Best Platform to Sell Digital Products in 2026 (Fees Compared)

Gumroad takes 10% + $0.50 per sale; shopspace charges $19 a month and 0%. We compared 12 platforms at $500 and $2,000 a month and picked one per creator.

The best platform to sell digital products depends on how much you sell each month. Under about $380 a month, Payhip's free plan (5% per sale) costs the least. Above that, a flat monthly plan with 0% per sale wins: shopspace from $19 a month, Stan Store or Sellfy at $29. Gumroad's 10% + $0.50 per sale is the most expensive option at every volume.

Most "best platform" lists rank on features and forget the one number that decides whether you keep your margin: what the platform takes. So this guide starts with the fees, verified on each platform's own pricing page on September 27, 2026, then picks a winner for each kind of creator. Where shopspace is not the right pick, we say so.

If you already know you want a flat fee and Instagram selling built in, you can start a shopspace trial here. 7-day free trial, card required, nothing charged for 7 days.

How do the platform fees compare at $500 and $2,000 a month?

The table shows the platform's own fee only. Payment processing (Stripe or PayPal, roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per US transaction) is excluded because you pay it on every platform, with one exception noted below. Assumption: an average order of $25, so $500 a month is 20 orders and $2,000 a month is 80 orders.

Two things stand out. Percentage platforms (Gumroad, Patreon, Podia's entry plan) get expensive fast: at $2,000 a month Gumroad costs you about $220 more than a $19 flat plan. And the cheapest option flips as you grow. Payhip Free beats every flat plan until your sales pass roughly $380 a month (5% of $380 is $19). After that point, every extra dollar you make on a percentage plan is a dollar partly taxed.

Ko-fi Gold is the cheapest flat fee on the list, but Ko-fi is a tip jar first and a shop second. If you sell a handful of downloads next to your donations it is fine. If you want a real storefront, courses with progress tracking, or automation, it runs out quickly. We cover that in detail in our Ko-fi alternative guide.

Which platform is best for selling downloads only?

If you sell templates, presets, ebooks, or PDFs and nothing else, the answer depends on volume.

Under $380 a month: Payhip Free. No monthly cost, 5% per sale, and Payhip handles EU VAT and UK VAT as merchant of record on digital goods. That last part matters more than most US creators realise. If a meaningful share of your buyers are in Europe, Payhip files that tax for you. Most flat-fee storefronts, shopspace included, leave VAT registration to you.

Over $380 a month: a flat 0% plan. shopspace at $19 billed yearly is the cheapest full storefront. Sellfy at $29 is a close second and has been selling downloads longer than anyone else on this list, though its Starter plan caps you at $10,000 a year before you have to upgrade to the $79 Business tier.

Avoid Gumroad for anything beyond a first test. At 10% + $0.50 per sale it is the most expensive way to sell a download, and the 30% marketplace fee on discovery sales makes the "free to start" pitch misleading. We broke down what you actually keep per sale in Gumroad fees explained.

Which platform is best for selling courses?

Podia and Stan Store both sell courses well. Podia's course player is the more polished of the two, with drip content, quizzes, and a proper student area, but its Mover plan takes 5% on top of $42 a month. You need the $84 Shaker plan to get to 0%, which only makes sense above roughly $1,700 a month in course sales.

Stan Store at $29 a month includes courses at 0% and is the simplest to set up, but it is built as a link-in-bio funnel rather than a learning platform. Fine for a short video course, thin for a 40-lesson program.

shopspace sits between them: courses, memberships, and downloads on one storefront at $19 a month billed yearly. If you sell one or two courses and drive traffic yourself, it is the cheapest 0% option. If you need cohort tools, certificates, or a community forum bolted to the course, Podia Shaker is the stronger product and worth the extra.

Which platform is best for memberships?

Patreon is the default, and for many creators it is still the right call because members already have accounts there and the discovery is real. But 10% of recurring revenue compounds. A creator with 200 members at $5 a month hands Patreon $100 every month, $1,200 a year, for hosting.

If your members come from your own audience rather than Patreon discovery, move them to a flat plan. Ko-fi Gold at $12 is the cheapest, shopspace at $19 gives you memberships plus a storefront and Instagram automation, and Payhip Pro at $99 with 0% is the pick if VAT handling on subscriptions is a concern. We compared the full field in Patreon alternatives for creators.

Halfway through and leaning toward a flat plan? Try shopspace. 7-day free trial, card required, nothing charged for 7 days.

What should Etsy sellers move to?

Etsy's pull is the marketplace traffic, and the fee reflects it: $0.20 to list plus 6.5% of every sale, before processing. At $2,000 a month that is about $146 in platform fees, roughly seven times what a flat plan costs. Etsy also owns the customer. You cannot email your buyers a new product launch, and a policy change can close your shop overnight.

The sensible move is not to leave Etsy. Keep it as a discovery channel, and set up your own storefront for repeat buyers. Every Etsy order confirmation and packing slip can point to your own store, where the second purchase costs you 0%. Payhip Free is the lowest-risk first step for this because there is no monthly bill while you test whether buyers follow you. Once repeat sales pass a few hundred dollars a month, shopspace or Sellfy is cheaper.

Which platform is best if your sales come from Instagram?

This is the one category where the fee table is not the whole story. If your buyers find you on Instagram, the bottleneck is not checkout, it is getting the link into their hands. The standard workaround is a link-in-bio page (Stan Store, Linktree) plus a separate DM automation tool like ManyChat to reply "comment LINK and I'll send it." That stack runs $29 for Stan plus about $15 for ManyChat Pro, and two logins.

shopspace builds the comment-to-DM automation into the storefront. Someone comments a keyword on your Reel, they get the product link in their DMs, and the checkout is on the same platform. One subscription, one dashboard. Stan Store is the closest alternative and has a larger template library, but you will still pay for the automation tool separately.

Where shopspace fits

Be honest about where it does not. If you sell under about $380 a month, Payhip Free costs you less and you have no bill in a slow month. If EU VAT handling is a real headache for you, Payhip's merchant-of-record setup is worth more than the fee difference. If you need a heavy course platform with certificates and cohorts, Podia Shaker does more.

shopspace is the right pick when you are past that first few hundred dollars a month, you sell more than one kind of thing (downloads plus a course, or a membership plus templates), and Instagram is where your buyers come from. At $19 a month billed yearly or $29 month to month, 0% per sale, it is the cheapest full storefront on the list, and the only one with Instagram comment-to-DM automation included rather than bolted on.

The verdict

• Downloads only, under $380 a month: Payhip Free.
• Downloads only, over $380 a month: shopspace ($19 billed yearly) or Sellfy ($29).
• Courses: shopspace for one or two courses, Podia Shaker ($84) for a serious curriculum.
• Memberships: Ko-fi Gold if cost is everything, shopspace if you also sell products, Payhip Pro if VAT matters.
• Etsy sellers: keep Etsy for discovery, add Payhip Free for repeat buyers, upgrade to a flat plan once it earns.
• Instagram-driven sellers: shopspace.
• Nobody: Gumroad, once you sell more than a few units a month.

Whatever you choose, run your own numbers with the table above before you sign up. The platform fee is the one cost you can set to zero.

Ready to test the flat-fee route? Start your shopspace trial. 7-day free trial, card required, nothing charged for 7 days.