At $1,000 in monthly digital-product sales, the platforms in this guide can cost anywhere from $15 to more than $100 before payment processing. The cheapest option depends on what you sell, how much you sell, and whether you need courses, tax handling, a custom domain, or a broader creator toolkit.
This guide compares five platforms creators commonly put behind a social bio link: Links on Link, Stan Store, Beacons, Linktree, and Gumroad. Four combine a profile page with commerce. Gumroad is included as the storefront-first alternative many creators link to from a bio.
I built Links on Link, so this is a founder-authored competitive comparison. To keep the evaluation useful, every platform is judged on the same five criteria: fixed cost, platform fee, product support, brand control, and operational burden. Each platform also gets a clear reason not to choose it.
Pricing check: The prices and platform fees below were checked against public platform pages on July 15, 2026. Prices are shown in USD at monthly billing rates unless noted. Plans change, so re-check the linked source before moving a store. Stripe, PayPal, card-processing, taxes, refunds, and currency-conversion charges are excluded unless a section explicitly says otherwise.
| Platform | Entry setup | Lowest 0% platform-fee plan | Main tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Links on Link | Creator: $6/month + 5% | Pro: $15/month | No permanent free plan or course builder |
| Stan Store | Creator: $29/month + 0% | Creator: $29/month | No connected custom domain; advanced funnels require Pro |
| Beacons | Free: $0 + 9% | Creator Plus: $30/month | The $10 Creator plan still charges 9% |
| Linktree | Free: $0 + 12% | Premium: $35/month | Paid products are country-limited; lower tiers charge 9% |
| Gumroad | No monthly fee; 10% + $0.50 per direct sale | None | Higher direct-sale take; limited link-in-bio control |
| Platform | Free selling plan | Custom domain | Courses or memberships | Built-in email tools | Merchant of record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Links on Link | No | Yes | No | Lead capture and CSV export | No |
| Stan Store | No | No | Yes | Collection on Creator; marketing on Pro | No |
| Beacons | Yes | Creator and above | Creator Plus and above | Yes | No |
| Linktree | Yes, in supported countries | No connected custom domain | Yes | Collection and integrations | No |
| Gumroad | Yes | Product storefront, not a bio-page domain | Yes | Customer updates | Yes |
At $1,000 in monthly sales across 20 direct orders, platform subscriptions and platform fees alone work out approximately like this:
| Setup | Approximate platform cost |
|---|---|
| Links on Link Pro | $15 |
| Stan Creator | $29 |
| Beacons Creator Plus | $30 |
| Linktree Premium | $35 |
| Gumroad direct sales | $110 |
This is not the total cost of accepting payment. Stripe or PayPal charges are excluded from Links on Link, Stan, Beacons, and Linktree. The Gumroad figure is its listed direct-sale platform take: 10% of $1,000 plus $0.50 across 20 orders. Gumroad’s help center says card-processing or PayPal fees may also apply.
Links on Link combines a page builder, digital-product delivery, email capture, branded short links, custom domains, QR codes, and analytics. A photographer can sell a preset pack, link to a booking calendar, collect emails, and measure which campaign produced the clicks without maintaining separate link and storefront subscriptions.
The Creator plan costs $6 per month and charges a 5% platform fee on digital-product sales. The Pro plan costs $15 per month and reduces the platform fee to 0%. Stripe processing still applies.
The break-even calculation is $9 plan difference ÷ 5% fee = $180. Above $180 in monthly sales, Pro’s extra subscription cost is lower than the Creator plan’s platform fee.
Choose Links on Link when your bio page needs to do several jobs and you care about keeping the page, links, products, and analytics under one brand. See the full pricing and plan limits or compare it directly with Stan Store, Beacons, and Gumroad.
Stan is closer to a compact creator-commerce suite than a traditional link-in-bio page. Its $29 Creator plan includes digital products, courses, recurring subscriptions, lead magnets, booking tools, community features, and store analytics. Creator Pro costs $99 per month and adds funnels, upsells, order bumps, affiliate tools, email flows, discount codes, and more advanced analytics.
Stan charges 0% in platform transaction fees. Stripe or PayPal processing fees still apply.
stan.store/yourusername; it does not support connecting your own domain directlyStan is a strong choice for a coach, educator, or established creator whose sales process depends on courses and funnels. It is harder to justify if you mainly need a polished page, digital downloads, custom branding, and analytics.
Beacons combines a link-in-bio page, store, media kit, email marketing, invoicing, and brand-outreach tools. It offers more creator-business functions than a basic bio-page product.
The Free plan supports unlimited digital products but charges a 9% seller fee. The $10 Creator plan adds features including a custom domain and more email sends, but it still charges 9% on sales. The $30 Creator Plus plan removes Beacons’ seller fee and adds memberships, courses, order bumps, buy-now-pay-later options, and unlimited email sends.
Beacons makes sense when sponsorships, email campaigns, and a media kit are central to your business. If direct product margin is the priority, compare the $30 Creator Plus plan against lower-cost 0% fee plans elsewhere.
Linktree is no longer only a list of links. It now supports paid digital downloads and courses, Stripe checkout, automatic file delivery, customer information collection, and earnings tracking.
Its commerce fees vary sharply by plan: 12% on Free, 9% on Starter and Pro, and 0% on Premium. Linktree’s pricing page currently lists monthly rates of $8 for Starter, $15 for Pro, and $35 for Premium. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly rates to $6, $12, and $30.
Digital-product selling is also limited to supported countries. Linktree currently allows up to 24 files per product, with a 100 MB limit per file and 1 GB total across the product.
Linktree is reasonable when simplicity and familiarity matter more than margin or infrastructure. If a creator is already generating regular sales, the fee difference deserves a calculation rather than a guess. See our detailed Links on Link vs Linktree comparison.
Gumroad is not primarily a link-in-bio tool. It is a digital-commerce platform that can host a profile and product pages. Its major operational advantage is that it acts as merchant of record, handling sales-tax collection and remittance for transactions it processes.
There is no monthly subscription. Gumroad lists a fee of 10% + $0.50 per transaction for sales through your profile or direct links. Sales found through Gumroad Discover carry a 30% fee. Gumroad’s help center also says card-processing or PayPal fees may apply to direct sales.
Gumroad is compelling when tax administration is the deciding factor or when a seller wants to launch without a monthly commitment. It is less attractive when most buyers already come from your own audience and you could retain more revenue with a flat monthly plan.
Start with product type and monthly sales, then eliminate platforms that fail a hard requirement.
stan.store URL is acceptable for your brandAlso check what you can take with you. Export your subscribers and sales records before cancelling an existing platform. If courses, memberships, or customer access are hosted inside the old platform, moving the files is the easy part; rebuilding access and communication is the real migration cost.
Here are three concrete starting points:
Links on Link is not the right recommendation when courses, memberships, or a free selling plan are non-negotiable. It is the relevant choice when the product is a downloadable file and the same business also needs branded pages, short links, lead capture, QR codes, and conversion analytics.
Review the complete Links on Link plan limits first. If the product fits, start a 7-day Pro trial and test the full path from campaign link to completed sale.