Etsy vs Payhip vs Gumroad: Take-Home on a $19 Digital Kit

Same file. Same $19 price. Three different “you sold something” feelings.

That’s usually fees — not your talent.

This post walks example take-home math on a $19 digital kit across Etsy, Payhip, and Gumroad. Every number below is an illustration using commonly published 2026 fee *shapes*. It is not your rate, not a forecast, and not a claim that anyone earned these nets. Open your own dashboards and replace the placeholders.

If you’ve been judging products on gross alone, pair this with the habit in the fee-counting post: platform + processing + refunds (and ads if you run them).

What “take-home” means here

For one clean sale with no refund, no coupon, no offsite ads, no currency conversion drama:

Example take-home ≈ price − platform/marketplace fees − payment processing (− listing fee when it applies)

Real life adds refunds, chargebacks, promos, and ad attribution. We’re isolating the fee stack so platforms are comparable.

Example assumptions (read these)

  • Product price: $19.00 digital download
  • US-centric processing examples where noted
  • Example only plans and processors change; verify official pricing
  • No shipping line (digital)
  • One sale, not a month of volume (subscriptions on Payhip change the story at scale)

Example A — Etsy (US digital download shape)

Commonly cited US Etsy stack for digital:

  • Listing fee: $0.20 (create/renew allocate it somehow; here we put it on this sale for a one-sale illustration)
  • Transaction fee: 6.5% of item price → $1.24
  • Payment processing (US Etsy Payments example): 3% + $0.25 → $0.82

Example fees ≈ $0.20 + $1.24 + $0.82 = $2.26 Example take-home ≈ $19.00 − $2.26 = $16.74

If Offsite Ads attribute the order (example 15% of order): add ~$2.85 → example take-home drops toward ~$13.89. That’s a different product economics conversation. Don’t ignore the toggle.

Etsy also brings marketplace browse traffic and search — valuable for some niches, noisy for others. Youre paying for the mall.

Example B Payhip Free plan (direct sale)

Commonly cited shape:

  • Platform fee: ~5% → $0.95
  • Processing via your connected processor (example Stripe-like 2.9% + $0.30): → ~$0.85

Example fees ≈ $0.95 + $0.85 = $1.80 Example take-home ≈ $19.00 − $1.80 = $17.20

Paid Payhip plans trade a monthly subscription for a lower % (or 0%). At low volume, Free can win. At higher volume, run the break-even on the subscription. Marketplace eligibility (when you want it) is separate from this direct-sale sketch.

Example C — Gumroad direct sale (not Discover)

Commonly cited shape for direct/profile sales: 10% + $0.50.

How processing is billed can vary by checkout model and year some roundups treat processing as bundled into Gumroad’s cut; others stack processor fees on top. Check your account.

Illustration C1 treat 10% + $0.50 as the platform line, then add example processing 2.9% + $0.30:

  • Platform-ish: $1.90 + $0.50 = $2.40
  • Processing example: ~$0.85
  • Example fees ≈ $3.25 → example take-home ≈ $15.75

Illustration C2 — if your Gumroad invoice effectively wraps processing into the published cut, your net may land higher than C1. Use the payout line, not a blog table.

Discover-attributed sales are a different animal — often cited around 30%. On $19, that’s roughly $5.70 before you even argue about processing. Great when it’s *found* money you’d never have earned; rough when you thought you were on the “10% platform.”

Side-by-side (examples only)

  • Etsy US digital, no Offsite Ads — rough fees ~$2.26 → example take-home ~$16.74
  • Etsy + example 15% Offsite Ads — rough fees ~$5.11 → example take-home ~$13.89
  • Payhip Free + example processing — rough fees ~$1.80 → example take-home ~$17.20
  • Gumroad direct (C1 stacked) — rough fees ~$3.25 → example take-home ~$15.75
  • Gumroad Discover-class ~30% (platform line alone) — ~$5.70+ fees → often ~$13-ish before other costs

Again: illustrations. Your rows will differ.

What the table does *not* tell you

  • Traffic. Etsy’s mall can outperform a quiet Payhip link. Higher fees with buyers can beat lower fees with nobody.
  • Refunds. One refund rewrites the average of a “good” week.
  • Your time. Listing SEO on Etsy vs pin + email to Payhip/Gumroad are different jobs.
  • Fit. Some buyers trust Etsy for printables; some prefer Gumroad for creator tools; some don’t care as long as checkout works.

Take-home per sale is one score. Revenue after traffic and refunds is the season.

How to use this in a 20-minute window

  1. Pick your live platform(s).
  2. Find the last clean $19-ish sale (or any price — adjust).
  3. Write down: gross, fees deducted, net deposited.
  4. Compare to the example shapes above — see which row your life resembles.
  5. Decide: price change, platform change, or “fees are fine; traffic is the hole.”

Don’t rebuild a CPA firm at a truck stop. One honest row beats a fantasy spreadsheet.

Soft option: track net without redoing the math from memory

If blank columns are why you keep starring at gross, the Digital Seller Profit Tracker is an optional sheet for fees, refunds, and net on digital SKUs. Use it if it saves setup. Skip it if Notes with Gross / Fees / Refunds / Net already keeps you honest.

Bottom line

On a $19 digital kit, example take-home often lands in the mid-teens after normal platform + processing — unless Offsite Ads or Discover-class fees show up, in which case the slice gets chunky fast. Etsy trades higher fee complexity (and listing fees) for marketplace presence. Payhip Free often leaves more on a direct sale in these illustrations. Gumroad direct sits between; Discover is its own price.

Verify current fees. Count the stack. Then pick where you’ll actually send clicks.

Platform chooser depth: Payhip vs Gumroad comparison on this blog. Constraint context: Digital Products From the Sleeper. Store example: Payhip hub.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Products From the Sleeper: What Actually Fits Short Online Windows

If you drive for a living, youve heard every “side hustle” pitch under the sun. Most of them assume you have home Wi‑Fi, a quiet desk, and two free hours every night. Out here, you get a bunk, spotty truck-stop signal, and maybe twenty minutes before your next clock. This post is for that reality. No “I made $10k from my truck. No guaranteed results. Just a clear look at what kind of remote income work can survive short online windows — and what usually falls apart. The real constraint isn’t money. It’s windows. Your bottleneck is rarely “I dont know what to sell.” It’s: Signal that drops mid-upload Fifteen–thirty minutes between rest and the next move Fatigue after a long day Phone battery and a laptop that lives in a bag So the useful filter is simple: can most of the work happen offline, with only short online bursts for publish, reply, or checkout? If the answer is no, it’s probably a bad fit for the road. What tends to fit (and why) 1. Digital products...
Read more

Payhip vs Gumroad in 2026: Fees, Discover, and Who Should Pick Which

If you’re picking a store for digital downloads in 2026, you’ll hear the same two names in every thread: Payhip and Gumroad. This comparison is practical: fee *shape*, built-in discovery, and who each platform fits — especially if you sell from short online windows and care about take-home more than dashboard aesthetics. Honest bias note: Sleeper Income store runs on Payhip . That doesn’t make Payhip “always better.” It means I’ve got skin in one checkout flow. Read the tradeoffs anyway. Verify live pricing pages before you decide — plans change. No income claims. No “I switched and 10x’d.” Just a clearer chooser. The decision in one paragraph Choose Payhip if you want lower platform cuts on direct sales, optional fee buy-down with paid plans, and a store you drive traffic to (Pinterest, email, your own links). Choose Gumroad if you value a familiar creator checkout and are willing to pay a higher cut — and you understand that Discover traffic (when it happens) is a diffe...
Read more

Before You Publish Your First Faceless Product Video: A Plain Checklist

You made a short product video. No face on camera, script drafted with AI help, visuals generated, music underneath. It feels done. It might not be. Three unglamorous checks decide whether that video is useful or just noise. Get them wrong and you risk a flagged account, dead links, or comments saying the video lied about the product. Get them right and the video does its job quietly. Here is the checklist I wish someone had handed me first. 1. The script check: can you defend every sentence? Faceless videos make it easy to oversell. The script sounds confident, the voiceover sounds sure, and suddenly a $25 gadget has "amazing revolutionary features." Stop there. Read the script out loud and ask: is this literally true of the thing in the box? Honest visuals matter just as much. If the video shows the product doing something you have not verified, cut that shot. One checked script beats three hyped ones. People can smell a claim that came from a stock photo. 2. Disclosu...
Read more