Gumroad vs. Payhip Fees: One Rate Includes the Card Fee, One Doesn't
Two rates that look one point apart are not, because only one of them already contains the card fee.
Just want the number? Run both platforms side by side in the payout calculator — it models the card fee separately, which is the whole point below.
Every comparison of Gumroad and Payhip opens with the two headline percentages, and almost all of them stop there. That is the one place you cannot stop, because the two numbers are not measuring the same thing. Gumroad's pricing page quotes a single rate and lists no separate card processing line. Payhip's pricing page quotes a rate and then says, in its own FAQ, that "PayPal and Stripe will still charge at their standard rates once they complete a transaction. This applies for all plans." One number is all-in. The other is a platform cut that sits on top of whatever your payment processor takes.
What each page actually says
Checked 2026-09-17 against the companies' own pricing pages:
| Item | Gumroad | Payhip |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | None. The page states there are "no monthly charges" | Free Forever $0/mo, Plus $29/mo, Pro $99/mo |
| Per-sale platform fee | 10% + $0.50 on a direct sale | 5% on Free, 2% on Plus, none on Pro |
| Marketplace fee | 30% when the buyer finds you through Gumroad Discover | No marketplace |
| Card processing | Not listed as a separate charge on the pricing page | Billed separately by your own Stripe or PayPal account, on every plan |
| When you get the money | Payout method varies by country; direct deposit or PayPal | "We will deposit your sales to you immediately after a transaction has been completed" |
For the separate half of Payhip's bill, the two processor rates that matter are Stripe at 2.9% + 30 cents for a domestic US card, and PayPal Checkout at 3.49% + $0.49 in the US. Both are from those companies' own fee pages on the same date.
The arithmetic, with the card fee put back in
Take one $25 digital product sold directly to a US buyer paying with a US card.
| Route | Fee on one $25 sale | You keep | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad, direct link | 0.10 × 25 + 0.50 = $3.00 | $22.00 | 12.0% |
| Payhip Free + Stripe | 0.05 × 25 + 0.029 × 25 + 0.30 = $2.28 | $22.72 | 9.1% |
| Payhip Plus + Stripe | 0.02 × 25 + 0.029 × 25 + 0.30 = $1.53 | $23.47 | 6.1% before the $29/mo |
| Payhip Pro + Stripe | 0.029 × 25 + 0.30 = $1.03 | $23.97 | 4.1% before the $99/mo |
Notice what happened to the headline gap. "10% versus 5%" sounds like a five point difference. Once Stripe is added to the Payhip side and the fixed 50 cents to the Gumroad side, the real difference on a $25 sale is 2.9 points, not five. Work the algebra and Gumroad costs 0.10p + 0.50 while Payhip Free plus Stripe costs 0.079p + 0.30. Subtract and the gap is 0.021p + 0.20, which is positive at every price. On a per-sale basis, for a direct US card sale, Payhip Free is always the cheaper of the two, and the gap widens as the price rises rather than closing.
Where the monthly plans flip
Payhip's paid plans buy down the percentage with a fixed monthly cost, so they only pay for themselves above a volume you can compute exactly. Plus saves three points over Free for $29 a month, so it breaks even at 29 ÷ 0.03 = $966.67 of monthly sales. Pro saves two more points over Plus for another $70, breaking even at 70 ÷ 0.02 = $3,500 a month. Against Free directly, Pro saves five points for $99, so 99 ÷ 0.05 = $1,980.
Those three numbers are the entire decision. Below roughly $970 a month, Free. From there to roughly $3,500, Plus. Above that, Pro. Nothing about the comparison changes with your product, your niche or your audience size except where your monthly revenue falls against those three thresholds.
A month that shows the trap
Say you sell 40 copies of that $25 product in a month, $1,000 gross, all direct US card sales, no marketplace traffic.
| Route | Platform fee | Card fee | Monthly plan | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad direct | $120.00 | included | $0 | $880.00 |
| Payhip Free + Stripe | $50.00 | $41.00 | $0 | $909.00 |
| Payhip Plus + Stripe | $20.00 | $41.00 | $29.00 | $910.00 |
| Payhip Pro + Stripe | $0.00 | $41.00 | $99.00 | $860.00 |
At exactly this volume, Free and Plus land one dollar apart, and Pro is the worst of the four options despite charging no transaction fee at all. That is the trap in "0% transaction fee" marketing: a zero percentage with a fixed monthly cost attached is a percentage in disguise, and at $1,000 a month Pro's effective rate is 9.9 percent before you count the card fee.
The case for paying Gumroad more
None of the above says Gumroad is the wrong choice, because the fee table is only measuring one thing. Gumroad runs Discover, a marketplace that can put your product in front of buyers who were not looking for you, and charges 30% on those sales. Payhip has no equivalent, so every Payhip sale has to be one you sourced yourself. If Discover brings you a sale you would not otherwise have made, 70% of something beats 91% of nothing, and the comparison above never sees that, because it only prices sales you already had.
The honest framing is: Payhip is cheaper on demand you generate, Gumroad has a channel that can generate demand at a known price. Compare the two on your own split of direct versus discovered sales, not on the headline rate.
Creator Payout Calculator runs Gumroad, Ko-fi, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy and itch.io against the same gross figure, and keeps the platform cut and the Stripe or PayPal cut as separate inputs, so the all-in versus stacked distinction above is modelled rather than assumed. It also carries the plan breakevens, so you can see which Payhip tier your actual monthly volume belongs in.
Related pages here: the same "the rate is not the bill" problem shows up as surcharges on what Lemon Squeezy actually charges and as two differently shaped models in Ko-fi versus Patreon. The processor half of the Payhip bill is compared on its own in Stripe versus PayPal fees, and residents of Korea should read 해외 후원·판매 플랫폼 수수료, 한국 거주자 기준 first, because Stripe's country list changes which of these routes is available at all.