10 Best Platforms To Sell Digital Products for Profit in 2023

If you’re an artist, ebook writer, musician, or have a creative flair, finding the best platform to sell digital products matters a lot.

Choosing the right platform can leave you more time and energy to focus on your next masterpiece.

When global transactions are expected to reach a staggering $9.04 trillion by 2027, you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity.

To help you discover where to sell digital products, we’ve compiled some excellent options.

This article will guide you to the best places to sell digital downloads. We’ll shed light on the perks of selling digital items and the different platform types available.

So, keep reading, because we’re about to embark on an exciting journey!

Benefits of Selling Digital Products

Here are five fantastic reasons digital products are shaking up the income game:

Did you know you can sell digital downloads, with or without a website?

Types of Platforms to Sell Digital Products

Before we share our ideas on where to sell digital products, let’s get familiar with the three main types of platforms you’ll use.

All of the ideals that follow will use one of these options.

Self-hosted Platform

Imagine having your own digital kingdom. Your own eCommerce store created with WordPress and a flexible theme.

You’re the master here, controlling your website, products, and style. Toss in eCommerce systems like SureCart, WooCommerce, or Easy Digital Downloads, and you can manage everything from payments to email outreach.

Benefit:

You’re in charge, and there are no fees except web hosting.

Challenge:

Be ready for more hands-on work – think hosting, updates, and keeping your website secure. Ready for the challenge?

Alternatively, you can outsource these technical aspects to a web development company, allowing you to focus more on the creative and business sides of your digital product sales.

Hosted Platforms

Picture this: a readymade digital store managed by third-party platforms like Podia, Gumroad, SendOwl, or Wix.

They handle the nitty-gritty – setting up your site, keeping it secure, and managing updates.

Benefit:

Quick and easy setup, so you can focus on your products.

Challenge:

You’ll have less say in design and functionality, plus the platform takes a monthly fee or a slice of your sales. Worth it?

Hybrid Platforms

Now, the best of both worlds – hybrid platforms. Start with a slick WordPress website, make it your own.

Then, bring in heavy hitters like SamCart or Payhip to handle sales. Spice things up with extras like email marketing, analytics, or webinars to supercharge your sales game.

Benefit:

More control and customization without the DIY complexity.

Challenge:

You’ll cover costs for both your website hosting and the hybrid platform service fee.

10 Best Platforms to Sell Digital Products

Platform	Pricing	Extra charges	Features	Ease of use
SureCart	Starts at $99/yr | Free plan available	No	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gumroad	Free to join | 10% flat fee on sale	No	⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sellfy	Starts at $29/mo	No	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Payhip	Starts at $29/mo | Free plan available	2% or 5% transaction fee	⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Podia	Starts at $33/mo | Free plan available	8% fee on free plan	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
SamCart	Starts at $79/mo | 7 days free plan	No	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Etsy	$0.20 per sale	3% +$0.25 transaction charges	⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Patreon	Starts with 5% per sale (platform fee)	No	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
SendOwl	Starts at $9/mo | 3 months free plan	5% per order fee	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
AppSumo	70% revenue share	No	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

No matter what kind of digital product you want to sell, these online marketplaces can help you sell a wide variety of digital products.

Let’s begin!

1. SureCart – Your Own Website

If you already have a WordPress website or are planning to set one up, SureCart is the best plugin to sell digital products.

With this kind of solution, you don’t need to share your revenue with anyone. Whatever profit you make is all yours!

SureCart is a robust eCommerce solution that naturally integrates with multiple payment gateways.

This allows you to receive payments in multiple currencies and a payment method that suits your audience.

You can sell literally any product including physical items and services however you want.

SureCart works with PayPal, Stripe and Mollie out of the box. While more payment processors such as RazorPay or MercadoPago are on the way, you are never short of payment options.

If you want to offer one time payments, installments, subscriptions, pay as you like or accept a combination, SureCart has your back.

When it comes to security and ease of use, this cloud-based solution has no match. It’s built on the same technology that platforms like Stripe, Twitter, Slack and Shopify use so it’s completely secure.

Pricing:

• Free plan (up to 100 products)
• Premium plans start at $99 per year

Pros	Cons
Built-in abandoned cart recovery tool.	SureCart requires a WordPress website to work.
Multi language support.	Free plan doesn’t include many lucrative features.
Cloud based solution keep your website fast and responsive.
Multiple currencies, multiple payment methods and options.

Our opinion

With SureCart you can build the best website for selling digital products. Whatever type of product you want to sell, you will never run short of features. It’s cost effective, secure, fast and modern!

The benefits are immense. You keep all the profit, you build and own your community and you can customize everything however you want.

If you want the best of the best, try using it with the Astra theme and SureMembers – a solid community management plugin.

2. Gumroad

If you’re just starting out and don’t have a website yet, Gumroad could be just what you’re looking for.

It’s a go-to platform for selling a variety of digital products, from music to online courses, printables to digital art, ebooks, and templates.

What’s awesome about Gumroad is its simplicity. You get a place to showcase your name, products, and the all-important buy button – no fuss, no frills.

The best part is, you can sell products on Gumroad or embed the products on your website.

We love the feature that lets you publish posts, perfect for keeping your customers and followers in the loop. Business is all about building a community and engaging with your audience and this helps.

But that’s not all – Gumroad also serves up detailed analytics. Track your sales, customer locations, and currency conversion rates. Visualize your monthly earnings in an interactive way.

Gumroad lets you access your customers’ email addresses. Build that email list and run targeted campaigns right from the platform.

Feel free to upload files up to a hefty 16GB, and there’s no limit to how many files you can attach to a single product.

Pricing:

• Gumroad is free to join and charges 10% commission on each sale.

Pros	Cons
Easily embed the Gumroad checkout button on your website.	Lacks some advanced features.
Built-in gated content features.	No support for Google Pay, Apple Pay, or cryptocurrency.
Offer discounts and upsells.	The 10% flat fee can add up for high-volume sales.
No fees for using Gumroad tools until you make a sale.

Our opinion

Gumroad is one of the best places to sell digital downloads. It’s user-friendly and equipped with the essentials to kickstart your digital sales journey.

However, as sales grow, you might want to explore more cost-effective options.

3. Sellfy

Sellfy is a beginner friendly platform, just like Gumroad and is known for its simplicity.

It’s useful for small businesses, creators, and even larger online stores.

With Sellfy, you have everything you need in one place. You can sell digital items, stream videos, offer subscriptions, and sell physical products.

Customize how you charge for subscriptions, like a fitness instructor who uses monthly payments for automatic content access.

Customers can pay with PayPal or Stripe, and setting up your store takes less than an hour.

What’s cool is that Sellfy has built-in marketing tools, even in the basic plan, with email marketing and discounts. Higher tier plans offer upselling and cart abandonment tools to boost sales.

You can upload as many files as you want with your products. If they’re particularly large, just reach out to the support team.

Pricing:

• Sellfy charges no transaction fees but has three plans starting at $29 a month. For sales over $200k, a custom plan can be built.

Pros	Cons
You can sell anything.	Platform integrations aren’t enough for power users.
Promotional tools built-in.	There’s not much customization in the basic interface.
Sellfy products can be embedded anywhere.	The starter plan includes a Sellfy logo. You can remove it on higher plans.

Our opinion

It’s easy to set up your Sellfy store, especially if you don’t have a website. But if you have, you don’t have to deal with developers. Just plug your store in and away you go.

The Sellfy platform offers handy features like payments, analytics, and email marketing tools for small stores. However, if your project is big, you might need some extra features.

4. Payhip

Payhip is a great place to sell digital downloads. In fact, it’s an ideal platform for solopreneurs on a budget.

It helps you set up your online store, list products (digital or physical), and take care of customers. You also get nifty sales stats to boost your game.

Here’s the best part: when you sell your digital goodies, the money goes straight into your PayPal account – no waiting around.

With Payhip, you’ve got a bunch of helpful tools at your disposal. You can track who’s checking out your stuff, your daily sales, where your visitors are coming from, and how many are turning into happy customers.

You can even whip up coupons and special discount codes.

If you want to partner up with others to promote and sell digital products, Payhip lets you recruit, manage, and reward your affiliates.

If you’re a WordPress user, adding products and Buy Now buttons to your website is a breeze.

Don’t forget about those mailing lists – they help customers stay in the loop about your digital products.

You can even let customers choose how much they want to pay for your products. It’s all about giving you the tools to make your digital business thrive. 🚀

Pricing

• The Free plan charges a 5% transaction fee, which drops to 2% for Plus ($29/month) and zero for Pro ($99/month).

Pros	Cons
A drag and drop storefront builder.	Payment gateways are limited.
Decent marketing tools and email list integration.	Analytics could be more in-depth.
Payhip’s checkout buttons work on any website.	SEO tools aren’t good enough on their own.

Our opinion

Payhip is free to begin which is reason enough to use it. It’s got cool features, works with different product types, and you can build your website with it or add it to your current one.

Just keep in mind, it only accepts payments from PayPal and Stripe and there are no SEO tools for boosting traffic.

5. Podia

If you’re all about teaching online or selling online courses, Podia is a great choice.

It makes hosting courses, setting up a cool online store, handling payments, and keeping control super easy. Great for teachers and businesses!

Keep in mind, it’s easy because it keeps things simple. You can’t do many fancy customizations.

All you can do is tweak the main color, background, headings, text, and buttons to match your style.

The page builder is a breeze to use and lets you spruce up your Podia store with readymade items.

You can put all sorts of items on Podia, like videos and audio, with loads of space for videos. Uploading is easy, but you can’t grab things from Google Drive or Dropbox.

Podia takes care of tech stuff like website hosting and security. They even toss in a free subdomain or let you use your own domain.

Podia also keeps things simple when it comes to sales and marketing. If you are looking for advanced sales funnels and email marketing features, you should look beyond Podia.

For payments, they work with Stripe and PayPal. So people can pay with cards or PayPal, and you get your money right away.

Pricing

• Podia charges an 8% fee with the free plan. Premium plans starting at $33/month have no transaction fees.

Pros	Cons
Allows unlimited courses and products.	Podia values simplicity over extensive customization.
Built-in email marketing tools for broadcasts, campaigns, and automation.	No mobile app.
Embeddable checkouts and upsells on external websites.	Website customization options are basic.
Affiliate program is only available with premium plans.	The absence of product categorization leads to a less user-friendly storefront.

Our review

Podia is a one-stop platform for selling courses, memberships, and webinars. It’s not the best for fancy websites or advanced courses, but it’s great if you like everything in one place and don’t want extra bells and whistles.

Need more choices to decide on a platform for your online courses? We have put together some advanced course selling platforms here.

6. SamCart

SamCart has quite an impressive track record, having sold over 9.7 million products and processed $3.5 billion for digital creators.

It’s the go-to platform for online sellers who want a slick checkout page that comes with lots of features to boost conversions.

SamCart offers predesigned templates so you don’t have to spend time to start your business. But if you want customization it’s easy to create checkout pages from scratch.

You also get lots of things in-house. You can start selling products and accepting payments without third-party integrations.

Similarly, A/B testing helps you find the best checkout setup, making your process super efficient.

To make things easy for customers, you can offer all sorts of payment options on one page, like selling something for $200 upfront or offering 4x payments of $50.

In addition to the one-click upsell feature, SamCart also offers pre-purchase order bumps, where you can turn one sale into multiple sales.

SmartCart uses Smart Pixel Tracking, affiliates, subscription saver, and cart recovery. These features are your secret weapons for making more sales and increasing your profits.

Pricing

• SmartCart offers three plans. Basic plan starts at $79/mo.

Pros	Cons
No coding skills required to set up the store.	Pricing is high, starting at $79/mo for the basic plan.
Multiple payments, multilingual and multi currency.	Apple Pay and cryptocurrency are not supported.
Take a 7-day free trial before deciding on a plan.	Pre-designed checkout pages are limited.
You can sell unlimited products.
Automated payment reminders.

Our opinion

If you want to sell stuff online, SamCart is a great pick. It’s simple, plays nice with payment tools, has cool checkout page templates, and makes upselling easy.

It’s not budget-friendly but lets you increase sales with payment options, discounts, coupons, and bump offers.

7. Etsy

If you’re looking to sell digital stuff, Etsy is the place to be, with a whopping 95 million active buyers. It’s perfect if you create unique digital items like planners, templates, or wallpapers.

Getting started is a breeze. Just make a seller account, give your shop a catchy name, describe your products, set prices, and you’re good to go.

Etsy Payments lets you accept different payment methods, so your customers can pay however they like.

Fees are pretty low. They only take a small cut from each sale, so you get to keep more of your earnings. Plus, they offer Pattern, a feature that lets you create a store that matches your brand.

When someone buys one of your digital items, Etsy delivers it right away. No waiting around. And if you want to know how your products are doing, Etsy has some handy analytics tools to help you out.

But, there are a few challenges to keep in mind. Watch out for copycats who might try to copy your stuff. It’s important to know your rights and protect your unique creations.

Etsy is getting stricter with their rules, so it’s essential to stay updated to avoid any issues. You can’t control what others do, but you can focus on making great products that people want.

In a nutshell, Etsy is a fantastic place to sell digital products. It’s easy, affordable, and offers lots of exposure. Just keep being creative, offering excellent service, and using those handy tools to grow your shop.

Pricing

• For every listing or product you add, Etsy charges a $0.20 fee. There’s also a 6.5% transaction fee and 3% + $0.25 for payment processing.

Pros	Cons
Get your digital creation in front of millions of people.	It’s hard to compete with millions of sellers and stand out.
It’s much easier to set up a shop and list products.	Limited control over your shop.
Etsy offers in-depth analytics to optimize listings.	Fee structure becomes expensive as you sell more.

Our opinion

Selling digital items on Etsy is a great way to reach millions of people without spending money upfront. But it takes time and effort to make personalized items, and you need to promote your shop on social media and be nice to customers to build a good reputation.

If your product is unique and you need to showcase it to a large audience, try Etsy.

8. Patreon

If you’ve been sharing your creativity on social media and want to make more money while connecting with fans, Patreon could be for you.

Patreon is a platform just for creators where you can offer exclusive content, access, and events to fans who pay a subscription. It also supports membership levels, so you can earn steady income.

The cool thing is Patreon lets you sell all kinds of digital creations for all ages – podcasts, videos, images, ebooks, music, art, online courses. Anything you can create digitally.

For example, say you’re a YouTuber. You could sell a special video tutorial teaching people your best tips for a great recording setup. If you’re an author, you could share short stories. There’s lots of options.

It’s easy to sell your digital products on Patreon. Joining is free, and you just need to:

• Figure out who your target audience is
• Check out what else is being sold to get ideas
• Create and upload your product
• Promote your product to start earning

There are so many success stories on Patreon. For instance, Achewood publishes weekly comics and Archvillain Games sells downloadable 3D models – all through paid memberships.

Overall there are over 228,000 creators on Patreon sharing videos, podcasts, and more. So it’s worth exploring if you want to earn more as a creator.

Pricing

• Lite: 5% platform fee + processing fees
• Pro: 8% platform fee + processing fees
• Premium: 12% platform fee + processing fees

Pros	Cons
There are no deadlines.	It takes a lot of time to manage.
Patreon is easy to use.	Limited search functionality has made it tough to discover new creators and content.
Mobile app increases footprint.	Users facing subscription charges for closed creator accounts struggle to get refunds.
Content on Patreon is exclusive – a supportive factor for creators.	Patreon’s fees look high compared to competitors.
	The customer service could be improved.

Our opinion

If you create indie games, draw cartoons, write, make podcasts, create music, Patreon is just what you need.

It’s especially useful if you already have a big YouTube following or tons of friends on Twitter, because getting folks to support you regularly can be quite a challenge.

9. SendOwl

SendOwl allows you to easily sell products online through your website, Shopify store, or social media profiles.

It handles the shopping cart, checkout, and digital delivery so you don’t have to. It also securely processes payments for you.

Beyond selling, SendOwl provides other tools to manage your online business:

• Marketing features like upsells, coupons, and cart abandonment recovery
• VAT, tax management and sales analytics
• Customizable branding and checkout templates
• Order and income reporting

With SendOwl, you can sell digital files, physical products, subscriptions, and more.

You simply create your product catalog and connect your payment gateways. Then embed your store on your website, Shopify, or social media to start selling.

If you don’t have an existing site, you can use SendOwl’s basic storefront to showcase up to 10 products. While not as robust as a full ecommerce store, it gets the job done.

Key selling features include drip content delivery, bundles, presales, upsells, and “pay what you want” options.

Pricing:

• Free for three months, then $9 per month. Higher tier plans start at $15/month

Pros	Cons
A wide range of customization options.	Expenses such as recurring payments and plan limits are hidden.
Email marketing and affiliate marketing tools built-in.	It’s a checkout solution and not an eCommerce platform.
Reports and analytics shows a detailed overview.

Our opinion

SendOwl is good for selling digital products, but it has both good and not-so-good parts. It’s simple to use, lets you customize your store, and it’s budget-friendly.

This makes it a good option for small businesses and people who want to sell digital products without a lot of trouble.

10. AppSumo

AppSumo, created by Noah Kagan, is a marketplace that simplifies entrepreneurship. For software developers, we think it’s the best platform to sell digital products.

With 1.25 million entrepreneurs using it, AppSumo offers various digital tools for business growth, covering marketing, sales, and SEO.

You can sell your digital creations and get paid immediately. AppSumo is a hotspot for startups looking to showcase and sell their solutions to a broad audience.

They have millions of followers and a vast network of affiliates, making it a great place for product launches.

One of the best perks of launching your product on AppSumo is that it won’t cost you anything.

Here’s how it works: They assess your product to see if it’s a good fit for their audience, called Sumo-lings.

If it fits, you’ll work with their team to plan your marketing strategy, including email marketing, highlighting your product’s uniqueness, advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and creating compelling videos.

Now, you might be wondering how AppSumo makes money. They use a 70/30 split, taking 70% of your earnings.

While it might seem steep, startups get numerous benefits like annual and monthly subscriptions, valuable user feedback, social proof, and word-of-mouth product exposure.

Pricing:

• It’s free to join AppSumo, but they take 70% of your revenue

Pros	Cons
Access to a large audience right away.	You don’t get ongoing revenue from limited-time deals.
Cost-free marketing.	High commission rate.
Reviews from real users.	Product evaluations are rigorous.
Bootstrapping support for SaaS startups.	Your pricing may not reflect your product’s real value.

Our opinion

AppSumo is a fantastic platform for SaaS businesses to showcase their software deals and digital products. If your product meets their high standards, you can get featured on their website, newsletters, and YouTube channel, which can bring in lots of customers.

However, keep in mind that AppSumo takes a share of your earnings, so consider the costs.

Final Thoughts

Selling digital products online is a fantastic way to generate income with ease and reach a global audience. It’s a win-win situation for digital creators!

Given the rapid growth of the creator economy, more digital entrepreneurs are looking for the best platform to sell digital products.

We think each of the platforms featured in this post gives you everything you need for success.

Which platform do you believe is the best for selling your digital creations? Share your stories with us in the comments below!