Beacons takes the smaller cut in the Gumroad vs Beacons match-up: its free plan takes 9%, and Gumroad takes 10% plus $0.50, card fees extra on both. Gumroad fits sellers who want sales tax handled. Beacons fits sellers whose buyers come from Instagram, with a bio page, auto-DMs and email built in.
Beacons’ Creator plan, $10 a month or $8.33 billed yearly, keeps the same 9%. Creator Plus cuts it to 0% for $25 a month billed yearly, beating Gumroad past 10 sales of a $20 product. CartMango fits sellers who want no cut without a monthly plan: free right now, from $10 a year when paid plans start in November, 0% plus card fees.
My view: the per-sale rate is only half the decision on these 2 tools. The other half is 3 plain questions, and Gumroad and Beacons answer every one of them differently.
I’d ask where the money sits after a buyer pays, who sends the VAT to a tax office in another country, and whether paying for a plan removes the cut or only buys you a nicer page.
The right answer for you comes from where your buyers find you and how much you already sell.
By the end you’ll know which tool keeps more of your sales at your volume, and the point where paying Beacons starts to make sense.
Key Takeaways
- The cut per sale. Gumroad keeps 10% plus $0.50 of each direct sale, Beacons’ free plan 9%, with card fees on top of both.
- The $10 plan. Beacons Creator still takes 9%. The fee drops to 0% from Creator Plus up, $25 a month billed yearly.
- The break-even. On a $20 product, yearly Creator Plus beats Gumroad from the 11th sale a month and Beacons Free from about the 14th.
- Tax and payouts. Gumroad handles sales tax for you but holds standard payouts until $100. Beacons pays into your Stripe or PayPal and leaves tax with you.
- A third route. CartMango takes 0% a sale plus Stripe’s card fee, free right now, then $10 to $30 a year once paid plans start.
Gumroad vs Beacons: what differs
Gumroad is a store and checkout that charges per sale and never a monthly fee. Beacons is a link-in-bio page with a store, email and Instagram auto-DMs built in, free with a 9% cut or paid with none.
A platform’s fee is only 1 of the places a new store loses money. If you want the others named before they cost you, my Online Selling Mistakes Challenge walks through 5 of them in a free 5-day email challenge.
What each keeps from a $20 sale
On a $20 sale paid by US card, Gumroad leaves you $16.62, Beacons’ Free and Creator plans leave $17.32, and Beacons Creator Plus and CartMango leave $19.12 before their plan prices.
| Platform | Price a month, billed yearly | Cut per sale | You keep of $20 | Payouts | Sales tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad | $0 | 10% + $0.50 (30% from Discover) | $16.62 | Card sales: $100 minimum, 7-day hold | Gumroad collects and pays it |
| Beacons Free | $0 | 9% | $17.32 | Straight to your Stripe or PayPal | Your job |
| Beacons Creator | $8.33 | 9% | $17.32 | Straight to your Stripe or PayPal | Your job |
| Beacons Creator Plus | $25 | 0% | $19.12 | Straight to your Stripe or PayPal | Your job |
| CartMango | Free right now, then about $0.83 to $2.50 ($10 to $30 a year) | 0% | $19.12 | Straight to your Stripe or PayPal | Your job |
I run CartMango, so read its row knowing it’s mine: the $10 a year Silver plan covers 10 products with order bumps, and upsells start on the $20 a year plan.
Every “you keep” figure takes off Stripe’s card fee of 2.9% plus $0.30, which is $0.88 on a $20 sale and the same on all 3 for a Stripe card sale, per Stripe’s pricing page. Paid month to month, Beacons Creator costs $10 and Creator Plus costs $30.
Gumroad’s flat 50 cents is what hurts on cheap products. On a $5 file Gumroad’s cut is $1.00, a full 20% of the price before card fees, while Beacons Free takes $0.45. Gumroad’s share falls to 11% on a $50 product, still above Beacons’ 9%.
Gumroad’s payout minimum is $100, and Beacons’ $10 plan keeps the full 9%. Those 2 cells disagree with Google’s AI summary for this search.
Google’s AI summary for “gumroad vs beacons”. The Payouts line sits in its Gumroad section. Read it, then Beacons’ Pricing & Fees line.
Gumroad’s payout help page sets that $100 minimum for weekly, monthly and quarterly payouts, US sellers included. Below that line, a US seller whose account has finished 1 payout and processed with Gumroad for 60 days can take an instant payout from $1, for a 3% fee.
Beacons’ pricing page and its transaction fees article both show 9% on Free and Creator, and 0% from the $30 Creator Plus plan up.
Gumroad Discover and your first buyers
Gumroad also runs Discover, a marketplace that shows products to people browsing Gumroad. A Discover sale costs a flat 30%, card processing included, so a $20 sale leaves you $14.00. You can’t get in on day 1 either. Gumroad lists your products there only after your balance reaches $100 from genuine sales and its risk team reviews the account, which takes about 3 weeks on average.
So your first buyers come from you either way. A seller in an r/Solopreneur thread had 3 Gumroad products and “32 views in 30 days and 0 sales”. Their conclusion: “Gumroad sends nobody at the start, it’s just a checkout page.” A reply in the same thread said all of their Gumroad sales came from their email list.
Beacons’ store and pricing pages describe no marketplace at all. The closest thing is affiliate share, where other Beacons creators can sell your product in their own stores for a commission you set.
If your sales start in Instagram comments and DMs
You post on Instagram, and buyers find you by commenting a word or sending a DM. Pick Beacons on the free plan.
Every Beacons plan includes Smart Reply, which sends an automatic Instagram DM with your link when someone comments a keyword on your post. The bio page holds unlimited links plus your store, and you can send 50 emails a month on Free or 500 on Creator. Order bumps and discount codes come on every plan.
The cost is $0 a month and 9% of each sale, so $1.80 of a $20 product, plus the card fee. You keep $17.32, which is 70 cents more than Gumroad leaves you on the same sale.
The catch is tax help. Beacons sends the money to your own Stripe or PayPal account, which makes you the seller. Neither its pricing page nor its store help articles say it collects sales tax or VAT for you.
Paying $10 a month for Creator gets you a free custom domain, advanced SEO features, 500 email sends and 300 daily AI credits. The fee stays at 9%.
Gumroad has no Instagram auto-DM tool. Its profile works as a small website instead: a short bio, sections for your products, posts, an email signup form and text, plus standalone pages. Beacons lists Smart Reply for Instagram DMs only, so if your buyers come from TikTok, the bio page is what you are really comparing. Our Linktree vs Stan Store comparison breaks down what a bio page is usually asked to carry.
If your sales already pass $280 a month
You sell steadily, say 14 or more copies of a $20 product every month, and you want to stay on Beacons for the DMs and the email. Pick Beacons Creator Plus on yearly billing.
At $25 a month billed yearly, Creator Plus takes 0% of each sale. Gumroad’s 10% plus $0.50 comes to $2.50 on a $20 sale. So 10 sales cost exactly $25 on both, and from the 11th sale on, Creator Plus is cheaper than Gumroad.
Beacons’ own free plan is the harder number to beat, because 9% is a smaller cut. Creator Plus only pays off against it above about $278 a month in sales on yearly billing, which is the 14th sale of a $20 product. On monthly billing at $30 the line moves to $333, the same break-even our Beacons price breakdown works through.
At 50 sales of a $20 product, Gumroad keeps $125 for the month, Beacons Free keeps $90, Beacons Creator Plus costs $25, and CartMango, a checkout only with no DMs or email, costs about $0.83 on yearly billing once paid plans start.
| Sales a month ($20 each) | Gumroad | Beacons Free | Beacons Creator Plus, yearly | CartMango Silver, yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 ($100) | $12.50 | $9.00 | $25.00 | about $0.83 |
| 10 ($200) | $25.00 | $18.00 | $25.00 | about $0.83 |
| 14 ($280) | $35.00 | $25.20 | $25.00 | about $0.83 |
| 50 ($1,000) | $125.00 | $90.00 | $25.00 | about $0.83 |
| 150 ($3,000) | $375.00 | $270.00 | $25.00 | about $0.83 |
Card processing is left out of that table, because it is the same $0.88 a sale on every column. Gumroad does lower its rate for big sellers, but only past $20,000 of paid sales in a calendar month, when new direct sales drop to 5% plus $0.50 until the month resets.
Creator Plus also adds unlimited courses with video hosting, unlimited memberships, installment plans and buy now, pay later through Klarna, Affirm or Afterpay. The trade-off is $300 paid up front for the yearly rate, and sales tax stays your job. If all you need from Beacons is the checkout, the last situation below costs less from the first sale.
If a buyer in Germany would leave you guessing about VAT
Your buyers live in many countries, and you have no idea which tax applies to a German, a Canadian or a Texan buyer. Pick Gumroad.
Since January 1, 2025, Gumroad has acted as the merchant of record for your sales, which means Gumroad is the legal seller to the buyer. It collects sales tax, VAT and GST at checkout and pays them where it owes them. Its pricing page says you don’t need to manage any tax settings.
Selling through your own Stripe account, as you do on Beacons or CartMango, makes that your job. The EU’s One Stop Shop page says you charge VAT at the rate of the buyer’s country on digital services. A seller based outside the EU can register in 1 EU country and file a single return.
The cost is the higher cut. You keep $16.62 of a $20 sale, against $17.32 on Beacons Free.
The money also arrives slower. Card sales sit in your Gumroad balance for at least 7 days on the weekly, monthly or quarterly schedules, and standard payouts start at $100. US sellers who qualify can take instant payouts from $1 for a 3% fee. If you connect your own PayPal account, Gumroad credits PayPal sales to you at the time of sale.
If you want to keep your bio page and change only the checkout
You already like your bio page, on Beacons or anywhere else, and the part you want to fix is what each sale costs. You can split the 2 jobs. The comparison pages ranking for this search mention the combination without working out what it costs.
Beacons’ pricing page says its seller fee applies to store sales and affiliate commissions. A plain link block on your Beacons page that points somewhere else is neither, so by Beacons’ own wording the sale carries only the fee of the checkout you link to.
Pointed at Gumroad, that is the setup the “How To Link Beacons AI with Gumroad” YouTube guide ranking for this search walks you through. It only pays off if you want Gumroad’s tax handling or a Discover listing, because Gumroad’s cut is bigger than the 9% you skip. Pointed at CartMango, the checkout takes 0% a sale, and the money goes straight into your own Stripe or PayPal. Your Beacons page, DMs and email stay as they are, on the free plan.
If you’d rather move the bio page too, I also run LinksMango, a free bio page whose product cards have a Buy button that goes to your own checkout, with 0% taken. The free page gives you 10 product cards, or 20 if you keep a small “Made with LinksMango” line at the bottom.
The cost of either pairing is $0 right now and $10 a year once CartMango’s paid plans start, plus card fees. You give up tax handling, since you stay the seller, and you run 2 tools. CartMango sends each buyer to the email tool you connect, such as BirdSend, which I also run, Kit, ActiveCampaign or Beehiiv. CartMango’s online courses sit on the $30 a year plan with your videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, and a community feature is in the works.
Gumroad vs Beacons: the 4 situations side by side
Beacons Free fits sales from Instagram DMs, yearly Creator Plus fits Beacons sellers past $280 a month, Gumroad fits sellers who want tax handled, and CartMango fits sellers who want no cut without a monthly plan.
| Your situation | Pick | What it costs | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales start in Instagram comments and DMs | Beacons Free | 9% a sale, you keep $17.32 of $20 | Sales tax is your job |
| Sales past about $280 a month | Beacons Creator Plus | $25 a month billed yearly, you keep $19.12 of $20 | $300 up front, and it only beats Beacons Free past $278 a month |
| Buyers in many tax regions | Gumroad | 10% + $0.50 a sale, you keep $16.62 of $20 | Card payouts wait for $100 and 7 days |
| Keep your bio page, change the checkout | CartMango behind your Beacons or LinksMango page | 0% a sale, you keep $19.12 of $20, $10 to $30 a year once paid plans start | Sales tax is your job, 2 tools |
FAQ
Why are people leaving Gumroad?
Suspended accounts and held payouts come up most. In our Gumroad review, 46 of the 68 seller reviews among Gumroad’s latest 118 Trustpilot reviews described a suspended account, a held payout or the $100 payout minimum. On top of that, Gumroad keeps 10% plus $0.50 of each direct sale, before card fees.
What’s better than Gumroad?
Beacons is better for a seller who lives on Instagram, with its bio page and auto-DMs. Beacons Creator Plus on yearly billing costs less past 10 sales a month of a $20 product. For no cut and no monthly plan, CartMango takes 0% a sale plus Stripe’s card fee and costs $10 to $30 a year once paid plans start. Our Gumroad alternatives list compares 7 options.
Can you make money on Beacons?
Yes, if you bring the buyers. Beacons’ free plan costs nothing, lets you sell unlimited digital products and keeps 9% of each sale, paid straight into your own Stripe or PayPal. Beacons’ store and pricing pages describe no marketplace listing for your products, so your sales come from the followers you move from a post to your page.
Do people actually make money on Gumroad?
Sellers do, from buyers they bring themselves, since Gumroad sends no Discover traffic to a new store. Discover only opens after you reach a $100 balance from your own genuine sales and pass a risk review averaging 3 weeks. In an r/Solopreneur thread, a seller with 3 products saw “32 views in 30 days and 0 sales”, and a reply said all of their Gumroad sales came from their email list.
Can you link Beacons to Gumroad?
Yes. Add a link block on your Beacons page that points at your Gumroad product. Beacons’ pricing page applies its 9% to store sales and affiliate commissions, and by that wording a link out to Gumroad is neither, so the sale carries Gumroad’s usual 10% plus $0.50 instead. That costs more per sale than Beacons’ own store, so it only makes sense for Gumroad’s tax handling or a Discover listing.
Does Beacons take a cut on the $10 plan?
Yes, the full 9%. Beacons’ $10 Creator plan charges the same 9% seller fee as the free plan, and its help center answers the question directly: the 0% fee starts on the $30 Creator Plus plan.
A bio page and a checkout, with no cut on either
Gumroad vs Beacons is a choice between 2 kinds of cut: one no plan removes, and one you can drop for $25 a month billed yearly. On both free setups that cut is the only platform fee you pay, so it grows with every sale.
CartMango takes 0% a sale plus Stripe’s card fee and sends the money straight to your own Stripe or PayPal, behind your Beacons page or a free LinksMango one. CartMango is free right now and starts at $10 a year once paid plans begin in November, with order bumps on every plan and upsells from $20 a year.
About the Author
👋 I’m Welly, founder of CartMango (the site you’re on), a checkout platform for digital product sellers. We’ve previously processed $179M+. I also run BirdSend (email marketing tool, 3.1B+ emails sent). On the side I show other non-techie digital sellers how I use AI workflows to automate 50%+ of my operations. Find me on LinkedIn.
Related Reading
- Payhip vs Beacons: Beacons against a store that files EU, UK, US and most Canadian tax for you
- Beacons price: all 4 Beacons plans and when Creator Plus pays for itself
- Gumroad vs Stan Store: where Gumroad’s 10% + $0.50 stops beating a flat monthly plan
- Gumroad vs Ko-fi: 5% against 10% + $0.50, and who handles the sales tax