What do digital product platforms actually take?

Pulled on 25 August 2026 from each vendor’s public pricing page (Gumroad, Payhip, systeme.io, Podia, Sellfy, and Stan Store via its pricing blog post updated on 22 July 2026). Beacons refused automated reading of its page: its figures come from a third-party survey verified in April 2026. Amounts in each vendor’s own currency.

500 of monthly revenue, in each platform’s own currency. The “on top” processing fees are estimated at the standard rate these vendors publish (2.9% + 0.30 per transaction, so 20.50 across 20 sales); at Stripe a European card costs less — the ranking doesn’t move.

Three takeaways. At this volume everything happens between 20 and 90 a month — the gap between platforms is real, but it isn’t what decides a first sale. The systeme.io free plan is the cheapest precisely because it does almost nothing for you: it’s a funnel builder, the page and the product are still yours to write. Novoca free (€70.50) and Novoca Pro (€49.50) sit close at 500 of sales: that’s the switching zone, calculated below.

A 0% subscription beats a commission once monthly revenue passes subscription ÷ commission rate. That’s the whole calculation.

To find your own switching point at your own price, the price calculator gives it directly — at €29 a copy, Pro pays off from ten sales a month.

Pricing pages show a percentage, and the eye stops there. But every transaction also carries a flat fee — €0.25 at Novoca, 0.30 at the standard Stripe and PayPal rate, $0.50 on top of the 10% at Gumroad. It doesn’t scale with the price, so its relative weight explodes as the price falls.

Three practical consequences. A product under 5 leaves a disproportionate share to payment processing, whatever the platform — that’s the arithmetic argument against underpricing. An order bump taken in the same transaction doesn’t pay a second flat fee: it’s the cheapest way there is to raise a basket. And a bundle at 29 leaves proportionally more than a single item at 9 sold three times, at equal revenue.

Comparing percentages only means something at equal service. These services aren’t equal:

1 The tax handling (Gumroad)

Merchant of Record since 2025: Gumroad invoices the buyer, collects and remits the VAT of their country. For a seller shipping across borders without a structure, that’s a genuine load off — and part of what the 10% pays for.

2 Funnels and email (systeme.io, Podia, Stan Pro)

Email sequences, capture pages, upsells: useful once you have an audience to work. Useless in the month you’re hunting your first sale — and charged every month either way.

3 The page, the hosting and the delivery (Novoca)

The 10% pays for the written sales page, file hosting, checkout, automated delivery and the online reader where the buyer reads the product and asks it questions — whether you uploaded your own file or let Novoca write a first version. Stripe processing fees are billed separately, as elsewhere.

4 The multi-link page (Stan Store, Beacons)

One page gathering products, bookings, socials, newsletter. If you sell coaching or several products, it’s the right tool; if you sell one product, it’s one more homepage between TikTok and the buy button.

The honest way to compare, then, is to write down the two or three jobs you actually need doing this month — the page, the tax handling, the funnel, the product itself — and cross out every line you’re paying for and not using. A platform that costs three points more and removes a week of work is cheaper than the one that saves the three points and hands the week back to you.

Run the break-even on a typical month, not on your best one. Three markers so you don’t get the direction wrong.

1 Wait two or three months above the line

A spike from one viral video isn’t a baseline. Switching to a subscription on an exceptional month means paying full price in the months that follow — exactly the situation a commission protects you from.

2 Going back down is a normal decision

Seasonality is real: fitness programs in January, travel guides in summer. On a monthly plan, returning to a commission out of season is arithmetic, not defeat — just check that the platform allows the round trip, and what stays active afterwards.

3 A subscription doesn’t cancel processing fees

This is the most common misunderstanding: 0% commission means 0% for the platform, not 0% taken. The payment processor keeps its cut on every transaction, flat fee included — on Novoca, 1.5% + €0.25 on both plans.

1 Reading “0% commission” as “free”

0% with a $29 subscription is a fixed cost; 0% with processing fees on top is a ~3% commission that changed its name. Always look for the “processing fees” line.

2 Forgetting the months with no sales

A subscription is charged the month you hesitate, the month you’re ill, and the month the algorithm stops showing your videos. A commission never is.

3 Comparing currencies without saying so

$29 and €29 aren’t the same amount, and processing fees differ by card region. This comparison keeps each vendor in its own currency; yours should too.

4 Choosing the platform before the product

No pricing table sells a product nobody is asking for. Find what your audience buys first — the “what to sell” tool does it in thirty seconds — then choose where to sell it, and the seven-day method handles the rest.

Vendor pricing pages move; the date stated above the table is the date of our last check.