Gumroad vs Payhip: Pricing, Features, and the Tax Question Nobody Asks

Gumroad and Payhip are two of the most popular platforms for selling digital products. Both let you sell downloads, courses, and memberships without writing code. But their pricing models, approach to payment ownership, and handling of sales tax compliance are very different. This guide breaks down where each platform stands as of 2026 so you can make an informed choice.

Gumroad vs Payhip at a glance

Before diving into the details, here is a high-level comparison of the two platforms. All pricing and feature details reflect what each platform publishes at the time of writing.

Pricing compared

The biggest difference between the two platforms is how they charge you.

Gumroad pricing

As of 2026, Gumroad charges a flat 10% of every sale plus a $0.50 flat fee per transaction. There is no monthly subscription. If a buyer discovers your product through the Gumroad Discover marketplace, Gumroad takes a 30% cut on that sale instead of the standard 10%.

On top of Gumroad's fee, standard payment processing fees apply (these are built into the platform since Gumroad acts as the Merchant of Record).

Payhip pricing

Payhip offers three plans as of 2026:

• Free plan — $0/month, 5% transaction fee
• Plus plan — $29/month, 2% transaction fee
• Pro plan — $99/month, 0% transaction fee

All plans include unlimited products and revenue. Payhip does not process payments itself — you connect your own Stripe or PayPal account, so you also pay Stripe's or PayPal's standard processing fees on top of Payhip's percentage.

Fee examples

Here is what you would actually keep on each platform, before payment processing fees. These figures use Gumroad's standard 10% + $0.50 rate and Payhip's Free (5%), Plus (2%), and Pro (0%) tiers.

At low volumes, Payhip's Free plan already costs less than Gumroad per sale. At higher volumes, the Plus and Pro plans pull further ahead. The trade-off is the monthly subscription fee — at $99/month for Pro, you need consistent sales to justify the plan.

Features side by side

Both platforms cover the core needs of a digital product seller. Here is where they overlap and where they diverge.

What both platforms offer

• Digital downloads (PDFs, zip files, audio, video)
• Membership and subscription products
• Online courses
• Discount codes and coupons
• Affiliate programs
• Embeddable checkout widgets
• Customer email collection

Gumroad-only features

• Discover marketplace — Gumroad operates its own product marketplace where buyers can browse and find your products organically. This can drive discovery, but sales through Discover cost 30% instead of 10%.
• Built-in email marketing — Gumroad includes email broadcast and automation tools, so you can email your buyers directly from the platform.
• Merchant of Record — Gumroad handles the payment processing relationship, which simplifies some aspects of selling but removes your direct control over the payment account (more on this below).

Payhip-only features

• Coaching sessions — Payhip supports selling one-on-one coaching as a product type, with built-in scheduling.
• Unlimited everything on the free plan — Unlike many platforms that gate features behind paid tiers, Payhip gives free-plan users access to all product types and features, with no revenue caps. The only difference between plans is the transaction fee percentage.

Payment ownership: the real difference

This is where the two platforms diverge in a way that matters more than most feature comparisons.

Gumroad: they process your payments

In January 2025, Gumroad transitioned to a Merchant of Record (MoR) model. This means Gumroad processes all payments on your behalf. You do not connect your own Stripe account. Gumroad collects the money, takes its fees, and pays you out.

The upside is simplicity — you do not need to set up a payment processor or worry about chargebacks directly. The downside is that the payment relationship belongs to Gumroad, not you. If you leave Gumroad, your subscribers cannot follow automatically. You would need to migrate them manually and ask each one to re-enter payment details elsewhere.

Payhip: you own your payment account

Payhip takes the opposite approach. You connect your own Stripe or PayPal account, and payments go directly to you. Payhip collects its platform fee separately.

If you decide to leave Payhip, your Stripe account and all its subscriptions stay with you. You can point a new storefront at the same Stripe account and your recurring revenue continues uninterrupted. This is a significant advantage for any business that depends on subscription income.

The question neither answers: sales tax

Most Gumroad vs Payhip comparisons stop at pricing and features. But there is a question that affects every U.S.-based digital product seller and neither platform fully addresses: who handles your sales tax obligations?

The scope of the problem

As of 2026, 41 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. impose sales tax on at least some categories of digital products. If you are selling ebooks, templates, software, courses, or other digital goods to buyers in those states, you may be required to collect and remit sales tax once you exceed that state's economic nexus threshold — often $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions in a calendar year.

What Gumroad does (and does not do)

As Merchant of Record, Gumroad handles some tax collection on transactions it processes. However, the MoR model does not automatically make you fully compliant. You are still responsible for understanding your nexus obligations, tracking thresholds, and filing returns in states where you have nexus. Gumroad does not provide tax filing reports, threshold alerts, or state-by-state compliance dashboards.

What Payhip does (and does not do)

Payhip does not handle tax compliance at all. Since you are processing payments through your own Stripe or PayPal account, the full responsibility for collecting, reporting, and remitting sales tax falls on you. Payhip does not calculate tax at checkout, does not track your nexus thresholds, and does not generate filing-ready reports.

For many sellers, this means either hiring an accountant familiar with multi-state sales tax, subscribing to a separate tax compliance service, or — in the worst case — ignoring the obligation until a state sends a notice.

Which should you choose?

Both platforms are solid choices for selling digital products. The right one depends on what you value most.

Choose Gumroad if you want:

• Marketplace discovery — the Discover marketplace can bring you buyers you would not have found on your own.
• All-in-one simplicity — no need to set up Stripe, manage a payment processor, or think about payment infrastructure.
• Built-in email tools — if you do not want to pay for a separate email marketing service.

Choose Payhip if you want:

• Lower fees at scale — the Pro plan eliminates platform fees entirely, and even the Free plan undercuts Gumroad on per-sale costs.
• Payment ownership — your Stripe account, your subscribers, your recurring revenue. If you ever switch platforms, your payments come with you.
• Coaching products — if you sell one-on-one sessions alongside digital downloads.

But regardless of which platform you choose, both leave a significant gap in your operations: neither one gives you the tools to stay compliant with U.S. sales tax obligations. That is a problem you will need to solve separately — or find a platform that solves it for you.

A third option

SurcoPay takes the best of the Payhip model — you bring your own Stripe account, so you own the payment relationship and keep your subscribers if you ever move — and adds what most digital product platforms choose not to include: built-in tax compliance.

• Threshold monitoring — SurcoPay tracks your sales against each state's economic nexus thresholds so you know when you have new obligations.
• Tax calculation at checkout — the correct tax rate is applied automatically based on the buyer's location.
• Filing-ready reports — when it is time to file, your data is already organized by jurisdiction.

SurcoPay is currently in development. If tax compliance is the missing piece in your digital product business, join the waitlist to be notified when we launch.

Keep reading

• Gumroad Alternatives: 7 Platforms Compared for Digital Creators
• Sellfy Alternatives: 7 Platforms Compared on Price, Ownership, and Tax
• Do You Need to Collect Sales Tax Selling Digital Products?
• How to Price Your Digital Product (With Real Examples)