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The best Beacons alternative in 2026, and when to stay put

Beacons is free to start but takes 9% of each sale until Creator Plus. Six alternatives, from 0% storefronts to a community behind the link, the worked numbers at $1,000 a month, and the honest case for staying. Disclosed: we make one of them.

By Bennett Levaton7 min readAll guides

We make Drry, one of the alternatives below, so read accordingly. The best Beacons alternative is Stan Store if you want a flat price and 0% on every sale, Linktree if your page is mostly links, Gumroad if you want no subscription at all, Podia if courses are the main product, and Drry if your buyers should land in a community you run. Beacons is free to start, but its Free and $10 Creator plans take 9% of each sale; the seller fee only drops to 0% on Creator Plus, at $30 a month.

Credit first: Beacons packs more into a link in bio than anything else here, a store with courses and memberships, email you send yourself, a website builder, Instagram DM automation and AI tools, plus your own domain from its first paid plan. If you use most of that, moving means replacing several tools. For the head-to-head with us, see Drry vs Beacons.

Stan Store: the flat-price storefront

  • Best for: steady sellers who want a clean phone storefront and a 0% platform fee on every sale, with bookings, courses and a community included on the cheaper plan.
  • Pricing structure: two paid plans after a trial, no free plan, 0% platform fee on both, processing and a payout fee on top.
  • What you give up: a free plan, email on the cheaper plan, and your own domain, which Stan does not offer. See Stan Store alternatives.

Linktree: the links-first page

  • Best for: creators whose bio link is mostly links, who want the name everybody recognises and bookings on every plan.
  • Pricing structure: a free plan and low monthly paid plans, with a fee on each sale on every plan except the top one.
  • What you give up: Beacons' built-in email and your own domain, which Linktree says it does not offer. See Linktree alternatives.

Gumroad: the no-subscription checkout

  • Best for: occasional sellers and first products, where a monthly bill is harder to justify than a cut.
  • Pricing structure: no plan, a percentage plus a flat amount on every sale, and a larger cut when the buyer comes through its marketplace.
  • What you give up: a flat cost once sales are steady, since the cut grows with every sale. See Gumroad alternatives.

Podia: the course business

  • Best for: creators whose money is in courses and downloads, who want email and a storefront website in the same tool.
  • Pricing structure: paid plans after a trial, with a transaction fee on the entry plan and 0% above it.
  • What you give up: a free plan and the bio-link-first feel. See Podia's pricing.

Taplink: the budget page

  • Best for: creators who want forms, selling and their own domain for very little, and buyers outside the US who pay through a local processor.
  • Pricing structure: a free plan, then two low-priced plans prepaid in blocks of months; selling and a custom domain sit on the top one, where it says it takes 0% of sales.
  • What you give up: Beacons' email and AI tools, and month-to-month billing.

Drry: the bio link in front of a community (ours)

Our product, so weigh it that way. Drry's bio link sells downloads, books calls and captures emails in a sheet over the page, at your own address, and behind it sits a community feed, courses, events and email. Beacons ends at the sale; here a buyer can become a member.

  • Best for: coaches and creators whose real product is ongoing access, and who want the bio link to be the front door to it.
  • Pricing structure: free with no card, then $29 (Creator) or $99 (Growth) a month. 0% of your sales on every plan, through your own Stripe account, and your own domain from Creator.
  • What you give up: Beacons' breadth of creator extras, such as its AI tools and website builder, and on our free plan the store pauses once a month's sales reach $500. See how the bio link works.

How do you choose a Beacons alternative?

Questions coaches ask

What is the best alternative to Beacons?

Stan Store is the closest like-for-like, a link in bio storefront with a 0% platform fee on both plans, though it has no free plan. Linktree suits a page that is mostly links. Gumroad suits occasional sellers who want no subscription. Podia suits a course business with email. And Drry suits creators whose buyers should land in a community of theirs. We make Drry, so weigh that.

Does Beacons take a cut of my sales?

On its Free and Creator plans, yes: a 9% seller fee on each sale, with Stripe or PayPal processing on top. On Creator Plus ($30 a month) and Creator Max the seller fee is 0%, and processing still applies.

Is there a Beacons alternative with no transaction fees?

Yes. Stan Store takes 0% on both of its plans, and Drry takes 0% on every plan including free, with only Stripe's standard processing on top. The trade is different in each case: Stan has no free plan, and Drry's free plan pauses the store once a month's sales reach $500, after which Creator at $29 a month removes the ceiling.

Is there a Beacons alternative with a community?

Yes. Stan Store includes one community per store on both plans, where members post, comment and react. Drry is a community platform with the bio link at the front: a feed, courses, events and email, with paid memberships through your own Stripe. A members' community space inside Beacons is not part of the offer we could find.

Does Drry have email like Beacons?

Yes, on every plan: broadcasts to your community or to anyone your forms captured, 700 sends a month on free and 60,000 on Creator, with automations from Creator. Plans are $0, $29 and $99 a month, and Drry takes 0% of your sales on all of them.

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