Stan Store vs Beacons: pricing, store fees, and which sells better
Both platforms want to be the page your audience lands on, and both let you sell from it, so creators end up comparing them on price. That misses the real difference. Stan Store does one job, selling your digital products, with no distractions and no cut. Beacons does many jobs in one subscription and takes a percentage until you pay enough to stop it. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your sales volume. Pricing verified July 2026; terms change, so confirm before committing.
The short answer
Stan Store is the focused seller; Beacons is the broad toolkit. Stan has no free plan and costs $29 a month for Creator or $99 for Creator Pro, but takes no platform cut on sales beyond payment processing. Beacons starts free and runs $10, $30, and $90 a month, charging a 9% store fee on Free and Creator Pro that reaches 0% at the $30 Store Pro tier, while bundling email marketing, a daily-updating media kit, and AI tools. Neither is an affiliate network, so neither pays commission on the tools you recommend.
No follower gate · No commission fee · Last updated July 2026
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Estimated monthly
from monetized favorites
$
Estimated and illustrative, not a guarantee. Real earnings depend on your audience and what fans buy.
■ at a glance
Stan Store, Beacons and Favly, side by side.
Where a number is official we say so, and where it comes from creator reports we label it rather than inventing a clean figure. Both Stan Store and Beacons keep their genuine strengths.
| Capability | Stan Store | Beacons | Favly |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Focused digital-product storefront | All-in-one creator toolkit | Affiliate storefront for tools |
| Free plan | None, free trial only | Yes, generous | Start free, no follower gate |
| Paid plans | $29 Creator, $99 Creator Pro | $10, $30, $90 per month | Creator-friendly |
| Store fee on sales | 0%, no platform cut | 9% on Free and Creator Pro, 0% at $30 | No fee on affiliate commissions |
| Payment processing | Stripe, about 2.9% + $0.30 | Stripe or PayPal, about 2.9% + $0.30 | Paid by the affiliate program |
| Courses and coaching | Core strength, with bookings | Supported, lighter | Not the focus |
| Media kit for brand pitches | No | Yes, daily-updating | Brand deals bundled in |
| Email marketing | On Creator Pro ($99) | Built in from the free plan | Not the focus |
| AI tools | Limited | Yes, included | AI builds lists from your posts |
| Affiliate network | No | No | Yes, with brand deals |
| Recurring commission on recommendations | No | No | Yes, on subscriptions |
| Best for | Coaches and course sellers | Creators wanting one toolkit | AI, SaaS and tech creators |
■ the differences that matter
Where Stan Store and Beacons actually diverge.
Which is cheaper, Stan Store or Beacons?
Run the math on your own sales, because the answer flips. Beacons is cheaper at zero and low volume: the free plan costs nothing and $10 a month for Creator Pro undercuts Stan's $29, which has no free option at all. But Beacons takes 9% of store sales on both those tiers. Sell $1,000 a month and that 9% is $90, so Beacons Creator Pro costs about $100 while Stan Creator costs $29 flat. To get Beacons to 0% you move to Store Pro at $30, which lands almost exactly where Stan sits. Below a few hundred dollars in monthly sales Beacons wins; above it, Stan or Store Pro does.
Which one sells better?
Stan Store, if selling is the point. Its whole product is the checkout: a course builder with real lesson structure, coaching bookings tied to a calendar, subscriptions, payment plans, and a mobile checkout tuned for exactly this. Creator Pro layers on upsells, funnels, discount codes, and affiliate management for your own products. Beacons supports selling and its free plan even allows unlimited digital products, but the store is one feature among many rather than the reason the product exists. Creators running a serious coaching or course business usually feel that difference.
What Beacons gives you that Stan does not
Breadth, and one line item worth calling out: the daily-updating media kit. If part of your income is paid brand work, a media kit that keeps your reach and engagement current without you rebuilding a PDF every month is genuinely useful, and Stan has no equivalent. Beacons also includes email marketing from the free plan (Stan gates email behind the $99 Creator Pro tier) plus a set of AI tools. For a creator juggling several subscriptions, folding link page, store, email, and media kit into one $10 or $30 bill is a real saving, not just a feature list.
The free-plan gap is the honest deciding factor early on
Stan Store has no free tier. There is a free trial (reported at 14 days), and then $29 a month starts whether you sold anything or not. Beacons will host your page, your store, your media kit, and unlimited digital products for nothing, at a 9% cut of whatever you sell. If you have not validated that people will buy from you, that difference is the whole decision: Beacons lets you find out at no fixed cost, and 9% of nothing is nothing. Prove demand first, then price the fee against the subscription.
Both are missing the same income stream
Stan and Beacons both monetize what you make. Neither is an affiliate network, so neither pays you when a fan buys a tool you recommended, and neither pays recurring commission when that fan keeps a subscription for two years. A lot of creators, especially in tech, earn more from recommendations than from products of their own, and both platforms leave that on the table. If your content is mostly "here are the tools I use," that is the part worth solving, with a creator commerce platform that sources the programs and pays you on renewals rather than one-off sales.
■ the verdict
Which should you choose?
Choose Stan Store if
You sell courses or coaching at real volume and want none of your revenue taken. Zero platform fee, a proper course builder, and calendar bookings make the $29 pay for itself quickly once monthly sales pass a few hundred dollars.
Choose Beacons if
You are early, want to start at no fixed cost, or want one subscription instead of four. The free plan is genuinely generous, email marketing is included from the start, and the daily-updating media kit helps if brand deals are part of your income.
Choose Favly if
You earn from recommending AI tools and software rather than selling your own products. Neither platform sources affiliate programs or pays recurring commission on subscriptions, which is the income a tech creator's audience generates naturally.
■ faq
Stan Store vs Beacons, answered.
Is Stan Store or Beacons better?
Stan Store is better for selling, Beacons is better for breadth and for starting cheap. Stan has a real course builder, bookings, and no platform cut on sales, but no free plan and a $29 monthly floor. Beacons is free to start, bundles email and a media kit, and takes 9% of store sales until you reach its $30 tier.
How much do Stan Store and Beacons cost?
Stan Store has no free plan and costs $29 a month for Creator or $99 for Creator Pro, with a free trial first. Beacons has a free plan and paid tiers at $10, $30, and $90 a month. Annual billing lowers both. The subscription is only half the cost, because Beacons also charges a 9% store fee below $30 a month.
Does Beacons or Stan Store charge more in fees?
Beacons charges a 9% store fee on its Free and $10 Creator Pro plans, reaching 0% on the $30 Store Pro tier and above. Stan Store charges no platform fee on any plan. Both pass through payment processing of roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. At meaningful sales volume, Stan's zero cut is the cheaper structure.
Which is better for selling online courses?
Stan Store. It includes a structured course builder, lesson delivery, coaching bookings tied to a calendar, subscriptions, and payment plans, with upsells and funnels on the higher tier. Beacons can sell digital products and its free plan allows unlimited ones, but course delivery is lighter and the store is one feature among many.
Does Beacons have a free plan and does Stan Store?
Beacons has a free plan that includes a customizable page, a store with unlimited digital products, a daily-updating media kit, basic email marketing, and AI tools, at a 9% store fee. Stan Store has no free plan at all, only a free trial, after which the $29 a month Creator plan begins regardless of sales.
Can you earn affiliate commission through Stan Store or Beacons?
Not through the platform. You can add affiliate links you already have to either page, but neither sources affiliate programs, negotiates rates, tracks your commissions, or pays recurring commission on subscriptions your audience signs up for. Earning on recommendations rather than your own products needs an affiliate storefront built for it.
Recommend software, not sweaters?
Favly is the storefront for AI, SaaS and tech creators, with recurring commissions and no follower gate. Claim favly.com/@you and start today.