In this Payhip Review, we will look at the Payhip online store builder in detail in an unbiased way. But before that, let us have a brief primer on different types of eCommerce platforms.
eCommerce platforms primarily come in two flavors. On one hand, you have self-hosted solutions like WooCommerce and Magento. On the other hand, you have hosted eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.
Of course, if you want to build an eCommerce empire, you must go with one of these big eCommerce platforms. But, what about entrepreneurs who do not need such robust online shop builders?
This is where products like Payhip and Gumroad come into play. Platforms like Payhip do not have as many features as Shopify or WooCommerce. But, these are often the best choice for many small online businesses.
But, is Payhip the correct choice for you? In this Payhip Review, we will check the features, pricing, advantages, and disadvantages of Payhip in detail.
This should help you to make an informed decision if Payhip is the best eCommerce platform for you.
Please note that some of the links in this Payhip review are our affiliate links. If you follow these links and complete a buy at our partner websites, we will receive a small commission!
Payhip Review
Let us start with the backstory. What if you want to launch your online shop with a simple and easy eCommerce platform? What if you want to start an eCommerce business for free?
Welcome, Payhip!
Payhip is a hosted eCommerce platform that lets you start selling almost instantaneously. You can run promotions. You can track your sales.
Of course, Payhip is not as full-featured as Shopify or BigCommerce. But, Payhip is certainly one solid choice for a class of online shops.
But is this the best free eCommerce platform for you? Let us see. Let us check its features and figure out its advantages and limitations.
How to sell on Payhip?
Payhip is a hosted online shop builder. This means Payhip will host your storefront. You do not have to pay for hosting in the free plan.
Getting started with Payhip is easy and does not even take one minute.
- Head over to Payhip.
- Create a free account with an email and password.
- Add your first product.
- You can customize your shop.
- Add your payment methods.
- Start selling!
After you create a free account, you can start selling your products on the hosted storefront.
But that is not all. You can also sell directly from your social media and websites. You can place the checkout or cart on your preferred sales channel and sell the products.
For example, you can share a direct link to your product on your social media. If you prefer so, Payhip lets you embed a buy button on your website. These buy buttons will allow your customers to buy the product right on your blog or website.
Payhip also allows you to embed the product page on your website instead of just a buy button.
Payhip integrates with these sales channels seamlessly. It ensures a responsive checkout experience irrespective of the system. Your customers can use mobile, tablet or desktop.
After a successful sale, your customers can immediately download digital goods. Payhip also sends the download details over email.
Payhip supports PayPal and all other major cards for payment processing. Also, you can accept multiple currencies in your Payhip store.
If you are wondering about the security of your digital goods, Payhip has you covered. You can stamp PDF files for free to discourage your customers from illegal sharing.
You can even decide the number of download attempts. By default, Payhip allows three downloads for each digital product.
If you sell software licenses, Payhip can generate, store, and issue software keys for you.
Moreover, Payhip can automatically handle your EU VAT calculations.
Payhip Review: Store Customization
You can customize your hosted shop only to a limited extent.
You can customize the color and logo to match your brand. You can change the color and borders of the buy buttons and cart buttons. You can set a background image for your storefront. The Payhip design editor also lets you set the background color of the storefront.
You can upload a profile photo for your store. Add a short bio for your store. Optionally, you can add your social media links to your Payhip store.
If you know CSS, you will be able to control more of the visual aspects of your store.
But, you will not be able to change the look and feel of your online shop completely. There is no provision to upload any custom theme for your online shop. The good news is, the simple and modern Payhip theme simply works.
You will get basic yet solid analytics to track the traffic to your store. You can even connect Google analytics and Facebook pixel with your Payhip store.
Also, you can create an email template with the subject and message for the email receipt sent to customers after purchase.
Payhip Review: Using a Custom Domain
Unfortunately, you can not use a custom domain with Payhip. Even in the premium plans.
Your online store will live as payhip.com/[your username].
This should not be a show stopper if you are creating your online shop as part of a bigger primary platform like a blog. But, if you want to build an eCommerce brand with Payhip – it will never work in the long run.
You must take a note of this serious limitation if you are planning to use Payhip.
What can you sell using Payhip?
Payhip allows you to sell digital goods, physical goods, and memberships. You can sell eBooks, software, videos, etc.
If you are planning to sell membership on your website, Payhip can be a good option. You can set up multiple plans for your subscribers including free trials. You can even sell exclusive content for your members. And did we mention that this means recurrent payment processing?
Payhip allows self-service access to your members for managing their accounts.
Payhip Review: Using Discount Codes
You can use discount coupons for your store.
You can create discount coupons in Payhip and run promotional campaigns.
Defining a coupon code is simple and straight forward.
Discounts can be by a percent or by amount. You can define them as time-limited or perpetual. Besides, you may even limit their number of usages.
Another very interesting Payhip feature is its ability to fuel social promotion. You can use the power of social media by offering your customers extra discounts if they tweet or like your products.
Payhip Review: Affiliate Program
Affiliates can be a huge source of traffic aka income for your online shop. For this reason, affiliate programs must be a part of your marketing strategy.
It is good to know that Payhip offers the ability to build your affiliate network. You can decide the commission you want to offer to your affiliates for successful referrals.
Moreover, with Payhip you can upsell and cross-sell products very easily.
Payhip Fees
Transaction fees are always an important criterion when you decide on any eCommerce platform.
The transaction fees in Payhip varies and depends on the pricing plan of your subscription. For the free plan transaction fee is 5%. For the most expensive paid plan Payhip transaction fee is 0%.
This is over and above the standard fees that the payment gateway processors (Stripe/Paypal) will collect.
Payhip Review: Pricing Plan
Payhip is available in three different pricing plans. The unique selling point here is all three plans offer every feature of Payhip. No limitations in the number of products. No restriction of revenue.
The only difference between the three plans is the Payhip fee.
Free Plan of Payhip
It is interesting to note that Payhip is one of the few online store builders that offer a perpetual free tier. In this case, you need to pay 5% transaction fees to Payhip.
Plus Plan of Payhip
The Plus plan comes at a monthly price of 29 USD. If you opt for the Plus plan, your transaction fees drop down to 2%.
Pro Plan of Payhip
The Pro plan is the most expensive Payhip plan. It comes at a monthly price of USD 99. In this plan, Payhip does not charge you any transaction fee.
But, as I mentioned earlier, Payhip fees are over and above the standard Paypal/Stripe fees.
Product Pricing in Payhip
Payhip gives you the flexibility to price your products as you wish. You may mark up your products at a fixed absolute price. You can also offer products for free.
Better still, you can give your customers the freedom to name their price. You can set a minimum. And this price can be zero as well!
Note that for free products, Payhip does not charge you any transaction fee.
Payhip Review: Payout Processing
This is interesting.
Keep in mind that Payhip does not hold your money. It does not wait till you reach a minimum threshold or till a specific day of the month and week.
You will receive all your sales proceeds instantaneously in your connected Paypal or Stripe account.
You can accept payment from Payment in your Paypal or Stripe account only. You can even set the default currency for your store.
Another cute feature of Payhip is you can set up an 11 character description for all transactions in your store. This is what will appear on a customer’s bank statement.
Selling physical goods with Payhip
You can sell physical products using Payhip. Payhip lets you define your shipping-from address. This is the physical location from where you ship your orders. You can also add the destination locations that you support and their corresponding shipping rates.
Payhip Review: Email Marketing
Payhip does not have any inbuilt email marketing system. But, you can connect your subscriber list to one of the supported email marketing systems.
For example, you can sync your customers with your mailing lists on MailChimp, CampaignMonitor, and many more email marketing systems.
However, you can connect with your customers and notify them of new products and offers with Payhip’s email updates.
Payhip Review – Final Thoughts
In this Payhip Review, we discussed the features, advantages, and limitations of the Payhip online store builder. We are sure that now you have a solid understanding if Payhip is suitable for you.
We found Payhip as a solid eCommerce platform having enough features to launch your online store for free. This is true if you want to start your shop as part of bigger hustles like blogs. You can sell info products using Payhip.
But, if you want a branded eCommerce store – Payhip will disappoint you. Lack of support for the custom domain itself kills that prospect. Moreover, the pro plan with zero transaction fees will prove costlier for most small scale online businesses.
Also, you cannot add any functionality using custom apps or plugins. You have to be content with whatever features come out-of-box in Payhip.
But if you are a small scale business owner, Payhip can be just right for you! Head over to Payhip. Create a free account and start selling!
Did we miss any other key feature in this Payhip Review? Please let us know your comments. Also, if you found this Payhip Review helpful – please do not hesitate to share!
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