Fee calculator: what selling digital products really costs
Compare platform fees for ebooks, courses and memberships: Etsy, Digistore24, CopeCart, Gumroad, ablefy, Kajabi and Merchavio with your price and sales.
How the providers differ
The providers in the calculator work in different ways. That affects whose name you sell under, who owns the customer relationship and how much you handle yourself.
You sell within the marketplace, next to other offers. The upside of large marketplaces: buyers who already search there. Design and customer contact follow the marketplace’s rules. With Merchavio, the marketplace is an extra sales channel next to your own store.
The provider sells your product in its own name and handles invoicing and VAT towards the buyer. That saves you work and is part of the higher fee.
Courses and member areas are the focus. Which other tools are included and where plan limits lie differs by provider and plan.
You sell in your own name through your own store, and the money goes straight to your Stripe account. Livestreams, email marketing and back-office are part of every plan.
So besides the fees, also compare what your business needs. See all Merchavio features
How the calculator works
Cost per month = base price + number of sales × cost per sale. The cost per sale is the platform fee plus the payment fee. The share shows how much of your revenue goes to fees.
Some providers such as Etsy and Gumroad add VAT to the price themselves and charge part of their fee on the price without VAT. That is what the country and product settings above are for. Dollar amounts are converted at the European Central Bank reference rate.
With Merchavio, the per-sale fee of your plan and the Stripe fee (1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards) are added to the plan price. The money goes straight to your own Stripe account.
What the calculator does not show
Resellers such as Digistore24, CopeCart and Gumroad sell in their own name and handle invoicing and VAT towards the buyer. That is part of their fee. With Merchavio and Kajabi you sell yourself.
Not included are more expensive cards (premium and international cards), currency conversion, chargebacks, providers’ advertising programmes and add-on tools. Features and plan limits also differ; the calculator only compares costs.
Frequently asked questions
Which platform is the cheapest?
Why is Shopify missing?
How current are the figures?
Is VAT on the fees included?
Storefront, checkout, courses, communities and back-office in one platform. The money goes straight to your account.