<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/9f069e1f-c16d-489d-a41d-f932ba40b560/VidCon---Profile-circle.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/9f069e1f-c16d-489d-a41d-f932ba40b560/VidCon---Profile-circle.png" width="40px" /> This template allows you to compare fees and features from nearly all of the major platforms that let creators sell products and services online.

🦙 Created by Thomas Frank | 👓 Notion Tips Newsletter | 🔧 All My Templates | 🧠 Ultimate Brain | 🐤 Follow Me on Twitter

How to duplicate the template! </aside>

<aside> 💰 Welcome to what is perhaps the internet’s most meticulously-researched comparison of payment platforms and “creator monetization” platforms.

I created this guide after Gumroad announced that they were quadrupling their transaction fees. As a creator earning around $100k/mo selling Notion templates, I couldn’t justify my transaction costs going from $3,000/mo to $13,000/mo – so I started looking for alternatives.

This tool is the result of that research. It compares 40 different platforms (including all their different plans) in several dimensions, including:

Pricing: Per-transaction % fees, per-transaction flat fees, monthly fees, and whether or not the platform also offloads the credit card processing fee onto you.
Tax Features: Merchant-of-Record status, tax remittance features
Payment Methods Supported: PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay
Features: Subscriptions, embedded checkouts, landing pages, upsells, affiliate marketing tools, API/Zapier access, and more </aside>

On This Page:

Instructions

There are two ways you can use this tool:

<aside> 💰 Platform Research

Click into any plan’s page to see additional details, research, and source links that may help you answer questions you have about it and its platform.

Each page has a rough brain-dump of links, notes, and thoughts. </aside>

<aside> 💰 Revenue/Fee Simulations

Use the Revenue Simulation table (contained in the toggle below) along with the Fee View and Net Rev View to see estimates of what you’d actually pay in fees and earn as net revenue with each plan.

To use your own numbers, Duplicate this page as a template. </aside>

<aside> 💰 What Do I Use? [Tom’s Recommendation]

After doing over $1m in sales on Gumroad, my team and I moved to Lemon Squeezy in February 2023. I have now used the platform for over a month, and it is now my top recommendation for most creators of digital products and subscriptions.

Payments, Tax & Subscriptions for SaaS

My reasons for choosing this platform:

Merchant of Record: Lemon Squeezy fully handles sales tax calculation, collection, and remittance. Even Gumroad does not do this everywhere; they only handle EU VAT and Australian sales tax for you. Lemon Squeezy handles tax compliance globally.
Lower Fees: Lemon Squeezy charges 5% + $0.50 per transaction (plus some smaller extra fees for PayPal/international transactions), and this includes the credit card processing fee. This is much better than Gumroad, which charges 10% per transaction, and then also makes you pay the credit card fee, bringing most transactions near 13% real-world fee. (Full disclosure: I’ve negotiated an even lower fee on Lemon Squeezy since my business does $100k/mo in sales.)
Useful Features: Abandoned checkout emails, Apple/Google Pay, full-page and embedded checkouts, great API and webhook support, affiliate features (currently in beta)
How have my sales held up after the switch?
What other platforms did I test? </aside>
Revenue Simulation [Open Me]
Useful notes

Payment Provider Plans

Submit a Platform

Am I missing a platform? Let me know:

Submit a Payment Platform

Databases