Platform comparison
Etsy vs Gumroad vs Payhip: where to sell digital products
Three platforms, three very different bets. Etsy rents you traffic. Gumroad gets you live in an afternoon. Payhip lets you own the store. None of them handle the part buyers actually judge you on — what shows up after checkout.
The compare-and-contrast chart
| Etsy | Gumroad | Payhip | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who finds you | Etsy's own search traffic | You bring the traffic | You bring the traffic |
| Fees per sale | Listing fee + transaction + payment fees | 10% flat on the free plan | 5% free plan, 0% on paid plans |
| Storefront control | Etsy's layout, Etsy's branding | Clean product pages, Gumroad branding | Full store, pages, and coupons |
| Customer email list | Restricted | Yours | Yours |
| File delivery | ZIP or PDF download after purchase | Hosted file + email | Hosted file + email |
| Buyer's first impression | Whatever your download looks like | Whatever your download looks like | Whatever your download looks like |
| Best for | Discovery and first sales | Fast launches and single products | Owning a full catalog |
How to choose in one line each
- Etsy — pick it if you have no audience yet and want buyers searching for you today.
- Gumroad — pick it if you already have followers, a newsletter, or a TikTok that converts.
- Payhip — pick it once you have several products and want to keep the margin and the customer list.
The honest answer for most sellers is two of them: Etsy for discovery, plus Gumroad or Payhip as the store you actually own. That only works if your download looks like the same business on both.
The pain points nobody lists on a pricing page
- The delivery moment is unbranded. Buyers pay, then get a bare ZIP or a raw Google Drive link. That is the last thing they remember about your shop.
- "Where is my file?" messages. Refund requests and 3-star reviews usually start with confusion, not with a bad product.
- No way off the platform. Etsy owns the buyer relationship unless your download itself invites people to your list or shop.
- Rebuilding the same file over and over. Every new listing means a fresh instructions page, new links, new QR codes.
- No idea what buyers actually open. Without a tracked link or QR code you are guessing whether anyone clicks your upsell.
Where Deliverly fits
Deliverly is the layer none of the three platforms give you: the branded delivery PDF that sits inside the download. Paste your Google Drive, Dropbox, Etsy, or template links, drop in your logo and colors, and export a PDF with clickable buttons and a custom QR code generator built in — so a phone-first buyer scans instead of typing a link. It works the same whether the sale happened on Etsy, Gumroad, or Payhip, which means one delivery asset for every channel you sell on.
- Branded cover, thank-you note, and step-by-step access instructions
- Custom QR codes per product, with a destination you can change after publishing
- Scan analytics on paid plans, so you learn which products get opened
- CSV import and bulk export when your catalog grows past a handful of listings
- Community templates you can clone instead of starting blank
Pick the version of this guide that fits you
- For creators with an audience
- For single moms building income around a full life
- For men starting a digital side business from zero
- What to sell: best digital products on Etsy
Worth bookmarking
Primary sources and creators who publish real numbers rather than hype:
- Etsy — start here for digital-download listing rules and fee structure, plus the Etsy Seller Handbook for search and photography guidance.
- Gumroad — the fastest way to sell a single product to an audience you already have; their blog is candid about pricing experiments.
- Payhip — a full store with EU VAT handling and 0% platform fees on paid plans.
- Canva and Notion templates — where most digital products are actually built.
- Creators worth following: Ali Abdaal (part-time product launches), Justin Welsh (solo one-product businesses), Nathan Barry (audience-first selling), and Dylan Jahraus (Etsy-specific listing strategy).