What is Gumroad and How Can Creators Use It? [2024 Review]

If you’re looking for an online platform to sell digital products, there are many choices out there. It can be tricky to find the right one for your content, budget, branding, and goals. Gumroad is a popular ecommerce platform that has become a household name in recent years – but is it the best choice for your content, courses, and products?

Read on for a complete 2024 review of Gumroad and what it has to offer.  

What is Gumroad?  

Gumroad is an ecommerce platform that allows creators of all kinds to sell digital products to a worldwide audience. First established in 2011, it has grown to become one of the most popular platforms due to its simplicity and ease of use.  

With no barriers to entry, comprehensive management tools, and opportunities to help customers discover your products, Gumroad is a top choice for many online creators. Over 16,000 live stores are running on Gumroad with 27,000 customers throughout 2023.  

What is Gumroad Used For?

Gumroad allows users to sell a wide range of digital products. A glance at their landing page shows products separated into various categories. These include:  

• 3D & 2D assets 
• Design courses 
• Icon bundles  
• Educational courses 
• Artwork 
• Novels & short stories 
• Audio files 
• Music 
• Films 
• Games 

It can be difficult to surmise the entire catalog of products listed on this platform. But in short, Gumroad lets you list digital products spanning various creative fields. If you are a creator looking for tutorials or resources for your creative field, there’s a good chance Gumroad will have something for you.  

This makes it a great place for sellers. While there are some guidelines and restrictions about what you can sell on the platform, you will generally be able to sell your online products without any issues.  

How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Gumroad?

Gumroad functions with a simple pricing plan. The pricing is 10% flat for all products sold on the website. The platform does not have a monthly subscription fee to pay, nor does it have scaling fees depending on how well your products are doing. However, 10% is quite a hefty fee for selling your products.

When it comes to payment, Gumroad also makes this process as simple as possible. Depending on where you live in the world, there are slight differences in this process – however, it is likely to be either through Direct Deposit or PayPal.  

How Much Can Your Earn On Gumroad? 

Gumroad boasts that just this week, sellers have earned over $3,000,000 in revenue across the platform. This should give you an idea of the amount of people who buy and sell products online. However, Gumroad has a focus on helping smaller creators to earn their first $1 on the platform.  

In many ways, Gumroad has become a good place for smaller creators to sell their products.

Setting Up a Gumroad Account

With simplicity as one of their main focuses, creating an account and selling products on Gumroad is simple. On their website’s main page, click the login button, then the sign up button to get started.  

From here, you will need to enter an authentication token that will be delivered to your inbox. After you have entered this, the entirety of Gumroad is open to you – it’s as simple as that! 

How to Sell on Gumroad – Main Features & Tools

While Gumroad is a simple platform, it includes a variety of different tools to help you when selling your products. Most of these tools can be accessed from the dashboard on the left-hand side of your desktop screen. Each one helps with a different aspect of marketing, analytics, and selling. Here is an overview of the features on Gumroad:

Home 

A simple Home screen that gives you an activity feed and a series of Getting Started guides. Once you have products listed on the site, you’ll be able to see any recent sales listed at the bottom of this tab. 

Products 

Next is your Products screen, where you can find a list of your products. Within this page, there are also tabs for Gumroad’s Discover feature, affiliated products and collabs. You can click on each of these to track any associated sales. 

Collaborators 

Gumroad allows you to share your products with people who have helped you to create your products. You can list Collaborators on this page, and they will automatically be given a share of your revenue.  

Checkout  

Next is a simple Checkout screen, where you can tailor the customer checkout experience. Gumroad allows you to add Discounts, customize your Checkout form and add Upsells.  

Emails 

Gumroad also allows you to manage emails and connect with your customers. From this page, you can add a list of emails. There are four tabs – Publish, Scheduled, Drafts and Subscribers.  

Workflows  

The Workflows page of your Gumroad account enables you to easily automate emails. Here, you can create a new workflow that will send scheduled emails to a subset of your customer base. This helps you to get the right advertisement to the right people, at the right time.  

Sales  

The Sales page is designed as the central place where you can manage any sale you make on the platform. Each time a new customer buys from you, their email address and other details will be added here.  

Analytics 

Anyone selling products online knows how important analytics and insights can be. Gumroad makes this information easily accessible with its Analytics page. Once you make your first sale, this information will become available to you.  

You can switch between two tabs – following and sales. Clicking on Following will show you more information about your customers. Sales will let you know more about general sales analytics.  

Payouts 

The final tab on your dashboard is dedicated to breaking down your earnings. This information is displayed to you simply. In the top left corner, you’ll see your Balance, giving you an overview of what you have in your account.  

To learn more, the other information listed is broken down into what you have made in the past 7 and 30 days. There is also a counter for your Total Earnings. Keep in mind you have to reach a balance of $10 to be paid out for your sales.  

Library 

You will also have access to a Library tab. This is useful if you are purchasing products from other sellers, as it lets you see a list of everything you have bought. You can also create a series of Wishlists for things you might want to purchase in the future. Additionally, there is a handy tab for market research.   

Help & Settings 

The final two tabs on your dashboard are the Help and Settings tabs. Help will send you to a collection of articles that aim to answer common user issues and queries. For example, help on how you can add a product or contact Gumroad. 

The Settings tab gives you a comprehensive list of settings for you to tweak to your liking. You can customize notifications, payment options, and third-party analytics, or make advanced changes such as mass blocking emails, creating a custom domain, or creating custom applications.  

The Pros & Cons of Selling on Gumroad

Now that we’ve covered the main features and tools of Gumroad, let’s consider whether it’s a good choice for sellers. Gumroad is a popular platform with a large user base for a reason – but what are some of its strongest points and shortcomings? 

Pros:

Ease of use 
Firstly, Gumroad is a remarkably simple platform to use. To list a product, all you need to do is upload some preview images, write a description, and add an auto-generated link to your own website. There are few hoops to jump through but everything is easy for both you and your potential customers.  

Direct customer information 
Gumroad connects you to customers directly. This allows you to build comprehensive email lists and provide them with additional products and services after the first sale. 

Clear analytics 
When it comes to analytics, Gumroad makes data very accessible. You will be able to see the origin of your sales (for example, Google searches or social media), and how many times each product has been purchased and viewed. This enables you to make informed decisions and enhance your marketing.  

Collaboration 
If your products are created through collaboration, Gumroad makes sharing revenue easy. With a simple collaborators tab, you can split the revenue with a few clicks. This makes the website a strong choice for products that have been designed by multiple parties.  

Cons 

Customization 
A big downside of Gumroad is the lack of options they give you with customization. While there are some small parts of your sales page that you can customize, these are limited. If your brand has a strong image, you may lose some of this when selling on Gumroad.  

Organization 
If you only have a few products listed, Gumroad may seem perfectly organized. Unfortunately, as your business grows, you’ll find it more difficult to keep track of all your products and sales. This is because Gumroad lists products in the order they were uploaded and doesn’t offer any ways to categorize them. This can be frustrating if you are a seller with many products.  

Affiliates  
Affiliates are a great way to promote your products. However, Gumroad struggles a little in this area. There is an option to add affiliates to your products, but there is no option to have a sign-up page for them.  

This means you’ll have to add any affiliates manually instead. Unfortunately, they will have to have their own Gumroad accounts. The process is quite frustrating as a result, particularly if you have a lot of affiliates.  

Memberships/digital courses 
Gumroad does have the option to create membership services, but it’s far from the best option if you want to sell a digital course or tutorial. Similarly, Gumroad is not a platform designed for managing courses, so it lacks more extensive management features that allow you to connect with your users over long periods – especially if you have a lot of them!  

Pricing
While Gumroad pricing is simple, it is on the expensive side. Gumroad takes 10% of your income, which is a large chunk of money no matter how much you make a month.

The Best Gumroad Alternative: Whop 

Gumroad is one of the simplest ecommerce platforms out there, but this simplicity comes at a cost. If you’re looking to build a more personalized and streamlined experience for your customers, it might not be the best choice for you.  

For a more customizable and scalable experience, Whop is the perfect alternative. Whop is a social commerce platform that enables creators to sell digital products, including downloads, courses, group memberships, and eBooks.  

If you like the simplicity of a platform like Gumroad, Whop follows the same ethos. Simply create your Whop hub and add the apps you want to sell the products your customers need, all in one place. Keep your customers in your hub where they can access eBooks, courses, files, community chat, forums, online events, and anything else that you want to include in your hub. Whop also includes a comprehensive dashboard that lets you access every aspect of your business, from marketing and finances to users, links, trading, and sales operations.  

Compared to Gumroad, Whop has:

• Lower fees: Whop fees are just 3%.
• Increased variety: With Whop you can sell a wider variety of products, giving creators more options for monetization and multiple revenue streams.
• Superior customer service: Whop's customer service is available 24/7, 365 days a year.
• Increased discoverability: The Whop marketplace has already processed more than $350,000,000 in sales and is continuing to grow.

When you sell online with Whop you are joining a community of successful entrepreneurs who are thriving in the creator economy. With low fees, a huge marketplace, and an incredibly intuitive platform it is easy to see why Whop is the best choice. Check out Whop today - you won't be disappointed!