPal integration so customers can pay conveniently and securely with their preferred payment method.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Lemon Squeezy offers two pricing plans for their ecommerce and email marketing services. For ecommerce transactions, they charge 5% plus 50¢ per transaction.
Lemon Squeezy is free for email marketing, although there are additional fees for certain features like custom templates or advanced analytics. The fee can also increase based on the number of email subscribers you have.
5. Sellfy
Best For Its Marketing Tools
Sellfy makes it easy to start and manage your online store. With their user-friendly interface, you can have your store up and running in just five minutes. Plus, Sellfy offers built-in marketing tools to help you grow your sales and reach a wider audience.
All you need to set up the platform is to sign up, add your products and begin selling immediately. There's no need to waste time designing or setting up complicated pages; everything is already taken care of. You can also customize the look of your store with various themes to match your business's branding. Further personalize with a custom domain, logo, background image, and more.
Sellfy also provides built-in marketing features that make it easy for you to promote your products and grow your sales. Use their email automation feature to send targeted emails directly to customers who have purchased from you or are interested in what you offer. You can also use referral programs and discounts to reward loyal customers or incentivize new ones.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Sellfy offers three pricing plans to suit different business types. The Starter plan is ideal for beginners and costs $19/month, while the Business plan is excellent for growing businesses and costs $49/month. The Premium plan is perfect for larger stores and costs $99/month.
6. Stripe
Best For A Great Payment Solution
If you're an online or in-person retailer, subscription business, software platform, or marketplace, then Stripe can provide the payment infrastructure you need to reach your goals. Stripe is one of the most popular payment processing solutions today, and it has a lot to offer businesses.
Stripe is another alternative to Gumroad in that it offers easy-to-use APIs to help companies beat fraud and make payments more manageable.
Stripe's APIs offer a broad spectrum of solutions to enhance your business, such as issuing invoices and virtual/physical cards, minimizing checkout friction, receiving financing options, and managing company spending habits - all while saving time.
Stripe also offers financing tools that allow businesses to access funds quickly and efficiently when needed. With Stripe Capital, companies can apply for loans from banks or other lenders without worrying about going through lengthy paperwork processes or waiting for weeks for approval.Key Features:
Pricing:
Stripe offers two main pricing options, Integrated and Customized. The Integrated option provides a flat rate of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction and is the simplest way to use Stripe. The Customized option allows businesses to design a custom package for their business with more tailored features and costs depending on your needs.
7. BuyMeCoffee
Best For Easily Receiving Money
Buy Me a Coffee makes it easy for fans to support their favorite creators in just a few taps, with no account registration needed. The platform offers two ways to make money: monthly or yearly memberships and Extras.
Memberships are designed for creators who want to accept recurring payments from their supporters. To get started, all you need is a link, and you can begin driving people to your membership page, where they can subscribe and become members of your exclusive group.
Extras are set up for creators who want to sell things like 1-1 Zoom calls, art commissions, or ebooks outside Shopify stores. With this feature, you can easily list items your supporters can purchase directly from you without setting up another website or shop.
The bonus here is that all payments are processed by Buy Me A Coffee, so there's no need for different accounts or services.
Whether you sell physical products, software, or services, Buy Me A Coffee makes it easy to accept payments online so you can focus on creating excellent content and growing your fan base.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Buy Me A Coffee charges a 5% transaction fee on all payments.
8. Easy Digital Downloads
Best For Selling Digital Downloads
When it comes to distributing your digital products, there are no limitations with EDD. Customers can download their purchased files endlessly, or restrictions can be placed on file downloads by time and attempt depending on what works best for your store. With complete control over how your customers access their files after purchase, you have peace of mind knowing that everything is secure and managed properly without any extra effort.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) makes accepting credit card payments easy and creates discount codes to encourage customers to buy more. Plus, it offers an efficient shopping cart system and unlimited download options.
The shopping cart system included with EDD is designed with user experience in mind. It has minimum page loads and cleanly designed elements that make it easy for customers to find what they're looking for. Plus, customers can purchase multiple downloads at once without going through various checkout steps.
In addition, EDD offers secure payment options such as Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal so that customers feel confident making purchases from your store.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Easy Digital Downloads offers these pricing plans:
The All Access Pass is the most comprehensive and offers access to all EDD features, making it the best choice for businesses looking for the most from their payment solution.
9. Patreon
Best For Building Solid Relationships
Patreon is another excellent alternative to Gumroad that offers a membership platform for creators to build memberships. This platform helps creators who want to make more of what they love in a way that's both financially and creatively sustainable.
Patreon provides all the necessary tools and allows you to create content specifically for your biggest fans, which can help you foster relationships with them beyond simple interactions on social media platforms.
Through Patreon, you can build a space dedicated to your most passionate supporters. In one location, they can get direct access to exclusive content, events, or experiences based on the level of support they choose. And since these recurring memberships, you can create sustainable income streams from your biggest fans.
Patreon allows creators to set up subscription-based membership models like tiers or goals with either monthly or per-creation payments. Creators get to decide what kind of benefits their patrons receive in exchange for their support. These benefits include early access to content, exclusive bonuses like behind-the-scenes updates or discounts on merchandise, and even physical rewards like postcards or personalized items.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Patreon offers three pricing plans: Lite, Pro, and Premium. The Lite plan charges a 5% fee per transaction, while the Pro plan charges an 8% fee. The most comprehensive package is the Premium plan, which has a 12% fee per transaction.
10. E-junkie
Best For Accurate Shipping Costs
E-junkie helps create an online store to sell items ranging from file downloads to physical products. Payment is instant, files are automatically delivered after each successful purchase, shipping and handling can be calculated using various methods, and you can even sign up affiliates to help increase your sales.
E-junkie also quickly calculates shipping costs for digital and physical goods. You can enter flat rate amounts per item type or price range or choose from several shipping services such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL Express, etc. You can even add a surcharge if your customer requests express shipping services.
Key Features:
Pricing:
E-junkie offers pricing plans ranging between $5/mo and $40/mo. The $5/mo plan allows up to 10 products for sale, while the more comprehensive $40/mo package includes unlimited products. The other plans offer everything in between.
11. Teachable
Best For A Great User Experience
Teachable is the world's leading platform for selling courses, digital downloads, and more. With over 100,000 creators having sold a combined $1 billion in studies and coaching using Teachable, there's no doubt that it's the best way to bring your knowledge to life.
Teachable offers an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for anyone to create and manage their courses, no matter their technical level. You have complete control over everything from course prices to payment plans. You can customize pages with themes and fonts that match your brand. And with the Teachable drag-and-drop page builder feature, creating beautiful landing pages is faster than ever. That means less time spent tinkering with templates and more time building great content.
You can also provide memberships for fans who want early access to exclusive content or include live webinars as part of larger membership packages. All these features make Teachable one of the most comprehensive platforms for creating courses and selling digital products online.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Teachable offers four pricing plans to suit different business types. The Free plan is great for getting started and testing out the platform. The Basic goal is perfect for most course creators and costs $29/per month. The Pro plan is ideal for growing businesses and costs $99/month. Finally, the Advanced program allows you to customize features according to your needs and get expert support when needed at custom pricing.
Other Noteworthy Products To Consider
Here are a few other ecommerce solutions worth considering.
Samcart
SamCart is the perfect tool to help digital product and service sellers reach their full potential. It makes it easy to attract more customers, charge subscribers or payment plans, gain new clientele and automate billing without worrying about technology.
Working with SamCart offers an opportunity for both buyers and sellers to have a seamless experience with no extra stress or worries.
Etsy
Etsy is the perfect online marketplace for people looking to start selling their homemade or vintage products. It provides an easy way for vendors to reach a large audience of potential customers without any upfront cost for setting up shop.
By providing buyers with exciting offerings and taking care of every step in the process, from listing to receiving feedback, Etsy gives sellers control over the entire process.
Soundwise
SoundWise is the perfect tool for anyone who wants to become a better musician, no matter their current level of ability. It provides instant performance feedback, making it easier to understand where one can improve.
Sound Wise allows users to access digital extras such as video tutorials and audio backing tracks from inside the app, allowing users to benefit from this additional content without leaving the platform.
Squarespace Ecommerce
With Squarespace Commerce, you can connect to a payment processor to process secure, reliable credit card transactions and accept PayPal or other forms of payments. There's also the ability to issue refunds, receive donations, and take full advantage of all the opportunities offered by running an ecommerce site.
And with templates designed specifically for commerce, your customers will be drawn in by beautiful arrangements of products that encourage browsing and shopping.
WooCommerce
With WooCommerce, the possibilities for online stores are virtually endless. Its WordPress-based platform has been purposefully designed to be customizable down to the source code, giving businesses of all sizes access to powerful eCommerce functionality.
Moreover, with WooCommerce, you get flexible and secure payments, configurable shipping options, custom integrations, and more out of the box - all for free. But that's not all; if you need additional features or extended functionality for your store, you can easily purchase them from the official WooCommerce Marketplace.
What Makes Gumroad So Popular?
Gumroad is a convenient and easy-to-use platform that allows you to sell your products or services online quickly and easily.
Being a payment processing solution that makes it simple to sell products or services online. You can sell a physical or digital product or a subscription or membership.
Gumroad is also incredibly easy to use—even if you don't have any tech experience. You must create a free account on their website and provide the necessary information (name, address, etc.).
From there, just select the type of product or service you want to offer, upload your files (if applicable), set up the pricing for your product/service, add optional extras (such as sales tax or shipping fees), and then publish your page.
You can customize your page with images and text so customers know what they get when purchasing from you. It's as simple as that.
The main benefit of using Gumroad is how straightforward it is to set up. There's no need to worry about complicated coding or web design; you only need to fill out some basic information and select the type of product/service you want.
Plus, since it works as its payment gateway, you don't have to worry about paying extra fees when customers purchase from you.
The Gumroad Cost Increase
Unfortunately, Gumroad recently announced a cost increase for its services. Charging a 10% fee on all sales is a significant increase. This increase is the reason why many sellers are looking for alternatives to Gumroad.
As a seller, the cost increase can hurt your bottom line if you sell products or services on a low margin and plan to pass on your costs to the customer. The above platforms can help you with this, as they offer competitive rates and features to help you create an online store that doesn’t require such a high commission.
Top Features To Consider
Still not convinced which platform is best?
Here are some features you should look for in a great ecommerce platform to ensure your online store is successful.
Easy Setup And Customization
The best Gumroad alternative allows for an easy setup with plenty of exciting features.
Whether it's built-in marketing features or ecommerce business automation, your platform should make setting up a store efficient and straightforward.
With customizable storefronts, you can tailor the look of your store to match your brand's identity.
Secure Payments
Your platform should provide hosted payment processing services so customers can pay directly from your website without leaving the page or entering their credit card information on an external site.
People expect secure and reliable services when paying a one-time or monthly subscription fee through their payment gateways.
Whether you're selling software, services, or physical goods, secure payment options are essential for any successful ecommerce store.
One's conversion rates can also be increased by offering customers secure payment options such as PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and more.
Flexible Shipping Options
As an ecommerce store, relying on third-party providers to fulfill your orders can be a hassle.
A complete online store offers flexible and cost-effective shipping services such as local pickup, same-day delivery, flat-rate shipping, and more.
With the right platform, you can easily set up shipping rules that allow customers to know their expected delivery time and how much it will cost them.
It would be best if you also looked for a platform that simplifies your customer's order process so you can quickly tailor it to fit your needs.
Custom Integrations
Selling physical and digital products often means using third-party apps and services.
For example, you might need to integrate with a customer service system when you sell software products to ensure customers get the best service.
You might also want to offer discount codes or coupons on your store, a feature that doesn’t come natively with all stores.
It’s best to look for a platform that supports custom integrations so you can easily sync it up with other tools and services.
Responsive Design
The word responsive means that the design can adapt its layout based on the visitor's device.
From the free version of a platform to a paid one, the right platform is one that also supports multiple languages and currencies.
Analytic Tracking And Reporting
While analytics are generally part of a paid plan, this is usually worth the cost as it allows you to gain better insights into customer behavior on your website.
Here are a couple of examples to demonstrate the point.
If you offer subscription-based membership, you can track how often customers use your product and how long they stay.
For those that integrate with email marketing tools, the right analytics help ensure that campaigns are successful by tracking how many subscribers opened, clicked, and shared the emails.
A great alternative to Gumroad offers detailed analytics so you can make informed decisions about your business.
SEO Optimization
Whether you sell physical products or digital goods, search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for helping customers find your store online.
Look for a platform with built-in SEO tools that help you optimize title tags, meta descriptions, and other elements of your product pages, so they rank higher in search results.
Affiliate Program
Spreading word of mouth regarding your products and services is a great way to generate more sales.
Look for a platform that offers an affiliate program so your customers can refer others and earn commission from their referrals.
Customer Support
From getting information about free trials to asking questions about transaction fees and monthly fee options, customer support is essential for any e-commerce platform.
With live chat support, you can sell online much more efficiently by resolving customer queries quickly and effectively.
Free Trial
Finally, the best Gumroad alternative offers free trial periods so customers can try the service before making a purchase.
Conclusion
For those looking for a Gumroad alternative to combat the fee increase on Gumroad, many great options offer the right features and benefits.
When considering which option to choose, consider both the above options and the features you need to ensure the best customer experience.
Last Updated on January 8, 2023 by Hanson Cheng