Shopify vs Gumroad
Shopify vs Gumroad: which should you sell on?
Shopify and Gumroad sell online in opposite ways. Shopify is a monthly store platform built for physical products, with digital files through an app and a theme store of 1,374 themes; Gumroad is a storefront for digital products with no monthly fee that takes 10% + $0.50 of each sale as merchant of record. Each vendor’s figures come from its own pages, Shopify read on 2026-11-14 and Gumroad’s fees on 2026-11-05, with Vonza alongside as a labelled third option.
Vendor figures read on 2026-11-14 from each vendor’s own pages.
Shopify or Gumroad: the short answer
Pick by what you sell and how much. Physical goods at volume point to Shopify; a few digital products with no fixed cost point to Gumroad.
Choose Shopify if
- You sell physical products and need inventory locations, shipping, discounts, point of sale and staff accounts.
- You want a themed storefront on your own domain, with 1,374 themes to choose from and apps for almost everything else.
- You would rather pay a plan price, from $25 a month on Basic ($19 billed yearly), than a share of each sale.
Choose Gumroad if
- You sell digital products, e-books, courses or memberships and want no monthly cost at all.
- You want Gumroad to be the merchant of record and handle sales tax for 10% + $0.50 of each direct sale.
- You sell software and want licence keys created for you, or an e-book offered as PDF, ePub and Mobi.
Consider Vonza if
- You sell both: digital downloads, licence keys and gift cards alongside physical goods with stock and shipping, in one store.
- You want the store next to courses, a community, email and SMS, funnels and appointment scheduling in one account.
- You want to pay a monthly plan, with the platform fee set by the plan rather than a share of every order.
Shopify vs Gumroad pricing
Shopify’s figures as its pricing page stated them on 2026-11-14 and Gumroad’s as its pricing page stated them on 2026-11-05. Vonza’s price is its live price today.
| Pricing | Shopify | Gumroad | Vonza |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest monthly price | $25/month (Basic) | $0 (no monthly fee) | $99/mo |
| Higher plans | $65/month (Grow), $399/month (Advanced), Plus from $2,300/month; Starter’s standard price is not printed on the pages we read | None: one fee-only account | Higher plans and their live prices are on the pricing page |
| Annual billing | Basic $19, Grow $49 and Advanced $299 a month, billed yearly | Not applicable | Pay monthly, or save up to 30% with annual billing. |
| Transaction fee | None on orders through Shopify Payments; with a third-party provider “the rate depends on your plan” and is not printed; card rates not on the page | 10% + $0.50 per direct sale; 30% on sales through Discover; Gumroad is the merchant of record | Your payment provider’s own processing fee, plus a Vonza platform fee per transaction that depends on your plan (see the pricing page). |
| Free trial | 3 days free, then $1 a month for 3 months | Free to start; the fee is the only charge | Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial. |
Sources: shopify.com (shopify.com/pricing, the Starter page, the Shopify Payments help page and the Theme Store, read on 2026-11-14); gumroad.com (gumroad.com/features, with the fees from gumroad.com/pricing as read on 2026-11-05, read on 2026-11-14). A copy of each page as read is kept so the figures can be checked. Vonza’s price is its live price on the day you read this page.
Shopify and Gumroad feature by feature
Each column quotes that vendor’s own pages. “Not listed” means the pages we read did not mention it, not that the platform lacks it.
| Area | Shopify | Gumroad | Vonza |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product types | Physical products with inventory; digital files through the Digital Downloads app; a “Sell gift cards” row; subscriptions through apps | Digital products, e-books, courses, tutorials, memberships and subscriptions; licence keys for software; physical products not listed on the pages we read | Seven kinds: digital downloads, physical goods, services, bundles of 2 to 20 products, gift cards, licence keys and links |
| Store and product pages | Themes and templates: 1,374 themes in the Theme Store, with a free-themes filter; a custom domain name on every plan | A Gumroad profile with product pages; “Already have a site? Link it to ours under a custom domain.” | A store list with search, collections and filters; photo-led product pages with highlights, a promo video, reviews and a countdown; each page with its own URL, title and meta description, on your Vonza subdomain or your own domain, with a “Made with Vonza” badge |
| Pricing options | Not detailed on the pricing page; subscription selling comes through apps | One-time prices, subscriptions and memberships; “charge more for lossless audio” | One-time, free, pay what you want, subscription (weekly, monthly or yearly) or instalments, with a compare-at price and a scheduled sale |
| Checkout and upsells | Shopify checkout with Shop Pay; an “Abandoned checkout recovery” row; upsells through apps | Gumroad hosts the checkout and takes the payment as merchant of record; upsells and order bumps not listed on the pages we read | Classic, one-step or two-step checkout; an order bump at checkout and a one-click offer after payment, charged to the card just used within 15 minutes; coupon codes |
| Shipping and inventory | 10 inventory locations on Basic; shipping, discounts and point of sale; staff accounts by plan (up to 5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced) | Not listed on the pages we read | Stock per product or variant with low-stock alerts and back-in-stock requests; shipping profiles by country with flat, per-item or weight-banded rates, “free over” thresholds and local pickup |
| Digital delivery | The Digital Downloads app: files up to 5 gigabytes, several files per variant | Files delivered after purchase; buyers can pick PDF, ePub or Mobi for an e-book | Private links that expire; 100 downloads per buyer by default, with a download limit and an access expiry you set; a product can be released over weeks |
| Gift cards and licence keys | “Sell gift cards” on the plan table; licence keys not listed | “Selling software? We can create your license keys”; gift cards not listed | Gift cards with ten designs or your own picture, sent to up to 20 people, keeping their balance across orders; licence keys generated, pasted or imported, one per sale |
| Payments and fees | No third-party transaction fee on orders through Shopify Payments; with another provider “the rate depends on your plan” and is not printed; card rates not on the pages we read | 10% + $0.50 per sale through your profile or direct links; 30% per sale when a new customer finds you through Discover; Gumroad is the merchant of record and handles sales tax | Your own Stripe account (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna) or PayPal for one-time payments, or Paystack for Nigerian naira; the Vonza platform fee depends on your plan. |
| Marketing and automations | “Create email campaigns” and “Create marketing automations” rows; “Integrate with 1000s of apps” | Email broadcasts, automated workflows and import of an existing email list | Facebook, Google, Google Tag Manager and TikTok pixels per product; automations that email, text or send a gift when an order is delivered, a cart is abandoned, stock runs low or a product is bought; every buyer becomes a CRM contact |
| Courses and community | Not listed on the pages we read | Courses and memberships sold as products; a community is not listed | Courses, community, email and SMS marketing, funnels, forms and appointment scheduling in the same account |
| Pricing | Basic $25/month ($19 yearly), Grow $65 ($49), Advanced $399 ($299), Plus from $2,300; Starter’s standard price not printed | $0 a month; a fee on every sale | $99/mo |
Where Shopify is stronger, and where Gumroad is
From the same pages as the tables.
Shopify is stronger at
- Physical retail: inventory locations, shipping, discounts, point of sale and staff accounts that grow with the plan.
- The storefront: 1,374 themes in the Theme Store and a custom domain on every plan.
- Reach through apps: “Integrate with 1000s of apps”, including the Digital Downloads app for files up to 5 gigabytes.
- Marketing rows on the plan table: email campaigns, marketing automations and abandoned checkout recovery.
Gumroad is stronger at
- Cost to start: no monthly fee, so a product that has not sold yet costs nothing.
- Tax: as merchant of record, Gumroad handles sales tax collection and remittance on your sales.
- Digital formats: buyers choose PDF, ePub or Mobi, and you can charge more for lossless audio.
- Software: “We can create your license keys”, and an email list you can import, broadcast to and automate.
A third option: Vonza
Vonza is our product, so it is labelled here rather than ranked. It fits creators who sell digital and physical products and want the rest of the business in the same place.
- A store for seven kinds of product: digital downloads, physical goods, services, bundles, gift cards, licence keys and links, on your own domain.
- Import a Shopify product CSV of up to 5,000 rows, with options, variants, prices, stock and up to 10 images per product.
- Courses, community, email and SMS marketing, funnels, forms and appointment scheduling in the same login.
- A monthly plan with a 14-day free trial; the platform fee depends on the plan and is set out on the pricing page.
Shopify vs Gumroad: your questions
Answered from each vendor’s own pages, with the date we read them.
Gumroad is built for them: its features page lists digital products, e-books, courses, tutorials, memberships, licence keys and format choices such as PDF, ePub and Mobi, with no monthly fee. Shopify sells digital files through its Digital Downloads app, which its guide says supports files up to 5 gigabytes, on top of a plan that starts at $25 a month. For a handful of downloads Gumroad is the simpler choice; for a catalogue that mixes digital and physical goods Shopify, or a store such as Vonza’s that sells both kinds natively, fits better.
At low volume, yes: Gumroad has no monthly fee and takes 10% + $0.50 of each direct sale, so a month with no sales costs nothing. Shopify’s Basic plan was $25 a month, or $19 billed yearly, when we read its pricing page on 2026-11-14, plus any third-party transaction fee if you do not use Shopify Payments. As sales grow, Gumroad’s percentage grows with them while Shopify’s plan price stays flat.
Shopify’s pricing page says “Third-party transaction fees may apply when you use a third-party payment provider (instead of Shopify Payments). The rate depends on your plan.” and does not print the rate. Its Shopify Payments help page says you are not charged third-party transaction fees for orders processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay and Shop Pay Installments. Card processing rates were not on the pages we read.
“10% + $0.50 per transaction for all sales through your profile or direct links” and “30% per transaction when new customers find and buy from you through our discover marketplace”, as Gumroad’s pricing page stated on 2026-11-05. There is no monthly charge, and Gumroad is the merchant of record, so it collects and remits sales tax on your sales.
Gumroad’s features page does not mention physical products, shipping or inventory; it lists digital products, courses, memberships, licence keys and email tools. Shopify is built around physical products, with inventory locations, shipping and point of sale. Vonza, the third option here, sells physical goods with stock, variants and shipping profiles beside its digital products.
No. Its pricing page offers “Try 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months” and then the standard price of the plan you chose, from $25 a month on Basic. The Starter page says “Start for free, keep building for $1/month”, but Starter’s standard monthly price was not printed on the pages we read.
Yes. Its pricing page says Gumroad is the merchant of record and “will automatically handle all sales tax collection and remittance worldwide”. Shopify’s pricing page does not list tax handling among the rows we read; tax settings depend on your plan and region.
Vonza, our own product, sells digital downloads, physical goods, services, bundles, gift cards, licence keys and links from one store, and includes courses, community, email and SMS marketing, funnels, forms and appointment scheduling in the same account. It can import a Shopify product CSV of up to 5,000 rows, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.
Want to see the third option?
Every Vonza plan starts with a free trial, so you can set up a store beside Shopify or Gumroad before you decide.
