Beacons vs Linktree vs Gumroad: the best way for creators to sell digital products (2026)

Disclosure: some links are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never decides our picks. How we make money.

Prices and fees side by side

Prices are in US dollars, checked on 24 October 2026 from beacons.ai's help centre, linktr.ee/s/pricing, Linktree's help centre and gumroad.com/pricing. Linktree shows prices in local currency and they vary by region, so the figures you see may differ from ours. All three pass on payment processing fees, and taxes such as UK VAT may be added to subscription prices.

One thing to watch on Linktree: its pricing page lists "Sell and earn with 0% fees" as a Pro feature, while its help centre article on transaction fees lists 9% on Pro and 0% only on Premium for digital products and courses. Until that's consistent, check the fee shown in your own account before you choose Pro to save on fees.

What you actually keep

These are our own sums from the published fees above, using a $30 digital product, Stripe card processing at 2.9% + $0.30, and monthly-equivalent prices for yearly plans. They leave out tax, refunds, PayPal and currency conversion, so treat them as a guide rather than a quote.

A side project: 5 sales a month ($150)

• Beacons Free: $13.50 seller fee + $5.85 processing = $19.35 in fees.
• Gumroad: $17.50 platform fee + $5.85 processing = $23.35.
• Linktree Free: $18.00 seller fee + $5.85 processing = $23.85.
• Beacons Creator Plus or Linktree Premium: $30 plan + $5.85 processing = $35.85. Too early for a flat plan.

A real product line: 20 sales a month ($600)

• Beacons Creator Plus: $30 plan + $23.40 processing = $53.40.
• Linktree Premium: $30 plan + $23.40 processing = $53.40.
• Beacons Free: $54 seller fee + $23.40 processing = $77.40.
• Gumroad: $70 platform fee + $23.40 processing = $93.40.
• Linktree Free: $72 seller fee + $23.40 processing = $95.40.

The break-even points are simple. Beacons Creator Plus beats Beacons Free once you sell about $333 a month (9% of $333 is $30). Linktree Premium beats Linktree Free at about $250 a month. With $30 products, Gumroad's 10% + $0.50 costs more than a $30 flat plan once you pass roughly $257 a month. Gumroad's higher cost buys something real, though: it handles sales tax and VAT as merchant of record, which matters if you sell to buyers in the UK, EU or US states where you'd otherwise have to register and file yourself.

Where each one is strongest

Beacons: link-in-bio, store and email in one

Beacons bundles a link-in-bio page, a store, email marketing and a media kit for pitching brands. The free plan lets you sell straight away with a 9% fee and 50 email sends a month. Creator ($10 a month) adds a custom domain, free for the first year, 500 email sends, email automations and AI brand outreach, but keeps the 9% fee. Creator Plus ($30 a month) is the plan sellers grow into: 0% transaction fees, buy now pay later, unlimited marketing emails, memberships and multi-module courses, order bumps and no Beacons logo. Beacons also lets you offer affiliate commissions on your products to other Beacons creators. Read our full Beacons review.

Linktree: the familiar link page

Linktree is the name most audiences already recognise, and its free plan covers unlimited basic links plus email and phone sign-ups. Starter adds a personalised page, unlimited featured links and basic analytics. Pro adds custom designs, mailing list integrations and removes the Linktree branding. Premium adds link rules and routing, AI integrations, all-time analytics, data export, social media scheduling and unlimited Instagram auto-replies, plus 0% seller fees. Pro and Premium both offer a 7-day free trial. Digital products and courses are sold through a Kajabi-powered checkout with Stripe payouts, at prices from $1 to $10,000, but only in selected countries.

Gumroad: a store with no subscription

Gumroad doesn't charge a monthly fee; it only earns when you do. You can sell ebooks, templates, courses, memberships and software, with payouts by direct deposit or PayPal depending on your country. Its biggest advantage for a one-person business is tax: since January 2025 Gumroad has been the merchant of record, collecting and remitting sales tax and VAT where it has an obligation. The Discover marketplace can bring new buyers, but those sales cost 30%. Gumroad has no link-in-bio page builder like the other two, though your Gumroad profile can act as a simple storefront.

Which one fits you?

Choose Gumroad if

• You're launching your first product and don't want a monthly bill
• You sell internationally and want someone else to handle VAT and sales tax
• You'd like a chance at marketplace sales, and accept 30% on those

Choose Beacons if

• You want links, a store, email marketing and a media kit in one tool
• You sell regularly and a flat $30 a month beats a percentage cut
• You do brand deals as well as selling your own products

Choose Linktree if

• Your main job is pointing followers to links and collecting sign-ups
• You want link routing, analytics and Instagram auto-replies on one plan (Premium)
• You sell occasionally and are happy linking out to another checkout

How this fits into a lean solo stack

A storefront sits in the middle of the stack. To grow a list of buyers, send sign-ups to a newsletter tool such as Kit (see Kit vs beehiiv). If your product is really a course with a community, a dedicated platform may suit you better; see Teachable vs Podia and Systeme.io vs Kajabi. If you want pages, email and checkout together for free, Systeme.io covers all three. For a sales page on your own domain, see Framer vs Carrd, and to drive traffic to it, Buffer vs Metricool vs Later. The full picture is in the solopreneur tech stack and the $0, $50 and $100 stacks.

Verdict

For a first digital product, Gumroad is the easiest start: no subscription, a checkout in minutes and tax handled for you, at the cost of a higher cut per sale. If you already have an audience on social media and want one page that does links, selling and email, Beacons is the best value, and its Creator Plus plan is the cheapest way to sell at 0% once you pass about $333 a month. Linktree is the strongest pure link-in-bio tool, but its 12% fee on the free plan makes it the priciest place to sell unless you're on Premium. Start free on whichever fits, and switch to a flat-fee plan when the sums above say it pays.

Read more: Beacons review · Best AI tools for solopreneurs · Free AI tools for solopreneurs

Sources: help.beacons.ai pricing and transaction fee articles (edited 22 October 2026), linktr.ee/s/pricing, help.linktr.ee transaction fee and digital products articles, Linktree terms, gumroad.com/pricing and Gumroad's fees help article, all checked 24 October 2026. Fee totals are our own arithmetic from those published rates. We haven't been paid by any of these companies for this comparison, and we haven't run our own long-term sales test on all three.