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Gumroad and Shopify which is better to Sell Digital Products 2023? -

Mar 4, 2023

     Last updated was on 23 February 2023.    

Gumroad along with Shopify are two online marketplaces that sell digital goods online. They can both be utilized for creating an online shop offering online classes, digital downloads, month-long subscriptions as well as physical items. Whatever you decide to sell via the web, you'll have the ability to create a unique website with Gumroad, Shopify, or different e-commerce platforms that are different.

In this piece we'll look at Gumroad and Shopify for you to find the best platform for selling digital items.

     Gumroad Overview    

Gumroad offers an online market which lets sellers sell anything you wish to offer - from images and software, as well as cookbooks. It is possible to set up an online store with Gumroad or link your own domain to Gumroad so that you can access the process of payment. It's possible to offer a selection of products (or many!) via your online shop using Gumroad with a 10% for each transaction.

Gumroad Core features

  • Pay service: You can integrate Gumroad's payment system to your site. Additionally, you can include payment options on your website's current one, so you're able to market your products via the web. In addition, you are able to give discounts as well as take VAT.
  • Make memberships, subscriptions or subscriptions Certain digital goods are not one-time purchase. There's a good thing that Gumroad lets users create recurring payments that are biannual, month-tomonth, monthly, quarterly or biannually on annually. Be aware that it's not the usual subscription you've been used to (more on this subject in the future). ).
  • Secure digital products: Gumroad offers piracy prevention methods to guard your personal items from theft by pirates online like the light DRM.
  • Create keys for licenses When you're selling software, you can create customized license keys that will allow all of your clients to access your software on the internet.
  • Different file types The options do not have to be limited to a specific type of file available on Gumroad. If you provide documents that are in PDF, ePub or Mobi format, you may allow customers to pick which kind of file they'd want to download.

Gumroad Pricing

In contrast to online shopping platforms such as Shopify it is possible to run your online store on Gumroad with no monthly fees. Yup, that's right! The cost is simple for each purchase. Therefore, if your organization doesn't generate income, it will not be required to spend a dime. Presently, Gumroad charges a 10 percent transaction fee per purchase. Furthermore, you'll need to cover the costs of Paypal/Stripe that amount to 2.9 percent and $0.30 for each transaction.

Benefits of Gumroad

1. Make use of your existing site

Comparing Gumroad and Shopify the majority of users who utilize Gumroad already have a site that's connected to the platform to become a member of the payment processor and amazing benefits to help simplify selling digital products on the internet. Although it's not the best platform for building your own website but it's an excellent choice to those with a functioning website that they use and want to include additional features to their current website.

2. An abundance of educational materials by Doers

Most e-commerce platforms offer an education center where customers receive advice from professionals who sell digital products. Gumroad is a good example of people who are using the platform to sell digital products and share their expertise to help other customers on their journey. Learn from authors of other content via their blogs. If you compare Gumroad against Shopify both of them offer education sources. In contrast to Shopify most of the bloggers who compose blogs on behalf of them are customers and not employees. That makes their content have an additional spin. It's always beneficial to learn the most recent strategies by working with individuals who've been in areas such as selling digital products as well as marketing products.

Gumroad's disadvantages Gumroad

1. Costly transaction charges

The freedom of not having to spend money on monthly subscription fees is hugely beneficial, particularly those who are just starting their journey. The goal behind running an online store that provides digital products is to never stop growing, and ultimately make lots of cash. A 10% fee per transaction (without any maximum limit) could mean that Gumroad expenses will increase in line with the expansion of your online store. If you're earning $100,000 per month, you'll be required to cover fees up to $10,000!

Keep in mind that the 10% charge does not include the fees charged by Stripe/PayPal of 2.9 percent, plus $0.30 for each transaction which are in addition. Fees for transactions can eat up the earnings you earn. Most platforms that charge transaction fees, do not charge anywhere near 10.

The cost for transactions which is 10% per transaction with Gumroad is a significant factor between operating a profitable business and one that's not. Some other platforms have less than five percent in transactions and no obligation to pay on a monthly basis (you can also decide for a monthly plan when it's evident that your business expands, meaning you'll never have to shell out more than $99 per month in charges). Therefore, financially speaking, an alternative platform could work better for your requirements.

2. Store themes aren't currently accessible and only a few customizations to store themes are available.

A majority of those that sign up on Gumroad have already made their own websites. If you don't have a website? You'll have to join a different platform, build your own site using an online building tool, pick the style, register to host your site, and additional services provided by Gumroad once the website is finished. It's a lot of work at first, but you're ready to get started right now.

It's uncommon to find an online retailer have sophisticated functions that take payments and permit sellers to start selling products online , but they don't have themes to develop an online shop within their system. There are several Gumroad themes on the market, but they are sold by third-party sellers. If you purchase themes through an external vendor, it's possible that you'll not be able to locate the designer who's capable of updating their theme as Gumroad updates its products and this could result in problems for years or months in the future.

3. Insufficiently in features in online courses

While Gumroad claims to have the option of selling online classes, that's not exactly what you'd want to find on an online platform that offers courses.

Gumroad's online course feature allows users to upload videos as well as other documents which students can download, or select them to watch the video. However, it does not include the basic features required for online courses. This includes diverse types of lessons (video or text, test questions or surveys, etc.) together with drip calendars for content and certificate of achievement, studying progress, etc. With these tools, they will not enable you to provide an enjoyable learning environment for your students.

This is an example of an educational experience for a student.

Gumroad Online Course

To give you an example, think about this: an engaging learning experience should look like (the picture below is an image taken from ):

4. Incompletely deficient in the characteristics of the characteristics of

Even though Gumroad boasts of having the capability to provide subscriptions as well as memberships, it isn't what you'd think of as a membership platform either.

When a user signs up with Gumroad, once they've signed up to Gumroad users have access to an assortment of documents that are in digital format. can be downloaded or browse. See the example below:

But, it's not an normal membership program that allows you to provide exclusive content to members, in exchange for a subscription to a month. It also does not encourage customers' participation as they'll be downloading data from your site without having any real involvement. If you're already familiar with other subscription-based platforms like Patreon or PayPal the customer experience is going to differ.

This is an example of what the perfect membership service to members must appear like (the image below comes directly drawn from ):

view of Shopify

Shopify is an online store which allows you to offer physical and digital products online. Shopify meets the demands of medium and small-sized and companies. Shopify offers a variety of third-party applications as well as unending items along with a wide range of options for customization so you can build a beautiful online shop to sell the items that you offer online.

Shopify Core is a Shopify Core feature

  • Shopify Point of Sales sellers of goods on the street, Shopify offers the most cutting-edge point of sale that can control transactions made on the internet.
  • Unlimitted product selection The range of products is unlimited. With Shopify it is possible to incorporate anything you'd like into your online store with no cost . This is a great option for a smaller businesses looking to experiment with new products at the early stage of.
  • Unlimitable bandwidth, storage and bandwidth. You'll get access to storage and hosting , as and bandwidth via Shopify that is reliable and uptime no caps.
  • Fraud analysis: You'll be able to determine whether or not you'd like to complete purchases for your own small business by using a fraud analysis tool built into Shopify. Shopify platform.
  • Abandoned cart recovery is a simple process to create an abandoned cart email funnel to recover sales lost through Shopify without the requirement to install any third-party software.

Shopify Pricing


    Shopify offers five pricing levels to merchant accounts on its platform. Its lowest price is $5 per month but it is only available for sales via messages or social media platforms. The highest pricing is on Shopify Plus which starts at $2000 per month. There are three pricing options which are middle and they tend to be some of the most well-liked plans people choose from. The basic plan starts at $39.90 per month which allows users to utilize two employees accounts. Its Shopify Plan cost $105/month and allows the creation of five accounts with employees. The Advanced Plan costs 399 for a month. But it is possible to create fifteen accounts for employees. A majority of customers start with the basic plan and evolve into the Shopify Advanced as well as Advanced. Enterprise businesses typically choose Shopify Plus.

The benefits of Shopify

1. User-friendly

Its Shopify user interface is welcoming and attracts young entrepreneurs who wish to create an online store that can offer both physical and digital products. It is possible to make your Shopify store can be quickly customized using a straightforward path by selecting a theme you can use to build your website. It doesn't require any knowledge of computer programming or tech to build your own web site , and that's why Shopify is an extremely popular option to sell products over the web.

2. More than 6,000 forms of application by Third-party companies

It's crucial to remember that the Shopify App Store has over 600 apps that you can make use of for taking payment and also provide important functions that can draw new customers, analyze and track sales, improve customer management and much other. The website you create can be tailored to suit your needs by using these apps. However, be aware that monthly subscriptions to these programs will rapidly add in value.

The negatives of Shopify

1. It is expensive especially for those who are just beginning their journey.

It's not a cost-effective option for the majority of business owners. You're likely to have buy premium themes, paid applications with a monthly cost and charges for transactions with payment processors, among others. To ensure that costs are low for Shopify isn't easy. Contrary to Gumroad and Gumroad, Shopify doesn't have a free-of-cost membership. Shopify service isn't able to provide a no-cost plan with Shopify. In addition, as you raise the price of each month's membership, it will increase. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 But, this can be a bit expensive for companies with large budgets.

2. It is more focused on physical items instead of digital items

When comparing both platforms, Shopify is superior to physical goods however it isn't the ideal alternative for items that are digital. It is possible to download and install third-party Shopify apps that meet your specific requirements as a product that's digital for an entrepreneur, but this can cause your costs for operating your business rocket. Shopify is an app Shopify platform which was developed to sell physical goods. A lot of dropshipping businesses make use of Shopify although sellers who offer digital items might be thinking about rivals like Gumroad or .

Is there anyone who knows of an alternative?

In the event of considering Gumroad and Shopify as platforms which could be used to begin selling online products, you might think there's an alternative that's more suitable than the Gumroad and Shopify shop.

It isn't, however.

is an online platform for selling products that specializes in digital products. It is able to use its platform to market ebooks, software, online courses graphic designs, and nearly all sorts of digital products. In addition, if you'd like to sell physical products in conjunction with your digital items It is easy to create websites for your products too.

There are many other benefits to using Shopify in place of Gumroad. Shopify.

  • A low-cost option It offers a no-cost forever plan, with unlimited access to Shopify's entire platform. Comparing Gumroad with Shopify both result in sellers paying a significant amount. The fee charged by Gumroad of 10% per transaction isn't subject to a limitation. You can't get discounts or lower prices regardless of the number of items in your online shop. Shopify charges a monthly cost and an transaction fee. There is a transaction fee of 5% when you make transactions under their Free Forever plan, but you can switch to Shopify's monthly subscriptions that will cost at least $99 each month regardless of how big your company grows!
  • Flexible and adaptable It's distinct from Gumroad and Shopify and allows you to sell anything, but without an additional new twist. The software has special features to cater to specific types of items. In the case of creating an online platform to promote your classes, for example there is the possibility to use an amazing native course player that can be used to complement your lessons instead of having to develop an entirely unique course player. In the event that you sell downloads, you'll be in a position to access security functions that will guard against theft as well as marketing tools like affiliate programs and allow quick downloads. If you decide to offer coaching services will benefit of calendar integrations and additional. What ever you sell, there are particular functions to the various kinds of digital items.
  • efficient tools for marketing for platforms like Shopify. You'll likely get access to the Shopify App store. Shopify App store, which gives you access to most of the tools for marketing. That means you'll need pay more for the platform to provide the most optimal experience and more options for the customers who shop on your shop. In reality, the majority of these tools for marketing are accessible to the site. Thanks to the numerous features , you'll be able provide discounts to your clients, create your own affiliate program as and a referral program that can help you market your products, in addition to offering the option of up-sells or cross-sells in the course of shopping. You can also permit your customers to read their experiences and acknowledge the feedback that you get. Also, there is a complete software for sending emails to customers , allowing you to send emails to customers that are GDPR-compliant.
  • The most excellent customer service The customer support team is unique to any platform. Both Gumroad and Shopify offer a full customer support. You are able to get in touch with's help anytime, and will be provided with the highest level of service for your business. You can also access their helpline via their website  as opposed to the other stores online (in case you're not sure what one to choose [email protected([email [email protectedemail protected]). In addition, they offer an array of educational materials on their blog along with a Help Center so you will receive assistance along with the education that you need quickly.

Gumroad Shopify vs HTML0 What do you think?

If you evaluate Gumroad against Shopify, it's clear they're both superior on various levels. Gumroad is a fantastic eCommerce site that allows you to sell digital goods even if you have a website. Shopify is a fantastic online store that allows dropshipping of printing-on-demand and print-on-demand in addition to other physical items.

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