Gumroad vs Payhip vs AstroLink: Fees Compared 2026

A detailed three-way breakdown of Gumroad, Payhip, and AstroLink platform fees, features, and total cost at every revenue level - so you can choose the digital product platform that actually costs you less.

Choosing where to sell your digital products is not just a question of features - it is a maths problem. Platform fees compound quietly in the background, and what looks like a generous free plan can quietly consume hundreds of pounds per month once you start generating meaningful revenue.

This comparison examines Gumroad, Payhip, and AstroLink across three dimensions: their fee structures, what you actually get beyond just taking payments, and which platform wins at different revenue levels. Whether you are selling ebooks, templates, presets, courses, or audio packs, the numbers here will help you make a genuinely informed decision.

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Fees at a Glance

Platform	Monthly Cost	Transaction Fee	Total Cost on $1,000/mo sales
Gumroad	$0	10%	$100
Payhip Free	$0	5%	$50
Payhip Plus	$29	2%	$49
Payhip Pro	$99	0%	$99
AstroLink Pro	£24.99 (~$32)	5%	~$82

Note: AstroLink Pro includes a full link-in-bio page. Gumroad and Payhip do not.

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Platform Deep-Dives

Gumroad

Gumroad launched in 2011 and became one of the first platforms to make digital product selling genuinely accessible to creators without technical skills. Its model is elegantly simple: sign up, upload a file, share a link, and pay 10% of every sale.

Fee structure:

• No monthly subscription
• 10% transaction fee on every sale
• Standard payment processing fees apply on top (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction via Stripe/PayPal)

What you get beyond selling:

• Marketplace discovery (your products can be found by Gumroad shoppers)
• Affiliate programme
• Membership and subscription products
• Course hosting
• Upsells and offer stacking
• USD-focused pricing and payout

Best for: Creators who are just starting out and want zero upfront commitment, or those who want marketplace exposure and affiliate-driven sales to supplement their own promotion.

The catch: Gumroad’s 10% fee is the highest in this comparison. At $5,000/month in sales, you are handing $500 to Gumroad every single month - that is $6,000 per year. The no-subscription convenience becomes expensive surprisingly quickly.

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Payhip

Payhip is a UK-founded platform that has quietly built a strong reputation for creator-friendly features and competitive pricing. Its three-tier structure lets sellers choose their own trade-off between monthly cost and per-sale fees.

Fee structure:

• Free plan: $0/month, 5% transaction fee
• Plus plan: $29/month, 2% transaction fee
• Pro plan: $99/month, 0% transaction fee

What you get beyond selling:

• EU VAT handling (automatically calculated and collected)
• Affiliate programme
• Online courses with modules and drip content
• Membership products
• Coaching and physical products
• PayPal and Stripe payment options
• Discount codes and upsells

Best for: Sellers who want zero transaction fees and are generating enough volume to justify the $99/month Pro plan, or EU-based sellers who need automatic VAT compliance without manual calculation.

The catch: Payhip is purely a storefront. It does not include a link-in-bio page, analytics dashboard for your audience, or any profile page that could replace your Linktree or similar tool. If you are using Payhip, you are also paying for a separate link-in-bio tool.

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AstroLink

AstroLink’s approach is different from both Gumroad and Payhip. Rather than positioning itself purely as a payment processor or digital storefront, AstroLink bundles digital product sales into a fast link-in-bio platform. The store is part of the Pro plan, which already includes your entire creator profile.

Fee structure:

• Free plan: £0/month, no store access
• Pro plan: £24.99/month or £249/year, 5% transaction fee

What you get beyond selling:

• A fast link-in-bio page with sub-second load times
• Unlimited links with drag-and-drop ordering
• Colour themes, background images and gradients
• Profile photo, bio, and social links
• Built-in analytics (views, clicks, shares) - no external tools required
• Video embeds
• Brand-free profile (no AstroLink watermark)
• Capture inbound enquiries from your audience
• Free download leads for list building
• Stripe Connect payments in GBP, USD, and EUR
• Files up to 100MB per product
• Secure downloads (5 per file, 7-day expiry)
• Seller dashboard and webhooks

Best for: Creators who want to consolidate their link-in-bio page and digital product store into a single, fast tool - and who want to avoid paying separately for both a bio link platform and a storefront.

For a full comparison, see how AstroLink stacks up against Gumroad and how it compares to Payhip.

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Fee Scenarios at Different Revenue Levels

Let us run the numbers at four representative monthly revenue levels to see exactly what each platform costs in practice. For AstroLink, we have converted £24.99 to approximately $32 for like-for-like comparison.

At $500/Month in Sales

Platform	Monthly Fee	Transaction Fee (on $500)	Total Monthly Cost
Gumroad	$0	$50 (10%)	$50
Payhip Free	$0	$25 (5%)	$25
Payhip Plus	$29	$10 (2%)	$39
Payhip Pro	$99	$0	$99
AstroLink Pro	~$32	$25 (5%)	~$57

Verdict at $500/month: Payhip Free wins on pure cost at just $25. AstroLink costs about $57 total but includes your link-in-bio page, analytics, and profile. If you are already paying for a separate bio link tool (Linktree Pro is $9/month, Beacons Creator is $10/month), AstroLink’s combined value narrows the gap significantly.

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At $1,000/Month in Sales

Platform	Monthly Fee	Transaction Fee (on $1,000)	Total Monthly Cost
Gumroad	$0	$100 (10%)	$100
Payhip Free	$0	$50 (5%)	$50
Payhip Plus	$29	$20 (2%)	$49
Payhip Pro	$99	$0	$99
AstroLink Pro	~$32	$50 (5%)	~$82

Verdict at $1,000/month: Payhip Plus ($49 total) and Payhip Free ($50 total) are the cheapest pure-storefront options. AstroLink at ~$82 remains more expensive than Payhip on a raw fee basis but delivers the link-in-bio page, analytics, enquiry forms, and free download lead capture that Payhip does not. Gumroad at $100 is the most expensive option at this revenue level.

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At $5,000/Month in Sales

Platform	Monthly Fee	Transaction Fee (on $5,000)	Total Monthly Cost
Gumroad	$0	$500 (10%)	$500
Payhip Free	$0	$250 (5%)	$250
Payhip Plus	$29	$100 (2%)	$129
Payhip Pro	$99	$0	$99
AstroLink Pro	~$32	$250 (5%)	~$282

Verdict at $5,000/month: Payhip Pro ($99) pulls ahead decisively at this revenue level. AstroLink at ~$282 is significantly cheaper than Gumroad’s $500 but more expensive than Payhip’s paid tiers. The question to ask here is whether AstroLink’s link-in-bio capabilities, analytics, and enquiry tools are worth the additional cost over Payhip Pro. For most creators who need a profile page anyway, the answer is likely yes.

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At $10,000/Month in Sales

Platform	Monthly Fee	Transaction Fee (on $10,000)	Total Monthly Cost
Gumroad	$0	$1,000 (10%)	$1,000
Payhip Free	$0	$500 (5%)	$500
Payhip Plus	$29	$200 (2%)	$229
Payhip Pro	$99	$0	$99
AstroLink Pro	~$32	$500 (5%)	~$532

Verdict at $10,000/month: At this scale, the maths points clearly to Payhip Pro for pure storefront use. AstroLink at ~$532 remains considerably cheaper than Gumroad’s $1,000 monthly fee bill. High-volume sellers on AstroLink who want to reduce their per-sale fee may find the annual plan (£249/year, roughly $320/year or ~$27/month) reduces the fixed overhead further.

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What Each Platform Includes Beyond Just Selling

Fees alone do not tell the whole story. What you get around the storefront matters, particularly if you need tools to attract and retain customers.

Gumroad: Discovery and Affiliate Infrastructure

Gumroad’s most underrated asset is its built-in marketplace. When you publish a product on Gumroad, it can be discovered by shoppers who were not looking for you specifically. If you have a niche product in a category Gumroad’s audience already browses - fonts, templates, writing tools, courses - organic marketplace traffic can meaningfully supplement your own promotional efforts.

Gumroad’s affiliate system is also well-developed, letting you recruit promoters who earn a commission on each sale they drive. This is a genuine growth lever that neither Payhip (on lower tiers) nor AstroLink currently replicates.

What Gumroad does not include: a link-in-bio page, analytics for your social media audience, or any kind of profile page outside the storefront itself.

Payhip: EU VAT Handling and Payment Flexibility

Payhip’s strongest differentiator for European sellers is automatic EU VAT compliance. Rather than manually calculating, collecting, and remitting VAT on digital product sales to EU customers - which is a genuine administrative burden - Payhip handles this automatically across all plans, including the free one.

Payhip also accepts both PayPal and Stripe, giving buyers more payment options than AstroLink (Stripe only) or Gumroad. For audiences that strongly prefer PayPal, this can meaningfully reduce checkout abandonment.

What Payhip does not include: a link-in-bio page, built-in analytics for your social audience, video embeds, or the ability to capture inbound enquiries from your followers.

AstroLink: Link-in-Bio, Analytics, and Audience Tools

AstroLink’s core differentiator in this comparison is that it is not just a store - it is your entire creator profile page. When you use AstroLink to sell digital products, you are also getting the link-in-bio page you need anyway to drive traffic from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or any other platform that limits you to a single link.

Every creator needs a profile page. If you are already paying for Linktree, Beacons, or a similar tool, adding Payhip or Gumroad on top means managing two separate platforms, two separate dashboards, and two separate monthly fees. AstroLink collapses both into one.

The built-in analytics on all AstroLink plans let you track views, clicks, and shares without connecting external tools. The enquiry capture feature on the Pro plan lets visitors contact you directly from your profile, useful for custom commissions, licensing enquiries, or coaching opportunities. Free download leads mean you can offer a freebie from your bio page and collect email addresses automatically.

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When Each Platform Is the Best Choice

Choose Gumroad if:

• You are just starting out and want zero upfront commitment before your first sale
• You want marketplace discovery to supplement your own promotion
• You need a well-developed affiliate programme to recruit promoters
• You sell memberships or subscriptions and want a proven, stable platform for recurring billing
• Volume is low enough that the 10% fee does not materially impact your margins

Choose Payhip if:

• You are an EU-based seller who needs automatic VAT compliance without manual work
• You sell courses with structured modules and drip content as a core product type
• Your buyers strongly prefer PayPal as a payment method
• You are generating high enough monthly revenue to justify Payhip Pro’s $99/month for zero transaction fees
• You already have a separate link-in-bio tool you are happy with

Choose AstroLink if:

• You want a single platform that handles both your link-in-bio page and your digital product store
• You are paying separately for a link-in-bio tool and a storefront and want to consolidate
• You want built-in analytics, enquiry capture, and free download lead collection alongside your store
• You value fast page load times - AstroLink’s sub-second performance keeps visitors engaged and reduces bounce rates
• You sell straightforward digital files (ebooks, templates, presets, audio packs) rather than structured courses with modules
• You want a brand-free, professional profile page that does not plaster another company’s logo across your work

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The Link-in-Bio Advantage: Why It Matters More Than You Think

Most comparisons of digital product platforms ignore the distribution layer. But how your customers find your products is as important as how you deliver them.

Every creator with an Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube account is limited to one link in their bio. That link goes to your profile page - and if your profile page is just a Gumroad or Payhip storefront, it looks bare, lacks your branding, and does nothing to showcase the rest of your content and social channels.

AstroLink is the only platform in this comparison that acknowledges this reality. Your link-in-bio page is the front door to your entire online presence - your YouTube, your newsletter, your latest blog post, your social channels, and yes, your digital products. When all of these live together on a fast, beautifully designed AstroLink profile, every visit has the potential to turn a casual follower into a customer, subscriber, or collaborator.

If you use Gumroad or Payhip, you still need a separate link-in-bio tool. That means additional cost, an additional login, and a fragmented experience for your visitors.

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The Verdict

There is no single “best” platform in this comparison - the right choice depends on your revenue level, your existing tool stack, and what you need beyond the storefront.

Gumroad is the easiest starting point, but its 10% fee becomes a genuine drag on margins once you exceed a few hundred dollars per month. The marketplace and affiliate features add real value, but they do not justify $500+/month in fees at scale.

Payhip offers the most flexible fee structure of the three. At free and Plus tiers, it is highly competitive. At Pro, it is the cheapest option for high-volume sellers who do not need a link-in-bio page. The EU VAT handling is a genuine advantage for European creators.

AstroLink wins on total value when you account for the fact that it replaces both your storefront and your link-in-bio tool. Its 5% fee is half of Gumroad’s and matches Payhip’s free plan. The Pro plan’s additional features - analytics, enquiry forms, free download leads, background images and gradients, video embeds - add meaningful utility that neither Gumroad nor Payhip provides.

If you are already paying for a separate link-in-bio tool, switching to AstroLink Pro consolidates your costs and gives you a faster, more cohesive presence for your audience.

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Key Takeaways

• Gumroad’s 10% fee is the highest in this comparison and becomes expensive at scale. On $5,000/month in sales, you pay $500 in platform fees alone.

• Payhip’s tiered structure gives sellers genuine flexibility. The free plan’s 5% fee is competitive; the Pro plan’s 0% fee is the cheapest option for high-volume sellers with no need for a link-in-bio page.

• AstroLink’s 5% fee matches Payhip’s free plan, but AstroLink’s Pro plan bundles a full link-in-bio page, analytics, enquiry capture, free download leads, and video embeds alongside the store - making it the only all-in-one option in this comparison.

• At $5,000/month and above, sellers who need only a storefront should look seriously at Payhip Pro. Sellers who need both a storefront and a link-in-bio page will find AstroLink significantly cheaper than running two separate tools.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Gumroad charge a monthly fee?

No. Gumroad has no monthly subscription fee - you simply pay 10% of every sale. This makes it easy to start with zero upfront cost, but expensive once your revenue grows beyond a few hundred dollars per month.

What is Payhip’s free plan fee?

Payhip’s free plan charges a 5% transaction fee on every sale with no monthly cost. Their Plus plan at $29/month reduces this to 2%, and their Pro plan at $99/month charges 0% fees.

Does AstroLink include a link-in-bio page with the store?

Yes. AstroLink is the only platform in this comparison that includes a fully featured link-in-bio page as part of the Pro plan. You get unlimited links, colour themes, background images, analytics, video embeds, enquiry forms, free download leads, and digital product sales all in one place for £24.99/month or £249/year.

Which platform has the lowest fees at $1,000/month revenue?

At $1,000/month in sales, Payhip Plus has the lowest total cost at $49 (2% fee plus $29 subscription). AstroLink costs approximately $82 total (5% fee plus £24.99/month subscription) but includes a link-in-bio page that Payhip does not. Gumroad is the most expensive at $100.

Can AstroLink replace both a link-in-bio tool and a digital product store?

Yes, that is AstroLink’s core differentiator. Rather than paying separately for a link-in-bio tool and a standalone storefront, AstroLink’s Pro plan bundles both into one subscription at £24.99/month or £249/year.

Which platform is best for international sellers?

All three platforms support international selling, but they differ in payment processors and currencies. AstroLink uses Stripe Connect and supports GBP, USD, and EUR. Payhip supports both PayPal and Stripe, giving buyers more payment options. Gumroad primarily focuses on USD transactions.

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Ready to Consolidate Your Creator Tools?

If you are currently paying for a link-in-bio platform and a separate digital product store, AstroLink Pro could replace both for £24.99/month - with analytics, enquiry forms, free download leads, and unlimited links included.

Explore AstroLink’s creator store to see how it works, or compare AstroLink with Gumroad directly and with Payhip to understand the full picture.

When you are ready to start, create your free AstroLink profile and have a professional bio page live in minutes. Upgrade to Pro whenever you are ready to unlock the store and the full suite of creator tools.

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Sign up for your AstroLink profile today at https://app.astrolink.io/register.

Free forever (up to 5 links), or go Pro for £24.99/month or £249/year.