Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences That Matter in 2024

In our reviews of Payhip and Gumroad, we saw that both these platforms are powerful online store builders. You cannot go wrong with either of these. Both Payhip and Gumroad let you launch your online shop for free and start selling your products in a matter of minutes.

But, remember that eCommerce platforms are never a one size fits all software.

These store builders have certain unique features and abilities that differentiate them. So, it is useful to compare Payhip and Gumroad to find out which will be a better fit for you. 

In this comparison between Gumroad and Payhip, we are going to compare the important differences between Payhip and Gumroad.

Differences between Payhip and Gumroad

• Introduction
• Onboarding
• What can you sell
• Customization of Storefront
• Payout processing
• Promoting your store
• Pricing and fees
• Selling products
• Extra features
• Key differences
• Summary

Introduction

First of all, a brief introduction to these online store builders.

On its website, Gumroad says that it is a super-simple e-commerce platform for creators. It has helped them to earn over $272M selling. 

Payhip, on the other hand, informs you that over 130,000 sellers from across the world trust its platform.

Like any business, these are sales pitches to motivate prospective customers like you. And I do not have any source to validate these claims. But, we can definitely compare the features of Payhip and Gumroad to find which will be the better fit for you.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences In Onboarding Process

Creating accounts is simple and fast with both Payhip and Gumroad. Here, we will see how you can create an account on these two eCommerce platforms.

Creating an account in Payhip

• Navigate to Payhip.
• Click on the button Get Started Free.
• Create an account with your email account and a password.

Creating an account in Gumroad

• Head over to Gumroad.
• Click on the button Start Selling.
• Create a free Gumroad account with an email and password.
• If you prefer to use social logins, you can even create a Gumroad account with your existing Facebook or Twitter credentials. 

Verdict: Creating an account in Gumroad or Payhip needs almost the same amount of time and effort. But, in case you prefer to login with an existing social account – Gumroad wins. But if you ask me, I like to keep things separate and will mark it as a tie between Payhip and Gumroad. 

Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences in Products You Can Sell

With a Gumroad account, free or paid, you can sell digital products (eBooks, videos, software, etc.). Gumroad also lets you sell physical products, subscriptions, and pre-orders.

With a Payhip account, you can sell digital products, physical goods, and memberships. Keep in mind that you cannot sell pre-orders with Payhip though.

Verdict: Even if all things are the same, the ability to sell pre-orders with Gumroad gives it a definite edge over Payhip. Want to sell pre-orders? Gumroad is the way to go.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences in the way you can customize your store

Both Payhip and Gumroad are examples of hosted store builders. This means you do not host the eCommerce software yourself. Instead, your storefront resides in the servers of Payhip and Gumroad.

If you want to customize your hosted storefront, you have limited options in Gumroad. However, Payhip supports unique custom themes that can give your store that wow factor.

Both these platforms allow tweaking your storefront using CSS styling. But any advanced customization of your online shop will need skills in CSS. Moreover, you can not use any custom plugin or app with Payhip or Gumroad.

If you opt for the Gumroad free plan, you can access your store as a subdomain of Gumroad. Example – gumroad.com/user-name. But, with a paid Gumroad subscription, you can connect a custom domain to your storefront.

Payhip on the other hand supports enabling your custom domain even in the free plan.

Verdict: Definitely, Payhip is the winner here. You can host your store on your custom domain even with the free Payhip plan. Moreover, you can have unique themes on your store with Payhip.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences in Payout Processing

This is an interesting difference between Payhip and Gumroad.

Gumroad has a payment threshold of $10. Unless your payable balance reaches this threshold, you will not receive your payment from Gumroad. Not only that, Gumroad releases all payments only on Fridays. So, even if your balance reaches the threshold on Monday, you will have to wait till Friday to get the money.

Moreover, if you live in the USA, UK, Australia, or Canada, you must receive payments in your bank account. If you live elsewhere, you can only receive your payments via PayPal. In simple words, if you cannot use Paypal, you cannot use Gumroad.

In comparison, you can use either Paypal or Stripe to run your online shop on Payhip. In addition, Payhip has no threshold for payouts. The payments are instantaneous. So, with Payhip, you need not wait for a specific day of the week or month to receive your money. You get your sales proceeds in your connected Paypal or Stripe account right away.

Verdict: I am not fond of eCommerce platforms having thresholds for payments. Moreover, instant payment with Payhip is particularly impressive. And did I mention that Payhip supports both Paypal and Stripe? For me, Payhip is the clear winner here.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences in Tools you have to Promote the store

When it comes to promoting your store, both Payhip and Gumroad offer you a few solid tools.

For example, both Payhip and Gumroad let you create discount coupons. You can build your affiliate programs. You can collect emails for followers and subscribers for email marketing. Both Payhip and Gumroad integrates with email marketing tools like Mailchimp, CampaignMonitor, etc.

But with Payhip, you can promote your online business further.

Payhip enables you to use the power of social media to promote your products. You can offer your customers extra discounts if they tweet or like your products. If you have an existing follower base, this can be a very fruitful tool to boost your sales. 

Verdict: Most of the tools and features are similar in both Payhip and Gumroad. But, the feature of social boost with Payhip is really impressive. For me, Payhip is the winner again.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Differences in Pricing And Fees

Gumroad has two plans for its customers. The perpetual free plan is always free. But, it has limitations of features.

For example:

• You cannot remove the Gumroad branding.
• You cannot have HD streaming as well.

In its free plan, Gumroad charges you a transaction fee of 5% for each transaction. But, if you upgrade to the paid Creator plan, Gumroad stops charging you per transaction. You pay a monthly fee to Gumroad based on the number of distinct customers you have within a year.

The Gumroad creator plan starts at $10 per month for less than 1000 customers. In the highest tier, you will pay $250 per month if you have more than 50000 distinct customers within a year!

In both these plans, you will have to pay the payment gateway charges of 3.5% + $0.30 for each transaction.

In comparison, Payhip has a simpler and flat monthly pricing. Moreover, none of the Payhip plans has any limitation of features.

Payhip has three pricing tiers starting with the perpetual free plan. Interestingly, you get exactly the same features in all three Payhip plans. The only difference lies in the transaction fee that you pay to Payhip.

In the basic free Payhip plan, the platform will charge you a 5% transaction fee. In the intermediate plus plan, you pay $29 per month to Payhip. But, your transaction fee will lower down to 2% per transaction. If you opt for the highest tier, Payhip Pro plan, you will pay a monthly subscription fee of $99. In this plan, Payhip is not going to charge you any transaction fee.

Note that in all three plans, just like Gumroad, you need to pay the PayPal or Stripe charges of 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction.

Verdict: Both Payhip and Gumroad let you start and run your online shop for free. But, the differences lie in their paid plans and features. In my opinion, Payhip has a more transparent pricing plan with no restrictions on features. But, do your own math and figure out which works better for you. 

Payhip vs Gumroad – Selling Products

Both Gumroad and Payhip host your shops on their servers. They offer you a hosted storefront to start selling your products for free.

You can even sell products from your existing website or via social media.

Both these platforms let you embed the product page or a buy button on your website or blog. This lets your customers have a seamless checkout experience right on your website.

Verdict: Both Payhip and Gumroad has similar options to sell your products. Again, it is a tie between Payhip and Gumroad.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Extra Features

This Gumroad vs Payhip comparison is incomplete if we do not talk about a nifty Gumroad feature. Yes, I am talking about Gumroad Discover.

If you opt for the Gumroad discover, Gumroad will recommend your products to people browsing the Gumroad Discover portal. 

Of course, this is a paid service. 

Gumroad charges you an extra fee of 10% for any customer that it refers to using the Gumroad Discover platform. You may consider this as another marketing tool for your product.

Unfortunately, Payhip does not have any comparable feature as of writing this article.

Verdict: While you can have several different marketing strategies for your online business, you cannot refuse another. Gumroad Discover is an impressive feature available to all Gumroad shop owners. Since Payhip has nothing comparable, the points go to Gumroad here.

Key Differences between Payhip and Gumroad

Let us summarize the difference between Payhip and Gumroad for a ready reference.

Feature	Payhip	Gumroad
Onboarding	Easy	Easy
Free Tier	Yes	Yes
Sell Digital Products	Yes	Yes
Sell Physical Goods	Yes	Yes
Sell Memberships	Yes	Yes
Sell Pre Orders	No	Yes
Custom Domain	Yes	Yes (Premium)
Payment Threshold	NIL	$10
Payout Processing	Instant	Fridays Only
Pricing	Simple	Complicated
	Visit Payhip	Visit Gumroad

You can choose Gumroad if:

• You need to sell pre-orders.
• You are ok with the $10 payout threshold and weekly payout.
• You are comfortable with PayPal only.

You can choose Payhip if:

• You prefer an instant payout with a zero threshold.
• You need to run an online store on your custom domain even though you are not a premium customer of Payhip.
• You are looking for a cost-effective online store builder having transparent premium plans.
• You have an existing social follower base which you plan to harness.
• You prefer to have both Stripe and Paypal.

Payhip vs Gumroad – Final Thoughts

In this comparison between Payhip and Gumroad, we discussed their differentiating features to choose the right store builder for you.

Both these platforms let you start selling online for free with a hosted storefront. Yet, there are several ways in which they differ. 

So, which is the right choice for you?

It depends. 

In my opinion, with its simple and cost effective pricing along with support for custom domain even in the Free Plan – Payhip is the clear winner.

For every shop owner looking for a simple hosted storefront, I simply recommend Payhip.