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Selling your first digital product should not require a monthly subscription before you have earned a cent. That is the whole reason Payhip keeps coming up in my recommendations: the free plan is free forever, every feature is included, and Payhip only earns when you do.
In this tutorial I will walk you through the entire setup — account, payments, your first product, VAT, and the launch — in about an hour of actual work. By the end you will have a working store selling an ebook, template, printable, or any other file you can dream up.
One expectation to set honestly upfront: Payhip is a storefront, not a marketplace. Nobody browses Payhip looking for products the way they browse Etsy. You bring the audience; Payhip handles the selling. Keep that in mind and you will not be disappointed.
What you need before you start
A finished digital file (PDF, template bundle, audio, video — anything downloadable), a Stripe or PayPal account to receive money, and something to sell to: a blog, a social following, or an email list, however small. That is the complete list.
Step-by-step: your Payhip store
Step 1: Create your free account
Sign up at Payhip — the Free Forever plan needs no card details. At the time of writing, free means a 5% transaction fee on sales; the paid plans (Plus at $29 a month with a 2% fee, Pro at $99 with no fee) only make sense later, and I will show you the math for when.
Refreshingly, all three plans include every feature and unlimited products. You are not being squeezed toward an upgrade to unlock basics — the only difference is the fee.
Step 2: Connect Stripe or PayPal
In your account settings, connect Stripe, PayPal, or both. Payments from customers land directly in these accounts — Payhip never holds your money. Both processors charge their own standard processing fees on top of Payhip’s cut, which is normal everywhere. Offering both options is worth the five minutes: some buyers simply will not use one or the other.
Step 3: Upload your first product
Click to add a new product, choose digital download, and upload your file. Give it a clear, benefit-driven name — “Budget Planner for Freelancers (Google Sheets + PDF)” beats “My Planner v2”. If your product is a bundle, zip the files and mention exactly what is inside. Buyers get a secure download link automatically after checkout, and you can push updated files to past buyers later — handy for templates you improve over time.
Step 4: Write a product page that actually sells
The description does the selling, so structure it: one sentence on the problem, a short list of what is included, who it is for (and who it is not for), and what changes after using it. Add real previews — a mockup, sample pages, a short video if you have one. Vague pages do not convert, and no platform can fix that for you.
Step 5: Price it and let Payhip handle VAT
Pick a price you can defend, not the lowest one you dare to ask. Digital products are judged on the outcome they deliver, not their file size.
Then the unglamorous part that Payhip quietly does well: tax. If you sell to EU customers, digital products fall under EU VAT rules, and Payhip calculates, collects, and remits that VAT for you. If the phrase “VAT MOSS” has ever scared you away from selling digital products, this feature alone justifies the platform.
Step 6: Put the store where your audience is
You get a hosted storefront out of the box, which is fine, though design customization is fairly basic — this is not the platform for pixel-perfect branding. The stronger move for bloggers: embed Payhip buy buttons or checkout directly into your own blog posts, so readers buy without leaving your site. If your blog is not ready for that yet, my ultimate guide to blogging covers building the audience half of this equation.
Step 7: Launch with a coupon and your email list
Create a launch coupon — Payhip supports discount codes on every plan — and give your audience a reason to buy this week instead of someday. Email beats social here, every time. If you do not have a list yet, start one before your next product; my ultimate guide to email marketing walks you through it from zero.
Pro tips and common mistakes
The upgrade math: Plus at $29 a month (2% fee) beats the free plan’s 5% fee once you sell roughly $1,000 a month. Below that, the free plan is genuinely the better deal — upgrading early is donating margin. Run the numbers on your real revenue, not your hoped-for revenue.
Common mistakes I see: launching with no traffic plan and blaming the platform; skipping the mockup images; pricing at $3 because impostor syndrome said so; and forgetting to test the full checkout yourself before announcing. Buy your own product with a 100% coupon and check the emails a customer receives.
FAQ
Is Payhip really free?
Yes. The Free Forever plan costs $0 a month with unlimited products and all features; Payhip takes a 5% cut of each sale instead (plus normal Stripe or PayPal processing fees). No sales, no costs.
What can you sell on Payhip?
Digital downloads, online courses, coaching, memberships, and even physical products. For bloggers, downloads are the natural start: ebooks, templates, printables, presets, spreadsheets.
When should I upgrade from the free plan?
When 3% of your monthly revenue exceeds $29 — around $1,000 a month in sales — the Plus plan starts paying for itself. Before that point, the free plan’s 5% fee is cheaper than any subscription.
Do I need my own website to sell on Payhip?
No — every account includes a hosted storefront with its own link you can share anywhere. That said, sellers with their own blog or audience consistently do better, because Payhip brings the checkout, not the customers.
How does Payhip handle EU VAT?
Payhip calculates the correct VAT at checkout based on the buyer’s country, collects it, and remits it for digital product sales in the EU and UK. You price your product; the tax handling happens behind the scenes.
You could keep polishing that ebook for another month, or it could be for sale by tonight. Head over to Payhip and open your free store, upload the file, and let the first real sale tell you what to improve.