Best Platforms for Selling Digital Products
Gumroad
Gumroad is the simplest way to sell digital products online. Upload your file, set a price, and share a link. There is no store to build, no theme to customize, and no technical setup required. Gumroad charges a flat 10% per transaction including payment processing, with no monthly fee. This makes it the most cost-effective option for sellers generating under $1,000 per month, because you only pay when you sell.
Gumroad handles file delivery automatically, supports products up to 16GB, and provides basic email marketing features for communicating with buyers. The platform supports one-time purchases, subscriptions, pay-what-you-want pricing, and product bundles. You get a customizable product page and a simple creator profile page, but branding options are limited compared to having your own store.
The 10% fee becomes expensive at higher volumes. A seller doing $10,000 per month pays $1,000 in Gumroad fees. At that level, running your own Shopify store ($39 per month plus 2.9% payment processing) saves significant money. Gumroad is ideal for testing new products, selling to an existing audience, or running a digital product business without wanting to manage a full ecommerce store. The Gumroad alternatives guide compares similar simple-selling platforms.
Shopify
Shopify is the most full-featured option for selling digital products alongside physical products or as a standalone digital store. The Basic plan costs $39 per month plus 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction through Shopify Payments. Shopify does not natively support digital downloads out of the box, but its free Digital Downloads app and third-party apps like Sky Pilot, SendOwl, and Courses Plus add digital delivery, license keys, and course hosting.
The main advantage of Shopify is complete brand control. You own your storefront design, your customer list, your URL, and your marketing. Shopify also supports discount codes, upsells, abandoned cart recovery, and advanced analytics that simpler platforms lack. If you plan to build a brand around your digital products rather than just selling through marketplace listings, Shopify is the strongest option.
Shopify makes sense when your monthly revenue exceeds $500 to $1,000, at which point the fixed monthly fee is offset by lower per-transaction costs compared to Gumroad's 10%. It is also the right choice if you sell both physical and digital products, because Shopify handles both in one store with unified order management and customer data.
Etsy
Etsy is the largest marketplace for templates, printables, and digital art, with roughly 90 million active buyers. The built-in traffic is Etsy's primary advantage: buyers come to Etsy specifically to shop, which means you can make sales without your own audience, advertising budget, or social media following. For sellers starting from zero, this marketplace traffic is invaluable.
Etsy charges $0.20 per listing (renewed every 4 months or upon sale), a 6.5% transaction fee, and payment processing of 3% plus $0.25. The total cost per sale is roughly 10% to 12% of the sale price, depending on the item cost. These fees are higher than selling through your own store but include the marketplace traffic that would otherwise cost money to generate through advertising.
Etsy works best for lower-priced digital products ($3 to $49) where the marketplace's search traffic drives impulse purchases. Templates, printables, digital planners, Canva templates, and digital art perform exceptionally well on Etsy. Higher-priced products like courses or comprehensive ebook bundles generally underperform on Etsy because the marketplace audience expects Etsy-level pricing. The selling digital downloads on Etsy guide covers listing optimization and Etsy-specific strategies.
Teachable
Teachable is the most popular dedicated course platform for independent creators. The Basic plan costs $39 per month with a 5% transaction fee per sale. The Pro plan costs $119 per month with no transaction fee. Teachable handles video hosting, student management, quizzes, completion certificates, and payment processing in one integrated platform.
The student experience on Teachable is significantly better than selling courses through general ecommerce platforms. Students get a dedicated course dashboard, progress tracking, video player optimized for learning, and community features. These features improve completion rates, student satisfaction, and the likelihood of students purchasing additional courses.
Teachable's per-sale fee on the Basic plan (5% on top of payment processing) makes it expensive for lower-priced courses. A $49 course loses about $5.70 to Teachable fees plus payment processing on the Basic plan. The Pro plan eliminates transaction fees, which pays for itself once you sell more than roughly $2,400 per month. For course sellers specifically, Teachable or its competitors (Thinkific, Kajabi) provide a better student experience and more relevant features than general ecommerce platforms.
Thinkific
Thinkific competes directly with Teachable and offers a meaningful free tier that lets you host one course with unlimited students. The Basic plan costs $49 per month with no transaction fees, and the Pro plan costs $99 per month with advanced features like memberships, communities, and multiple instructor accounts. No transaction fees on any paid plan is Thinkific's biggest advantage over Teachable's Basic tier.
Thinkific's course builder is slightly more flexible than Teachable's for creating multimedia courses with mixed content types (video, text, downloads, quizzes). The platform also supports more customization of the student experience without needing to know code. Thinkific's free tier is the best starting point for course creators who want to test the market before committing to monthly platform costs.
Kajabi
Kajabi is the all-in-one platform for creators who want courses, email marketing, sales funnels, a website, and community in one tool. The Basic plan costs $149 per month, which is significantly more expensive than Teachable or Thinkific, but it replaces multiple separate tools. If you would otherwise pay for a course platform ($39 to $119), email marketing tool ($20 to $50), website builder ($20 to $39), and funnel builder ($29 to $99), Kajabi's single fee can actually save money.
Kajabi is overkill for sellers with one or two products. It shines when you have a product ecosystem: multiple courses, a membership, an email list, and sales funnels that connect them. The target user is a creator generating $3,000 or more per month who needs integrated tools rather than a patchwork of separate services.
WooCommerce with Easy Digital Downloads
WooCommerce combined with the Easy Digital Downloads plugin gives you a free, open-source platform for selling digital products on WordPress. You pay only for hosting ($5 to $30 per month) and payment processing (2.9% plus $0.30 through Stripe). This is the lowest total cost option for sellers who are comfortable with WordPress.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) supports file downloads, license key generation, discount codes, customer management, and sales reporting. Premium extensions add features like recurring payments, software licensing, and content restriction. The plugin is maintained actively and used by thousands of digital product stores.
The tradeoff is more technical setup and maintenance than hosted platforms. You manage hosting, security updates, backups, and plugin compatibility yourself. For sellers with WordPress experience, this is straightforward. For non-technical sellers, the maintenance overhead makes Shopify or Gumroad a better choice despite higher fees.
Payhip
Payhip is a Gumroad alternative with lower fees at scale. The free plan charges 5% per transaction. The Plus plan costs $29 per month with 2% per transaction. The Pro plan costs $99 per month with 0% transaction fees (you only pay payment processing). Payhip supports digital downloads, memberships, and coaching products.
Payhip also handles EU VAT automatically on all plans, which is a significant advantage for sellers with international customers. Gumroad charges extra for EU VAT compliance, and most other platforms require you to handle it yourself or use a third-party service. For sellers with substantial EU sales, Payhip's built-in tax compliance can save both money and administrative headaches.
Which Platform to Choose
If you are just starting and want to test a product with minimal commitment, use Gumroad. No monthly fee, instant setup, and you can always migrate later once you know the product sells.
If you sell templates and printables to consumers, start with Etsy for marketplace traffic. Add your own Shopify or Gumroad store once you have enough sales to justify the effort of driving your own traffic.
If you sell online courses, use Thinkific's free tier to start, then upgrade to Teachable Pro or Kajabi as your revenue grows and your needs expand.
If you want a branded store that you fully own and control, use Shopify with a digital downloads app. The monthly cost is predictable, the ecosystem is robust, and you are not dependent on any marketplace's algorithm or fee changes.
If you have WordPress experience and want the lowest possible ongoing cost, use WooCommerce with Easy Digital Downloads. The total cost is hosting plus payment processing, which can be under $15 per month.
Many successful digital product sellers use multiple platforms simultaneously: Etsy for marketplace discovery, a Shopify or Gumroad store for direct sales at higher margins, and Teachable for course-specific products. This multi-channel approach maximizes both reach and revenue.