Payhip vs Stan Store comes down to where buyers find you and which sales tools you need. Stan Store fits Instagram and TikTok sellers selling from a bio link, at about $25 a month billed yearly and 0% a sale. Payhip fits store and website sellers, with a free plan taking 5% a sale.
Figures come from each platform’s own pricing and help pages. The $580 break-even many pages quote pairs Payhip’s free plan with Stan’s $29 Creator plan, which has no discount codes. With discount codes on both, Payhip costs less until about $2,500 a month. CartMango, a third route for files, is free right now, then from about $0.83 a month billed yearly, 0% a sale.
Payhip and Stan Store both sell downloads, courses and coaching, and both have a bio-link-friendly store page.
The usual comparison sets Stan’s $29 a month against Payhip’s 5% of sales and calls the break-even $580. It skips 3 things that change the answer: which plan carries discount codes, how the money reaches you, and who pays sales tax on a buyer abroad.
This post sorts the choice by your situation: where buyers find you, what you sell each month, how fast you need the money and where your buyers live. Each section names a pick, its cost at real sales levels and its catch.
Key Takeaways
- Stan Store for social sellers: AutoDM and booking come on the Creator plan, about $25 a month billed yearly, with no cut of sales.
- Payhip for a small start: the free plan has the paid plans’ features and takes 5% a sale, so it beats Stan Creator below $500 a month.
- Discount codes change the math: Stan keeps them on Creator Pro at $79 a month billed yearly, so Payhip costs less until about $2,500.
- Payouts work differently: Payhip sends each sale to your own Stripe or PayPal, while Stan’s Stripe sellers cash out by hand, for a fee.
- Tax on foreign buyers: Payhip collects and pays EU and UK VAT plus most US and Canadian sales tax, while Stan only calculates tax for your registered region.
- A third route for files: CartMango is free right now, then about $0.83 to $2.50 a month billed yearly, takes 0%, but does not host courses yet.
Payhip vs Stan Store at a glance
Payhip charges a cut of each sale on its 2 cheaper plans and gives every plan the same features. Stan Store charges a flat monthly price, takes 0% of sales, and keeps its selling tools on the bigger plan.
Fees are only 1 place a new store leaks money. The Online Selling Mistakes Challenge covers 5 common selling mistakes over 5 days, free.
Stan Store costs about $25 or $79 a month billed yearly with no cut, Payhip costs $0, $29 or $99 a month plus 5%, 2% or 0% of each sale, and CartMango costs about $0.83 to $2.50 a month billed yearly with no cut once its paid plans start.
| Platform | Price | Cut per sale | Discount codes | Payout | Where the store lives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payhip | Free, $29 or $99 a month (no yearly plan) | 5%, 2% or 0% | Every plan | Straight to your own Stripe or PayPal | A Payhip store, your own domain, or buy buttons on your site |
| Stan Store | About $25 or $79 a month billed yearly ($29 or $99 monthly) | 0% | Creator Pro only | PayPal direct, or a Stripe account Stan runs, cashed out by hand | stan.store/yourname, your own domain only on Creator Max at $299 a month |
| CartMango | Free right now, then about $0.83 to $2.50 a month billed yearly ($10 to $30 a year) | 0% | Every plan | Straight to your own Stripe or PayPal | A hosted Mini Page, or checkout links on your own site |
Card processing is extra on every row. Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per card sale on all 3, and PayPal charges more.
The last row is the checkout I run. CartMango is in the table for selling files. It does not book calls, and it does not host courses yet.
If your buyers come from Instagram or TikTok comments
Stan Store is the pick when your sales start in the comments under your posts.
Someone types a keyword, gets the link by DM, and buys on a page built for a phone screen. The tool behind that is Stan AutoDM, which sends automatic replies on Instagram.
The ecomm.design comparison that ranks for this search lists AutoDM as a Creator Pro feature. Stan’s own Creator vs Creator Pro page puts it on the $29 Creator plan. The same plan has a booking calendar, a course builder, recurring subscriptions, lead magnets and a community space. Payhip sells coaching too, but it books calls through Calendly and Zoom rather than its own calendar. So the cheap Stan plan already covers what a social seller needs most. On yearly billing it is $300 a year, which works out to $25 a month, and Stan takes 0% of each sale.
In 2023, writing to my email list, I searched Google for “how to go viral” and got 4 million results, against 961k for “how to become healthy”. I told my readers then that a viral post rarely helps a small business, because “Pride can’t add dollars to our bank account.” My advice in that email was many small, useful posts instead, and AutoDM is built to answer the comments those posts get.
The catch on Stan’s Creator plan:
- Selling tools. The Creator plan sells each product at the price you set. Discount codes, order bumps (a 1-click extra added at checkout), upsells (an offer shown after payment), affiliates, email broadcasts and ad pixels all sit on Creator Pro.
- Stan’s own banner. On the Creator plan, Stan shows its “Try 14 Days Free” referral banner at the bottom of your store.
- Your own address. On Creator and Creator Pro the store lives at stan.store/yourname. Stan’s custom domain page says a domain you own needs its new Creator Max plan at $299 a month. Stan has not yet released that plan to every creator. Until then, you can forward a domain you own to the stan.store link.
If you only need a bio page with Buy buttons and no auto-replies, LinksMango has a free plan, takes 0% of each sale, and was built by the CartMango team. Our Linktree vs Stan Store comparison covers more bio-link options.
If you make under $500 a month
Payhip’s free plan is the cheaper home while monthly sales stay under $500. It has no monthly fee, takes 5% of each sale, and Payhip says every plan gets every feature.
5% of $500 is $25, the same as Stan’s Creator plan on yearly billing. Below that line Payhip costs less: at $300 in sales Payhip takes $15, while Stan still charges $25. The $580 figure on many pages is the same sum done with Stan’s month-to-month price of $29, so both numbers are right for their billing.
Payhip’s plans step up as you grow:
- Free: $0 a month plus 5% a sale.
- Plus: $29 a month plus 2% a sale. It beats Free once you pass about $967 a month.
- Pro: $99 a month and no cut. It beats Plus once you pass $3,500 a month.
Payhip shows no yearly billing option on its pricing page, so these are monthly prices. Stan gives you a 14-day free trial, then you pay. Payhip’s free plan has no end date.
The catch on Payhip Free: the bill grows with your sales. At $400 a month the 5% is $20, and at $800 it is $40. Our Payhip pricing breakdown runs the per-sale cost after card fees at more sales levels.
If you want discount codes and add-on offers from your first sale
Payhip is the cheaper way to get discount codes and add-on offers until about $2,500 a month in sales.
Above that, Stan’s Creator Pro plan costs less on yearly billing. When you search payhip vs stan store, Google’s AI Overview puts the break-even at $580 a month. That compares Payhip’s free plan, which already includes coupons, cross-sells and affiliates, with Stan’s $29 Creator plan, which has none of them.
Match the tools and the line moves a long way. The Stan plan with discount codes is Creator Pro, at $948 a year or about $79 a month, so that is the one to compare.
Payhip’s cheapest plan for your sales level costs less than Stan Creator Pro until $2,500 a month, and CartMango’s $10-a-year Silver plan, with coupons and order bumps, costs about $0.83 a month at any level.
| Monthly sales | Payhip, cheapest plan | Stan Creator Pro, billed yearly | CartMango Silver, billed yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| $300 | $15 (Free, 5%) | $79 | About $0.83 |
| $1,000 | $49 (Plus, $29 + 2%) | $79 | About $0.83 |
| $2,500 | $79 (Plus, $29 + 2%) | $79 | About $0.83 |
| $4,000 | $99 (Pro) | $79 | About $0.83 |
Card fees are extra in every column. CartMango is free right now, and its column shows the price once paid plans start in November. Silver has coupons and order bumps but no upsells, so it is not a match for everything Creator Pro does.
At $2,500 Payhip and Stan tie at $79. Above it, Stan Creator Pro on yearly billing costs up to $20 a month less than Payhip. If you pay Stan month to month, Creator Pro is $99, and at that price Payhip never costs more at any sales level.
Each platform’s add-on offer works differently. Payhip’s is a cross-sell: a discounted extra product shown when a buyer adds something to the cart. It also has an upgrade discount after purchase, which needs a second checkout.
Stan Creator Pro has order bumps, upsells and funnels (a chain of offers after the first purchase), plus Afterpay and Klarna. On CartMango, upsells and downsells need the $20 Gold plan and affiliates the $30 Platinum plan.
Email splits the same way. Payhip lets you send email updates to past buyers on every plan and can add each buyer to tools like Mailchimp or Kit. Stan’s Creator plan collects emails through lead magnets, but broadcasts and email flows sit on Creator Pro. CartMango has no built-in email sending and passes each buyer to the email tool you use.
The catch on Payhip here: no 1-click upsell after checkout. Its add-on offer is the cross-sell in the cart.
If you need the money in your own account fast
Payhip is the pick when cash flow is tight, and so is Stan Store if you take payments through PayPal only.
Payhip’s pricing page says it deposits your sales “immediately after a transaction has been completed”. The money lands in the Stripe or PayPal account you connected, and from there Stripe or PayPal pays your bank on its own schedule.
Stan Store pays out 2 ways. With PayPal, each sale goes straight to the PayPal Business account you connect, and buyers without PayPal can still pay by card as PayPal guests. With Stripe, Stan’s setup page says you “will be prompted to create a new Custom Stripe account that is managed by Stan”. That is a Stripe account Stan opens and controls for you. You cannot connect an existing one, apart from a test Stan is running with a share of new creators. On that route, the money moves on Stan’s rules:
- You cash out by hand from Stan’s Income tab, not from Stripe.
- $10 minimum, and only the whole available balance, never part of it.
- 2 to 7 business days for a US sale to clear before you can cash out, up to 7 for other countries, then 24 to 48 hours to your bank.
- A payout fee. Stan’s fee page lists 0.25% + $0.25 per payout on US Stripe accounts, with a $1 minimum. Cashing out $500 costs $1.50.
Payouts draw the most complaints about Stan. In our read of Stan’s low Trustpilot ratings, payouts led: 42 of the 125 1- and 2-star reviews described sale money that was slow, held or missing. The full breakdown is in our Stan Store reviews.
On cost, Payhip runs from $0 plus 5% a sale up to $99 a month, and Stan from $25 a month billed yearly, plus the payout fee on its Stripe route.
The catch on Payhip: you give up some control over the store itself, since Payhip can close a store it believes breaks its rules (more on that near the end). On Stan’s PayPal-only route, you lose Stan’s tax tool, which needs Stripe, and its funnels, which do not run on PayPal.
If your buyers live across the EU, UK, US or Canada
Payhip is the pick when you sell digital products into those 4 places. Its pricing page says it “automatically collects, reports and remits digital EU/UK VAT as well as US/Canadian sales tax on your behalf.” Remitting means Payhip pays the tax office for you, so you do not register in each EU country for a handful of sales.
Payhip’s cover has 3 gaps. It leaves Quebec’s QST to you. A US state where you have a physical presence may still expect a “zero dollar return” from you. And for any other country Payhip can add a tax at checkout, but it passes that money to you to pay. Our Payhip review lists the details.
Stan Store’s tax tool calculates tax through Stripe, with limits. Stan’s tax help page says it only works with Stripe connected, and only for sellers based in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway and the EU. Stripe then collects tax only from buyers in your registered tax region, and Stan suggests a tax professional for anything beyond that. Nothing on the page says Stan files or pays the tax for you.
For a US seller with mostly US buyers, the gap may never matter. For a UK seller with buyers across Europe, it is the deciding line. Payhip’s tax work costs nothing extra: you pay the same plan, from $0 plus 5% a sale up to $99 a month. Stan’s page does not say who files, so assume you file it yourself.
Payhip or Stan Store: the pick for each situation
Payhip wins 2 of the 5 situations outright, Stan Store wins the Instagram and TikTok one, fast money goes to Payhip or Stan on PayPal, and the discount-code situation splits at $2,500 a month.
Stan Store Creator costs a social seller about $25 a month, Payhip costs most other sellers from $0 plus 5%, and Stan Creator Pro only costs less than Payhip once sales pass $2,500 a month.
| Your situation | Pick | Cost a month | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyers come from Instagram or TikTok comments | Stan Store Creator | About $25, billed yearly | No discount codes or order bumps until $79 |
| Under $500 a month in sales | Payhip Free | 5% of sales, $15 at $300 | The bill grows with your sales |
| Discount codes and add-ons from day 1 | Payhip below $2,500, Stan Creator Pro above | Up to $79 on Payhip, $79 on Stan | Payhip has no 1-click upsell after checkout |
| Need the money fast | Payhip, or Stan on PayPal only | $0 + 5% up to $99 on Payhip, from $25 on Stan | Payhip can close a store over PLR or copyright |
| Buyers across the EU, UK, US or Canada | Payhip | $0 + 5% up to $99 | Quebec’s QST and other countries stay with you |
| Files only, paid by the year | CartMango | $0 now, about $0.83 from November | No AutoDM or booking calendar, and course hosting not yet |
The last row is for a seller of files who would rather pay a small yearly fee than a percentage or a monthly bill, often with a free bio page like LinksMango in front. CartMango does not host courses or a community yet. Both are planned for its $30 Platinum plan, so a course seller should pick from the other rows today.
Either platform can close your store, so keep your buyer list
Payhip and Stan Store both close seller accounts, and when a store closes, its sales stop and its customer list can go with it.
On Payhip, the pattern is resold content. A seller on r/digitalproductselling wrote: “I immediately got an email stating that my account was deleted because selling plr products was against their terms. No warning, no advice to remove the offending products.” The same seller said several of their own products were in that store too.
PLR means private label rights: content bought from someone else with permission to rebrand and resell it. In our Payhip review, 48 of the 68 English 1-star Trustpilot reviews described a store that was closed, deleted or locked, and Payhip’s replies mostly cited PLR or copyright. Stan sellers report closures too: 15 of the 125 1- and 2-star Stan reviews we read described a store shut down.
2 habits protect you on either one. Sell work you made yourself, or keep the license that proves you may resell it. And send every buyer into an email tool you control, so a closed store does not take your customer list with it.
Neither platform brings you buyers either. A commenter in the same Reddit thread put Payhip’s marketplace plainly: “Payhip also is trying to build a market, but not doing very well.” If finding strangers is the problem, our Payhip vs Etsy comparison looks at the marketplace route.
FAQ
What is Stan Store?
Stan Store is a link-in-bio store for creators. You add products, paste your stan.store link into an Instagram or TikTok bio, and buyers pay on a phone-friendly page. It costs $29 a month for Creator or $99 for Creator Pro, or $300 and $948 a year. Stan offers a 14-day free trial and no free plan.
What’s better than Stan Store?
Payhip is the better fit if you want a free plan, discount codes without paying $79 to $99 a month, payouts straight to your own account, or most tax handled on sales to the EU, UK, US and Canada. Comparable bio-link stores include Linktree and Beacons. For a cheaper bio page with no auto-replies, look at the options in our Stan Store alternative guide, which sorts them by what you sell.
What are the disadvantages of Payhip?
The free plan takes 5% of every sale. Payhip has no 1-click upsell after checkout, and its subscriptions run through Stripe only, not PayPal. Plan to bring your own traffic rather than count on its marketplace.
Payhip also closes stores it believes sell PLR or copyrighted content. Our Payhip alternatives list covers platforms that work around each of these.
Is Payhip safe to use?
Payhip is a legitimate company based in London. When we read its Trustpilot page for our Payhip review, it held a 4.6 TrustScore from 553 reviews. The most common complaint in its 1-star reviews is a closed store, usually over PLR or copyright, so sell only work you made or have clear rights to.
Can you sell from your own website with Payhip or Stan Store?
Payhip, yes. You can connect your own domain to the Payhip store, link a Shop menu item to it, or embed a Payhip buy button on your site for digital and physical products. The button does not cover courses, memberships or coaching. Stan has no built-in way to embed its store, so you forward your domain to the stan.store page instead. Stan’s $299 Creator Max plan adds a custom domain, but it is not yet open to every creator.
What’s the best site to sell digital products?
Pick by where your buyers come from. Sell from social media with a bio-link store like Stan, from a website or email list with a checkout like Payhip or CartMango, and with no audience yet on a marketplace like Etsy. Our best platform guide narrows the field step by step.
A bio link that sends buyers to your own checkout
Payhip vs Stan Store leaves 1 seller with an awkward fit: someone selling files from a bio link who wants neither a 5% cut nor a $25-plus monthly bill.
That seller can put LinksMango, which has a free plan, in front of a checkout that charges by the year. CartMango works that way, with order bumps and coupons on every plan, each payment straight into your own Stripe or PayPal, and 0% a sale plus Stripe’s card fee. It is free right now while in beta, then $10 a year once paid plans start in November.
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
- Stan Store Pricing: both plans, the Stripe account Stan runs for you, and how long payouts take
- Payhip Pricing: Free, Plus and Pro, with the real per-sale cost after card fees
- Stan Store Alternative: pick by what you sell, from bio links to full checkouts
- Payhip Review: what 553 Trustpilot reviews say and why stores get closed