Gumroad vs Stan Store: the fee arithmetic, the monthly revenue where the cheaper platform flips, and the income neither one can touch

Gumroad and Stan Store are priced in opposite directions, so neither is cheaper in general and any article that tells you one is has skipped the arithmetic. Gumroad charges no monthly fee and takes 10% plus $0.50 on every direct sale. Stan Store charges a monthly subscription and advertises 0% transaction fees. That means Gumroad is cheaper while you are small and Stan is cheaper once you are big, and the only useful question is where the line sits for your revenue. Counting card processing honestly, it sits at roughly $320 to $400 a month of self sold revenue, not the $200 figure most comparisons land on.

The figures below were read from each company on 16 September 2026. Gumroad publishes its rates openly on its pricing page. Stan does not print a plan price on its public pricing page at all, which is worth knowing before you start comparing.

What each platform actually charges

Gumroad states its whole model in its own page title: 10% plus 50 cents on direct sales, 30% via Discover. The body of the page repeats it, describing 10% plus $0.50 as applying "per transaction for all sales through your profile or direct links to your customers", and 30% "per transaction when new customers find and buy from you through our discover marketplace". It adds "No hidden fees, no monthly charges", and since 1 January 2025 Gumroad has been the merchant of record, which means it collects and remits sales tax worldwide on your behalf.

Stan Store is the mirror image. Its pricing page leads with "0% Transaction Fees, Always" and offers a 14 day free trial, and it positions itself as an all in one creator store where courses, digital products and bookings live inside your link in bio. What that page does not do, as of this check, is state a price. The widely circulated figures are $29 a month for Creator and $99 a month for Creator Pro, which we last read from a Stan owned page on 9 September 2026. We are using $29 below because it is the number everyone plans with, but treat it as a figure to confirm at signup rather than one we can quote from the live page today.

One more thing belongs in the comparison and usually gets left out. Stan's 0% is a platform fee of zero, not a total cost of zero. You still have a payment processor, and US card processing is typically 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Gumroad, as merchant of record, is the legal seller and charges the buyer's card itself. So a like for like comparison has to either add processing to Stan or accept that the two structures handle it differently, and that single decision moves the crossover by well over a hundred dollars a month.

The crossover table

This is the number the comparison exists to produce: the monthly self sold revenue at which the two platforms cost you exactly the same. Below it, Gumroad is cheaper. Above it, Stan is. It depends on your average order value, because Gumroad's fixed $0.50 bites harder on cheap products.

Work one row through so you can check it rather than trust it. At a $20 average order value and $358 a month of revenue, you are making about 17.9 sales. On Gumroad that costs 10% of $358, which is $35.80, plus $0.50 times 17.9, which is $8.95, for a total of $44.75. On Stan at $29 a month plus 2.9% of $358, which is $10.38, plus $0.30 times 17.9, which is $5.37, the total is also $44.75. The two models meet exactly there and then diverge fast in both directions.

The practical reading is that a creator doing a few hundred dollars a month should be on the per sale model, and one doing four figures should be on the subscription. At $1,000 a month with a $20 average order value, Gumroad costs you $125 and Stan costs $67.40, a difference of $57.60 a month or $691 a year. Run the same comparison against Stan's $99 Creator Pro tier and the crossover moves out to roughly $1,200 a month, so the upper tier has to be justified by its features rather than by fee savings.

Where each one wins on something other than price

Gumroad's real advantage is not the fee structure, it is the merchant of record arrangement. US sales tax on digital goods is a genuine compliance problem across dozens of states with different thresholds and rules, and Gumroad absorbing it entirely removes a category of work and risk rather than just making it more convenient. If you sell digital products across state lines and you are not already paying someone to handle that, it is worth more than the percentage difference in most of the rows above. Gumroad also charges nothing until you sell, so an occasional seller shipping one $30 template a month pays $3.50 and is never out of pocket.

Stan's advantage is that it is a storefront rather than a checkout. Courses, bookings, digital products and a link in bio page live in one place, so a coach selling sessions alongside a workbook gets one system instead of three. It is built around 1-tap checkout and conversion rate, and if your business involves booking time rather than just delivering files, Gumroad does not really compete for that job. Stan also has no marketplace, which cuts both ways: no Discover to bring you buyers, and equally no 30% rate applied to buyers you brought yourself.

That 30% deserves a note, because it is the most misunderstood number in this comparison. Gumroad charges 30% rather than 10% plus $0.50 on sales that originate in its Discover marketplace. On a genuinely new customer that is good value, since 70% of a sale you would never have made beats 100% of nothing and there is no upfront ad spend. The trap is sending your own audience to a Discover listed product and paying an acquisition rate on buyers you acquired yourself. The rate follows the path the buyer took, so know which link you are sharing.

The income neither platform can touch

Here is the part that decides whether this comparison is about you at all, and it is structural rather than a matter of opinion. A transaction fee is a slice taken out of a payment while it passes through a system, which means a platform can only charge one on money that actually passes through it. When you sell a $40 course on Gumroad, the buyer pays Gumroad's checkout, Gumroad holds the money as merchant of record, takes $4.50, and passes the rest to you. Real fee, visible on the transaction.

Now take commission on something you recommended but do not own. A reader clicks your link, leaves for the merchant, and buys there. That payment travels from that person to that merchant, and neither Gumroad nor Stan is in the path at any point. The merchant records the referral in its own system, applies its own rate card, holds the money through its own return window, and pays you weeks later on its own schedule. There is nothing in that sequence for a 10% to apply to, and a 0% is equally meaningless, because zero percent of nothing and ten percent of nothing are the same number.

So if most of your income is commission on the software, AI tools and gear you recommend, this entire comparison is a column of zeroes for you, and choosing between these two platforms on fees means choosing on the one axis that cannot reach your revenue. The full Gumroad pricing breakdown works through every rate and effective percentage, and Stan Store pricing covers the flat subscription model in the same detail. Both reach the same conclusion from opposite directions.

What commission earners actually need instead

The problem a checkout cannot solve is that commission arrives scattered. A creator earning from a dozen programs is looking at a dozen dashboards, each with its own rate, its own return window and its own payout date, none of them talking to each other. Gumroad reports on sales it processed, which is all it can see. Stan does the same. Neither is at fault for this, and neither is going to fix it, because it is not the product they sell.

That leaves most creators unable to answer the only question that matters for planning, which is which recommendation earned rather than which link was clicked. It also makes the fee question above harder to settle than it looks, since the honest way to find your real cost on any platform is to match each payout against the sales that produced it instead of trusting the marketing rate. Do that once on Gumroad and you will know whether the disputed 2.9% processing charge is landing on your account or not, which no article including this one can tell you from the outside.

If the split in your own numbers came out on the commission side, the useful next step is not a cheaper checkout. It is somewhere that holds every recommendation and every program together, shows which pick earned, and keeps US disclosure attached where a reader can see it. That is what an affiliate storefront does differently from a checkout, and creator commerce platforms compared works through the split between selling your own products and earning on other people's. If you want to know what is realistically worth recommending in the first place, SaaS affiliate programs and recurring affiliate programs cover the subscription side that keeps paying long after the first sale.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gumroad cheaper than Stan Store?

Below roughly $320 to $400 a month of self sold revenue, yes. Gumroad charges nothing monthly and 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale, so a small seller pays very little. Above that range Stan's subscription plus 0% platform fee works out cheaper, and the gap widens quickly. The exact crossover depends on your average order value, because Gumroad's fixed $0.50 costs proportionally more on cheap products.

Does Stan Store really charge 0% transaction fees?

Stan charges no platform fee on sales, and states "0% Transaction Fees, Always" on its pricing page. That is a platform fee of zero, not a total cost of zero. You still pay a monthly subscription, and you still pay a payment processor, typically 2.9% plus $0.30 per US card transaction. Counting that processing is what moves the crossover from about $230 a month to about $358.

How much does Stan Store cost per month?

Stan does not print a price on its public pricing page as of 16 September 2026, which is unusual for this category. The widely quoted figures are $29 a month for Creator and $99 for Creator Pro, and there is a 14 day free trial with no free plan behind it. Confirm the current number during the trial signup rather than relying on any comparison article, including this one.

Which is better for selling courses?

Stan, in most cases. Courses, bookings and digital products sit inside one storefront with a link in bio page attached, so a coach selling sessions alongside a workbook runs one system rather than three. Gumroad handles courses and memberships perfectly well as files and subscriptions, but it is a checkout rather than a storefront, so scheduling and booking are not its job.

Do either of them take a cut of affiliate commission?

Neither can, and nor can any other checkout or link in bio tool. When someone clicks your affiliate link they leave and pay the merchant directly, so the money never passes through Gumroad or Stan for a percentage to be taken. The merchant records the referral, applies its own rate and pays you. Every fee in this comparison applies to products you sell yourself.