SoloStore → Gumroad alternative
Gumroad costs nothing until you sell something — and then it costs 10% of everything, for as long as you sell. SoloStore is a one-time licence on your own hosting, taking payments through your Stripe account, with a platform cut of exactly zero.
Short answer: Gumroad is the fastest way to start selling and it costs you nothing until you make money. That is also why it gets expensive: it takes 10% + 50¢ of every sale, forever, and 10% of a good year is a lot of money. SoloStore is $497 once — roughly what Gumroad's cut takes out of your first about $5,000 in sales — and then takes nothing, ever.
10% of $10,000 is $1,000. 10% of $100,000 is $10,000. You pay more for the identical software every time you have a better year.
Sales that come through Gumroad's own marketplace are charged 30%. That can be worth it for traffic you did not have — but it is not 10%.
The store, the checkout and the customer relationship live on Gumroad, on Gumroad's terms, at whatever rate they set next.
Every number below came off the vendor's own pricing page, checked 5 August 2026.
| Gumroad | SoloStore | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay up front | $0 | $497 once |
| Platform cut of each sale | 10% + 50¢ | 0% — always |
| Sales through their marketplace | 30% | n/a — your own traffic |
| Payment processing | included in the 10% | Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, paid to Stripe |
| You keep, on a $50 sale | $44.50 | $48.25 |
| Fees on $50,000 of sales a year | $5,500 to Gumroad | $0 to us · $1,750 to Stripe |
| You keep, year one on $50,000 | $44,500 | $47,669 |
| Five years at $50,000 a year | $27,500 in Gumroad fees | $917 all in |
| You can host it yourself | No | Yes |
| Money lands in your own Stripe | No | Yes |
| Courses & memberships | Yes | Yes |
| Members' community | No | Yes |
| Handles EU VAT for you | Yes | via Stripe managed payments |
Gumroad figures are public list prices from gumroad.com/pricing, checked 5 August 2026. SoloStore's total is the one-time licence plus about $7 a month of self-hosting (Railway and Bunny, paid direct). Stripe's processing fee applies on both sides and is excluded.
A comparison page that only flatters itself is an advert. Here is where Gumroad wins.
Stay on Gumroad if you are starting from zero, if you want Discover to introduce you to buyers, or if you would rather not be the seller of record at all. Below roughly $5,000 a year in sales, 10% of not very much is cheaper than $497 — the maths only turns once you are actually selling.
Two services, no markup, nothing paid to us — and a five-minute setup with no code and no terminal.
Not sure what self-hosting means in practice? Watch the five-minute setup video — it is the entire process, start to finish.
Other questions? Shoot me an email — matt@mattgiaro.com