Looking to build an online store to sell digital products? In this article, we explore the pros and cons of two platforms that creators can use to offer digital products: The Leap and Etsy.
While Etsy is well-known as an e-commerce website for handmade and vintage goods, in recent years, it’s also become a popular platform for selling digital products like Canva templates and ebooks.
Meanwhile, The Leap is designed to help creators monetize their audience by selling digital learning products and services, like mini-courses, guides, and one-on-one coaching sessions. Not only does The Leap help you build a link-in-bio storefront easily, it also features an AI-powered digital product builder that can generate engaging products for you in seconds.
Below, we’ll explain how The Leap and Etsy compare, so you can decide which platform might work best for you.
Click here to start creating and selling digital products with The Leap. It’s free!The Leap vs. Etsy: Key differences
Both The Leap and Etsy allow users to launch an online store to sell digital products. However, there are some key differences to consider.
A huge distinction between the two platforms is that Etsy primarily caters to sellers who create handmade crafts, while The Leap prioritizes creators who are looking to monetize their audience with digital products and services.
| Platform | Pricing and key features |
| The Leap | Price: Free! Digital product builder: ✅ Types of digital products you can build: Mini-courses, guides, tutorials, challenges Online store: ✅ Audience analytics: ✅ Generative AI: ✅ Email marketing: ✅ Native calendar booking: ✅ Flexible payment options: ✅ |
| Etsy | Price: Free – $10/month Digital product builder: ❌ Online store: ✅ Audience analytics: ✅ Generative AI: ❌ Email marketing: ❌ Native calendar booking: ❌ Flexible payment options: ✅ |
What is The Leap?
The Leap is the latest platform from creator tech company Thinkific. It’s an all-in-one creator store that features an AI-powered digital product builder and a mobile-optimized link-in-bio storefront, enabling creators to build and sell their digital products all from one place.
The Leap is a ridiculously simple platform to use, yet it’s jam-packed with all the features you need to transform your knowledge and expertise into digital products — and your audience into paying customers, quickly and easily.
Key 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.
Pricing
The best part about The Leap? It’s totally free to use.
Overall, The Leap is a powerful all-in-one platform designed to help creators kickstart their monetization journey. Its robust and unique features and its $0 price tag make it a great option for a digital product online store. Create your free Leap account today to get started.
Build, market, and sell digital products all in one spot with The Leap!
What is Etsy?
Etsy is known as a marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, but it also offers options for creators selling digital products like printable art and digital downloads. One of the benefits of Etsy is that users can set up a shop and reach a large audience of buyers who are interested in discovering unique and creative products.
The platform has a large and active community of buyers, making it easy for sellers to reach potential customers. Etsy also offers custom listing options and marketing tools to help sellers promote their products and grow their businesses.
Etsy is best suited for those looking to sell digital products alongside physical products, or who have a unique or handmade product that would fit well within the Etsy community. Overall, it can be ideal for creators who are just starting out and want to test the waters with their products. Just keep in mind that this platform comes with steep transaction fees.
Key features
- Create a mobile-optimized online storefront.
- Sell physical products, including handmade crafts and vintage goods.
- Sell digital products like printable art, ebooks, and digital downloads.
- Become a part of a large and engaged community of buyers.
- Have access to a global market.
Pricing
Etsy’s Standard plan is free to use. The Etsy Plus plan is $10/month and comes with certain perks like advanced customization options. Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee for each product and takes a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price.
The Leap vs. Etsy: Comparison
Now that you know the basics of The Leap and Etsy, let’s take a closer look at their pricing structure and features. Read on to learn more about how The Leap and Etsy compare.
- Pricing
- Digital product builder
- AI tools
- Email marketing automation tools
- Native calendar booking
- Flexible payment options
1. Pricing
The biggest difference between The Leap and Etsy is their pricing structure.
While it’s free to set up shop on Etsy, the platform charges a $0.20 listing fee for each product and takes a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price.
The Leap, on the other hand, is 100% free without any hidden transaction fees. Once you start making sales on your Leap store, all you’ll have to pay is the standard 2.9% Stripe processing fee.
So, if you hate transaction fees (who doesn’t?), then The Leap might be a better option for you.
Click here to start creating and selling digital products with The Leap. It’s free!2. Digital product builder
Another significant difference between The Leap and Etsy is their digital product builder offering.
Etsy does not provide a digital product builder for its users. That means while you can sell digital products on the platform, you still need to use other tools to create the products.
With The Leap, not only do you get a digital product builder that can help you create anything from mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and challenges, but it’s also AI-powered. That means you can use The Leap’s digital product builder to generate products for you in no time at all.
Create and sell digital products in minutes using The Leap!
3. AI tools
AI tools enhance online store platforms by enabling creators to produce high-quality, personalized content quickly. This is a huge benefit to creators, because not only do AI tools streamline content generation, they also help reduce cost and time spent long-term.
Etsy has yet to offer creators AI tools, but The Leap uses generative AI in its digital product builder. It also offers an AI assistant to help you generate descriptions for sales pages, copy for email marketing, content for an ebook, and more.
4. Email marketing automation tools
While there are ways of messaging your customers on Etsy, the platform doesn’t really offer an intuitive email marketing suite. The Leap, however, has a robust kit of email marketing tools including email flows and broadcast features that simplify your email marketing efforts by turning your nurturing process on autopilot.
With The Leap, you can choose and customize a premade template (e.g. “Warm welcome,” “Friendly check-in,” or “Nurture funnel”) or build your own flow from scratch. Then, select a send trigger, like when a customer claims a lead magnet (aka freebie) or purchases a specific digital product. With The Leap’s email marketing automation tool, you can even add CTA buttons for that extra attention effect.
5. Native calendar booking
Between the two platforms, only The Leap offers a native calendar booking feature.
The Leap’s Book My Time feature makes it easy for coaches, consultants, and creators to sell one-on-one sessions, set availability, and allow customers to book time slots. Plus, the feature is free to use!
Use The Leap to offer micro-consulting and sell coaching sessions. It’s free!6. Flexible payment options
Both Etsy and The Leap offer mobile-optimized checkouts with flexible payment options, like one-click payments via Apple Pay or Google Pay, discounts/coupon codes, as well as Buy Now, Pay Later payment plans.
Boost your digital product sales with The Leap’s flexible selling and payment options.The Leap vs. Etsy: Which online store should you use?
Etsy is a popular e-commerce website with the advantage of an expansive audience reach. While Etsy sellers can offer digital products, the platform is generally geared towards physical product sales, especially handmade crafts and vintage goods. It’s also important to note that Etsy charges steep transaction fees per sale.
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use online store to sell digital products, without breaking the bank, The Leap is hands down your best option.
When it comes to selling digital products, The Leap is a far superior platform. Why? Because while Etsy has no digital product builder at all, The Leap comes with a digital product builder that’s AI-powered, meaning it can generate digital products for you in just seconds.
That being said, Etsy might be for you if you’re a creator looking to sell digital products alongside physical products.
A note on pricing
In terms of pricing, while Etsy does offer a free plan, the platform charges a $0.20 listing fee for each product and takes a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price.
Meanwhile, The Leap is 100% free to use, with no platform fees.
TL;DR
Long story short? The Leap is best if you’re an creator or entrepreneur who wants a free online store that enables you to create and sell digital products in almost no time.
The Leap is best if… |
Etsy 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 The Leap or Etsy should be based on your business objectives, your budget, and your most desired features.
Build, market, and sell your digital products with The Leap
Now that you know all about the key features and differences between The Leap and Etsy, you can decide which platform suits you best.
If you’re interested in selling digital products alongside physical products, Etsy might be a good place to start.
If you’re looking to monetize your audience through digital products, and with little effort, time, or money spent, then The Leap is your best option. The Leap is an all-in-one creator store that provides you with all the tools you need to start creating and selling digital products, with no monthly subscription or transaction fees.
Once you sign up for free, you’ll gain access to all of The Leap’s creator features, from its link-in-bio storefront to its AI-powered digital product builder. You can literally get your income machine up and running today.
Want to launch your own online store and sell digital products? Try The Leap for free now!
Build, market, and sell digital products all in one spot with The Leap!
The Leap vs. Etsy FAQ
How is The Leap better than Etsy?
When it comes to The Leap and Etsy, The Leap stands out for its digital product builder and pricing.
First, The Leap has an AI-powered digital product builder, whereas Etsy does not. With The Leap’s AI authoring tool, you can create a range of mobile-optimized digital products, including mini-courses, guides, tutorials, and challenges, in a snap.
Secondly, The Leap is 100% free to use, whereas Etsy’s free plan comes with a $0.20 listing fee and 6.5% transaction fee on each sale.
What is The Leap?
Brought to you by creator tech company Thinkific, The Leap is an all-in-one creator store designed to help creators jumpstart their monetization journey. This platform provides creators with everything they need to start earning money by selling digital products, including an AI-powered digital product builder, a link-in-bio storefront, email marketing automation, a native calendar booking feature, and more.
How does The Leap work?
The Leap is an all-in-one creator store with a digital product builder powered by generative AI. The Leap enables you to set up your link-in-bio storefront quickly and easily with its user-friendly builder tool.
You can upload your digital products to your storefront or create your own using the platform’s AI-powered authoring tool. Simply answer a few questions, like what your niche 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
- 9 Best Etsy Alternatives for Selling Digital Products
- How To Sell Digital Downloads on Etsy: A Beginner’s Guide
- The Leap Alternatives
