Sell digital products without a website

When you say “I need a website to sell”, you’re really naming five jobs: a page that describes the product and makes someone want it; a payment that takes a card and moves the money; a delivery that hands the file over with no action from you; a link you can put in your bio; and the legal cover — terms, privacy, refunds. All three options below cover those five. What changes is who does the work, you or the platform, and what they take on the way through.

A real site asks for a domain, hosting, a theme to configure, a checkout, an automated delivery and legal pages: weeks of work before the first sale, for a product nobody has asked for yet. That’s the cost these three options remove, and it’s the only argument that matters until the demand is proven.

You create an account, upload your file, write a description, set a price; the platform hosts the page, takes the money and delivers. It’s the best-known route, and the fastest to set up when you already have the product and the copy.

What it costs. Gumroad charges no subscription but takes 10% + $0.50 per sale (and 30% when the buyer arrives through its Discover marketplace); in exchange it has been Merchant of Record since 2025 and handles VAT for you. Payhip has a free plan at 5% commission, then $29/month at 2% and $99/month at 0% — PayPal or Stripe fees on top in every case (pricing pulled on 25 August 2026 from the vendors’ own pricing pages).

What it doesn’t do. The page is yours to write — and that’s the part that stalls most creators, not the payment. Your storefront also looks like every other storefront on the platform, logo included.

Who it’s for. Someone who already has a finished file, knows how to write a sales page, and sells mostly off TikTok — a newsletter, an existing community.

One page behind your link in bio, built from blocks: a product, a booking, a newsletter, your socials. Designed for TikTok and Instagram, with a checkout that works on a phone.

What it costs. Stan Store has no free plan: $29/month (Creator, $300/year) or $99/month (Creator Pro), 0% commission, Stripe or PayPal fees on top, 14-day trial. Beacons has a free plan that takes 9% on every digital product sold; 0% costs $30/month (Store Pro). Payment fees on top there too.

What it doesn’t do. Same as the marketplace: the copy is yours to write, in a block editor. And the subscription is charged whether you sell or not — which is the deciding point when you’re starting out. $29 a month across the three months you spend hesitating is $87 spent before the first sale.

Who it’s for. A creator who already sells regularly — a subscription beats a 10% commission from €290 of monthly sales, see the platform fee comparison — and wants one link for everything: products, coaching, socials. The detailed head-to-head is in the Stan Store alternatives comparison.

The starting point here is what you already have. If your file exists — a PDF, a template pack, a folder of worksheets — you upload it and the storefront is live: sales page, checkout, automated delivery, nothing to write. If you’re starting from nothing, you paste your TikTok handle: Novoca reads your public bio, proposes the most obvious offer, and can write a first version of the product and the page — which you read, edit and sign off. Connecting your TikTok account is what unlocks the deeper read of your videos — the title and description of each one plus their public counters (views, likes, comments, shares) — to pull out the themes your account actually carries. It does not open your comments: it can see that a video got people talking, not what they said.

What it costs. €0/month and 10% per sale + Stripe processing fees — so nothing until you sell. The Pro plan (€29/month, 0% commission + Stripe processing fees) only pays for itself above €290 of monthly sales, and you can take it later.

What it does on top. The page is written from your content, not from a template; buyers of a product written inside the platform read it online and can ask the document questions; an order bump, a member subscription and an affiliate program are there when you need them; every TikTok you post can carry its own tracking link so you know what it earned. And you can make your first sales before activating your Stripe account: the platform collects and pays out as soon as your bank details are in place — capped at three sales or €150 pending, past which the page pauses.

What it doesn’t do. It isn’t a full site: no blog, no long about page, no email marketing, no bookings, no video course hosting. One main product per storefront, plus its bump and a subscription. It’s a storefront for a product that sells, not a showcase.

Who it’s for. A TikTok creator who is already being asked for something in the comments and wants to charge for it without losing a month — file in hand or not.

What each option takes, before processing fees (Stripe and PayPal publish 2.9% + 0.30 per transaction as their standard rate; a European card costs less at Stripe, and the ranking doesn’t change — every option below bills them on top, Novoca included). Amounts in each vendor’s own currency.

The useful reading: at zero sales, only the options without a subscription cost nothing; at 40 sales a month, a subscription becomes cheaper than a commission. In between, the question isn’t price — it’s who writes the page, and how many months you pay before you find out.

1 A product — or the raw material for one

All three options sell a file you bring; that’s the simplest and fastest case. If you don’t have one yet, Novoca can write a first version from your material — but it’s only worth what your know-how is worth: your recipes, your program, your method. If you don’t know what to sell yet, the “what to sell on TikTok” tool proposes three products for your niche, with a price range.

2 One link in bio, and only one

TikTok allows a single clickable link — and it isn’t open to every account: the link-in-bio rule under 1,000 followers explains how to get it. It points at your storefront, not at a homepage: every click should land on the buy button. Swap it the day you publish, and say so on camera.

3 A price you hold

Not “€5 to get started”: a first product sells in the middle of its range, and a price that keeps moving teaches your audience to wait for the drop. The price calculator gives a range based on your format and its depth.

4 A payment account (bank details + ID)

Five minutes, once. On Novoca you can do it after your first sales; everywhere else it’s a prerequisite. Without a payment account, no option pays you anything.

5 A legal status once it becomes regular

Testing is one thing; selling every month is an activity, and the rules for that depend on where you live. No platform handles the paperwork or answers for it — a local accountant will tell you in one conversation what a forum thread won’t.

6 The legal cover around the sale

Terms, privacy policy, a withdrawal clause adapted to digital goods, refunds. Platforms supply a version; read it, because it binds your sale.

Publishing isn’t selling, and that’s the part none of the three options does for you. What follows holds whichever one you pick.

1 Three videos, three angles, in four days

Behind the scenes (“a hundred people asked me for this file”), the demo (the product on screen), the reply to a real comment. One video reaches a fraction of your followers, once — that’s the number one reason launches go quiet. The seven-day method walks through each of them.

2 Measure what sold, not what you liked posting

A single address in your bio will never tell you which video earned. One tracking link per video names the winner; without it, you confidently reshoot the wrong one. Clicks with no sale point at the page or the price; zero clicks point at the video.

3 Connect your bank details on the first sale

If you started without an active payment account, the grace period is bounded: three sales or €150 pending, and the page pauses; sixty days without activation, and buyers get refunded. A paused page while a video takes off costs you the whole week.

4 The website may come later — after

Once you sell every month, a site starts to make sense: search traffic, a blog, several products, your brand. By then you’ll know what to put on it, and you’ll build it on numbers instead of a hunch. It’s the order that changes everything, not the tool.

1 Building the site before selling anything

Six weeks of configuration for a product nobody has asked for. Sell once without a site; the site follows when the sales justify it.

2 Paying a subscription before the first sale

$29 a month while you hesitate is a cost with nothing in return. Start on a commission-based option; move to a subscription when the commission exceeds its price — the switch point is one division.

3 Sending the files by hand

“DM me your email and I’ll send it over” works three times, then you forget someone, then you’re handling disputes. Automated delivery isn’t a convenience — it’s what makes the product sellable while you sleep.

4 A link in bio that points at a homepage

Every click from TikTok is expensive — the buyer arrives with a precise intent. If they have to hunt for the product, they leave. The link lands on the product page, with the price and the button in view.

5 Waiting until the product is perfect

A product at 80% that is online sells; a product at 100% that doesn’t exist doesn’t. The first version is there to teach you what your audience buys — and you can replace it tomorrow without breaking anything.