How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
Key takeaways
- There is no single cheapest option: low monthly fees usually mean higher per-sale fees, so run the numbers against your expected volume.
- Gumroad (10% + $0.50 per sale, no monthly fee) and Payhip (5% on the free plan) are the fastest ways to start selling with no upfront cost.
- Sellfy ($22/month, 0% transaction fees) and Lemon Squeezy (5% + $0.50, no monthly fee) suit sellers who want predictable costs or hands-off tax handling.
- Course-focused sellers should compare Podia, Teachable, and Kajabi on student experience and marketing tools, not just fees.
- If you sell to customers in many countries, a merchant-of-record platform like Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy saves you from registering for VAT and sales tax yourself.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Gumroad | first product launch with zero setup | $0 + 10% per sale | Yes |
 Payhip | budget sellers and EU VAT handling | $0 + 5% per sale | Yes |
 Sellfy | zero-fee storefront plus print-on-demand | $22/month | Free trial |
 Podia | all-in-one courses and community | $42/month | Free trial |
 Teachable | structured online courses | $39/month | Free trial |
 Kajabi | premium course and coaching business | $179/month | Free trial |
 Lemon Squeezy | software and SaaS with tax handled | 5% + $0.50 per sale | Yes |
 SendOwl | secure delivery and license keys | From $19/month | Free trial |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
A spreadsheet-template seller in Minnesota spent three weeks building a custom store before selling a single template. She listed the same templates on a free creator platform the next day and made her first sale within a week. The platform matters less than the product, but the wrong fee structure quietly eats your margins, which is what this comparison sorts out.
Starting price$0 + 10% per sale
Free planYes
Gumroad is where most creators sell their first digital product, and the reason is simple: there is no monthly fee, setup takes minutes, and it acts as merchant of record, handling sales tax, UK VAT, and Australian GST for you. Upload a file, set a price, and you are selling ebooks, courses, memberships, or software licenses the same day.
The fee is the trade-off. At 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale, Gumroad takes a meaningful cut once volume grows, and sales through its Discover marketplace cost 30%. Treat Gumroad as the launchpad: validate demand and earn your first revenue here, then move to a lower-fee platform when the monthly fees start costing you more than the subscription you would replace them with.
What we like- No monthly fee
- Merchant of record handles global taxes
- Fastest path to a first sale
Watch out for- 10% + $0.50 per sale gets expensive at scale
- 30% fee on Discover marketplace sales
- Limited storefront customization
Starting price$0 + 5% per sale
Free planYes
Payhip is the closest thing to a free lunch in this category. The free plan charges 5% per sale with no monthly fee, and it still includes a website builder, digital downloads, online courses, memberships, and coaching products. It also handles EU VAT, which removes one of the nastiest headaches of selling digital goods internationally.
Paid plans at $29 and $99 per month reduce the fee to 2% and then 0%, so the platform grows with you. Payhip's marketing tools and integrations are less extensive than bigger competitors, but for solo creators selling ebooks, templates, or courses on a budget, the value is hard to argue with. Start free, upgrade when 5% of revenue exceeds the monthly plan cost.
What we like- Generous free plan at 5% per sale
- Handles EU VAT
- Courses, memberships, and coaching in one place
Watch out for- 5% fee adds up at volume
- Smaller ecosystem than bigger rivals
- Paid plans needed to drop fees further
Starting price$22/month
Free planFree trial
Sellfy's pitch is refreshingly simple: zero transaction fees, ever. Plans start at $22 per month billed annually ($29 monthly), and the platform takes no cut of your sales beyond standard payment processing. The 14-day free trial lets you build the store before paying, though you need a paid plan to actually sell.
The differentiator is print-on-demand. Sellfy lets you sell digital products and merch from one dashboard, which suits creators who want both revenue streams without managing two platforms. Watch the annual sales caps: the Starter plan has limits, and exceeding your plan's threshold means upgrading. For established sellers with steady volume, the flat monthly fee plus zero commission is often the cheapest structure available.
What we like- 0% transaction fees on all plans
- Built-in print-on-demand
- Marketing tools included
Watch out for- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Annual sales caps per plan
- Starter plan limits file size to 10GB
Starting price$42/month
Free planFree trial
Podia replaces the stack of tools most creators end up with: a course platform, a community tool, an email service, and a website builder, all under one subscription starting at $42 per month billed annually. The 14-day free trial requires no credit card. Higher plans remove the 5% transaction fee charged on the entry Mover plan.
The all-in-one design is the selling point and the limitation. If your business is courses plus community plus email, Podia consolidates four bills into one and everything works together. If you mainly sell simple digital downloads, a leaner checkout tool may be cheaper. For educators building a real teaching business, Podia's combination of drip content, quizzes, certificates, and community is well judged.
What we like- Courses, community, email, and website in one subscription
- No transaction fees on higher plans
- Friendly for beginners
Watch out for- 5% fee on the entry Mover plan
- No free plan
- Less powerful for pure digital downloads than checkout specialists
Starting price$39/month
Free planFree trial
Teachable is the veteran course platform, trusted by over 150,000 creators serving more than 100 million students. Plans start around $39 per month, every plan includes a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the Builder and Growth tiers charge 0% transaction fees when you use Teachable Payments. The Starter plan carries a 7.5% fee, so most serious sellers land on Builder.
What sets Teachable apart is the student experience: a polished dashboard, mobile apps, drip content, quizzes, and certificates, plus automatic sales tax, VAT, and GST handling across 45-plus countries. Since joining Hotmart Company, the platform has leaned harder into global payments and AI creation tools. If courses are your core product and student experience matters, Teachable remains the benchmark.
What we like- Mature course builder with AI tools
- IOS and Android student apps
- Automatic tax handling in 45-plus countries
Watch out for- No free plan, only a 7-day trial
- 7.5% transaction fee on the Starter plan
- Now part of Hotmart with evolving plans
Starting price$179/month
Free planFree trial
Kajabi is the premium play: from $179 per month, it bundles courses, coaching, communities, memberships, podcasts, newsletters, email marketing, and funnels into one system with 0% transaction fees. For experts selling high-ticket coaching and flagship courses, the pitch is consolidation: one bill replaces five or six separate tools, and the platform is built to look and feel premium.
The price is the obvious objection, and it is a fair one. Kajabi makes no sense for a $19 ebook or a side-project template shop. It makes sense when your average order value is high enough that the monthly fee disappears into the margin, and when you would otherwise pay separately for email marketing, a funnel builder, and a community platform. Try the free trial and audit your current tool stack before committing.
What we like- The most complete all-in-one: courses, coaching, podcasts, email, funnels
- 0% transaction fees
- Premium brand positioning
Watch out for- By far the most expensive option here
- Overkill for simple digital downloads
- Learning curve for the full toolkit
Starting price5% + $0.50 per sale
Free planYes
Lemon Squeezy is built for people who sell software, SaaS subscriptions, and digital downloads and never want to think about VAT, sales tax, or fraud. As merchant of record, it handles global tax compliance, failed payment recovery, and multi-currency support, with license key management and no-code checkout links included. There is no monthly fee; the cost is 5% plus $0.50 per transaction.
That makes it the natural pick for indie developers, plugin sellers, and course creators who sell internationally and dread tax registration. The fee is higher than a flat monthly plan once volume grows, but for many sellers the tax headache it removes is worth more than the percentage. If your product is software, start here.
What we like- Merchant of record with global tax compliance
- License key management built in
- No monthly fee
Watch out for- 5% + $0.50 per sale
- Focused on software and SaaS rather than courses
- Payout and fee details need checking per product
Starting priceFrom $19/month
Free planFree trial
SendOwl takes a different approach: instead of building you a storefront, it gives you checkout links and buy buttons you embed on your own site, with secure delivery behind them. Features like PDF stamping, download link expiration, license key generation, and one-click upsells make it a favorite of sellers who already have an audience and just need reliable fulfillment. Plans start from around $19 per month with a free trial to start.
This is the pick when you own your traffic. If your sales come from your blog, YouTube channel, or email list, you do not need a marketplace or a hosted store; you need checkout and delivery that works. SendOwl has processed over $2 billion in seller transactions, and its decade-plus track record shows in the reliability of the basics.
What we like- Strong secure delivery with PDF stamping and expiring links
- License key support
- Works with your existing site
Watch out for- Less of a storefront builder than rivals
- Pricing tiers to compare carefully
- Smaller brand than the big names
How we chose
We compared platforms that let independent sellers take payment and deliver digital products without building custom infrastructure, focusing on options with real 2026 availability and verifiable pricing. We weighted the total cost of selling, monthly fees plus transaction fees, over headline prices, and we favored platforms that handle the unglamorous work: taxes, secure delivery, and license keys. We excluded general ecommerce platforms built for physical goods and marketplaces with restrictive terms. We did not run hands-on tests; this ranking reflects documented features, published fees, and each platform's fit for different seller profiles.
Work out your real cost before you commit
The pricing page never tells the whole story. A platform with no monthly fee and a 10% transaction fee costs you $100 on $1,000 of monthly sales; a $29-per-month plan with 0% fees costs $29. The crossover point is simple division: divide the monthly fee by the fee percentage difference to find where the subscription becomes cheaper. For most sellers, that crossover lands between $300 and $600 in monthly revenue.
Then add payment processing, which most platforms charge separately on top of their own fees, typically around 2.9% plus $0.30 in the US. Merchant-of-record platforms bundle tax handling into their fee, which is worth real money if you sell internationally: registering for EU VAT or US sales tax collection yourself costs far more in time and accountant fees than the percentage looks like. Model your first year at realistic volumes, not optimistic ones, and pick the structure that stays cheap at the volume you actually expect.
Marketplace reach versus owning the customer
One more decision shapes everything else: do you want built-in discovery or full ownership? Marketplaces like Etsy and Creative Market put your products in front of searching buyers, but they take large commissions, limit your branding, and own the customer relationship. The platforms on this list are mostly the opposite: you bring the traffic, you keep the customer data and the brand, and you pay for the privilege in fees or subscriptions.
For most digital product businesses, the right sequence is marketplace first, owned platform second. Use marketplaces to find your first customers and learn what sells, then move your best products to your own checkout where margins are higher and you control the email list. The email list is the asset that compounds; every platform here with built-in email tools understands that, and your choice should too.
Frequently asked questions
Which platform is cheapest for selling digital products?
It depends on your volume. At low volumes, Payhip's free plan (5% per sale) or Gumroad ($0 + 10% + $0.50) cost the least upfront. Once you pass a few hundred dollars in monthly sales, flat-fee plans like Sellfy ($22/month, 0% fees) or Podia's higher tiers usually win. Calculate the crossover for your own numbers.
Do I need to handle sales tax when selling digital products?
Digital products are taxable in many jurisdictions, including EU VAT on cross-border sales. Merchant-of-record platforms like Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy handle this for you as part of their fee. On other platforms, you may need to configure tax settings or register yourself, so check before you launch.
Can I sell courses and digital downloads on the same platform?
Yes. Podia, Teachable, Payhip, and Kajabi all support both courses and digital downloads, plus memberships and coaching products. Dedicated checkout tools like SendOwl and Lemon Squeezy also handle courses, though their course-specific features like drip content are thinner.
What is the difference between a marketplace and a platform like Gumroad?
A marketplace (Etsy, Creative Market, Udemy) brings you built-in buyer traffic but takes a commission and controls branding and customer data. A platform like Gumroad, Payhip, or Sellfy gives you your own checkout and customer list, but you drive your own traffic. Many sellers use both.
How do payouts work on these platforms?
Most platforms pay out via bank transfer or PayPal on a regular schedule, such as weekly or on a rolling basis. Teachable offers daily payouts with no reserve held back. Check each platform's payout schedule and minimum thresholds, since cash flow timing matters for new sellers.
Can I migrate my products later if I outgrow a platform?
Generally yes, though the effort varies. Your product files, customer lists, and content can usually be exported and rebuilt elsewhere. The harder part is migrating active subscriptions and memberships without billing interruptions. Starting on a platform with CSV exports and API access keeps your options open.
Sources we checked (8)
- https://gumroad.com
- https://payhip.com
- https://sellfy.com
- https://www.podia.com
- https://www.teachable.com
- https://www.kajabi.com
- https://www.lemonsqueezy.com
- https://www.sendowl.com
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.