Digital products are blowing up, and so are the platforms to sell them. In the last few years, a plethora of digital product sales platforms have emerged to meet the market’s growing demand. And no two are the same.
Some platforms are designed specifically to sell digital products, while others have recently adapted to sell digital products in addition to physical merch. Some allow creators to build their own website or storefront, while other, leaner platforms let creators sell anything with simple checkout buttons and download links. And while some provide a wealth of built-in marketing tools, others lean more heavily on sales analytics. There are also some platforms that only cater to a very specific niche, like design-focused creators or DIYers.
That’s a ton of things to think about. And, as a creator, it can be overwhelming to wade through the options. We get it! That’s why we’ve done it for you. Here, we’re unpacking exactly what you should consider when choosing a platform to sell digital products, as well as the 15 best platforms to sell digital products right now.
Click here to start creating and selling digital products with The Leap. It’s free!TL;DR
Don’t have time to read all that? Here’s quick overview of the 15 best platforms to sell digital products.
| Platform | Features |
| The Leap | Free plan? ✅ (with 0% transaction fees) Pricing: – Pro plan: $19/month – Elite plan: $59/month Digital product builder? ✅ Email marketing? ✅ |
| Gumroad | Free plan? ✅ (with 10% transaction fee) Pricing: N/A Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing? ✅ |
| Etsy | Free plan? ✅ (with $0.20 listing fee + 6.5% transaction fee) Pricing: Etsy Pattern: $15/month Digital product builder? ❌ Email marketing? ❌ |
| Stan | Free plan? ❌ Pricing: – Creator plan: $29/month – Pro plan: $99/month Digital product builder? ✅ Email marketing? ✅ (only with paid plan) |
| Thinkific | Free plan? ✅ Pricing: – Basic plan: $36/month – Start plan: $74/month – Grow plan: $149/month Digital product builder? ✅ Course builder Email marketing? ✅ |
| Sellfy | Free plan? ❌ Pricing: – Starter plan: starting at $29/month- Business plan: starting at $79/month- Premium plan: starting at $159/month Digital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ✅ |
| Payhip | Free plan? ✅ (with 5% transaction fee)Pricing: Plus plan: $29/month (+ 2% transaction fee)Pro plan: $99/month (with 0% transaction fees)Digital product builder? ✅ Course builderEmail marketing? ✅ |
| SendOwl | Free plan? ❌Pricing:– Starter plan: $18/month (with 5% transaction fee)- Growth plan: $37/month (with $.47 transaction fee)- Pro plan: $89/month (with $.28 transaction fee)Digital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ✅ (via integrations) |
| DPD | Free plan? ❌Pricing: $10/month for 20 products$16/month for 35 products$30/month for 120 productsDigital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ✅ (via Drip integration) |
| Shopify | Free plan? ❌Pricing: Paid plans start at $29/monthDigital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ✅ (at additional cost) |
| Creative Market | Free plan? ✅ (with varying commission rates per sale, up to 50%)Pricing: N/ADigital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ❌ |
| EasyDigitalDownloads | Free plan? ❌Pricing:Personal plan: $99.50/yearExtended plan: $199.50/yearProfessional plan: $299.50/yearAll Access Pass: $499.50/yearDigital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ✅ (via integrations) |
| E-Junkie | Free plan? ❌Pricing:$8/month for 10 products$10/month for 40 products $20/month for 150 products$40/month for unlimited productsDigital product builder? ❌Email marketing? ✅ (via integrations) |
| Teachable | Free plan? ❌Pricing:Basic plan: $39/month (with 5% transaction fees)Pro plan: $119/month (with 0% transaction fees) Pro+ plan: $199/month (with 0% transaction fees)Digital product builder? ✅ Course builderEmail marketing? ✅ (via integrations) |
| Pensight | Free plan? ✅Pricing:Pro plan: $29/month Biz plan: $99/monthDigital product builder? ✅ Course builderEmail marketing? ✅ |
15 Best platforms to sell digital products
- The Leap
- Gumroad
- Etsy
- Stan
- Thinkific
- Sellfy
- Payhip
- SendOwl
- DPD
- Shopify
- Creative Market
- EasyDigitalDownloads
- E-Junkie
- Teachable
- Pensight
1. The Leap
Looking for the ultimate creator monetization tool? Then you’ll want to get in on The Leap.
The Leap is the latest tool from the leading creator educator platform Thinkific. This all-in-one creator store includes features like a mobile-optimized link-in-bio storefront, an AI-powered digital product builder, and built-in email marketing tools, allowing creators to build, sell, and promote their digital products all from one place. Designed with lead generation and sales in mind, The Leap helps creators transform their knowledge into digital products and their followers into paying customers, quickly and easily.
The Leap’s AI-powered digital product builder enables creators to build some of the best-selling educational products on the market (including mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and challenges) in just 30 minutes. Because it’s so easy to use, the platform’s authoring tool empowers creators to transform their digital products into lead magnets, which help them grow their email list — and their pile of cash. For creators looking to expand their offering, The Leap also lets users to sell mini-consultations and book one-on-one coaching calls in-app.
The Leap’s comprehensive email marketing suite lets you promote like a pro, leveraging the power of AI email automations to build and dispatch email flows that take your audience through your sales funnels and value ladders. The platform also offers opt-in forms and landing pages that let you collect your followers’ email addresses, in addition to a mini-CRM where you can segment them, and view audience analytics that give you the insights you need to create and sell the products your followers will love.
The Leap offers payment processing through Stripe with a number of flexible (revenue-boosting) payment options, including one-click payments, buy now/pay later, and discount codes.
The Leap’s free plan includes all of its features but places limits on the amount of email contacts and live products you can host. If you want more contacts and products (and want to remove The Leap’s branding), you’ll want to upgrade to paid.
Key features
- Link-in-bio storefront
- AI-powered digital product builder for mini-courses, tutorials, guides, and challenges
- Email list builder
- Built-in email marketing with automation
- Mini-CRM with audience segmentation
- AI email generator and pre-made templates
- Sell coaching calls with built-in calendar booking
- Analytics including sales reports and leads reports
- In-app payment processing with Stripe
- Flexible payment options including one-click payments, buy now/pay later and 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.
Ready to start earning? Create your link-in-bio storefront on The Leap today.
Build, market, and sell digital products all in one spot with The Leap!
2. Gumroad
Gumroad is many creators’ go-to for selling digital products directly to their audience. This easy-to-use e-commerce platform allows creators to build their online storefront (no website or domain needed) and sell virtually any kind of digital product, including ebooks, online courses, films, Notion templates, downloadable prints, music albums, and more. Just upload your digital product, set a price, and Gumroad will handle the rest.
While Gumroad doesn’t offer a digital product builder, it does provide a number of marketing tools including email collection and native email, which allows you to send email updates to followers directly through the the platform. Gumroad also integrates with Google Analytics and Meta Pixel, so you can track your sales and engagement, and retarget your followers.
Unlike other platforms, Gumroad doesn’t charge a monthly fee. This means it’s technically free to start selling digital products on Gumroad, which is great news! However, keep in mind that the platform does take a 10% cut of each sale (and this doesn’t include additional credit card processing or PayPal fees!)
Key features
- User-friendly interface
- Online storefront builder
- Built-in email marketing
- Email collection
- Subscriptions, pre-orders, and payment plans
- Embeddable checkout widget for your own website
- Content security features including unique download links, PDF stamping, purchaser IP tracking, generating license keys for software
- Built-in marketing tools including affiliate programs, and discount codes and coupons
- Built-in analytics tools
Pricing
Free with a 10% transaction fee per sale (plus credit card processing and PayPal fees).
3. Etsy
For over 15 years, Etsy has been the internet’s marketplace for handmade products, craft supplies, and vintage items. However, recently, the platform has become a robust marketplace for digital products as well. Need some convincing? Currently, a search for “sewing pattern PDF” yields hundreds of thousands of results.
Etsy’s digital product game is about much more than just sewing patterns. The platform supports many different file formats, allowing users to sell myriad digital products, including downloadable prints, greeting cards, printable planners, ebooks, Lightroom presets, and much more.
Not only does Etsy make it easy to upload and sell your digital products, it also exposes them to a massive market of DIYers and crafters. That means, if you’re creating within the arts-and-crafts niche or are a visual creator, Etsy is probably the platform for you.
Etsy functions as a marketplace, allowing creators to set up an online storefront within the platform. While sellers can add a header to their store, Etsy offers creators little else by way of customization. If you’re looking to build a more personalized storefront, Pattern allows you to build your own custom, Etsy-powered e-commerce website for $15/month.
Key features
- Digital marketplace with over 96 million buyers
- Integrated storefront
- Limited marketing features including discount codes and coupons, and customer reviews on PLPs
- Built-in sales and traffic analytics tools
Pricing
Free with a $0.20 fee per listing and an additional 6.5% transaction fee per sale, plus regional payment processing fees.
4. Stan
Stan is a new ecommerce platform catered specifically to creators selling digital products, online courses, and coaching sessions. Sounds great, right? Stan promises to have your personalized storefront up and running in just five minutes with its easy-to-use drag-and-drop store builder. From there, simply upload your digital product, set your price, and wait for the dough to roll in.
In addition to coaching sessions, Stan allows creators to sell many kinds digital products, including ebooks and guides, templates and tools, exclusive video content, and courses. Looking to sell the latter? Stan also provides creators with an online course builder, allowing you to build, promote, and sell your online courses all in one place.
Stan also helps you maximize your profits with in-app marketing features, including an email list and newsletter builder, and the option to promote customer testimonials on your product pages. Harness these — and Stan — and see you digital products fly off the digital shelves.
Key features
- Mobile-optimized link-in-bio storefront
- Email list and newsletter builder
- Online course builder
- Sell coaching calls with built-in calendar booking
- Sell webinars
- Sell subscriptions and memberships
- Built-in audience analytics
- Robust third-party app integrations
- Creator community access
Pricing
$29/month with 0% transaction fees.
5. Thinkific
Creator educators, take note: Thinkific allows you to create and sell online courses, build your learning community, and monetize memberships — all on a single platform. In other words, if you’re a creator educator, this is the platform for you.
Thinkific allows you to monetize your expertise, by creating and selling online courses in the way that works best for you — and your audience. This platform’s robust course builder allows you to create feature-rich lessons with video, audio, presentations, PDFs, as well as self-paced and drip scheduled courses with quizzes, assignments, and completion certificates. To take your teaching even further, the Thinkific mobile app allows your students to consume your course content wherever and whenever they want.
Thinkific is also your go-to platform for building (and monetizing) your learning community. This platform allows you to connect your courses to your community for a seamless student experience. Provide each of your students with a unique username and let them provide feedback on courses, react to comments, and start conversation threads with each other. Push notifications also ensure your students don’t miss a single beat when it comes to community.
Even better? Thinkific is totally scalable. Its flexible plans grow with your business, allowing you to unlock advanced features as your business needs evolve. Want to create multiple courses? No problem! And you can control them all from one dashboard.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Online course builder
- Customizable web themes and custom domains
- Dedicated community spaces
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Built-in email marketing with automation
- Built-in marketing features like bundles, coupons, and cross-selling
- Built-in audience analytics
- Robust third-party app integrations
- Best-in-class customer support and expert marketplace
- Scalable plans that grow with your business
Pricing
Free plan available. Basic plan at $36/month; Start plan at $74/month; or Grow plan at $149/month.
6. Sellfy
In terms of selling your digital products, it doesn’t get much easier than Sellfy. This e-commerce platform promises creators that they can “get their store up and running in 5 minutes.” That’s a pretty bold claim. But it’s one that holds up — and speaks to Sellfy’s seamless onboarding process and simple website builder.
That’s right, Sellfy allows creators to build their own e-commerce website, easily. And it also offers you the option to sell from your social media account, blog, existing website, or anywhere else using “buy now” widgets. But there’s more: Sellfy allows creators to sell virtually any digital product imaginable, from downloadable prints to ebooks and much, much more. Sellfy’s file-hosting services provide unlimited bandwidth on the amount of items you can sell at once.
Are you new to the digital product game? With its intuitive interface, robust digital product hosting services, and all-inclusive tools, Sellfy is an especially great option for creators who are new to selling digital products.
Key features
- E-commerce website builder
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth on file hosting
- Built-in email marketing
- Sell subscriptions
- Built-in sales analytics
- Built-in marketing tools like coupon codes, upselling, cart abandonment, and affiliate programs
- Embeddable checkout widgets for your own website
- High-level security including SSL encryption
Pricing
Starter plan at $29/month; Business plan at $79/month; or Premium plan at $159/month with 0% transaction fees.
7. Payhip
Payhip makes it easy for creators to sell “anything online anywhere.” And that includes digital products. This all-in-one e-commerce platform supports virtually any digital product you can dream up: ebooks, workbooks, online courses, music albums, fonts, templates, printables, and beyond. Whether you’re selling digital downloads or online courses, Payhip has you covered. The platform allows creators to host an unlimited number of digital downloads and provides creators with a powerful online course builder.
Do marketing and branding matter to you? Then Payhip might be your platform. Payhip offers creators a breadth of powerful built-in marketing tools designed to boost sales, increase profits, and grow your business. These include affiliate systems, email marketing, social discounts, pay-what-you-want pricing, and more. Payhip also provides creators with a plethora of customization options across their storefront and checkout to provide customers with a seamless, totally on-brand experience.
Like many other platforms, Payhip offers a simple, tiered pricing plan (including a free plan!) However, you should note that Free and Plus plan users are charged transaction fees (between 5 and 2%) for each sale on top of their monthly fee. If you want to eliminate transaction fees, you’ll have to subscribe to the highest tier plan — and shell out $99/month.
Key features
- Online store builder with lots of customization
- Unlimited bandwidth and file storage on all plans
- Online course builder
- Sell coaching calls with built-in calendar booking
- Sell subscriptions and memberships
- Built-in email marketing
- Email collection
- Robust built-in marketing tools including affiliate systems, discount codes, pay-what-you-want-pricing, and more
- Content security features including download limits, PDF stamping, and generating license keys
Pricing
Free plan with 5% transaction fee; Plus plan at $29/month plus 2% transaction fee; or Pro plan at $99/month with 0% transaction fees.
8. SendOwl
SendOwl is an e-commerce platform designed specifically to sell digital products. And that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? No matter what kind of creator you are or niche you occupy, SendOwl has you covered, allowing you to sell anything from ebooks to audio books, software to online courses, and anything in between. Essentially, if you can dream and download it, you can sell it on SendOwl.
SendOwl also features a plethora of marketing, analytics, and customization tools. On the marketing front, we’re talking easy 1-click upselling, affiliate programs, email marketing, pay-what-you-want pricing, and more. In terms of analytics, SendOwl will provide you with anything from order and discount code reports to income and abandoned cart analytics. Finally, SendOwl lets creators add custom branding to their storefront via HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, in addition to custom email and checkout templates.
But all those built-in tools will cost you. To use SendOwl, you’ll have to pay for your monthly plan in addition to transaction fees for each order. It’s also important to note that each plan (even the most costly one) places a cap on your file-hosting storage. So, you’ll want to consider just how many products you want to sell through SendOwl before choosing your plan — or signing up at all.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Email marketing integrations
- Built-in marketing tools including discounts and promo codes, 1-click upsell, affiliate marketing, and pay-what-you-want pricing
- Robust built-in analytics
- Automated product update delivery and option to create license keys for software
- Robust third-party app integration
Pricing
SendOwl offers a 7-day free trial, plus generously discounted ($1/month!) 2-month trials on all its plans. After that, the Starter plan jumps up to $18/month with a 5% transaction fee. For the same features but lower, fixed transaction fees, you can sign up for the Growth plan at $37/month (with $0.47 fee per order), or the Pro plan at $89/month (with $0.28 fee per order).
9. DPD
Don’t need an online storefront? DPD is the ultimate in lightweight but comprehensive e-commerce. No need to deal with setting up a web shop: DPD allows creators to host and manage their digital products in one dashboard, while selling their products anywhere with embeddable “buy now” buttons. Sell from your existing website, blog, social media, and more — easily.
While DPD’s ebook publishing tool makes the platform ideal for aspiring writers, the platform can also host any size product of any type. This means you can sell any digital product you dream up, from website themes to templates, and beyond. That also means DPD won’t charge you for bandwidth, even if you sell a million products. DPD protects your IP and your buyers with a plethora of security features, including PDF stamping and encryption, and SSL checkouts.
Even better? DPD charges zero transaction fees, zero commission on sales, and zero bandwidth fees. That means you just pay one flat fee every month. But keep in mind that DPD’s tiered plans each place a cap on your file hosting storage. That being said, if you’re looking for an affordable, no frills way to sell your digital products anywhere, look no further than DPD.
Key features
- All-in-one shopping cart tool
- Embedded checkout buttons for your own website
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Ebook publishing tool
- Email marketing via Drip integration
- Built-in marketing tools including upselling, coupons, and discount codes
- Built-in sales analytics
- Automated product update delivery for software
- Security features like download controls and SSL checkouts
Pricing
$10/month for 20 products or 1GB of storage; $16/month for 35 products or 2GB of storage; or $30/month for 120 products or 6GB of storage. Want to sell even more products? DPD has plans up to 3500 products or 174B of storage for $280/month.
10. Shopify
Shopify is tops when it comes to selling stuff online — and that means digital products too. To start selling digital products, you’ll need to download and use Shopify’s free Digital Downloads app (or another third-party app through the Shopify app store, if you so choose.) From there, upload your product, disable shipping, and Shopify will deliver your digital product directly to your customers.
Shopify allows creators to sell anything online, including digital products from online courses to journal templates and everything in between. However, if you’d like to sell memberships and subscriptions to courses and the like, you’ll need to integrate a third-party app through Shopify’s app store.
If you don’t mind dealing with multiple apps to sell your digital products through Shopify, you’ll get to benefit from all of the platform’s robust features, including its easy-to-use drag-and-drop online storefront builder built-in marketing and analytics tools, and endless custom web themes.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop online storefront builder
- Tons of customization across storefront, checkout, emails, etc.
- Unlimited storage bandwidth and file storage
- Sell memberships and subscriptions through third-party apps
- Email marketing (at additional cost depending on number of emails sent)
- Email collection
- Robust built-in analytics tools
Pricing
Basic plan at $29/month billed yearly; Shopify plan at $79/month billed yearly; or Advanced plan at $299/month billed yearly.
11. Creative Market
Want to get your digital products in front of 10 million potential customers, instantly? Then, Creative Market is the place to be. This online marketplace caters specifically to design-focused creators, allowing them to sell digital design resources, like graphics, fonts, photos, mockups, illustrations, and templates, to a massive community of clients across the globe.
Creative Marketplace allows creators to set up their own online storefront within the platform’s marketplace. From there, they just need to upload their digital products and let the powerful search engine do its thing.
With its ease-of-use and built-in niche audience, it almost goes without saying that Creative Market is a great option for design-focused creators looking to sell their digital products. Depending on how you look at it, the only trade-off is its pricing. Creative Market is free to join (however, you’ll need to submit an application and have it accepted) and free to list items. Rather than being charged a transaction fee, Creative Market users are paid a commission of each sale. Commission rates vary per seller and product, but, by default, each shop earns at least 50% of the list price from each sale.
Key features
- Digital marketplace with over 10 million customers
- Integrated storefront
- Built-in sales and traffic analytics tools
Pricing
Free with varying commission rates per sale (up to 50%).
12. EasyDigitalDownloads
Looking to sell digital products through your WordPress site? Then you’ll want to get in on EasyDigitalDownloads. On its homepage, EasyDigitalDownloads boasts that it’s the #1 WordPress ecommerce plugin for digital products — with no hidden costs.
EasyDigitalDownloads might be just a plugin, but it’s mighty powerful. This platform lets users host virtually any kind of digital download, as well as sell subscriptions. Not only does EasyDigitalDownloads allow users to host unlimited digital products and charge unlimited transactions, it’s also chock full of advanced sales and marketing features.
In addition to email marketing via third-party integrations, EasyDigitalDownloads provides tons of other promotion tools including discount codes, customer reviews, recommended products, customer wish lists, and product bundles, as well as the ability to create lead magnets, collect email contacts, and manage them in a CRM.
The platform’s integrated shopping cart feature means you can embed your products directly into your WordPress website, seamlessly. How’s that for convenient? And all of this for no transaction or listing fees. Fantasic!
Features
- All-in-one shopping cart plug-in for WordPress
- Unlimited products
- Embedded checkout buttons for your own website
- Email marketing via integrations
- Email collection and CRM
- Sell subscriptions
- Built-in marketing tools including discount codes, lead magnets, customer reviews, recommended products, and bundles
- Built-in analytics
- Payment processing via Stripe, Apple Pay, and PayPal
Pricing
All EasyDigitalDownloads plans are billed annually. These include the Personal plan at $99.50/year, the Extended plan at $199.50/year, the Professional plan at $299.50/year, and the All Access Pass at $499.50/year.
13. E-Junkie
Want a simple yet powerful solution? Then E-Junkie might be the platform for you. This all-in-one shopping cart tool lets creators sell virtually any digital download they can dream up, from ebooks to songs, anywhere online. And all it takes is five minutes to start selling.
While E-Junkie is ultra lightweight, it does come with a selection of useful sales and marketing extras. These include integrations with email marketing platforms like MailChimp and Drip, as well as workflow apps like Zapier. On top of that, E-Junkie lets you offer discount codes, pay-what-you-want pricing, and bundles to your customers, as well as offer freebies in exchange for your customers’ contact info.
Once you’re uploaded your product to E-Junkie, the platform automatically generates a dedicated sales page complete with Google and Facebook integrations. From there, simply link your product wherever your audience lives, whether it’s your own website, your social channels, your blog, or elsewhere.
Features
- Simple online storefront
- Unlimited products
- Embedded checkout buttons for your own website
- Email marketing via integrations
- Email collection
- Built-in marketing tools including discount codes, pay-what-you-want pricing, affiliate programs, and bundles
- Analytics and tracking via Google Analytics and Meta Pixel
Pricing
E-Junkie’s plans are priced according to how many products you’re able to host and sell. For $8/month you can sell 10 products; for $10/month, you can sell 40; for $20/month, you can sell 150; and for $40/month you get access to unlimited storage, which means you can sell an unlimited number of products.
14. Teachable
Looking to corner the market on educational products? Then Teachable is where you want to be. This ecommerce platform is geared towards creator educations looking to monetize their knowledge by building and selling digital products.
Teachable enables you to create and sell practically any kind of educational product imaginable. In addition to uploading your downloadables, you can also build online courses with AI, host coaching sessions, and sell memberships all in-app. Plus, Teachable’s Community features enables you to create a learning hub for your audience, where they can purchase and engage with your entire offering (and each other!) under one roof.
In addition to a range of third-party integrations (including MailChimp for email marketing), Teachable offers a number of useful built-in marketing tools to scale your sales. These include bundle pricing, pixel tracking, coupon codes, upselling features, and affiliate marketing program. The app also provides you the opportunity to offer lead magnets in exchange for your followers’ contact to grow your email list.
Teachable’s awesome features, however, come at a premium. Its lowest tier plan comes in at a whopping $59/month plus 5% transaction fees for just 5 digital products. To host more products (and for more advanced marketing features), you’re looking at spending at least $119/month (but with 0% transaction fees.)
Features
- Online storefront
- Online course builder
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Sell coaching sessions
- Learning community features
- Email marketing via integrations
- Email collection
- Built-in marketing tools including discount codes, bundle pricing, upselling, and affiliate marketing programs
- Sales analytics
- Course reports and student progress reports
Pricing
Teachable’s plans are priced according to how many live products you can host and sell. Obviously, with higher tiered plans, you can sell more. Its Basic plan allows you to sell 5 products for $39/month with 5% transaction fees; its Pro plan lets you sell 30 products for $119/month with 0% transaction fees; and its Pro+ plan lets you sell 200 of each type of product for $199/month with 0% transaction fees.
15. Pensight
Although it’s fairly new, Pensight has already gained significant popularity as a platform for creators to sell their digital offering. Why? Because it equips you with not just an online storefront, but also a course builder and various marketing tools like email automations.
In addition to digital products like courses and ebooks, Pensight allows you to sell, schedule, and host one-on-one calls, like consultations and coaching sessions, thanks to its native calendar booking tool and video call integration. These features are available for free. However, if you want to start selling subscriptions and memberships, you’ll have to upgrade to paid.
In terms of marketing features, Pensight offers built-in email marketing and collection (for a premium), plus tools like pay-what-you-want pricing, coupon codes, upsells, and affiliate programs.
Where Pensight lacks is with its digital product builder, which allows users to create online courses only (vs. other kinds of digital products). When it comes to Pensight’s course builder, users will also have to upgrade to paid plans to access advanced features, like drip content and in-course comment sections.
Key features
- Online storefront
- Online course builder
- Sell coaching sessions with built-in calendar booking and video call integrations
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Built-in email marketing
- Email collection
- Built-in marketing tools like pay-what-you-want-pricing, coupon codes, upselling, and affiliate programs
- Built-in analytics
Pricing
Pensight operates on a freemium model. That means it offers a Free plan with limited features. If you want more advanced features, you’ll have to upgrade to a Pro plan ($29/month) or a Biz plan ($99/month).
Things to consider when choosing a platform to sell digital products
Digital products sales platforms come in all shapes and sizes, at all kinds of price points, and stocked with all kinds of features. So, naturally, there are tons of things to consider when choosing the platform you’ll use to sell your digital products. Here are the most important ones:
- Ease of use
- Pricing plans and scalability options
- Payment processing and transaction fees
- Customization options
- Integration with marketing and analytics tools
- Customer support
Ease of use
Of course, one of the first things you want to consider when choosing a platform to sell digital products is how easy it is to use. As a creator, your time is money — literally! You’re already hard at work creating awesome content and new digital products; the last thing you want is to have your time and energy sapped by a clunky, complicated sales platform.
Most sales platforms provide potential users with a free trial to test out its features and usability. We suggest taking full advantage of these! During your free trial, work through all the features you’ll be using for your business. See if the platform feels intuitive to you. If it doesn’t, onto the next!
Pricing plans and scalability options
As an entrepreneur — or even if you’re new to the game — you probably already know a thing or two about budgets. Knowing where to spend and where to save, and making sure you’re paying a fair price for your tools, is crucial to your business’s profitability. So, cost is something you’ll want to pay attention to when choosing your sales platform.
Most platforms have an array of pricing plans for every kind of creator — and every kind of budget. Each tier of plan provides users with a different set of features, with more expensive plans offering more comprehensive features. Before taking the plunge, set out a budget for yourself. How much do you want to spend on your sales platform? Also consider the kinds of features you really need to run your business. You don’t want to pay extra for features you’ll never end up using.
When purchasing or subscribing to your sales platform, you’ll also want to keep scalability in mind. In other words, you’ll want to think about the future of your business. How do you see your business growing in the next year? Three years? Five years? Will you be increasing your product offering in the next year? If so, by how much? Will you be hiring others to work for you, or will you continue flying solo for the foreseeable future?
Most pricing plans place a limit on how many products you can sell, how many team members can use the platform, and so on. So, you’ll want to take scalability into consideration when choosing your platform. Remember, your sales platform should help you grow your business — not hinder it.
Payment processing and transaction fees
No one wants to be slammed with extra, hidden fees — especially if you’re a small business owner. Before you sign up for a sales platform, make sure you read the small print; this includes any payment processing and transaction fees.
In addition to your subscription or sign-up fee, most sales platforms will take a cut of each of your sales. Some platforms take a larger cut than others, so you’ll want to do a little research and compare each platform’s payment processing and transaction fees before making the commitment. This will help you make the most profits from your digital products.
Customization options
Personal brand is (almost!) everything when it comes to being a creator. Your unique branding helps you stand out within your niche, and can be a major selling point for new followers and potential buyers. Many online sales platforms understand this and provide creators with tons of customization option to help them create the look and feel they want for their online storefront.
When researching potential sales platforms, be sure to pay close attention to its customization options. Some platforms have a wealth of them, while some have considerably fewer. Before choosing, you might want to make a mock-up of (or have in mind) the look you want for your online shop. Then see which sales platforms can help you bring it to life.
Integration with marketing and analytics tools
Today, there are tons of online tools to help creators, well, create. That means you’re probably already using and paying for a few apps and tools to help you with marketing, social media analytics, and more.
If you already have a few apps in your business rotation, you’ll want to make sure they’re compatible with and can be integrated into your online sales platform. Most platforms have integrations with at least a few other creator tools, but likely not all, so you’ll want to do a little research before landing on one.
Choosing a sales platform with the right integrations will make your workflow more seamless, saving you time and effort.
Customer support
When there’s something wrong with your digital products, who you gonna call? Customer support!
It’s inevitable that you’ll experience a hiccup or two with your digital product sales or your platform of choice. And that’s precisely why you’ll want to make sure the platform you choose offers a reliable, readily available, and well-versed customer support network.
Before subscribing to one platform or another, check out their CX page. Look at when customer support is available (24/7 or only 9 to 5?), how they’re available (chat, phone, or email only?), and who’s available (some platforms offer a creator community or marketplace of experts who can help you with specific, in-depth questions about things like growing your business.)
So, what is the best platform to sell digital products?
In order to start making money off of your expertise and your digital products, you’ll need to host and sell them somewhere. Hopefully, our helpful guide to the best platforms to sell digital products has alleviated some of the pain points in your search — and has helped you land on the platform that’s right for you.
If you want to sell and create digital products on one platform, for free, then the solution is a no-brainer: The Leap is the best option for you.
The Leap is a free, all-in-one creator store with an AI-powered digital product builder that can brainstorm and generate digital products for you, saving you time and effort. It also functions as an online storefront tool and an email list builder, and offers essential features like audience analytics and built-in email marketing tools, so you can supercharge your creator business.
The best part about The Leap? It’s totally free to use! Sign up for The Leap today to start creating and selling digital products.
Build, market, and sell digital products all in one spot with The Leap!
FAQ
Where can you sell digital products?
You can sell digital products through your own self-hosted website (e.g. Sellfy), an online storefront (e.g. Payhip, Stan, Thinkific), an online marketplace (e.g. Gumroad, Etsy, Creative Market), or a full-feature shopping cart app (e.g. DPD).
What’s the best platform for selling digital products?
Unfortunately, there’s no one answer to this question, because there are so many different kinds platforms with a myriad of different features. The best platform for selling digital products is the platform that’s right for your business needs, your audience’s needs, and your budget.
What digital products can you sell online?
You can sell any kind of digital product online. A digital product is anything you can sell online as a downloadable file. This includes anything under the umbrellas of videos and online courses, ebooks, templates, design files, and audio.
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Further reading
- How To Sell Digital Products Online: A 6-Step Launch Checklist
- 9 Easy Steps To Sell Digital Downloads and Products on Gumroad
- 8 Best Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Digital Products
- 6 Best Etsy Alternatives for Selling Digital Products
- How To Write Digital Product Descriptions for Your Online Store (Tips + Free Template)
This article was originally published in May 2023, and updated in July 2024 with additional information.
