Heard of Beacons? In the last few years, Beacons has become one of the most popular creator monetization platforms, allowing creators to sell digital products and manage their business from a single platform.
While Beacons is a creator favorite and it claims to be an “all-in-one creator platform,” that doesn’t mean it’s a one-size-fits-all solution. The thing is that Beacons doesn’t cater to the needs of all creators. And even its free plan comes with a bit of a price tag.
Luckily, however, there are a plethora of alternatives out there that provide similar functionality and even additional features for less. Read on as we look into the 8 best Beacons alternatives currently on the market.
Set up your link-in-bio store on The Leap today. It’s free!Beacons alternatives at a glance
| Best overall | The Leap This all-in-one creator store provides you with everything you need to start monetizing your social audience — including an AI-powered digital product builder, a link-in-bio storefront, and email marketing automation — for free! |
| Best premium option | Payhip This platform arrives with tons of bells and whistles including a course builder and email marketing suite. However, its free plan arrives with a 5% transaction fee. |
| Best for creator entertainers | Ko-fi From cosplayers to guitarists, this platform is tailored to creator entertainers with its tipping, donation, and crowdfunding features. |
Launched in 2020, Beacons is an online platform that enables creators to monetize by selling digital products and services through a single link-in-bio landing page. The platform has become popular with creators mainly for its suite of all-inclusive features, some of which are equipped with productivity-boosting AI functionality.
First and foremost, Beacons provides users with a link-in-bio storefront where they can sell all kinds of digital products, along with an online course builder. In addition to those two key features, the platform provides tons of helpful extras, like its feature-rich email marketing tool, advanced audience analytics, an auto-updating media kit, an invoice generator, and a desktop website builder.
In terms of pricing, Beacons’ free plan and Creator plan ($10/month) both place a 9% transaction fee on each sale. If you want to waive those transaction fees, you’ll have to pay for its Creator Pro plan ($30/month) or VIP plan ($50/month).
Best Beacons alternatives
Beacons has become one of the most popular platforms for creators who want to monetize by selling digital products. That being said, there are other platforms on the market that offer features that Beacons doesn’t (like a digital product builder), that offer Beacons’ tools without the transaction fees.
Whether you’ve already decided Beacons isn’t right for you or you’re just weighing your options, read on as we look into the best Beacons alternatives out there.
| Platform | Features |
| Beacons | Pricing: – Creator plan: $10/month – Creator Pro plan: $30/month – VIP plan: $50/month Free plan? ✅ (with 9% transaction fee) Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing? ✅ |
| The Leap | Pricing: – Pro plan: $19/month – Elite plan: $59/month Free plan? ✅ with 0% transaction fee Digital product builder? ✅ AI-powered 🪄 Email marketing? ✅ (with free plan) |
| Stan | Pricing? – Creator plan: $29/month – Creator Pro plan: $99/month Free plan? ❌ Digital product builder? ✅ Course builder Email marketing? ✅ (only with paid plan) |
| Gumroad | Pricing: Free with 10% transaction fee Free plan? ✅ with 10% transaction fee Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing: ✅ |
| Linktree | Pricing: – Starter plan: $5/month – Pro plan: $9/month – Premium plan: $24/month Free plan? ✅ Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing? ✅ (via third-party integrations) |
| Snipfeed | Pricing: – Starter plan: $9/month – Pro plan: $29/month – Pro Plus plan: $59/month Free plan? ❌ Digital product builder? ✅ Course builder Email marketing? ✅ |
| Sellfy | Pricing: – Starter plan: starting at $29/month – Business plan: starting at $79/month – Premium plan: starting at $159/month Free plan? ❌ Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing? ✅ |
| Payhip | Pricing: – Plus plan: $29/month (+ 2% transaction fee) – Pro plan: $99/month (with 0% transaction fees) Free plan? ✅ (with 5% transaction fee) Digital product builder? ✅ Course builder Email marketing? ✅ |
| Ko-fi | Pricing: Gold plan: from $6/month (with 0% transaction fee) Free plan? ✅ (with 5% transaction fee) Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing? ❌ |
| Pensight | Pricing: – Pro plan: $29/month – Biz plan: $99/month Free plan? ✅ Digital product builder? ✅ Course builder Email marketing? ✅ (only with paid plan) |
1. The Leap
Looking for the ultimate all-in-one creator store — for free? Well, look no further than The Leap.
From the minds behind Thinkific, The Leap is a new creator monetization platform with features like a link-in-bio storefront, an AI-powered digital product builder, and an email marketing suite that let you create, sell, and promote your digital products all from one place. Designed with lead generation in mind, The Leap helps you transform your expertise into products and your followers into paying customers quickly and easily.
And we’re not kidding about that last part! The Leap’s intuitive storefront builder helps you get your creator store up-and-running in just a few minutes.
From there, The Leap’s AI-powered digital product builder enables you to build some of the best-selling educational products — including mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and challenges — in just 30 minutes. Yup, you read that right: just 30 minutes. Because it’s so easy to use, The Leap’s authoring tool also empowers you to turn your digital products into lead magnets, which helps you grow your email list — and your income.
Want to expand your offering? The Leap lets you sell mini-consultations and book one-on-one sessions in-app.
The Leap’s email marketing feature leverages the power of AI automation to help you create and send email flows that take your audience down your sales funnel or up your value ladders. The platform also offers opt-in forms and landing pages that let you collect your followers’ email addresses, as well as a mini-CRM where you can segment your contacts and view audience analytics.
The Leap offers in-app payment processing through Stripe, plus a range of flexible (i.e. income-boosting) payment options, like one-click payments, buy now/pay later pricing, and discount codes.
The Leap’s free plan includes all of its features, but places limits on how many email contacts and live products you can host at once. If you want more contacts and products, you’ll want to upgrade to a paid account.
Key features
- Link-in-bio storefront
- AI-powered digital product builder for mini-courses, tutorials, guides, and challenges
- Email list builder
- Email marketing automations
- Mini-CRM with audience segmentation
- AI email generator and pre-made templates
- AI landing page generator
- Sell appointments with built-in calendar booking
- Analytics including sales reports and leads reports
- Flexible payment options (one-click payments, buy now/pay later, discount codes)
- Zero transaction fees
Pricing
Free plan available with all features. Paid plans are $19/month (Pro) and $59/month (Elite) for more contacts and live products.
Start monetizing your audience with The Leap, your free link-in-bio store.
2. Stan
Launched in 2020, Stan Store has grown in popularity as a creator store in the last few years. This platform enables creators to sell their digital products and services (like appointments) via a mobile-optimized link-in-bio landing page.
On its homepage, Stan claims to be one of the fastest and easiest ways for creators to start earning money online, enabling creators to get their online storefronts up and running in just 10 minutes.
In addition to its link-in-bio storefront, Stan offers a course builder, which enables creators to build their own online courses within the platform. It also provides users with a host of marketing features: its most basic plan features an email list builder, while its paid Pro plan provides creators with email marketing functionality.
The platform’s advanced analytics dashboard lets users track their sales and engagement in real time, so they can stay up to date on which products are selling and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to which products to sell next.
Key features
- Link-in-bio storefront
- Course builder
- Sell appointments with built-in calendar booking
- Email marketing
- Email collection
- Pixel tracking
- Audience analytics
Pricing
If you want to sell online using Stan Store, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee. The platform’s most basic Creator plan is $29/month, while its Pro plan will run you $99/month. If you’re unsure whether you want to drop that amount of cash right away, you can always sign up for a 14-day free trial.
3. Gumroad
For years, Gumroad has been many creators’ go-to platform for selling digital products to their following. This platform allows users to build a digital storefront and sell practically any digital product under the sun, from ebooks to templates and beyond. Want to sell memberships and subscriptions for recurring income? Well, Gumroad lets you do that too. All you need to do is upload your product, set a price, and Gumroad will take care of the rest.
Want to sell through your own website? That’s great, because Gumroad also allows creators to sell their products through their own channels by way of embeddable checkout buttons and widgets.
Through its email marketing functionality, Gumroad enables users to build their email list (i.e. their list of potential customers) and email their subscribers with workflows to drive sales.
While Gumroad doesn’t charge user a monthly fee, you’ll want to note that the platform charges a 10% transaction fee on every sale — that’s not a small cut.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Payment processing via PayPal and Stripe
- Embeddable checkout buttons
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Email marketing
- Email list builder
- Audience analytics
Pricing
Free with a 10% transaction fee per sale.
4. Linktree
Looking for a link-in-bio tool? Then why not try the OG? Linktree was the first-ever link-in-bio tool on the market. Today, with over 40 million users, it’s also one of the most popular.
Historically, Linktree has been the go-to for sharing links with your followers. But today, you can also use it to sell your digital products. Like many of its competitors, Linktree’s link-in-bio landing page boasts storefront functionality, thanks to its integrations with popular online payment platforms like PayPal.
This means followers can shop your digital products directly through your landing page. Simply upload your PDF files and place them under a Payment Lock, or upload your file to SendOwl via Linktree’s integration. If you want to use Linktree to sell digital products, it’s important to note that you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to use the platform’s Payment Lock feature.
Linktree also offers a range of customizable themes which can be easily personalized with your brand colors and fonts. And, for those wanting to supercharge their sales, Linktree offers an email list builder and integrations with email marketing apps (Mailchimp) and analytics software (Google Analytics).
Key features
- Online storefront via third-party integrations (or host and sell digital products with paid account)
- Email list builder (only with paid plan)
- Email marketing via Mailchimp integration
- Advanced audience analytics (only with paid plan)
- Accept tips and request funds via in-app payment integrations
Pricing
Free plan available. Paid plans are $5/month (Starter), $9/month (Pro), and $24/month (Premium).
5. Snipfeed
Snipfeed’s is all about helping creators monetize through digital products sales, on-demand content, and direct audience interactions. In terms of digital products, this creator platform provides users with an online course builder, as well as a booking tool for selling appointments and video call integration to host said one-on-one calls (and even livestreams!)
The thing is that Snipfeed isn’t free (and it’s not cheap, either!) The platform’s Starter plan costs $9/month plus a whopping 10% transaction fee on each sale, while its Pro plan costs $20/month.
However, the cost does come with some pretty sweet advanced features, including SMS and email marketing, a tip jar, and lots of Zapier integrations to streamline your workflow. The platform’s also kitted out with some great AI features, like its PromoBot and Marketing Funnel Expert (for building your sales and marketing strategies), as well as its Online Courses Coach, Ebook Writing Assistant, Livestream Strategist, and Product Description Droid (for creating your digital products).
Features
- Online storefront
- Course builder
- Email and SMS marketing
- Video call integrations
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Media kit
Pricing
Snipfeed offers its Start Plan for $9/month, Pro plan at $29/month, and its Pro Plus plan at $59/month. Not ready to commit? Snipfeed also offers a free trial.
6. Sellfy
It doesn’t get much more intuitive than Sellfy when it comes to selling digital products. This e-commerce platform promises creators it’ll help them get their online storefronts up and running in just five minutes. Sure, it’s a bold claim, but it’s one that holds up thanks to Sellfy’s seamless sign-up process and its easy-to-use tools.
Sellfy’s user-friendly storefront builder allows you to create your own online store in just a few clicks, while its embeddable checkout buttons let you sell your products via your personal website, social channels, and anywhere else you live online.
From ebooks to templates, digital art and online courses, Sellfy enables users to sell pretty much any digital product their heart desires. Through the platform, you can also sell memberships, subscriptions, and even streaming video.
Even better? Sellfy offers built-in email marketing with even its lowest tier plans, so you can get those products really flying off the (digital) shelves.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Sell subscriptions
- Email collection
- Email marketing
- Pixel tracking
- Coupon codes, upselling, and cart abandonment
Pricing
Starter plan at $19/month, Business plan at $49/month, or Premium plan at $99/plan, all with zero transaction fees.
7. Payhip
Payhip enables creators to sell “anything online anywhere,” including digital products. This all-in-one platform supports virtually every digital product you could dream up, including ebooks, online courses, stock music, templates, and more. In addition to supporting a wide variety of file types, Payhip also lets creators host as many products as they want with unlimited storage.
Payhip provides even its lowest tier plan subscribers with its email list builder and email marketing features, so that they can boost their subscriber base (read: potential customer base) and their cash easily.
On top of its storefront builder, the platform provides creators with an online course builder, allowing them to create lesson plans, and monetize their expertise through subscriptions and drip content.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Online course builder
- Sell coaching calls with built-in calendar booking
- Sell subscriptions and memberships
- Email marketing
- Email collection
- Affiliate systems, discount codes, and pay-what-you-want-pricing,
Pricing
Payhip offers three plans, which each offer the same features but charge a different percentage in transaction fees. Its Free plan charges a 5% transaction fee. Its Plus plan is $29/month (plus a 2% transaction fee), and its Pro plan is $99/month with 0% transaction fee.
8. Ko-fi
Ko-fi is a platform that enables creators to sell their entire digital product offering through a lightweight, link-in-bio storefront.
To start, simply open your Ko-fi store and upload your products. From there, you’ll be able to share links to your storefront or to individual products directly on your social channels, website, or wherever your followers are.
In addition to downloadables like online courses and templates, Ko-fi allows creators to sell memberships and subscriptions, paywalled content, and even commissions, all through their link-in-bio storefront.
Ko-fi offers a free plan and a paid plan, Ko-fi Gold (starting at $6/month). Both plans let you sell products, memberships, and commissions through your shop. Free account users should be prepared to lose 5% revenue from each sale due to the platform’s hefty transaction fees. With Ko-fi Gold, however, you get to kiss those transaction fees goodbye — and also say hello to audience analytics.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Sell memberships and exclusive content
- Accept tips and donations
- Take commissions
- Receive crowdfunding
Pricing
Ko-fi offers a free plan with 5% transaction fees. If you want to ditch the fees (and gain a few extra perks), you’ll need to upgrade to Ko-fi Gold for $6 to $8/month.
9. Pensight
It might be new to the creator store game, but Pensight has already gained a ton of popularity within the creator space. Why? Because it provides creators with not only an online storefront, but a course builder and lots of cool marketing features like email marketing automation.
In addition to digital downloads like online courses and ebooks, Pensight lets you book, sell, and host one-on-one calls, like coaching sessions and consultations, in-app thanks to its calendar booking and video call tools. Pensight provides these features for free. However, if you want to start earning by selling subscriptions or memberships, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Pensight is equipped with a digital product builder, which gives it a leg up on Beacons. However, this tool only lets you create online courses, which can be limiting to creators who want to build other product types, like guides or tutorials. Pensight’s course builder does boast some pretty rad features, like drip content and in-course comments sections, but — once again — you’ll need to upgrade to paid to access them.
Features
- Online storefront
- Course builder (plus advanced features like drip content and comment sections available with paid plan)
- Email marketing (only with paid plans)
- Native calendar booking
- Video call integrations
- Sell memberships and subscriptions (only with paid plans)
Pricing
Pensight works on a freemium model. In other words, its Free plan provides only a limited set of features and if you want advanced features, you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro plan ($29/month) or a Biz plan ($99/month).
Choosing the best Beacons alternative
Choosing the Beacons alternative that’s right for you depends on a range of factors, including your business’s needs, your audience’s needs, and your budget.
Looking for a platform that lets you create, market, and sell your digital products — for free? Then you’ll want to try The Leap.
The Leap is an all-in-one creator store platform that gives you everything you need to start selling your digital products and earning money now, with no monthly subscription fee. On top of its link-in-bio storefront, The Leap provides you with tons of essential creator tools including an AI-powered digital product builder, an email marketing suite, and a calendar booking tool.
Our user-friendly storefront builder helps you set up shop in just a few minutes, so you can start selling your digital products ASAP. Because it’s powered by generative AI, our digital product builder saves you time and brain power, enabling you to create engaging digital products in literally minutes.
And did we mention The Leap is free to use? Once you sign up for your free account, you’ll get access to all of our features, from our link-in-bio storefront builder to our supercharged digital product builder. Try The Leap for free today!
Build, market, and sell digital products all in one spot with The Leap!
Beacons alternatives FAQ
How much does Beacons cost?
Beacons offers a free plan and Creator plan ($10/month), both of which place a 9% transaction fee on each sale. Its Creator Pro plan ($30/month) and VIP plan ($50/month) come with 0% transaction fees.
Is there a free alternative to Beacons?
Yes, there are a few free alternatives to Beacons. The Leap is one of the best Beacons alternatives and it’s free to use with no platform transaction fees. Once you start making sales from your Leap store, you’ll only be charged a standard 2.9% Stripe fee for payment processing.
Other Beacons alternatives, including Gumroad, Ko-fi, and Payhip, offer free plans but do charge transaction fees on each sale (between 5% and 10%).
Is The Leap or Beacons better?
The Leap and Beacons offer similar functionality, including a link-in-bio storefront builder. While the platforms are similar, The Leap has a leg up on Beacons for two main reasons.
First, The Leap’s free plan has no platform transaction fees, whereas Beacons’ free plan charges 9% transaction fees on each sale.
The second reason is that The Leap has a digital product builder, whereas Beacons doesn’t. This means that Leap users can create and sell their digital products all from one place, while Beacons users need to use a third-party app to create their digital products before uploading them to their Beacons store. And all of that takes extra time and money.
On top of it all, The Leap’s digital product builder is powered by generative AI, which allows users to create digital products in just 30 minutes and saves them tons of time, effort, and money.
Create and sell digital products in minutes using The Leap!
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Further reading
- Beacons Pricing Review: Is the Creator Platform Worth It?
- 11 Best Platforms To Sell Digital Products Online
- The Best Link in Bio Tools for TikTok and Instagram
- Beacons vs. Linktree: Which Link-in-Bio Tool Is Better?
- How To Sell Digital Products Online: A 6-Step Launch Checklist
- 9 Best Tools To Create Digital Products To Sell
- Comparison: The Leap vs. Beacons
