Looking to build an online store to sell digital products? In this article, we compare the pros and cons of two popular digital storefronts on the market: Sellfy and Payhip.
Both platforms are designed to help users launch their online store easily and sell digital downloads to their audiences. If you’re unsure which platform to use, then read on to learn more about the key differences between Sellfy and Payhip.
By the end of this article, you should be able to decide which platform works best for you, or if you should consider an alternative altogether.
Click here to start creating and selling digital products with The Leap. It’s free!Sellfy vs. Payhip: Key differences
Both Sellfy and Payhip are user-friendly online store platforms with similar feature offerings, but there are some key differences to consider.
| Platform | Pricing and key features |
| Sellfy | Price: $22-$119/month Digital product builder: ❌ Subscription products: ✅ Analytics: ✅ Email marketing: ✅ Flexible payment options: ✅ |
| Payhip | Price: Free (5% transaction fee) – $99/month (0% transaction fee) Digital product builder: ✅ Types of digital products: Online courses only Subscription products: ✅ Analytics: ✅ Email marketing: ✅ Flexible payment options: ✅ |
What is Sellfy?
Sellfy is a lightweight platform geared towards selling digital products. Its online store builder helps you get your store up and running in just a few minutes. Once your store is live, you can upload as many digital products as you want, and even sell subscriptions and on-demand video.
However, it’s important to note that Sellfy places a cap on just how much income you can earn per pricing tier. For example, if you plan on making more than $10,000/year, you’ll have to upgrade from Sellfy’s basic plan to a higher tier.
Sellfy also doesn’t offer a digital product builder. That means you’ll have to rely on other tools to create your digital products. However, the platform does have an array of marketing tools geared towards conversion. For example, its Basic plan offers email marketing features and coupons, while more advanced plans offer product upselling and cart abandonment automation.
Key features
- Create a simple, customizable online storefront and link-in-bio page
- Host and sell digital products and services
- Sell subscriptions and on-demand video services
- Own your audience with email marketing features like email collection
- Use marketing tools like coupon codes, upselling, and cart abandonment
- Track audience and sales analytics
What is Payhip?
Payhip is a digital storefront that allows you to sell digital downloads and memberships. Its key features include customizable landing pages, automatic delivery, and integrations with various payment gateways. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to create an online storefront for selling your digital products, Payhip could be a good option.
In addition to its online store builder, Payhip provides an online course builder that can help you create lessons and monetize your knowledge through paid subscriptions and drip content. However, it’s important to note that while Payhip allows you to create online courses, it can’t help you produce other digital products like tutorials or guidebooks.
Key features
- Create a customizable online storefront and shopping cart
- Create online courses, offer drip content, student accounts, and more
- Sell memberships and subscriptions
- Use built-in marketing tools like an affiliate system, coupons, upselling, and more
- Offer flexible payment options like pay-what-you-want pricing and subscription payments
Sellfy vs. Payhip: Comparison
Now that you know the basics of Sellfy and Payhip, let’s take a closer look at their pricing structure and features. Continue reading to learn how Sellfy and Payhip compare.
- Pricing
- Digital product builder
- Creator store functionality
- Email marketing
- Flexible payment options
1. Pricing
There are a few important differences to note when it comes to pricing between Sellfy and Payhip. First and foremost, Payhip offers a free plan, whereas Sellfy does not.
Sellfy’s paid plans start at $22/month, and go up to $119/month for its Premium tier.
Sellfy also puts a cap on sales for each of its plans. For example, you can only make up to $10,000 with Sellfy’s Starter plan. Once you make over $10,000, you’ll need to upgrade to its Business plan, which allows you to make up to $50,000 before upgrading to its Premium plan, which allows up to $200,000 of earnings per year.
However, Sellfy charges zero transaction fees across all of its plans.
Payhip, on the other hand, has an interesting transaction fee structure. The platform offers three plans: its Free plan charges 5% transaction fees, its Plus plan is $29/month (plus 2% transaction fees), and the Pro plan is $99/month with 0% transaction fees.
What’s unique about Payhip is that each plan has access to the same features as the next. So, Payhip’s Free plan has the same exact features as its Pro plan. The only difference is that you’ll be paying a 5% or 2% transaction fee (Plus) vs. a 0% transaction fee with Pro.
2. Digital product builder
While you can sell a wide range of digital products on Sellfy and Payhip, you need to rely on other tools to create said products.
For Sellfy, a digital product builder is essentially non-existent. That means while you can sell digital products on the platform, you can’t use it to create them.
Meanwhile, Payhip allows you to only build online courses on its platform. That being said, Payhip’s online course builder is fairly robust and packed with features like customizable branding, drip content, student accounts, a commenting system, certificates, and more.
3. Creator store functionality
Both Sellfy and Payhip have customizable link-in-bio storefront tools with intuitive interfaces. However, Sellfy’s platform may be a bit more mobile-optimized and geared towards a social media audience. On the other hand, Payhip offers tons of customizable options that work great for web pages, including a built-in blog platform.
4. Email marketing
Both Sellfy and Payhip offer email marketing tools. However, these features may be limited depending on what plan and platform you choose to go with.
For example, Sellfy offers email marketing even for its Starter plan, but it only allows 2,000 email marketing credits. If you need up to 50,000 email marketing credits, you’ll have to upgrade to its Premium tier.
Payhip’s email marketing is less robust than Sellfy’s, but the feature is offered throughout all of its plans (free or not). It allows you to sync mailing lists, and has a ton of useful integrations for doing so.
5. Flexible payment options
Both platforms offer mobile-optimized checkouts with flexible payment options. However, Payhip’s payment options are a bit more advanced, including the option to offer subscription payments or pay-what-you-want pricing.
Meanwhile, Payhip reports and pays digital EU/U.K. VAT and taxes on your behalf, which can be a major plus for those creators who have large audiences in the EU/U.K.
Sellfy vs. Payhip: Which creator store should you use?
Both Sellfy and Payhip share the same primary goal: helping creators set up a digital storefront for monetizing their audience via selling digital products.
Both platforms also come with some pretty sweet features, like the ability to sell digital downloads and subscriptions, in addition to marketing features, customization options, and more.
Payhip offers an online course builder, Sellfy does not. However, Sellfy offers some monetization features that are more geared towards video services. If that’s your cup of tea, you might prefer Sellfy.
It’s also important to consider the two platform’s pricing structures. The biggest difference is that Payhip offers a free plan (with transaction fees), whereas Sellfy does not. Also, with Sellfy, you’ll have to pay more per month as your earnings increase.
On the other hand, with Payhip, the features offered are the same across all paid plans. The only difference is the more you pay per month, the fewer transaction fees you have.
TL;DR
Sellfy is best if… |
Payhip is best if… |
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Ultimately, with the right strategy and quality digital products, you could find success on either platform. The choice between Sellfy or Payhip should be based on your business objectives, your budget, and your most desired features.
Not so sure about all those monthly subscription costs and transaction fees? Read on for the best (free) alternative on the market!
A free alternative to Sellfy and Payhip: The Leap
The Leap is an all-in-one creator store that boasts an easy-to-use, time-saving digital product builder. With The Leap, you can quickly build your own link-in-bio storefront, where you can create, market, and sell digital products all in one place.
The Leap also helps you capture leads and grow your email list (aka own your audience), set up automated email flows and broadcasts, and offer one-on-one calls with clients with its Book My Time feature.
The best part? The Leap is totally free to use with zero transaction fees.
The Leap’s AI-powered digital product builder doesn’t just give you content suggestions, it can actually generate mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and more in minutes. In a nutshell, it helps creators like you bring your product ideas to life way faster.
You can also use The Leap’s super-smart digital product builder to create effective lead magnets (aka freebies) to grow your email list, which in turn helps you grow your income!
The Leap offers creators an array of audience analytics including sales and leads reports, giving you the insights you need to create digital products that will fly off the (digital) shelves. Not to mention the array of built-in email marketing tools like pre-made email templates for setting up email flows and sending email broadcasts to leads and customers.
If you’re a creator looking to jumpstart your monetization journey, then The Leap is for you. Looking for an alternative to Sellfy and Payhip? Try The Leap for free today.
Start monetizing your audience with The Leap, your all-in-one creator store.
Sellfy vs. Payhip FAQ
What is Sellfy used for?
Sellfy is an online store platform for selling physical and digital products. While it doesn’t have a digital product builder, with Sellfy, you can upload unlimited digital products and even sell subscriptions and on-demand videos.
The platform also has a variety of marketing features geared towards conversion, like coupon codes and email marketing, which are available with even the lowest tier plan. If you want more advanced features, like product upselling and cart abandonment automation, you’ll have to level up your plan.
How much does Payhip cost?
Payhip offers three plans — each plan that Payhip offers has the same features, but charges a different percentage of transaction fees. Its Free plan charges a 5% transaction fee. Its Plus plan is $29/month (plus a 2% transaction fee), and the Pro plan is $99/month with a 0% transaction fee.
Is there a free alternative to Sellfy and Payhip?
While both Sellfy and Payhip are great options for a creator store tool, if you’re looking for a free alternative with even smarter features, look no further than The Leap.
The Leap is an all-in-one creator store with an AI-powered digital product builder that can help you generate mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and more in minutes — and it’s free to use, with zero transaction fees! Additionally, The Leap offers many of the same features that Pensight and Linktree have — like audience analytics, native calendar booking, and built-in email marketing automation tools for nurturing your leads.
With The Leap, you can upload your exisiting digital products to your storefront, or create a new one from scratch using the platform’s AI-powered product builder. Simply answer a few questions, like what your expertise is and what type of product you’d like to build, and The Leap’ will generate digital product ideas and build out comprehensive, customizable drafts in seconds.
Create and sell digital products in minutes using The Leap!
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Further reading
- 13 Best Examples of Digital Products Created on The Leap
- 15 Best Platforms To Sell Digital Products Online
- 9 Best Tools To Create Digital Products To Sell
- 10 Best Creator Store Platforms for Monetizing Your Knowledge
- 10 Best Sellfy Alternatives for Selling Digital Products
- 10 Best Payhip Alternatives for Selling Digital Products
- The Leap Alternatives
