We make Drry, one of the alternatives below, so read accordingly. The best Gumroad alternatives for selling digital downloads are Payhip, Lemon Squeezy, Stan Store, Podia, Etsy, Shopify and Drry, and the trade is almost always the same one: swapping Gumroad's cut of every sale for a monthly plan, a smaller cut, or nothing. Our own section is last, and we have tried to say where each of the others is genuinely better than us.
First, credit where it is due. Gumroad is still the fastest way there is to put a file behind a checkout, it costs nothing until you sell, and since January 2025 it has been the merchant of record for every sale, so it collects and remits sales tax and VAT for you. That last point matters more than most comparison posts admit, and it is the first thing to check on any alternative. What pushes people off is the cut, which never ends; the full arithmetic is in Gumroad pricing, explained.
Payhip: the closest like-for-like
Payhip sells the same things Gumroad does, digital downloads, courses, memberships and coaching, plus physical products, from a store page of your own. Its help centre says every plan includes every feature, so the plans differ only in the fee.
- Best for: ebook, template and preset sellers who want Gumroad's simplicity with a way to lower the cut as sales grow.
- Pricing structure: a free plan that takes a percentage of each sale, then two paid plans, one that lowers the percentage and one that removes it. PayPal and Stripe charge their own processing on every plan. It handles EU and UK VAT on digital products by default.
- What you give up: Gumroad's Discover marketplace. A membership on Payhip is a feed of posts your members can comment on; we could not find a forum or chat where members talk to each other.
Lemon Squeezy: for software and licence keys
Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record, like Gumroad, so tax collection and remittance are its job, and it describes itself as payments, tax and subscriptions for software companies. Stripe bought it in 2024, and in January 2026 it said its goal is to move its sellers onto Stripe Managed Payments, Stripe's own merchant of record service.
- Best for: selling software, plugins, licence keys and subscriptions, where the tax work is the hard part.
- Pricing structure: no monthly fee, a percentage plus a flat charge on each sale, which is Gumroad's shape, and email marketing that is free up to a subscriber limit.
- What you give up: the lower cost, since it is still a cut of every sale, and certainty about where you will end up: read its migration update before building a store you expect to keep for years.
Stan Store: the bio-link store
Stan Store puts a storefront behind the link in your Instagram or TikTok bio, with digital products and bookings, and it is built to convert from a phone. It positions itself around 0% platform fees: you pay a monthly subscription instead of a cut.
- Best for: creators whose buyers arrive from social media and who want the whole store to fit on one phone screen.
- Pricing structure: a monthly plan, no free plan (a trial instead), and email and funnels on the upper plan.
- What you give up: the $0 month. You pay the plan whether or not anything sells, and the buyer gets a product rather than a place to come back to. See Stan Store alternatives and the Gumroad vs Stan Store comparison.
Podia: downloads plus courses and email
Podia sells courses, downloads, coaching and webinars, and it has a genuinely strong built-in email tool, with a community included on every plan. It is the step up for somebody whose ebook is turning into a course.
- Best for: sellers adding courses and email marketing to their downloads, who want both in one tool.
- Pricing structure: paid plans only, after a trial, with a transaction fee on the entry plan and none on the pricier ones.
- What you give up: a free plan, and on the entry plan the fee means you still pay a cut on top of the subscription. See Podia alternatives.
Etsy: for templates and printables
Etsy is the one alternative with more buyers than Gumroad's Discover, and digital downloads are a large part of it: planners, printables, Canva templates. People go there to shop, which is the point.
- Best for: templates and printables that sell to strangers searching a marketplace, rather than to an audience you already have.
- Pricing structure: a small fee to list each item, a percentage of each sale, and payment processing on top, plus optional advertising.
- What you give up: the customer. Buyers are Etsy's, your shop sits beside competitors' listings, and the rules are Etsy's. The how-to is in selling Canva templates on Etsy.
Shopify: when you also sell physical products
Shopify is a full online store, and Shopify's own free Digital Products app adds file delivery to it: the buyer pays and gets a download link. If you already run a Shopify store, this is the obvious answer, since it keeps everything in one checkout.
- Best for: brands that sell merchandise or physical goods and want downloads in the same store.
- Pricing structure: a monthly Shopify plan, with card processing that depends on the plan and the processor. The Digital Products app itself is free.
- What you give up: simplicity. It is a whole ecommerce system for what may be one PDF, and you pay the plan every month.
Drry: 0% of the sale, and a community behind it (ours)
Our product, so treat this as a pitch with numbers you can check. Drry sells digital downloads from your own bio link, each with a download link that expires on a window you choose, and takes 0% of every sale on every plan. The charge runs on your own Stripe account, so Stripe's processing is the only thing that comes off. The difference from every store above is what happens next: the buyer's email joins your list, and they can join your community and work through your courses.
- Best for: coaches and educators whose downloads are the first step into something bigger, a paid community or a course.
- Pricing structure: a free plan with no card (10 products and $500 of sales a month at 0%), then flat plans at $29 (Creator, unlimited sales and your own domain) and $99 (Growth) a month. 0% on every plan.
- What you give up: a marketplace, since we send you no buyers, and tax handling: the sale is yours, on your Stripe account, so sales tax and VAT are yours to set up where Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy and Payhip take some or all of it on. See how the store works or Drry vs Gumroad.
How do you choose a Gumroad alternative?
Whichever you pick, the steps are the same, and we cover them in how to sell digital downloads and how to sell an ebook. For why we charge a flat price rather than a cut, see our 0% commitment.
Questions coaches ask
What is the best alternative to Gumroad?
For most people selling files, Payhip: it sells the same things (downloads, courses, memberships, coaching), handles EU and UK VAT for you, and lets you trade a monthly plan for a lower cut when your sales justify it. If you sell software, look at Lemon Squeezy. If you want a bio-link store, Stan Store. If your buyers should end up in a community with courses, Drry (we make it, so weigh that). There is no single best one; the right answer depends on what the buyer should get after they pay.
Is there a free alternative to Gumroad?
Yes, a few, and the thing to check is what "free" costs you per sale. Payhip has a free plan that takes a percentage of each sale instead of a subscription, the same shape as Gumroad at a different rate. Drry's free plan takes 0% and lets you sell 10 products and $500 a month before you need a paid plan, with only Stripe's processing on each sale. Stan Store and Podia have trials, not free plans.
Is Payhip better than Gumroad?
On cost, Payhip usually wins once you sell regularly, because a paid plan lowers its cut and its top plan removes it, while Gumroad has no plan that lowers its rate, only an automatic discount on direct sales above $20,000 in a calendar month. On tax, both take work off your hands, though in different ways: Gumroad is the merchant of record for every sale, and Payhip handles EU and UK VAT on digital products by default. Gumroad's one clear advantage is Discover, its marketplace, which can send you buyers who have never heard of you.
Which Gumroad alternative handles sales tax for me?
Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record, like Gumroad, so it collects and remits tax for you. Payhip handles EU and UK VAT on digital products by default. Etsy, as a marketplace, collects and remits US sales tax and VAT on digital items in many countries. A store that charges through your own Stripe account, like Drry, makes you the seller, so tax is yours to set up.
Can I move my products off Gumroad?
Your products move as files: download your originals and upload them again on the new platform. Your customer list exports as a CSV from Gumroad's sales dashboard, and most alternatives, Drry included, import a CSV of contacts. What does not move is the purchase itself, so past buyers keep their access on Gumroad, and an active Gumroad membership has to be re-subscribed on the new platform.