Jamie and I have used close to 20 e-commerce platforms between us.
Lemon Squeezy, Stan Store, Beacons, ThriveCart, Payhip, Pensight, Ko-fi, Kit.
Name one, and one of us has tried it.
We are both still on Gumroad. The ugliest platform in the group, by our own admission.
This is the answer to the question we both get asked constantly: what platform should I use?
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There’s no best platform, only the right fit
We spent an hour live on Substack going through platform after platform, and we kept landing on the same conclusion every time.
There is no perfect platform.
You learn to accept the disadvantages of the one you pick, and put the advantages to work for you.
Gumroad has one of the worst UIs of any platform we have used. We agreed on this in the first five minutes.
But it handles two things we both need well: affiliate marketing and email workflows in one place, free until you make a sale.
Why we’re both still here
The fees are not the real reason we stayed.
Jamie built over 400 affiliates on Gumroad. Some have sent traffic for years. Move everything to a cheaper platform tomorrow, and he estimates a loss of 50 to 90 percent of that network. People who built content and links around his Gumroad page will not follow automatically.
Not a Gumroad fee. A switching cost nobody talks about when comparing percentages on a spreadsheet.
I built something similar. My email workflows live inside Gumroad, some running 20 to 30 emails deep over three or four months. Moving this infrastructure is not a weekend project.
New, and have not made a sale yet? None of this applies to you. Why we both still tell people to start with Gumroad. Nothing to lose testing an idea, nothing tying you down yet either.
The math that decides it
Here is the calculation we ran live. Gumroad takes 10 percent off every direct sale, no monthly fee.
Stan Store’s Creator Pro plan runs $99 a month, 0 percent platform fee.
Run the numbers, and Stan Store gets cheaper once you cross roughly $1,000 a month in sales.
Below that line, Gumroad’s percentage costs less.
Above it, a flat monthly fee wins.
The real question before switching anything: what is your monthly volume, and where is your break-even line? Not which platform has nicer landing pages.
What we learned testing everything else
Between us, here is the fast version of a dozen platforms:
Lemon Squeezy - better landing pages than Gumroad. Jamie hit bugs with affiliate tracking a few years back. Stripe acquired the company since, so results might differ now.
Stan Store and Beacons - both mobile-first, cleaner design than Gumroad. Neither matches Gumroad’s depth on email workflows or affiliate marketing.
ThriveCart - a lifetime deal around $400 to $500 sounds great, until you weigh the company risk. Close to half of lifetime-deal platforms on sites like AppSumo do not exist two years later. Lose the platform, and you lose the affiliates and links built on it, not only the money paid.
Payhip - tried and dropped. UI issues and missing features, nothing beating what Gumroad already offered.
Pensight - Jamie calls it one of the best-designed all-in-one platforms he has used. Still not functional enough to replace Gumroad for his workflow.
Kit (ConvertKit) - the best email customization of anything either of us has tried, and the price reflects it. Jamie used to stack Gumroad, a landing page tool called Carrd, and Kit together. The integrations worked well.
The rule that matters more than any platform
The best piece of advice from the hour had nothing to do with fees or features.
Spend 5 percent of your time on the landing page. Spend the other 95 percent promoting what is on it.
Some of my best-selling newsletter posts are also my sales pages. Jamie did the same on Medium before moving to Substack. Neither of us built a custom funnel to make this work. We wrote and hit publish.
Every hour spent picking a theme or tweaking a button is an hour not spent telling people your product exists.
Gmail beat Hotmail on function, not looks, and the design caught up eventually anyway.
Your product page follows the same order too.
Watch the full hour
We covered more in the full hour than fits here:
how Jamie built and kept his affiliate network,
the payout thresholds catching people off guard depending on country, and
platform-by-platform detail on all 12 we discussed.
Watch the full replay here and grab the platform comparison table alongside it.
What platform are you on right now, and what kept you there?
Drop it in the comments.
We are planning the next Live around whatever comes up most.
FAQs
Q: Should I switch off Gumroad if the fees feel high?
A: Run the math first. Compare Gumroad’s 10 percent against a flat monthly plan at your real sales volume, not a hypothetical one. Below roughly $1,000 a month in sales, the percentage usually costs less than a subscription.
Q: What is the biggest thing people miss comparing platforms?
A: Switching cost. Affiliates, email workflows, and existing links do not move with you automatically. Weigh what you would lose, not only what you would save.
Q: I am new and have made zero sales. Where do I start?
A: Gumroad. Free until you make a sale, so testing an idea carries no risk before you know what you need.
Q: Is it worth using multiple platforms for the same product?
A: Only if each platform brings its own audience or discovery engine, like Gumroad’s Discover feed alongside Amazon KDP. Otherwise you are splitting your own promotion across more links.
You’re doing everything. But nothing is moving?
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