Gumroad* and Lemon Squeezy are two popular platforms for selling digital products like ebooks, online courses, software, and more.

With Gumroad announcing a price/fee increase last year, many creators were and are still looking for alternatives.

Lemon Squeezy is one of those competitors with lower fees and a lot of cool features.

Today, I’ll compare Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy to help you decide which is the better fit for your creator business.

Why Creators Are Leaving Gumroad

Gumroad* has been the go-to platform for creators for years.

For me as well. I’ve been using Gumroad extensively. Still do.

But other creators have been fleeing Gumroad in droves after the noteworthy price increase was announced.

Gumroad increased fees across the board, but it hurts high-volume sellers the most:

• Old Gumroad pricing: fees as low as 2.9%
• New Gumroad pricing: 10% flat fee on all sales

This 10x increase for some sellers has led to backlash on social media from top creators like Thomas Frank.

Smaller creators also feel put off, knowing their costs will scale up quickly if they find success.

With (for some) too few new features to justify the price hike, creators are motivated to find Gumroad alternatives.

Lemon Squeezy stands out as a top competitor. Thomas Frank switched to them, for example.

Introducing the Lemon Squeezy Platform

Lemon Squeezy is an ecommerce platform for selling digital products. It offers similar features as Gumroad but with lower fees.

It is not as established as Gumroad and hasn’t been in the game that long, but it does offer value.

Lemon Squeezy provides payments, subscriptions, tax compliance including VAT handling, fraud prevention, multi-currency support, and more.

It’s an “all-in-one platform for running your SaaS business” according to their website.

The company behind Lemon Squeezy, Make Lemonade, is a known name in the industry. They also own platforms like Iconic and Premium Pixels.

Comparing Fees: Lemon Squeezy vs. Gumroad

The biggest difference between Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad is the fees:

• Lemon Squeezy: 5% + $0.50 per transaction
• Gumroad: 10% flat fee

Both exclude payment provider fees which will come on top of each sale.

For high-volume sellers, Lemon Squeezy’s fees can be almost half of Gumroad’s.

That’s quite the difference.

Lemon Squeezy provides free email marketing and automation for up to 500 contacts. More contacts cost a reasonable monthly fee.

Gumroad offers built-in email marketing at no extra cost with some powerful features like scheduling and workflows (automations).

Depending on your needs and size of email list, Lemon Squeezy might save you money there or cost more.

Other Benefits of Using Lemon Squeezy

Beyond the lower fees, Lemon Squeezy attracts creators for other reasons:

Seamless integrations

Lemon Squeezy integrates smoothly with other platforms like Zapier, ConvertKit (for even more advanced email marketing), and MailChimp.

Sales tax compliance

As a Merchant of Record, Lemon Squeezy handles tax compliance issues. This is especially useful for sellers in Europe, but proves important for multiple countries around the world.

Gumroad “only” offers UK and EU VAT handling.

Active development

The Lemon Squeezy team frequently adds new features based on user feedback.

Their public roadmap shows what’s coming soon. Transparency is a plus.

More payment options

Lemon Squeezy supports over 16 payment methods to fit the needs of more customers globally. Gumroad has fewer options, but does offer the most important ones.

Potential Drawbacks of Lemon Squeezy

Lemon Squeezy is still new, so it does have some drawbacks:

• The interface isn’t as robust (and intuitive) as Gumroad’s yet, although this is personal preference.
• Smaller brand recognition than Gumroad.
• No internal discovery feature like Gumroad offers
• No online courses

However, Lemon Squeezy is working to improve the interface and customer portal based on their roadmap. And its brand presence is quickly growing.

Lemon Squeezy vs. Gumroad: Verdict

For many digital product sellers, Lemon Squeezy might beat Gumroad when you compare features and pricing.

At least at first glance.

But for the full picture, you’d need to assess the number of email list members you have to calculate the true cost on top of the 5% + 50c fee on each transaction.

Here Gumroad has the slight edge as email members are not limited.

Lemon Squeezy costs less in fees, provides more payment options, takes care of taxes, and integrates smoothly with other platforms.

The only cases where Gumroad may still be better are:

• You sell very low volumes. Lemon Squeezy’s flat $0.50 fee is proportionally larger on small sales.
• You need Gumroad’s established brand name and audience.
• You have a very large email list and rely on internal email marketing tools like Gumroad’s workflows

But for most creators impacted by Gumroad’s price hike, Lemon Squeezy is likely a good alternative. Its fast-growing platform saves you money while providing superior support.

It’s not the only one, however.

Other Top Gumroad Alternatives To Consider

Lemon Squeezy stands out as the closest match to Gumroad, but it’s not the only option. Here are other top Gumroad competitors that certain creators may prefer:

• Payhip* – My top choice as a Gumroad alternative is Payhip with its nice interface, design flexibility, feature set, and support. It lacks email functionality though.
• ConvertKit* Commerce – A good all-around alternative with email marketing integration is ConvertKit, but it has a steep monthly price and doesn’t offer VAT handling
• Podia – Great for online courses with video contentno VAT handling.
• SendOwl – Simple and affordable digital delivery, no VAT handling.
• ThriveCart – Powerful features with one-time pricing, a little more tech knowledge required.

Look into these options more deeply to find what best matches your product type and business needs if Lemon Squeezy isn’t the perfect fit.

The wide range of competitors highlights that Gumroad is no longer the only viable platform out there. You have excellent alternatives to choose from.

The Bottom Line

You don’t have to accept Gumroad’s price hike quietly.

Run the numbers for your business and see if a switch to Lemon Squeezy or another alternative will save you money.

Remember to calculate both monthly costs and sales fees.

You may find significant savings from lower fees and built-in features like email marketing and tax compliance on Lemon Squeezy or Payhip*.

The process of switching platforms is tedious, but some companies help with the transition from Gumroad. Lemon Squeezy is one of them.

Find the best Gumroad* alternative for selling your digital products. With providers like Lemon Squeezy rapidly gaining ground, you have excellent options to choose from.

You can also read my full review of Lemon Squeezy 2024 here ↗.