Gumroad vs Paddle

Gumroad is where you sell something when you do not want to think about selling. Create a product, set a price, get a link. Share the link, people pay, you get money. The entire setup takes 5 minutes, which is why thousands of creators start here.

The 10% fee is painful — on a $50 ebook, you lose $5 per sale. At scale, that adds up to thousands of dollars a year you could keep by switching to Stripe or LemonSqueezy. But Gumroad’s simplicity has value: you skip all the setup of payment processors, tax compliance, and checkout flows. Start on Gumroad to validate that people will pay for your thing, then migrate when the fees start hurting.

Paddle takes the scariest part of selling software internationally — tax compliance — and makes it someone else’s problem. They act as the merchant of record, which means they are legally the seller. They collect the payment, handle VAT/sales tax in every country, and pay you a net amount. You never file a foreign tax return.

The price for this peace of mind is real: 5% + 50c per transaction versus Stripe’s 2.9% + 30c. For many SaaS founders selling to customers in the EU, UK, and beyond, the math still works out — hiring an accountant or using a tax service would cost more. Paddle requires approval before you can start, so apply early.