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TL;DR: Payhip is the lowest-risk way I know to start selling digital products: every feature on every plan, unlimited products, and a free plan that only takes 5% when you actually sell something. You can open a free Payhip store here and have an ebook listed tonight. Skip it if you need a designer storefront or built-in marketplace traffic.
Gumroad gets the headlines, Shopify gets the conference talks, and Payhip quietly does the job for creators who just want to sell a PDF, a course or a template pack without monthly overhead. I keep recommending it to bloggers with a first product idea, and this review explains why, along with the parts that might make you choose something else.
What is Payhip?
Payhip is an e-commerce platform for creators. You upload a product, set a price, and Payhip gives you a checkout link, a simple storefront and embeddable buy buttons for your own site. Money goes straight into your PayPal or Stripe account rather than sitting in a platform wallet.
You can sell digital downloads, online courses, coaching, memberships and physical goods. For digital products in particular it handles the annoying parts: file delivery, download limits, license keys for software, and EU and UK VAT on checkout.
Payhip pricing
| Plan | Monthly price | Transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Free Forever | $0 | 5% per sale |
| Plus | $29 | 2% per sale |
| Pro | $99 | 0% |
Every plan includes all features, unlimited products and unlimited revenue. You are paying purely to lower the transaction fee. PayPal and Stripe charge their standard processing rates on top, on every plan.
That structure is the quiet genius of Payhip: you can validate a product at zero fixed cost, then upgrade only when the math favors it. Around $1,000 a month in sales, Plus starts costing less than Free’s 5%; around $3,500 a month, Pro overtakes Plus. Until then, stay free and spend nothing.
What Payhip does well
No feature gates. Coupons, affiliate programs for your own products, upgrade pricing, pay-what-you-want, customer messaging: it’s all there on the $0 plan. Most competitors save something essential for the expensive tier.
VAT without tears. Payhip collects and remits EU and UK VAT on digital sales for you. If you’ve ever read a VAT-on-digital-goods explainer and closed the tab in despair, this alone justifies the platform.
It works with a blog instead of replacing it. Embed buy buttons in posts, link a product from your newsletter, done. Pair it with a proper list from day one; my ultimate guide to email marketing covers that side.
Fast to learn. The dashboard is plain and shallow in the good sense. Upload, price, publish takes minutes, not a weekend of settings.
Where Payhip falls short (and who shouldn’t buy)
Storefront design is basic. You get clean but generic pages with limited customization. If brand aesthetics are central to your product, you’ll feel boxed in compared with a custom Shopify or WordPress shop.
No marketplace traffic. Etsy and Gumroad’s Discover feed send buyers to listings; Payhip sends you nobody. You bring the audience, or nobody comes. If you have no blog, list or social following yet, fix that first.
Marketing tools are thin. The built-in email and analytics features are serviceable at best. You’ll want a real email platform and your own tracking alongside it.
Stripe and PayPal only. If neither processor operates properly in your country, Payhip is a non-starter. Check that before anything else.
Who shouldn’t buy: sellers who want discovery traffic built in, full website-builder control, or deep funnel features like order bumps everywhere and complex upsell chains.
How Payhip compares to the alternatives
Against Gumroad, the trade is fees versus reach. Payhip is cheaper per sale at every plan level, while Gumroad offers its Discover marketplace and handles global sales tax as merchant of record. If you already own your audience, cheaper wins; if you own nothing yet, reach is tempting, though marketplace traffic is rarely as big as people hope.
Against Etsy, the difference is dependence. Etsy brings shoppers but takes listing fees, transaction fees and total control of the relationship; your customers are Etsy’s customers. On Payhip, you keep the email address and the customer, which matters more with every product you launch.
Against course platforms like Teachable or Podia, Payhip is simpler and much cheaper, but lighter. Its course builder covers videos, files and quizzes without the polish of a dedicated platform. For a first mini-course it’s plenty; for a flagship $500 program with communities and certificates, you’ll outgrow it.
Who is Payhip for? My verdict
Payhip fits bloggers and creators who already have (or are building) an audience and want to sell their first digital products without betting money on the outcome. The free plan means a failed product costs you nothing but the time it took to make.
It’s the platform I suggest when someone tells me they’ve been sitting on an ebook draft for six months. Put it on a free Payhip store, price it honestly, and let real buyers vote. If you’re still building the audience half of that equation, start with my ultimate guide to blogging.
A realistic first launch looks like this: one small product at a modest price, a product page written in your own voice, buy buttons embedded in your two or three most-visited blog posts, and one honest email to your list. No countdown timers, no webinar. Payhip handles checkout and delivery; your only job is sending people to the page and reading what they say afterwards.
FAQ
Is Payhip really free?
Yes. The Free Forever plan has no monthly cost, no product limits and no revenue caps. Payhip takes 5% of each sale, and PayPal or Stripe take their standard processing fees. If you sell nothing, you pay nothing.
What fees does Payhip charge?
5% per sale on the free plan, 2% on Plus ($29/month) and 0% on Pro ($99/month). Payment processing by Stripe or PayPal comes on top of every plan, at their normal rates.
Is Payhip better than Gumroad?
On fees, usually: Payhip’s free plan takes 5% per sale where Gumroad takes 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale. Gumroad counters with its Discover marketplace and merchant-of-record tax handling, so sellers who want discovery traffic may still prefer it.
Does Payhip handle VAT?
Payhip collects and remits EU and UK VAT on digital product sales automatically at checkout. Other sales taxes remain your responsibility, so check your local rules or ask an accountant once revenue becomes meaningful.
What can you sell on Payhip?
Digital downloads (ebooks, templates, printables, software with license keys), online courses, coaching sessions, memberships and physical products. Most creators start with a simple digital download because delivery is instant and support is minimal.
If you’ve been waiting for a sign to finally sell that ebook, template or mini-course, this is it. Open a free Payhip store, list one product this week, and let the 5% fee be the only thing you owe until real money comes in.