Payhip and Gumroad both let you sell a download in an afternoon. Their fee structures, however, are not close - and the gap widens as your revenue grows.
Here are the current numbers, what they cost on a real £20 sale, and the point at which a monthly plan becomes cheaper than a percentage.
Payhip fees in 2026
Payhip charges a monthly subscription plus a transaction percentage, and payment processing is billed separately by Stripe or PayPal.
- Free Forever: $0 per month, 5% transaction fee per sale.
- Plus: $29 per month, 2% transaction fee per sale.
- Pro: $99 per month, no Payhip transaction fee.
- On every plan, Stripe or PayPal still take their standard processing rate on top.
Gumroad fees in 2026
Gumroad has no monthly fee. Instead it takes a flat cut of each sale, and a much larger one when the buyer arrives through Gumroad Discover.
- Direct sales: 10% + 50¢ per sale.
- Sales through Gumroad Discover: 30%.
- No monthly subscription and no separate processing fee line to reconcile.
A £20 sale, side by side
Assume a UK card payment through Stripe at roughly 1.5% + 20p, and a 50¢ Gumroad fixed fee converted at about £0.40. Figures are rounded for readability.
- Payhip Free: £1.00 Payhip + £0.50 processing = £1.50 (7.5%)
- Payhip Plus: £0.40 Payhip + £0.50 processing = £0.90 (4.5%), plus $29 per month
- Payhip Pro: £0.00 Payhip + £0.50 processing = £0.50 (2.5%), plus $99 per month
- Gumroad: £2.00 Gumroad + £0.40 fixed = £2.40 (12%)
When the monthly fee pays for itself
Monthly plans only make sense above a revenue line. The maths is simple: divide the subscription by the percentage you save.
- Payhip Free to Plus: saves 3%, costs $29 per month, so it wins above roughly $967 in monthly sales.
- Payhip Plus to Pro: saves 2% for an extra $70 per month, so it wins above roughly $3,500 in monthly sales.
- Payhip Free to Pro: saves 5% for $99 per month, so it wins above roughly $1,980 in monthly sales.
- Gumroad is the most expensive per sale at any volume, but the cheapest to abandon if a product flops.
The 30% Discover trap
Gumroad's 30% rate only applies when a buyer finds you through Gumroad Discover - but that is precisely the traffic you cannot generate yourself, so it is the sale you are most likely to need early on.
- £20 sale direct on Gumroad: £17.60 net after 10% + 50¢.
- £20 sale through Discover: £14.00 net after 30%.
- £20 sale on Payhip Free: £18.50 net after 5% plus card processing.
What that means in practice
Thirty per cent is roughly what a marketplace charges. Discover is not a cheap growth channel - it is a marketplace wearing a different brand, and it only becomes worth it while you have no audience of your own.
The moment you can send your own traffic, the same product on Payhip keeps about £4.50 more per £20 sale than Gumroad via Discover. That gap is the reason so many UK creators test on Gumroad and move once they have demand.
The monthly cost at real revenue levels
Subscriptions only look expensive in isolation. Here is what each option costs at three levels of monthly revenue, assuming a £20 average order value and UK card processing through Stripe at about 1.5% + 20p.
- £500 a month: Payhip Free £37.50 - Payhip Plus £44.50 - Payhip Pro £88.50 - Gumroad £60
- £2,000 a month: Payhip Free £150 - Payhip Plus £112 - Payhip Pro £126 - Gumroad £240
- £5,000 a month: Payhip Free £375 - Payhip Plus £247 - Payhip Pro £201 - Gumroad £600
Two things that stand out
Gumroad is the most expensive option at every revenue level once you are selling steadily, because a flat percentage never rewards volume.
Payhip Plus only beats the free plan above roughly £967 a month in sales, which is exactly the breakeven point calculated earlier in this guide. Below that, paying a subscription to save a percentage is a losing trade - and creators do it all the time because the word Pro sounds faster.
What neither fee includes
Both platforms sell you a checkout. Neither sells you a business.
A bio page, a course platform, a booking calendar and an email tool are all separate subscriptions once you need them - typically another $30 to $100 per month, and another four logins to keep in sync. That cost usually dwarfs the difference between 5% and 10%.
CreatorOS puts those pieces behind one branded page and one login, free to start, so a single sale does not have to pay for five tools.
Verdict
Under about $1,000 a month in sales, Payhip Free beats Gumroad on fees and Gumroad beats Payhip on simplicity. Above that, Payhip Plus or Pro is clearly cheaper, and Gumroad's 10% starts to look expensive.
If you plan to sell more than downloads - courses, bookings, an email list - the platform fee is the smaller decision. Choose the stack you will not have to rebuild in six months.