With Gumroad increasing its fees to over 10% a month, many creators are looking for inexpensive Gumroad alternatives.
If you’re one of those creators, this post is for you.
Today, we’ll share:
- An overview of Gumroad’s pricing tiers for 2023
- How to choose the best Gumroad alternative
- Our top 10 Gumroad alternatives
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
What Is Gumroad?
Gumroad is an eCommerce platform that helps creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners to sell digital products easily. Gumroad is extremely beginner-friendly and comes with no upfront costs. So it became a go-to for new creators, freelancers & artists.
Gumroad’s key features include:
- The ability to create a simple online store without coding
- Integrations with the most popular marketing & eCommerce tools
- The ability to connect your Gumroad store to an existing website
- Memberships & subscriptions
- License keys & licensing tools
- Multi-currency support
- Simple discount and tax calculations
- Affiliate programs
- Blogging features
- Basic email marketing features
- Analytics
With that in mind, Gumroad looks like a highly comprehensive option. Especially for non-technical creators who need a robust solution but are working with a tight budget.
Gumroad Pricing: How Much Does Gumroad Cost in 2023?
A couple of weeks ago, Gumroad pricing was organized by creator revenue tier.
Let’s take a closer look:
- Creators with under $1k in lifetime revenue were paying a 9% fee
- Creators with $1k - $10k in lifetime revenue were paying a 7% fee
- Creators in the $10k - $100k revenue range were paying a 5% fee
- Creators in the $100k - $1M revenue range were paying a 3% fee
- Creators making $1M or more were paying a fee of 2.9%
Now Gumroad pricing is simpler, but it’s far more taxing to large creators. In mid-December 2022, Gumroad announced a flat transaction fee of 10% for all creators. Plus, payment processing charges.
This pricing change will have an impact on small creators. But someone making $100k per month on the platform will suddenly find themselves paying Gumroad a fee of over $10k.
At this point, it may make sense to:
- Invest a month’s worth of Gumroad fees into creating a website
- Look for a cheaper Gumroad alternative
In the next section, we’ll guide you through that decision.
How to Choose the Best Gumroad Alternative
When you’re looking to replace a crucial tool in your stack, you should consider:
- Essential features
- Nice-to-haves
- Pros & cons
- Budget
- Scalability
Let’s take a closer look.
Essential features
Analyze how you’re using Gumroad today and what tools really make a difference in your business.
What are the features you can’t do without? List them and look for alternatives that include them. This list of essential features can include everything from the ability to create an affiliate program, to multi-currency support.
Nice-to-haves
Switching platforms may be a good opportunity to look for features your former option wasn’t providing you. For instance: Gumroad gives you the possibility to email your customers, but it doesn’t include features like A/B testing or automated sequences. If this is something you’d like to start experimenting with, look for a Gumroad alternative with email funnel creation features.
Pros & cons
What compromises are you willing to make? For instance, let’s say you choose to migrate to a Gumroad competitor instead of creating your own website. In that case, you’re:
- Compromising full autonomy over your platform (and the technology it’s built on)
- Becoming vulnerable to abrupt pricing changes
But in turn, you’re getting:
- Peace of mind, no need to develop
- Lower upfront costs
- The ability to fully centralize your creator business
There are no right or wrong answers. But, before choosing which Gumroad alternative you’ll migrate to, analyze the cons you’re willing to face vs the pros that make them worth it.
Budget
Many creators are fleeing Gumroad because they don’t perceive enough value to justify its new pricing. Especially if you’re one of those creators, you should embrace your search for a new platform with a clear idea of how much you’re willing to spend.
But beyond a concrete number, you should ask yourself what pricing structure you’d find more convenient. Roughly, there are two options:
- A monthly flat fee + payment processing charges
- A per-sale commission
But, which option’s best for you? Let’s dive into two examples.
How the new Gumroad pricing affects small creators
Let’s say you’re making $500 on Gumroad. With the new Gumroad pricing, the platform will be taking approximately $50-$60 from your revenue per month. Compare that with Kajabi’s monthly plans, which start at $149. If you’re starting out with a small budget, and expect to make less than 1k per month, per-sale commissions may make a lot more sense than paying a monthly flat fee.
How the new Gumroad pricing affects large creators
While commissions may make sense for small creators, past a certain revenue threshold, percentage commissions can get out of hand. If you’re a large creator, paying a monthly flat fee will be more cost-effective than paying a per-sale commission.
A flat fee of $300/month may seem absurd for small creators. But, a creator making $50k on Gumroad per month could save up to $4.7k per month by transitioning their business to a $300/month platform.
Scalability
Scalability is often related to pricing. But it goes far beyond how much you pay for your eCommerce platform.
To assess whether a platform’s scalable, as yourself:
- How many customers and products can this platform support?
- How will pricing change as my business grow? Are there any more cost-efficient alternatives?
- If I continue to grow at this current pace, how long will be it until I’ve outgrown this platform?
- What will my business look like in a year? Does this platform still make sense for me?
At this point, you may be asking why you should have these concerns in the first place. Transitioning in and out of platforms can be really time-consuming and expensive. And it also brings very visible changes to how your customers experience your brand. Ideally, you want to switch over to a platform that you can continue using in the long run.
Top 9 Gumroad Alternatives
We’ve already covered what’s going on with Gumroad’s pricing and how to choose a new platform. So, let’s dive into some specific Gumroad alternatives you should take a look at.
We recommend:
- ConvertKit
- Circle
- LemonSqueezy
- Shopify
- Webflow
- WooCommerce
- Patreon
- Podia
- Kajabi
Let’s dive deeper!
ConvertKit
👍 Great for email marketing
👎 It’s not an all-in-one solution
ConvertKit is an email marketing and automation platform for professional bloggers and creators. It is designed to help these users grow their online businesses by building and maintaining a list of email subscribers. With ConvertKit, you can create:
- Opt-in forms
- Landing pages
- Automated email marketing campaigns
ConvertKit aims to make it easy for bloggers and creators to connect with their audience and build a loyal following through email marketing. Plus, you can use ConvertKit to sell products & subscriptions.
ConvertKit’s features include:
- Customizable opt-in forms
- Iintegrations with popular landing page builders
- Email automation workflows
- Detailed analytics and reporting
- The ability to sell standard products, subscriptions & payment plans
- The ability to receive tips
ConvertKit offers a free version, and two paid plans:
- Creator, starting at $9/month
- Creator pro, starting tat $25/month
Circle
👍 Great for delivering a quality experience to subscribers & learners
👎 No marketing features
Circle allows creators to build a private forum to engage with their customers, provide unique value & build a community. It’s especially useful for course creators and those selling subscriptions.
Circle may not be the right tool to market your digital products. But it’s definitely an amazing platform to:
- Engage your community
- Build a high-quality learning experience
- Foster customer loyalty
Circle’s key features include:
- A beautiful private forum with group chat rooms
- Private events and livestreams
- Private messaging
- Weekly digests
- Paid memberships & gathered access
- Recurring subscriptions & upsells
- The ability to give discounts & free trials
- Rich posts and content creation
- White-labelling (on the Professional and Enterprise plans)
- Over one thousand integrations
Circle’s pricing goes as follows:
- The basic plan starts at $39/month
- The professional plan starts at $89/month
- The enterprise plan starts at $360/month
LemonSqueezy
👍 Great payment platform with thoughtful email marketing features
👎 Only integrates via Zapier
LemonSqueezy presents itself as a payment solution for SaaS companies. But its no-code checkout links make it a great option for creators too.
With LemonSqueezy, you can:
- Sell digital products and subscriptions from a (simple) no-code website
- Manage license keys
- Set custom pricing structure (per seat, metered using, etcetera)
- Build an email list, segment it, and engage your subscribers in a personalized way
- Offer lead magnets and “pay what you want” products
If LemonSqueezy has a downside, it’s that it doesn’t come with native integrations. You’ll need Zapier to connect it to the rest of your stack.
LemonSqueezy offers two types of plans:
- An email marketing plan, free for up to 500 subscribers
- An eCommerce plan, with a transaction fee of 5% + 5 cents
Paid email marketing plans start at $10/month for 1,000 subscribers.
Shopify
👍 eCommerce leader with thousands of integrations
👎 May require some extra time & resources
Shopify is an extremely versatile eCommerce platform. While millions of creators use Shopify, it’s also the platform that powers some of the largest online stores. From Kylie Cosmetics to RedBull and Hasbro.
Shopify’s greatest advantages are:
- The ability to completely customize your users’ experience.
- Over one thousand integrations, allowing you to turn Shopify into your brand’s eCommerce hub
Shopify’s greatest downside is that it may require some web development expertise (or extra budget) to set up a store. But, if you’re serious about scaling your brand, Shopify is definitely worth a look.
Additionally, if you eventually outgrow Shopify, you can still use it as your website’s backend.
Shopify plans start at $19/month.
Webflow
👍 Scalable solution for building a strong website
👎 Requires web design & development expertise
Webflow isn’t strictly a Gumroad alternative. But it’s a great option if you’re considering creating a website.
Maybe Gumroad’s new pricing motivates you to move your store to a website of your own. In that case, we highly recommend Webflow.
Webflow is our favorite low-code website builder. It makes it possible to create stunning and high-performing websites fast, with little to no developer intervention.
Webflow’s eCommerce plans start at $29/month and include:
- eCommerce listings + custom CMS functionalities
- Branded transactional emails
- Extreme flexibility and customization features
- Thousands of integrations, including Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram & Mailchimp
If your online business is making over $50k/year, you’ll want to check out Webflow’s Plus plan, which includes a 0% transaction fee.
Selling subscriptions? A paid memberships feature is currently in beta.
We highly recommend Webflow, if you’re considering creating a website of your own. But, although low-code is faster than regular web development, setting up a Webflow store may require some time and resources.
To learn more about low-code vs. no-code, check out our Low-Code Manifesto.
WooCommerce
👍 Adds eCommerce functionality to your WordPress website, for free
👎 It’s a WordPress plugin, so it’s not a good option if you don’t want to have a WordPress site
Just like Webflow, WooCommerce isn’t a Gumroad alternative - but it can work like one. WooCommerce is a plugin that allows you to add eCommerce functionalities to your WordPress website.
WooCommerce is free. But it’s just a plugin for WordPress, and hosting a WordPress site always has a cost. This cost will depend on your hosting provider. You can find good WordPress hosting plans in the $5/month - $50/month price range.
If you’re used to working with WordPress, WooCommerce may be a great option for you. No web design/development experience? Keep in mind that setting up a WordPress website with eCommerce features may require hiring a developer.
Patreon
👍 Great for creators delivering extra value to their subscribers
👎 Unfitting for non-recurring sales
Patreon allows creators to provide paid subscriptions to their audience. These subscriptions can come with access to exclusive content and other perks.
Patreon is great if you’re a creator offering value on a recurring basis.
However, Patreon may not be the best option for you if:
- You sell digital products, not subscriptions
- You want to sell courses, not just access to bonus content
Patreon comes with no upfront costs. But it takes a cut from your monthly income.
There are three Patreon plans:
- Lite, which costs 5% of your MRR (monthly returning revenue) + payment processing
- Pro, which costs 8% of your MRR + payment processing
- Premium, which costs 12% of your MRR + payment processing
On the Lite plan, you can create a simple membership page. The Pro plan includes:
- Membership tiers
- Analytics
- Special Offers
- Integrations
- Access to training and priority support
The Premium plan adds personalized account management.
Podia
👍 All-in-one solution with great pricing
👎 Full dependence on one platform
Podia is a great Gumroad alternative. This all-in-one platform is designed to help creators build and sell information products. Its goal is to be a creator’s business hub, empowering them to fully manage their knowledge-based business.
Podia’s best features include:
- A simple but highly functional website builder
- A fully integrated email marketing platform
- Upsells, coupons and bundles
- Video hosting
- Integrations with over one thousand platforms
- The ability to issue custom course completion certificates
- Affiliate marketing functionalities
- A private forum for your students/customers
Podia offers a free plan. It includes one coaching product, one downloadable product, and the opportunity to test out the platform.
Podia’s pricing goes as follows:
- The Mover plan starts at $33/month
- The Shaker plan starts at $75/month and includes affiliate marketing features
- The Earthquaker plan starts at $166/month and comes with dedicated support
Podia charges no transaction fees.
Kajabi
👍 All-in-one solution
👎 Expensive when compared to other options, full dependence on one platform
Kajabi is both a Gumroad alternative and one of Podia’s most notable competitors.
Kajabi’s most noteworthy features include:
- An accessible website builder
- Automated marketing funnels
- A library of digital product templates, including course and minicourse frameworks
- Detailed client engagement metrics
- A mobile app that your customers can use to access your products on the go
Kajabi’s pricing goes as follows:
- The Basic plan (which includes 3 products & 3 funnels) starts at $119/month
- The Growth plan (which includes 15 products & 15 funnels) starts at $159/month
- The Pro plan (which includes 100 products & 100 funnels) starts at $319/month
Kajabi charges no transaction fees.
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