Shopify vs Stan Store comes down to what you sell. Stan Store is a creator storefront at $29 a month with no cut of your sales. Shopify is a full online shop, listed at $29 a month paid yearly in its own guide, updated September 2026, and digital downloads need an app. Prices come from each company's own pages.

What do Shopify, Stan Store and Gumroad charge?

Each company's own pages, read on 14 October 2026 unless a date is given, show three different fee shapes: a flat monthly fee, a monthly fee plus a payment-provider fee, and a cut of every sale.

Stan Store Shopify Gumroad
Monthly fee Creator $29, or $300 a year. Creator Pro $99, or $948 a year Basic $29 a month paid yearly (Shopify's guide, updated 3 September 2026). Monthly billing costs more None
Cut of each sale 0% transaction fees A 2% fee on Basic if you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced 10% plus $0.50 on direct sales, 30% on sales through its Discover marketplace
Free option 14-day trial, no free plan 3-day trial No monthly fee, so nothing to pay until you sell
Digital downloads Built in Need an app from the Shopify App Store Built in
Sales tax Not stated on the pages we read Set in your store's tax settings, per Shopify's Help Center Gumroad says it is the merchant of record and handles it worldwide

Card payments cost extra on Stan and Shopify. Stan says you pay the Stripe or PayPal processing fee, and Shopify says it charges a small fee to accept major credit cards, which varies by plan. Gumroad's pricing page does not say whether card processing sits on top of its 10% plus $0.50, so check that before you rely on a sum.

What is the best platform to sell digital products?

There is no single best, because the three charge in different shapes and do different jobs. A flat fee suits steady sales, a percentage suits a first product, and a full shop suits a seller who also ships physical goods. We give no ranking, since nothing we read compares how well they sell.

  • Stan Store suits a creator who sells from a bio link: courses, downloads, bookings and memberships on one page. Stan's help center lists digital downloads, e-courses, coaching calls, memberships and lead magnets among its products.
  • Shopify suits a seller who also has physical products or wants a full online shop. Its pricing page says you can sell online, in person and in AI chats, and integrate with thousands of apps.
  • Gumroad suits a first product or low volume, because it charges no monthly fee and takes its cut only when something sells.

What is different about Stan Store vs Shopify for digital products?

Stan builds the selling into one product, while Shopify gives you a shop and expects you to add the rest. Stan's home page says courses, digital products and bookings live inside your link-in-bio. Its Creator plan includes the storefront, booking tools, courses, subscriptions, lead magnets, community features and Stan AutoDM. Creator Pro adds discount codes, limited-quantity offers, upsells, funnels, affiliate management and email marketing (Stan's help center, last updated 23 June 2026).

On Shopify, Help Center says a download link for a digital product needs an app from the App Store, and names the free Shopify Digital Products app as a simple choice. It also says customers in the EU pay VAT on digital goods at the rate of their own country, wherever the seller is, so your tax settings matter. Shopify's Basic plan is "for solo entrepreneurs" on its pricing page, and staff accounts start on Grow, with up to 5.

Gumroad vs Stan Store: which costs less?

It depends on your price and your number of sales. Gumroad keeps 10% plus $0.50 of each direct sale, and Stan charges $29 a month whatever you sell. The number of sales where the two match is $29 divided by Gumroad's cut per sale:

  • A $20 product: Gumroad keeps $2.50 a sale, so $29 equals about 12 sales a month.
  • A $50 product: Gumroad keeps $5.50, so $29 equals about 5 sales.
  • A $100 product: Gumroad keeps $10.50, so $29 equals about 3 sales.

Below those numbers Gumroad costs less in platform fees, and above them Stan does. This is our arithmetic from the published rates. It leaves out card processing, and it ignores that Gumroad says it handles your sales tax while the Stan pages we read do not say. Sales through Gumroad's Discover marketplace are charged at 30% instead.

Send the link by DM, so nobody has to hunt for it in your bio. Stan's Creator plan includes AutoDM, which its help center says sends your message to anyone who comments or DMs your keyword. If you sell on Shopify or Gumroad, a comment-to-DM tool does the same job for any store link. inDM sends the product link to anyone who comments your keyword, and the Free plan includes it.

The steps for selling by DM are in how to sell on Instagram DMs, and sending links in DMs covers the link side. A link-in-bio can still hold the full catalogue.

Where this stops working

We compared three platforms from their own pages and tested none of them, so this page does not say which makes you more money. Shopify shows prices in your local currency, and the page we read from our location showed rupees, so the dollar figure comes from Shopify's own guide and may differ from what you see. We did not read Stan's tax terms, and Gumroad's help articles were not part of this read. Payhip, Lemon Squeezy and others are outside this page. Prices change, so open each pricing page before you pay.

Count your likely sales, pick the fee shape that fits, and move on to getting buyers to the link.

Sources

Each read on 14 October 2026: