Popular among artists, musicians, writers, and entrepreneurs alike, Gumroad is an e-commerce platform that creators can use to sell their digital products online.
With an easy-to-use interface, Gumroad helps creators sell virtually any digital product under the sun — from online courses to ebooks, digital art, and more. Gumroad pricing is fairly simple: The platform is completely free, minus a 10% transaction fee on each sale you make on the platform.
While this all sounds great, how do you know if Gumroad is the best creator store platform for you? And does its 10% flat fee model really make the most sense for you? Read on to find out.
Click here to start creating and selling digital products with The Leap. It’s free!How much does Gumroad cost?
Unlike many other e-commerce options on the market, Gumroad is free to use. It doesn’t charge a monthly subscription fee. However, the platform does charge a 10% transaction fee on every sale (plus a 2.9% credit card processing fee or a 3.49% PayPal fee).
While Gumroad only has one plan (i.e. its free plan), it also offers a Discover feature which helps your products get more visibility on the platform. Creators would need to pay a minimum 30% fee to have their products boosted through this feature.
Here’s a quick glance at some of the features offered by Gumroad:
| Features | $0 + 10% transaction fee |
| Mobile-optimized creator store | ✅ |
| Custom domain | ✅ |
| Analytics | ✅ |
| Online course builder | ✅ |
| Affiliate program | ✅ |
| Email marketing | ✅ |
| Monetization features | ✅ |
| Marketing tools | ✅ |
| Promotional features | ✅ |
| Subscription and memberships | ✅ |
Gumroad pricing
Thanks to zero monthly subscription fees, Gumroad’s pricing is pretty straightforward. Once you sign up, there’s no paywall — you’ll immediately have access to all of Gumroad’s features.
In addition to Gumroad’s 10% transaction fee, it also charges a 2.9% credit card processing fee or a 3.49% PayPal fee on all sales. So while the platform advertises itself as free, it’s important to note that these fees can add up.
Gumroad fee breakdown
For a better idea of how Gumroad transaction fees would affect the income you generate selling digital products on the platform, we’ve broken it down in the table below, based on the sales of a digital product priced at $40.
| Number of sales | Pricing breakdown |
| 1 | Revenue:$40 Gumroad fees:$4 Card processing fees$1.89 Total fees$5.89 Profit$34.11 |
| 10 | Revenue$400 Card processing fees$18.86 Total fees$58.86 Profit$341.14 |
| 100 | Revenue$4,000 Card processing fees188.60 Total fees$588.60 Profit$3,411.40 |
| 1000 | Revenue $40,000 Card processing fees$1886.60 Total fees$588.60 Profit$34,114 |
Gumroad also has a Discover feature pricing structure that’s designed to help your store get seen on its community pages.
If you’d like to take advantage of Gumroad’s Discover feature, you’ll first need to reach a balance of at least $10 and will need to be verified by the Gumroad risk team to be eligible. From there, you get to choose what products you want featured, and what fee you’d like to pay. A general rule of thumb is the higher the fee you pay, the higher the chances of discovery. The minimum Discover boost fee starts at 30%.
Gumroad key features
Here’s a look at some of Gumroad’s other key platform features:
- Customizable Storefront: You can easily customize your Gumroad store to reflect your brand identity, including colors, logo, and layout. It also offers a drag-and-drop interface for uploading and organizing files easily.
- Online course builder: You can create, promote, and sell an online course all directly within the Gumroad platform.
- Sell subscriptions and memberships: You can offer subscription-based products or memberships so that you can generate recurring revenue. Your customers can pay over time, whether that’s monthly, quarterly, or biannually — you get to decide.
- Payment Processing: Gumroad handles multiple payment processing options, allowing you to easily accept payments from customers worldwide using major credit cards through Stripe and PayPal.
- Audience analytics: You can track revenue, downloads, and customer demographics to better understand your audience and how to optimize the value of your products.
- Order fulfillment and security: Gumroad automatically delivers your digital products to buyers via email or download links. It also provides lightweight DRM (Digital Rights Management) to help protect from illegal distribution of your products.
- Full marketing suite: You can use marketing tools like discount and promotional codes, email campaigns, and affiliate marketing programs, as well as Gumroad’s Discover feature to promote your products and grow your audience.
The best Gumroad alternative: The Leap
Not sure if Gumroad is the right platform for you? We have a Gumroad alternative you might want to consider! Meet The Leap, a free, AI-powered, all-in-one creator store designed to help creators start making money, right now.
The Leap understands that getting started with selling digital products can feel daunting. That’s why we’ve created a free tool that helps you build, promote, and sell digital products in record time — and with minimal effort.
What’s great about The Leap is that it empowers you to do it all from one place — from creating and selling digital products to tracking leads, to automated email marketing and sophisticated Creator Analytics. The Leap is truly an all-in-one creator monetization tool.
The Leap pricing
The Leap is free to use, with zero transaction fees. The only thing you’ll pay is a small 2.9% Stripe payment processing fee per sale. That’s all!
The Leap key features
The Leap is the only creator store on the market that features an AI-powered digital product builder, which can generate mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and more for you in mere minutes.
This saves you time and effort from brainstorming and creating your digital product, allowing you to make your first sales that much faster.
The best part about The Leap is that it’s super intuitive — it’s designed with a mobile-first approach so it’s meant to feel like you’re creating content on your favorite social platforms.
When you create a digital product on The Leap, sales pages are instantly generated, and links to these pages are automatically added to your customizable link-in-bio storefront. Easy peasy!
What’s more, The Leap features built-in email marketing, with a library of pre-made email templates you can use to set up email flows and send email broadcasts easily. This feature helps you promote your product offering to your leads and turn them into paying customers.
If you’re a creator who sells digital services like 1:1 consulting or coaching sessions, The Leap’s native calendar booking tool Book My Time can help you effortlessly offer your services alongside the sales of your digital products.
The Leap’s core features:
- AI-powered digital product builder: The Leap’s digital product builder is the only of its kind powered by generative AI. Whether you want to create a mini-course, guide, tutorial, or challenge, The Leap can create your digital product for you, speeding up the process exponentially.
- Free to use: The Leap is 100% free. While many platforms charge a monthly user fee or pocket a part of each sale, The Leap is totally free to use with no platform fees. Once you start making sales from your Leap store, all you need to pay is the standard 2.9% Stripe fee.
- Analytics: The Leap offers a range of audience analytics including sales and leads reports, which give you the insight you need to build the products that will go flying off the (digital) shelves.
- Lead generation: The Leap’s authoring tool empowers you to turn your digital products into lead magnets, which help you grow your email list and, ultimately, boost your sales.
- Email marketing automation: Use The Leap’s pre-made email templates for setting up email flows and sending email broadcasts easily.
- Native calendar booking: The Leap’s Book My Time feature allows coaches, consultants, and creators to schedule one-on-one calls to clients and take payment all from one place.
- Flexible payment options: The Leap creators have access to flexible selling and payment options, like Buy Now, Pay Later payment plans via Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm. Plus, discount/coupon codes and one-click payments via digital wallets like Apple Pay.
Want to learn more about how The Leap can help you monetize your knowledge? Sign up for The Leap Way mini-course series!
Gumroad vs. The Leap: Comparison
| Features | Platforms |
| Pricing | The Leap: Free with 0% transaction fees! Gumroad: $0 + 10% transaction fee on each sale |
| Mobile-optimized creator store | The Leap: ✅ Gumroad: ✅ |
| Digital product builder | The Leap: ✅ AI-powered digital product builder helps create your products — like mini-courses, guides, and challenges — in minutes! Gumroad: ✅Online course builder only |
| Analytics | The Leap: ✅ Gumroad: ✅ |
| Monetization features | The Leap: ✅ Gumroad: ✅ |
| Generative AI | The Leap: ✅ Gumroad: ❌ |
| Email marketing | The Leap: ✅ Gumroad: ✅ |
Bye-bye fees, hello maximum revenue
While Gumroad is a decent e-commerce solution for creators looking to sell digital products, it lacks smart and time-saving AI-powered features to help you streamline your digital product creation, promotion, and sales. If that’s important to you, then you might want to look for a Gumroad alternative.
The Leap is the best Gumroad alternative on the market. Not only does it offer many of the same features as Gumroad, but The Leap also boasts an AI-powered digital product builder that can generate product ideas — and comprehensive, customizable digital product drafts — for you in minutes.
Plus, The Leap is completely free to use. No high transaction fees or hidden platform fees. Essentially, The Leap is the best creator store option if you want to keep all your revenue from selling digital products online.
Ready to make some serious bucks? Try The Leap free today to build your link-in-bio creator store and sell your digital products.
Create and sell digital products in minutes using The Leap!
Gumroad pricing FAQ
What is Gumroad used for?
Gumroad is an e-commerce platform that creators can use to sell their digital products online. A digital product can be anything from digital art and ebooks, to music or online courses, templates, monthly subscriptions, and more.
With Gumroad, creators can get paid easily through Stripe or PayPal. The platform also allows creators to accept tips or donations from their audience.
Creators can also use Gumroad’s marketing toolkit to help track sales, understand customer habits, and ultimately build customer loyalty. You can use Gumroad as an online store, or use the platform’s built-in API to integrate its checkout system into your website.
Is there a free version of Gumroad?
Gumroad is technically free. However, it takes a flat 10% transaction fee on all sales. So, while you won’t be spending money on a monthly subscription, you will be giving a portion of every single sale to Gumroad.
Is there a more affordable alternative to Gumroad?
While there are many Gumroad alternatives out there, there is only one completely free option and it’s The Leap.
The Leap is an all-in-one creator store with an AI-powered digital product builder all for $0. The only fee you’ll see on The Leap is a small, standard 2.9% Stripe fee when you make a sale. That’s it. All the revenue is yours to keep!
Start monetizing your audience with The Leap, your free link-in-bio store.
Is The Leap better than Gumroad?
In many ways, The Leap and Gumroad offer similar functionality, including an online storefront builder and the ability to sell digital products. That being said, The Leap may be a better option for you in two distinct ways.
Firstly, The Leap is completely free to use with zero transaction fees, whereas Gumroad charges a steep 10% transaction fee on all sales.
Secondly, The Leap enables creators to build a range of digital products like mini-courses, tutorials, challenges, and guides. With Gumroad, the only digital product you can create on the platform is an online course. With The Leap, creators can use its AI-powered digital product builder to generate product ideas and drafts for mini-courses, tutorials, guides, and more.
Long story short, with The Leap you can create, market, and sell digital products a lot faster than Gumroad. Plus, you get free access to all the Leap’s other advanced perks like automated email marketing, a Creator Analytics dashboard, and more. No hidden platform or transaction fees — with The Leap, what you see is what you get!
Want to try the best Gumroad alternative? Try The Leap for free today!
Create and sell digital products in minutes using The Leap!
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Further reading
- 11 Best Platforms To Sell Digital Products Online
- 10 Best Gumroad Alternatives for Selling Digital Products
- 9 Easy Steps To Sell Digital Downloads and Products on Gumroad
- 9 Best Tools To Create Digital Products To Sell
- 13 Best Examples of Digital Products Created on The Leap
- Comparison: The Leap vs. Gumroad
This article was originally published May 3, 2024 and was updated December 2024 to be even more useful.
