Best Gumroad Alternatives for Creators and Sellers in 2023

Gumroad is a popular eCommerce platform that lets creators sell their physical and digital products, courses, and memberships directly to customers. But the platform’s popularity has taken a dip in light of a recent, unexpected pricing structure change announced by founder Sahil Lavingia. From Sunday, 1 January 2023, all of its sellers — no matter how much they’d made on the platform — were billed 10% across the board in commission fees. This has left sellers scrambling to find Gumroad alternatives for their eCommerce requirements.

This near-overnight price hike has caused a stir among creators who use Gumroad to sell their products. And it’s not hard to understand why.

Previously, sellers paid Gumroad a fee that was tiered according to their lifetime earnings:

Note that sellers’ fees decreased as their earnings increased. If you earned $1,000 in lifetime revenue, you’d have paid $90 in fees (plus a few dollars more to account for the 30c per transaction fee). This would have left you with around $900 in pocket. Moreover, each time your earnings reached the next lifetime bracket, you would be billed a lower fee for that tier. Essentially, you were incentivized to stay on Gumroad by selling more to pay lower commissions.

Why Sellers Are After Cost-Effective Gumroad Alternatives for 2023

The 10% increase – which excludes payment gateway fees – brings the total fees to around 13.5%. If a high-earning seller previously fell into the 3% or 2.9% fee range, their commission to Gumroad has now — almost overnight — increased by more than 350%. Looking at the numbers, it’s not hard to understand why these sellers are looking for Gumroad alternatives.

The Pros and Cons of Migrating from Gumroad to a New Platform

Pros

• While the drastic price hike will likely not have an immediate impact on sellers with less than $1,000 in lifetime earnings, it will have a serious knock-on effect for those who have earned more. That said, even sellers who haven’t earned high amounts on Gumroad could soon be seeing the increase’s effect on their bank statements.
• There are many eCommerce platforms out there, and it’s possible — if not certain — that some of them will offer features and functions that suit your unique needs better than Gumroad.
• An increasing number of sellers are leaving Gumroad, which means the platform could soon be without the funding needed to stay afloat. For this reason, taking the time to explore Gumroad alternatives to settle on a best-fit platform could save you the headache of last-minute panic and damage control if Gumroad collapses.
• You could potentially be earning far more on other platforms by paying lower commissions and costs.

Cons

• Gumroad will be introducing new features and improvements in the coming months. These updates are designed to make it easier for creators to sell their products and reach a wider audience.
• Depending on what type of product you sell and whether you use subscriptions, migrating to a new platform can be a hassle. Between communicating the move to existing customers and establishing credibility among new ones, building a new storefront and checkout page, and potentially changing to another payment gateway, you’ll have your hands full trying to get up and running again. That said, the longer you stay on Gumroad, the lower the chances you’ll migrate from it. So, if you’re considering a transition, better to swallow the pill as soon as possible.

Why Consider Gumroad Alternatives for eCommerce?

Gumroad is not only expensive, but it’s also very generic.

Because it caters to a wide spectrum of sellers, it provides a simplified, one-size-fits-all eCommerce solution that lacks the specialized features you may require for selling your particular product.

There are a number of niche-specific Gumroad alternatives that fall within the price range that Gumroad has shifted to. Many of these solutions offer more in terms of functionality, support, marketing, and analytics tools, and often provide digital product-building tools along with an eCommerce solution. Simply put, similarly priced Gumroad alternatives can provide far more bang for your buck.

That said, if a simplified and generic eCommerce solution solves your needs and fits your budget, there are cheaper Gumroad alternatives worth considering.

What Factors to Consider When Looking for the Best Gumroad Alternatives

To help you set up shop with a platform that meets your needs and budget, we’ve rounded up Gumroad alternatives for sellers and creators that operate in the digital and physical product spaces.

Our Gumroad alternatives picks are based on these criteria:

• The features, functionalities, and services each platform offers, and whether they suit your unique needs.
• The pros and cons of each platform.
• The different pricing plans offered by each platform.

Our Curated List of Sites Like Gumroad

Just so we’re on the same page, we’ve selected sites like Gumroad as recommendations for Gumroad alternatives. What do we mean by ‘sites like Gumroad’?

There are many marketplaces — Amazon and eBay come to mind — where you can simply list and sell your products, but these don’t count as Gumroad alternatives. The difference between Gumroad vs marketplaces is that Gumroad is an eCommerce solution that lets you sell your products — digital or physical — via a hosted mini-storefront and checkout page, which you can also host on your own website. You have more control over the retail process because you can feature your own branding, use analytics tools to determine customer behaviors, and create funnels to drive more traffic to your store, etc.

Without further ado, let’s have a look at how we’ve categorized sites like Gumroad…

Table of Contents

• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Software and SaaS
• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Digital Downloads
• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Courses and Tutorials
• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling eBooks
• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Memberships
• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Podcasts
• Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Audiobooks

Software and SaaS: Gumroad Alternatives

Freemius

With a focus on plugins, themes, and SaaS, Freemius is an all-in-one SaaS platform that offers commercial infrastructure to help developers sell, distribute, and market software. Thanks to the platform’s Developer Dashboard, developers who sell with Freemius (known as partners) can create and manage their own online stores and handle all aspects of the sales process, including payment processing, licensing, updates, and customer support. They can also offer free trials, create subscription plans, and manage license keys.

The Developer Dashboard also provides analytics and insights to help partners understand how their products are being used to identify opportunities for growth. As one of the most viable Gumroad alternatives, these features and functionalities are how Freemius delivers some of the best value to software and SaaS sellers.

Pros

• Freemius is a merchant of record, which means that it handles sales taxes, billing, and invoicing for you, making it one of the most convenient, hassle-free Gumroad alternatives on the market
• Built with developers in mind
• It has an extremely rich feature set
• Freemius’s new Sales Analytics offers depth and flexibility that is unlike any other competitor solution on the market
• Offers a migration service to smoothly transition from another platform (like Gumroad)
• Facilitates bundle sales
• Comes with deployment and release management, including staged rollouts
• Built-in software licensing engine
• Subscriptions-first platform with dunning included
• Advanced API and webhooks
• Hosted solution
• “Red carpet” customer support from experienced developers
• Comes with an affiliate platform
• Checkout links
• Teams support
• Has a thriving 1000+ Slack community of like-minded product makers for support, sharing of ideas, marketing tactics, etc.
• Advanced analytics
• Coupons
• Email marketing integrations
• Cart abandonment recovery
• Automatic updates — versions can be managed and deployed in one place
• A feature-rich user dashboard helps you manage your support load by empowering your customers to update and switch payment methods, upgrade or cancel their subscriptions, access downloads and licenses, issue invoices for EU VAT, white label products and whitelist URLs, and more

Cons

• Checkout is currently only available in English
• No SDK for selling iOS/Android apps
• Currently only supports USD, EUR, and GBP
• Freemius primarily focuses on the WordPress market

Pricing

Freemius makes use of a revenue sharing model, charging 7% after crossing $5,000 in lifetime gross sales. This excludes payment gateway fees.

If you are selling WordPress products, Freemius is a no-brainer. It’s easily the best solution on our list of Gumroad alternatives for your use case.

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3%

SendOwl

SendOwl is one of the more affordable Gumroad alternatives, which makes it especially useful for small businesses and entrepreneurs in Software and SaaS. It offers a range of features, including the ability to create a customizable online store, process orders and payments, and manage shipping and fulfillment.

Pros

• Checkout links
• Solid analytics and reports
• Flexible and customizable
• Custom checkout fields
• Coupons
• Upsells
• Supports pay-what-you-want pricing
• Email marketing integrations
• Codes and license keys

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Only supported in countries that support Stripe Connect
• Lacks software release management and updates delivery

Pricing

SendOwl lets you choose between pay-per-sale or a flat monthly rate.

• Free plan: $0 per month and 5% commission on sales, available only to merchants in countries supported by Stripe Connect. The minimum fee per sale is 25c and the minimum list price is $1.
• Growth plan: $19 per month with 0% commission on one-off sales. 1% for subscriptions. Plus, $0.25 per sale starting from the 101st sale.
• High-volume sellers can reach out for customized pricing.
• Prices exclude gateway fees, so there are additional costs on top.

Payment

• SendOwl supports these payment gateways. However, since SendOwl is not a merchant of record, the onus is on you to accept payments and handle sales taxes, invoicing, and fraud.

Paddle

Used by B2B and B2C SaaS companies, Paddle is one of the favored Gumroad alternatives to handle payments, sales tax, and subscriptions.

It is worth noting that Paddle won’t help you build your own online storefront, but instead focuses their features on the checkout process.

Pros

• Merchant of record that handles sales taxes, billing, invoicing, fraud liability, revenue data, billing support, and failed payment recovery
• Customizable checkout page
• B2B invoicing
• Subscription billing
• Own payments infrastructure
• Multiple payment partners
• In-house payments team
• Accepts different currencies and routes payments
• Metrics reporting for financial data
• Uses Retain® to reduce churn
• Insights that help you upsell more lucrative business accounts to returning customers
• SaaS-specific customer support
• Migration service to help you switch from another platform (like Gumroad)
• Handles customer queries related to billing support
• Price optimization software
• Specialized team members for business optimization advice
• Implementation service to help you set up Paddle for your business

Cons

• Poor support — the company is focused on large businesses that make $1M+ in monthly sales, so don’t place high expectations on their customer support if you’re an SME.
• Pricing will increase at some point since Paddle also covers gateway fees. Because the underlying cost of international payments processing easily reaches ~3% (and keeps rising as VISA and MasterCard continually increase their fees), Paddle’s profit margin is rather low. As a VC-backed company that has raised $293M, it can afford a low margin by relying on investors’ money. With almost 400 employees and an estimated burn rate of $5M+ per month, it’s just a matter of time until they’ll have to increase their pricing, just like Gumroad did. The nature of the current profit-first economy only hastens this impending D-Day. If you settle on Paddle after reading our list of Gumroad alternatives, make sure you have a contingency plan in place.

Pricing

• 5% + 50c per transaction. If you’re selling your product for under $10 or require invoicing, you’ll need to contact Paddle for custom pricing.

Payment Gateway Fees

• None

PayKickstart

PayKickstart is one of the leading Gumroad alternatives for software and SaaS businesses that offer subscription-based products or services.

In addition to its core eCommerce features, PayKickstart also includes an affiliate management system that helps you recruit affiliates, track commissions, and pay affiliates automatically.

Pros

• Manages subscriptions through price modeling, trial management, a self-serve customer billing portal, and more
• Includes revenue retention tools, such as in-app reminders, notifications, and dunning management
• Customizable checkout template library
• Checkout conversion tools
• Translates checkout and emails in 25 different languages
• Accepts payments in more than 135 currencies
• Can accept online and offline payments
• Integrates with Connect™ or one of eight supported payment gateways
• Integrates with more than 60 apps and 3000 others via Zapier
• 24/7 customer success team

Cons

• The main reason that PayKickstart may not be one of the most-suited Gumroad alternatives for you is that it doesn’t offer a free plan
• Packages are on the pricier side of the spectrum
• Not a merchant of record

Pricing

PayKickstart includes the following plans:

• Starter: $99/Month with a $10,000 revenue limit, after which a 0.9% commission is charged on any amount exceeding the limit
• Growth: $199/Month with a $50,000 revenue limit, after which a 0.7% commission is charged on any amount exceeding the limit
• Scale: $299/Month with a $200,000 revenue limit, after which a 0.5% commission is charged on any amount exceeding the limit

Payment and Processing Fees

• PayKickstart lets you accept payment through your own payment gateway account. However, the platform pushes users to make use of its payment management system Connect^TM, which — it claims — offers savings on transaction fees. However, Connect^TM still charges a processing fee of 2.8% + 25c on the Starter plan, 2.7% + 25c on the Growth plan, and 2.6% + 25c on the Scale plan. It’s also likely to be a white-labeled version of a third-party payment processor since the regulatory burden and costs for a company to become a PCI payment processor adds up to hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars per year.

Best Gumroad Alternatives to Sell Digital Downloads

E-junkie

E-junkie is the first of our suggested Gumroad alternatives for selling digital downloads. It’s an affordable copy-paste shopping cart and digital delivery service that helps you sell digital assets on your website, blog, eBay, social media, and other websites through the use of PayPal and other popular payment services. For digital downloads specifically, the platform automates and secures the delivery of files and codes. The shopping cart also features a built-in sales tax and VAT calculator.

Pros

• E-junkie’s a good pick amongst our Gumroad alternatives because it’s affordable, with plans starting at $5 per month
• Verifies sales and sends out digital goods for you
• Offers eBook protection
• Customizable shopping cart that integrates with your website’s design
• Automatically creates an SEO-friendly product landing page integrated with Facebook and Google analytics
• The use of download codes also lets you sell your products offline
• Inventory management feature (if you want to sell limited amounts of premium digital downloads)
• Affiliate programs
• Pay-what-you-want option
• Includes an E-Junkie marketplace
• Cart automatically tracks eCommerce conversions if you have a Google Analytics or Facebook pixel
• Third-party integration

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• While E-junkie is well-rated amongst our Gumroad alternatives, it has been remarked that there are limitations to the interface provided for the storefront and checkout pages.
• Allows you to create rules to calculate tax and VAT. While this could be practical, it can also be a tedious task and it’s strange that E-junkie doesn’t offer a service to do it for you.

Pricing

All pricing plans include a storefront and unlimited sales and downloads.

• $5/month: Supports 10 products and 200MB storage
• $10/month: Supports 40 products and 2GB storage
• $20/month: Supports 150 products and 8GB storage
• $40/month: Supports an unlimited number of products and offers unlimited storage

Payment

• E-junkie lets you accept payments via PayPal and Paytm (India only) and only allows you to have one of several card payment gateways enabled for your E-junkie cart. Find out more.

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a popular plugin for WordPress that helps users sell digital downloads through their own websites. For such sellers, it’s one of the most affordable and user-friendly Gumroad alternatives, and lets you transform your site into an online eCommerce store within a matter of hours. EDD is also highly customizable and includes several add-ons and extensions for your store’s specific needs, as well as built-in reporting tools that track customer orders and help you see how your store is performing.

Pros

• Accepts recurring payments and can accommodate additional payment gateways
• Discount code creation
• Lets customers purchase multiple downloads at once
• Allows unlimited file downloads
• Lets you manage a separate record for every customer
• Purchase activity tracking
• REST API
• Offers detailed data reporting
• File access control
• Hundreds of different extensions
• Open source and GPL-compliant
• Designed to integrate with any WordPress theme
• Developer-friendly

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Only works with WordPress and requires users to self-host (not a SaaS)
• Its developer-friendly, open-source nature might not be suitable if you don’t have WordPress development knowledge. If that’s the case, scroll on and check out the rest of our Gumroad alternatives 😉
• The core plugin only offers basic functionality. You’ll need to buy and install a bunch of WordPress extensions and maintain them to get richer eCommerce functionality

Pricing

EDD has four different paid plans.

• Personal plan: $199/Year
• Extended plan: $399/Year
• Professional plan: $599/Year
• All Access Pass: $999/Year

Payment

• Lets you process payments with Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. However, the platform allows you to add other payment gateways via the Addons Store. Find out more.

ConvertKit Commerce

ConvertKit Commerce is for bloggers, course creators, and other online creators who sell digital downloads through their websites and are looking for Gumroad alternatives. The platform is also known for its easy-to-use interface and includes a range of features that help you manage your inventory, track sales, and analyze performance.

Pros

• A standout feature of this Gumroad alternatives platform is its integration with ConvertKit, a popular email marketing platform. It helps you manage your email subscribers and segment them according to their interests, purchase history, and other metrics
• Visual Automations builder helps you create funnels and organize your audience
• Different pricing methods, including standard one-time payments, recurring subscriptions, pay-what-you-want sliding scale, donations, and payment plans
• Integrates with other eCommerce tools like Shopify, Teachable, and WooCommerce to consolidate your sales data on a dashboard
• Gives you the option to add a tip jar
• Payment processing is done via Stripe
• Across-the-board 3.5% + 30c/transaction fee

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Although it has an extensive library, ConvertKit’s email customization options are limited
• A free plan does exist, but it offers access to only a few, fairly basic features
• Although this is a good sales and marketing solution among our list of Gumroad alternatives, ConvertKit lacks sophisticated eCommerce tools (such as those offered by other solutions like Freemius)

Pricing

ConvertKit Commerce offers three different plans:

• Free: $0 per month, billed monthly or annually
• Creator: $15 billed monthly / $9 per month billed annually
• Creator Pro: $29 billed monthly / $25 per month billed annually

Processing Fee

• 3.5% + 30c per transaction

Sellfy

With Sellfy, you can sell digital downloads like ebooks, music, video files, and more. This Gumroad alternatives option provides a range of features and tools for managing and promoting products by creating a professional-looking ‘downloads and files store’ in less than ten minutes. You can customize the look and feel of your store, add products and descriptions, and set prices. You can also embed a “buy now” button for your entire store so customers won’t have to leave your site when making a purchase, making it a solid ‘sales’ option on our list of Gumroad alternatives.

Pros

• Automatically delivers digital products to customers after a purchase, either via email or by providing a download link
• Built-in tools like email marketing, discounts and coupon codes, upselling, and pay-what-you-want pricing
• Storefront and shopping cart are optimized for mobile
• Store language can automatically be translated by customers by detecting their location
• Includes discount codes, email marketing, upselling, and tracking pixels
• Integrates with PayPal and Stripe
• PCI-DSS-ready

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Limited customization options in comparison to contemporary website builders
• Currently, there are just six integrations to choose from, which may limit (and discourage) experienced sellers

Pricing

Sellfy offers the following payment plans:

• Starter: $29 billed monthly / $22 per month ($264 billed annually) / $19 per month ($456 billed every two years)
• Business: $79 billed monthly / $59 per month ($708 billed annually) / $49 per month ($1,176 billed every two years)
• Premium: $159 billed monthly / $119 per month ($1,428 billed annually) / $99 per month ($2,376 billed every two years)

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

Courses and Tutorials: Gumroad Alternatives

Payhip

As far as Gumroad alternatives go, Payhip is a very similar platform to Gumroad. The main difference between Gumroad vs Payhip is that Payhip is mainly focused on selling digital products and charges users via paid plans.

Payhip includes various features for online course makers including in-house video hosting, customizable branding, and different lesson formats (for instance videos, texts, and puzzles). Payhip lets you build a fully customizable landing page, set pricing options, and includes access to store analytics and marketing tools. You can also bundle your online course with other digital products.

Pros

• Drip content helps you choose exactly when students will have access to their lessons
• Includes payment plans, subscriptions, and coupons
• Lets you create student accounts
• Preorders help you accept payments before course release dates
• Transactions and payment details are encrypted
• Email marketing tools are EU GDPR-compliant
• Affiliates program
• Cross-selling and upsells
• EU and UK VAT-compliant
• Applies correct VAT amount to user purchases based on their country’s tax rate
• Reports and submits quarterly VAT amounts to relevant tax authorities
• Integrates with PayPal and Stripe and accepts payments from VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, and JCB Global

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Only compliant with EU and UK VAT, and will only submit reports and returns for these countries, making it less viables for US sellers as one of our Gumroad alternatives
• Allows you to apply tax types and rates to transactions from other countries and states, but this involves manual effort on your part. Payhip will, however, compile these into a monthly report for you
• Marketing and analytics tools have some limitations
• While there is a “free” plan, it comes with a steep 5% transaction fee (excluding payment gateway fees)

Pricing

Payhip has three different packages:

• Free Forever: $0/Month + 5% transaction fee
• Plus: $29/Month + 2% transaction fee
• Pro: $99/Month with no transaction fee

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

LearnDash

LearnDash is a WordPress plugin, and one of the best Gumroad alternatives for creating interactive, engaging courses. The platform helps you create and add videos, quizzes, surveys, and other elements to your catalog. It also lets you track student progress, set up assessments and quizzes, and offer feedback and support. Free and premium add-ons allow you to change the appearance of courses and create custom landing pages.

Pros

• Integrates with PayPal and Stripe, as well as 300 other payment gateways when used with WooCommerce
• ThriveCart: Hosted shopping cart by LearnDash that can be integrated for free
• Scheduled content for lower refund rates
• Marketing and sales tools include one-time purchases, subscriptions, memberships, course bundles, and bulk access
• Can be used with WordPress page builders and WordPress themes
• REST API
• Multi-site enabled
• Drag-and-drop course builder
• Dynamic content delivery via drip-feed lessons, linear and open progression, and more
• Flexible prerequisites

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Can only be used with WordPress
• The cheapest plan (for only one site) costs $199/year

Pricing

Learndash offers three paid plans for their WordPress plugin and two different plans for their cloud solution:

LearnDash WordPress plugin:

• 1 site: $199/Year
• 10 sites: $399/Year
• Unlimited: $799/Year

LearnDash cloud solution:

• $29 billed monthly
• $299 billed annually

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction with PayPal and Stripe, with different fees for payment gateways that are accessible with the WooCommerce integration

LifterLMS

We’re nearly halfway through our list of Gumroad alternatives — if you haven’t found a suitable option yet, hang in there, your winner may be a few scrolls away.

LifterLMS is a learning management system (LMS) for WordPress to create and sell online courses on your website. One of the plugin’s biggest draws is that it features a drag-and-drop course builder that makes it easy to create and set up courses. It also includes built-in membership features and a good front-end experience for students. Moreover, it offers great video lesson support and lets you set flexible pricing options for users.

Pros

• Integrates with Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce
• Lets you sell from any country, in any currency
• Includes an eCommerce dashboard
• Conversion-optimized checkout can handle bulk and offline sales
• Lets you integrate with all WordPress themes, plugins, page builders, and blocks
• Excellent support offering
• Drag-and-drop course builder
• You can sell courses, memberships, training packages, and more
• Intelligent upsells
• Content security protection
• Accept payments instantly

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Paid cloud hosting billed separately
• While a single payment gateway add-on can make the platform cheap to use, it becomes one of the more expensive Gumroad alternatives once you require multiple add-ons.
• The plugin is only compatible with WordPress.

Pricing

LifterLMS offers three different bundles:

• Earth Bundle: $180/Year
• Universe Bundle: $360/Year
• Infinity Bundle: $1200/Year

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction with PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net, with different fees for payment gateways that are accessible with the WooCommerce integration

Podia

Podia is one of our leading Gumroad alternatives for selling courses and webinars. It lets you create a mobile-friendly website and includes email marketing features to help you promote your products. This fully hosted eCommerce platform offers 24/7 support and has an interface that’s simple to use.

Pros

• Accepts payments from Stripe and Paypal
• Charges zero transaction fees on paid plans
• You can build your course for free and start paying when you launch
• Sell standalone courses, drip courses, course bundles, pre-sold courses, cohort courses, and pre-launch courses
• Video hosting included
• Includes email marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Will migrate your courses from another learning platform for free with any annual subscription, making it a practical Gumroad alternatives option if you need to move house
• 1900+ third-party content embeds

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Integrations are limited
• Very little is offered in terms of analytics
• There is a free plan, but it charges 8% in fees
• Paid plans are on the expensive side when compared to other Gumroad alternatives for selling courses

Pricing

Podia offers four different plans.

• Free: $0 billed monthly / $0 per month, billed annually — 8% in transaction fees
• Mover: $39 billed monthly / $33 per month, billed annually — zero transaction fees
• Shaker: $89 billed monthly /$75 per month, billed annually — zero transaction fees
• Earthquaker: $199 billed monthly / $166 per month, billed annually — zero transaction fees

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

Thinkific

Thinkific makes building, managing, marketing, and selling online courses easy, and even provides a hosting service for your website. The course builder helps you create a range of different lesson types with ease. A major perk that helps it stand out from other Gumroad alternatives is that it’s cloud-based, so your content will remain safely stored on Thinkific’s servers.

Pros

• Integrates with PayPal and Stripe
• TCommerce — an integrated business management tool — is free to use on all plans
• Drag-and-drop course builder
• You can offer live lessons and coaching
• Includes an App Store with 80+ apps
• Includes templates to build your website

Cons

• Not a merchant of record — despite the tools offered by TCommerce, handling payments, taxes, and VAT is up to you
• It has been suggested that Thinkific is not effective for creating simpler courses
• Doesn’t include the use of coding snippets
• No live chat support
• Built to scale — this is a business-centric platform, which might not be the right solution for you if you intend to offer highly specialized or niche courses. In this case, move along and have a look at our other Gumroad alternatives to find your best fit.

Pricing

Thinkific includes five plans, one of which is free. The paid plans can be billed monthly or annually with a 25% monthly savings.

• Free: $0/Month
• Basic: $49 billed monthly / $36 per month, billed annually
• Start: $99 billed monthly / $74 per month, billed annually
• Grow: $199 billed monthly / $149 per month, billed annually
• Plus: Contact Thinkific separately for pricing

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

E-Books: Gumroad Alternatives

PublishDrive

PublishDrive is a self-publishing platform that helps authors and publishers sell their books globally to over 500 retailers in 100 countries. This includes listing on major eBook retailers like Amazon, Apple Books, and Google Play. The platform helps you track sales and analyze performance, so you can see how your books are doing in different markets. It’s easy to use, with a simple and intuitive interface to upload your books, set prices, and manage your sales. It also helps you customize your book’s metadata, including the title, author name, and cover image.

PublishDrive also offers a range of marketing and promotional tools to help you reach more readers. You can use the platform to create custom landing pages for your books, create discount codes, and set up promotional email campaigns, which is why it is the only entry on our list of Gumroad alternatives for selling eBooks.

Pros

• Will pay your royalties via wire transfer with Wise, US bank transfer, PayPal, Intercash, and Payoneer
• Stores your invoices for you
• Takes no sales commissions
• Includes a cloud-based publishing royalties calculation tool called Abacus, which can be used by both publishers and individual authors
• Includes sales analytics
• Offers special services like royalty splitting

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Does not calculate taxes and only withholds taxes for certain countries
• Although PublishDrive is an excellent distribution tool for authors and publishers, it is technically not an eCommerce solution since it doesn’t let you set up a storefront and checkout page on your website

Pricing

PublishDrive’s four plans are billed annually or monthly, with the first two months free on annual plans.

• Starter: $16.99 monthly / $14.19 per month, billed annually — eBook only
• Standard: $24.99 monthly / $20.99 per month, billed annually
• Plus: $49.99 monthly / $41.99 per month, billed annually
• Pro: $99.99 monthly / $83.99 per month, billed annually
• Abacus: Custom pricing, starting at $2.99/Month. This plan is specifically aimed at helping publishers calculate royalties.

Payment Gateway Fees

• Consult your preferred payment processing provider for fees. For example, wire transfer fees with Wise differ across countries, whereas PayPal’s fees amount to ~3%.

Memberships: Gumroad Alternatives

Patreon

Patreon helps creators earn recurring income from their work. It’s considered one of the best Gumroad alternatives for selling digital products, courses, and memberships.

A key feature of Patreon is its recurring payment model. Instead of selling one-off products, the platform lets the seller offer subscription-based memberships to their audience. This way, creators can earn a steady stream of income from their work — rather than relying on sporadic sales — via different membership plans, each with its own set of benefits and perks. For example, you could sell a basic membership for a low monthly price and a premium membership with additional benefits for a higher fee. This also means you can offer something for every budget and interest level, making it a versatile platform on our list of Gumroad alternatives.

Pros

• Merchant of record
• Accepts payments from customers via credit card, PayPal, SOFORT, and Apple Pay
• Includes a detailed payouts dashboard
• Calculates VAT for both creators and buyers
• Has an insights dashboard with a creator earnings funnel, membership insights, earnings dashboard, and posts dashboard. As far as Gumroad alternatives go, Patreon provides excellent value in terms of business analytics tools.

Cons

• The main issue with Patreon is that it doesn’t let sellers accept one-time payments
• The Premium plan takes 12% commission, which is 2% more than Gumroad’s monthly fee (and excludes payment processing fees)
• Patreon supports a number of languages but doesn’t offer customer support for many of them

Pricing

Patreon offers the following pricing plans:

• Lite: 5% monthly commission fee
• Pro: 8% monthly commission fee
• Premium: 12% monthly commission fee

Payment Processing Fees

• This is where it gets complicated (and pricey). Processing fees are slightly different for each currency, and consist of a percentage as well as a small fixed amount. Moreover, percentages are tiered for individual payments beneath and above three units of the currency in question. Go check it out.

Hyax

Hyax is one of the newer Gumroad alternatives. It provides all-in-one functionality that includes SEO and landing pages, marketing, and sales. The platform creates multi-step funnels to increase conversions and accepts payments through Paypal and Stripe.

Pros

• Supports Stripe and lists PayPal as an optional gateway
• Creates landing pages and funnels
• Helps you create a customizable storefront with many templates to choose from
• Helps you create your own membership site by setting up member posts and creating recurring plans
• Lets you handle recurring payments and product access

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Plans are on the expensive side
• Hyax’s branding can only be removed when you subscribe to the Advanced or Enterprise plans
• Because the platform is better at handling limited numbers of products than large quantities, this Gumroad alternatives option might not be the best pick for selling memberships if you have a large inventory.

Pricing

Hyax offers three different plans.

• Beginner: $99/Month
• Advanced: $199/Month
• Enterprise: Custom quote

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

Kajabi

As far as Gumroad alternatives go, Kajabi is pretty awesome. It offers different tools and features on an all-in-one platform to help you build a membership website with reduced dependency on third parties.

Pros

• Accepts Stripe and Paypal payments
• Doesn’t take any percentage of your revenue
• Allows you to offer yearly, monthly, or weekly membership subscriptions
• Helps you set up a fully-integrated website with dynamic landing pages
• Includes subscription analytics and reporting tools
• Email marketing tools
• Fully-automated marketing campaigns and funnels
• You can give your listeners on-the-go access to your product in the Kajabi mobile app

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Can be overwhelming to work with if you are just starting out with a membership-based website, in which case, a more user-friendly option from our list of Gumroad alternatives is a safer bet

Pricing

Kajabi offers three monthly plans that are billed annually:

• Basic: $149 billed monthly / $119 per month, billed annually
• Growth: $199 billed monthly / $159 per month, billed annually
• Pro: $399 billed monthly / $319 per month, billed annually

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

Podcasts: Gumroad Alternatives

Castos

Castos is a podcast hosting and analytics platform that makes it easy for businesses and individuals to create, host, and track their podcasts. The platform makes it easy to create and distribute podcasts and to understand how they are performing. It also offers a range of hosting options to fit your needs and budget, making it one of our top podcasting Gumroad alternatives

Pros

• Integrates with Stripe and PayPal
• Creates a unique website for every one of your podcasts
• Offers podcast editing services
• Analytics track total listens, your best-performing episodes, browsers and devices used, and audience location
• Automatically transcribes your podcasts, which is useful if you’d like to create blog content
• YouTube republishing for bigger reach and enhanced SEO
• Free podcasting academy
• Includes REST API
• Comes with a WordPress plugin

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Only accepts payments via Stripe for private podcasting
• You can only use video podcasting from the Pro subscription onwards
• Limited monetization capabilities — Castos puts a limit on paying subscribers
• Lack of creative features, which detracts from its appeal if you’re looking for Gumroad alternatives with more bells and whistles

Pricing

Castos offers four plans:

• Starter: $19 billed monthly / $190 billed annually
• Growth: $49 billed monthly / $490 billed annually
• Pro: $99 billed monthly / $990 billed annually
• Castos Premium: $499 billed monthly / $4990 billed annually

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

Kajabi

Kajabi is not only great for selling memberships, but it also provides an all-in-one solution for podcasters. It allows you to monetize your podcast by creating members-only premium content, while also offering features to distribute free podcasts. A notable feature of Kajabi’s podcasting offering is that you can upload your existing podcasts to the platform with the click of a button. This makes it a great Gumroad alternatives pick if you want to move your operations elsewhere without sacrificing your existing catalog.

Pros

• Accepts Stripe and Paypal payments
• Doesn’t take any percentage of your revenue
• Allows you to offer yearly, monthly, or weekly membership subscriptions
• Helps you set up a fully-integrated website with dynamic landing pages
• Includes subscription analytics and reporting tools
• Email marketing tools
• Fully-automated marketing campaigns and funnels
• You can give your listeners on-the-go access to your product in the Kajabi mobile app
• Lets you create a members-only podcast

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Podcasts are not optimized for SEO because Kajabi doesn’t allow you to edit the URL, meta title, or description of episodes.

Pricing

These are Kajabi’s three pricing plans:

• Basic: $149 billed monthly / $119 per month, billed annually
• Growth: $199 billed monthly / $159 per month, billed annually
• Pro: $399 billed monthly / $319 per month, billed annually

Payment Gateway Fees

• ~3% + 30c per transaction

Podbean

As one of our podcasting Gumroad alternatives, Podbean’s main focus is on being a one-stop-shop, easy-to-use platform. It allows you to create, host, edit, manage, distribute, promote, and monetize your podcast via a user-friendly and intuitive interface.

Pros

• Helps you create a professional podcast website
• Allows you to integrate your own branded domain
• Unlimited audio and video hosting
• Scheduled publishing
• Distributes your podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and other apps
• Includes a mobile app
• Email integration
• Includes podcast statistics
• Includes podcasting studio apps
• A major perk of Podbean is that it supports video podcasting and audio live streaming, making it stand out among our Gumroad alternatives

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• You can monetize your podcast by selling it as a premium offering on the Podbean app, via advertising, or through the Patron Program, but it does not offer traditional eCommerce functionality
• A (strange) problem with Podbean is that you can’t record podcasts from the desktop app, but only from mobile
• Podbean patrons — the platform’s name for listeners who subscribe to your exclusive content — will only be able to access your content through the PodBean mobile app, and not through external streaming services like Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Pricing

Podbean offers one free and three paid podcasting plans:

• Basic: $0/Month
• Unlimited Audio: $9/Month
• Unlimited Plus: $29/Month
• Network: $79/Month

Payment Gateway Fees

• You need to use the premium feature on the app to monetize your podcast on Podbean. For this feature, Podbean charges a 20% transaction fee. Your podcast will be sold on Podbean’s iOS and Android apps, after which Apple or Google will take a 15% fee for each sale. On top of this, you will have to incur the payment fee from your payment service provider since there’s no indication that this will be absorbed by Podbean. Find out more (both Apple and Google have lowered their in-app purchase fees from 30% to 15%).

Libsyn

Libsyn is one of the more established podcasting hosting platforms and offers three affordable plans to users, making it a stable, secure Gumroad alternatives pick. On top of helping your podcast get found on any podcasting platform, it also has tools to control distribution and release time. Another perk is that the $20/Month plan gets you a dedicated mobile app that’s compatible with Android and iOS. Libsyn also ensures that file quality isn’t downgraded — no matter which platform it’s distributed on. When it comes to selecting from our list of Gumroad alternatives, Libsyn is worthy of your consideration IMO.

Pros

• Libsyn Glow monetization platform accepts payments from credit, debit, and prepaid cards, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Lets you publish on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more
• All plans include free custom and branded audio and video players
• Includes social media scheduling
• Lets you create an individualized podcast website
• Access to global podcast statistics

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Libsyn is not a traditional eCommerce solution. You can only monetize your podcast with Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast Marketplace, by building paid subscriptions, or by offering a membership program on the Libsyn Glow monetization platform. For podcasters looking for Gumroad alternatives with robust eCommerce functionality, Libsyn may fall short of the mark.
• Users need to pay extra if they want access to advanced stats

Pricing

Libsyn offers the following pricing options.

Three podcasting plans based on monthly upload time:

• 3 Hours: $5/Month
• 6 Hours: $15/Month
• 10 Hours: $20/Month

Plus, three video podcasting plans based on new storage per month:

• 14 Hours: $40/Month
• 27 Hours: $75/Month
• 55 Hours: $150/Month

Payment Gateway Fees

• Consult your chosen payment provider for fees and review Libsyn’s Payment Policy

Audiobooks: Gumroad Alternatives

Author’s Republic

The sole audiobook entry on our Gumroad alternatives list. Author’s Republic is an audiobook distribution platform that helps authors and narrators get their audiobooks into the hands (or ears 😉) of listeners.

Pros

• Distributes audiobooks to over 500 retailers in over 100 countries
• Boasts a range of tools and services to help you publish and sell your audiobooks, including distribution to major audiobook retailers like Audible, Apple Books, and Google Play
• Offers access to various narrator marketplaces and lets you audition professional narrators
• Tracks sales and analyzes performance to help you understand how your audiobooks are performing in different markets

Cons

• The biggest issue with Author’s Republic is that it takes 30% of royalties from sales
• To add insult to injury, authors are required to open their own Paypal account to receive payments, which means they will also incur gateway fees
• Similar to most Gumroad alternatives here, it’s not a merchant of record
• Doesn’t hold back any income tax for you: It’s up to you to calculate this

Pricing

• Users receive 70% royalties of sales across 50 channels, but will also need to create their own PayPal account to get paid.

Payment Gateway Fees

• Consult PayPal’s Merchant Fees Menu to determine gateway fees for your country

Now that we’ve examined Gumroad alternatives for digital products sellers, let’s take a look at the best Gumroad alternatives for merchants of physical goods.

Gumroad Alternatives for Physical Goods

PrestaShop

Sitting pretty at the top of our Gumroad alternatives for physical goods is PrestaShop. This eCommerce platform helps sellers create and manage online stores, and also offers a range of tools and features to sell products and services online, including payment processing, inventory management, and marketing and promotional tools.

Pros

• Integrates with PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon Pay, and even has its own direct payment option called Prestashop Pay
• PrestaShop Checkout is optimized for conversion and security. It accepts payments from over 190 countries in 20 different currencies
• Can help you migrate from Magento
• The platform is open source and free to download, and allows unlimited product listings
• You can also customize the appearance of your online store, including the layout, colors, and font styles.

Cons

• Not a merchant of record
• Although you can set tax rules for products, PrestaShop cannot manage taxes on your behalf
• While PrestaShop’s open-source nature may be beneficial for some users, it can be frustrating for those who do not know how to code
• Takes long to set up
• Even though it is free to download, it can get expensive when you start installing add-ons, many of which are required to set up different payment methods
• Doesn’t include web hosting

Pricing

• Free to download, but add-ons and hosting are billed separately

Payment Gateway Fees

• Consult your chosen payment gateway for transaction fees

Shopify

Shopify is one of our most well-known Gumroad alternatives. This popular eCommerce platform lets merchants create and manage an online store to sell physical and digital products.

Pros

• Allows shoppers to pay with VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shopify’s own Shop Pay
• Includes subscriptions and pre-orders
• Drag-and-drop store builder
• Fully mobile-responsive
• Marketing and analytics dashboard
• What makes Shopify stand out is that besides being easy to set up, the platform is a publicly traded company that has the capital to invest in excellent online security
• Loads fast so you don’t lose potential customers due to long waiting times
• Includes excellent marketing tools with an SEO focus
• Has its own app store so that you can find all the special add-ons and features you need for your online store

Cons

• Shopify is not a merchant of record, but it can calculate guaranteed duties, comply with international taxes and duties, manage market restrictions, protect against fraud, and guarantee foreign exchange. That said, this is only available via the Markets and Markets Pro plans (billed separately).
• Shopify is one of the best Gumroad alternatives for helping you sell to international markets, ensuring regulations compliance while handling cross-border complexity. However, this is only available via the more expensive Advanced plan
• Shopify charges separate fees for currency conversions, duty and import tax calculations, and when using an alternative payment provider
• While the Basic version of Shopify is relatively affordable, it can get expensive once you opt for more advanced plans
• The content marketing features aren’t on par with other platforms like WordPress

Pricing

Shopify has three paid plans.

• Basic: $19 billed monthly / $17 per month, billed annually
• Shopify: $49 billed monthly / $44 per month, billed annually
• Advanced: $299 billed monthly / $266 per month, billed annually

Payment Gateway Fees

• Shopify uses different payment providers for every country. View them here.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plugin that’s built on top of WordPress, which means you can use it to create a fully functional online store using your existing WordPress site.

Pros

• Integrates with PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce Payments, Payfast, and more
• Square extension is free to add and acts as a merchant of record
• Allows you to accept payments on your store’s dashboard with WooCommerce Payments (available in 18 countries, 135+ currencies, and works with local payment methods like Giropay, SOFORT, iDeal, P24, EPS, and Bancontact). WooCommerce Payments also comes with priority access to support
• You can print USPS and DHL labels from your WooCommerce dashboard to save on shipping costs
• WooCommerce Shipping is built into the WooCommerce Dashboard
• Free Cart and Checkout blocks available in WooCommerce Blocks extension
• Helps sellers manage their stores via a mobile app for Android and iOS
• Integrates with Google Analytics
• WooCommerce Serial Numbers protect your products against theft and fraud, and also ensures that you can track things like packaging, delivery, and overall product performance

Cons

• The setup process can be difficult to navigate for those not familiar with the platform, which might make this Gumroad alternatives option tricky if you’re not au fait with WordPress and want to get up and running quickly
• Central support is lacking
• Some extensions will require payment for using premium versions, which can make WooCommerce pricey to use
• Even with all the extensions WooCommerce offers, users have complained that customization is limited
• WooCommerce lacks sophisticated tools required for scalability, like handling high traffic and sales volumes. This could be an issue for larger businesses

Pricing

• Just like WordPress, WooCommerce is free to download and use. However, things like hosting, paid themes, payment gateways, shipping, etc. cost money. Read this blog to find out more.

Payment Gateway Fees

• Review the different payment gateways offered as WooCommerce extensions here to determine your fees. Using Stripe or Paypal will amount to ~3%

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a Gumroad alternatives option that lets merchants of physical goods easily create and manage their online stores. This is thanks to features like code-free customization options, a live preview mode, and streamlined inventory tracking across multiple channels. This platform already has a few well-known brands under its umbrella and is an excellent option if you plan to scale your business.

Pros

• Merchant of record: Accepts payments through 65 payment gateway integrations (including digital and mobile wallets), and protects against fraud and chargebacks
• Commerce-as-a-Service lets you tailor eCommerce to a category or use case, cross-sell products that are integrated with a technology, app, or service, extend to mobile apps, devices, and form factors, as well as localize anywhere in the world
• Includes a visual page builder editor, theme customization, checkout customization, mobile optimization, and WordPress integration
• Houses various storefront conversion features including digital wallets, SEO, and site speed optimization
• Commerce is driven with API
• Allows cross-channel eCommerce
• Various B2B features
• International commerce features include accepting payments in 100+ currencies and offering local payment methods, translation services, cross-border fulfillment, a global CDN, and offices in the UK, AU, and US
• Includes an abandoned cart saver feature
• Includes launch and success services

Cons

• While BigCommerce is easy to customize, the initial setup can be difficult to navigate
• The Standard Plan — for individuals earning up to $50k/year — doesn’t include an abandoned cart saver or Google customer reviews
• Premium themes are expensive, yet essential if you’d like to customize your store since free themes are similar to one another
• Some users have complained that setting up your homepage with BigCommerce can be tedious
• This platform might not be for you if you are running a smaller-scale operation

Pricing

BigCommerce’s plans are billed monthly or annually. You’ll save 10% on the Plus and Pro plans if you pay annually.

• Standard: $29.95 per month, billed monthly or annually
• Plus: $79.95 billed monthly / $71.95 per month, billed annually
• Pro: $299.95 billed monthly / $269.96 per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Contact BigCommerce to enquire for custom pricing.

Payment Gateway Fees

• BigCommerce absorbs payment gateway fees. However, it does charge debit and credit card processing fees. If you use PayPal powered by Braintree for card payments, BigCommerce charges a 2.59% + 49c fee per transaction on the Standard plan, 2.35% + 0.49c per transaction on the Plus plan, and 2.05% + 49c per transaction on the Pro and Enterprise plans.

Staying on Gumroad vs Moving to a New Platform

While integrating your eCommerce inventory with a whole new platform is certainly not a walk in the park, it’s probably in your best interests to transition sooner than later. Who wants to be caught scrambling for a lifeboat when the ship sinks?

I hope this list of Gumroad alternatives helps you find a suitable eCommerce solution, and one that gives your products the platform they need to flourish even more in 2023.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are compiled from insights by Freemius as well as the experiences of other credible online sources.