Gumroad vs Ko-fi:
which should you actually use?
Ko-fi takes less on every sale: 5% on shop sales and nothing on tips, against Gumroad’s 10% plus 50¢. Gumroad costs more because it does more: it becomes the legal seller and remits your sales tax worldwide, and its marketplace can find buyers you don’t have yet.
The short answer
It comes down to fee versus paperwork.
Pick Gumroad if…
You are selling a finished product to people who don’t know you yet, and you want nothing to do with tax. Since 1 January 2025 Gumroad is the merchant of record and remits sales tax, VAT and GST worldwide for you. Gumroad Discover can also surface your product to buyers you never reached, at a flat 30% on the sales it sources, which is expensive attention but attention you did not have. The price of all this is 10% + $0.50 on your own direct sales.
Pick Ko-fi if…
You already have an audience, and your income is a mix of tips, memberships and a few files. Ko-fi charges 0% on tips and 5% on shop sales, and because it never processes the payment, the money goes straight into your own PayPal or Stripe rather than sitting in a platform balance. The trade is that you are the seller for tax purposes: Ko-fi gives you fields to add VAT or GST, but calculating and remitting it is yours.
It’s genuinely close if…
You sell one mid-priced download (roughly $20 to $60) to a mix of your own followers and strangers. The fee gap on a $49 sale is about $2.95, roughly $30 across ten sales a month. At that size the money is not the deciding factor, so pick on whether you would rather file the tax yourself or hand it over.
Feature by feature
What each one charges, and what it does for it.
| Gumroad | Ko-fi | |
|---|---|---|
| Per-sale platform fee, free tier | 10% + $0.50 on your own links | Advantage here.5% on shop sales · 0% on tips |
| Lowest per-sale fee available | No lower tier. 10% + $0.50 is the rateKo-fi Gold is a paid monthly plan; Ko-fi has changed what it charges new accounts, so check ko-fi.com for the current price. | Advantage here.0% on everything with Ko-fi GoldKo-fi Gold is a paid monthly plan; Ko-fi has changed what it charges new accounts, so check ko-fi.com for the current price. |
| Cost to start selling | $0 a month | $0 a month |
| You keep on a $49 sale | $41.88 (est.)After the platform fee and estimated card processing of 2.9% + $0.30. | Advantage here.$44.83 (est.)After the platform fee and estimated card processing of 2.9% + $0.30. |
| Merchant of record | Advantage here.Gumroad, since 1 January 2025 | You. Ko-fi does not process payments |
| Where the money lands | Gumroad collects, then pays you out | Advantage here.Straight into your own PayPal or Stripe |
| Hosted storefront | Yes. A profile page and product pages | Yes. Your Ko-fi page, with a Shop tab |
| Published per-file size cap | Not publishedNeither states a per-file limit on its pricing page, so check inside the uploader before committing to a large pack. | Not publishedNeither states a per-file limit on its pricing page, so check inside the uploader before committing to a large pack. |
| Sales tax and VAT | Advantage here.Calculated, collected and remitted worldwide for you | Tools to add VAT or GST; you calculate and remit |
| Built-in discovery | Advantage here.Gumroad Discover, a real marketplaceSales sourced by Gumroad Discover are charged a flat 30%, processing included. | Minimal. Built for an audience you already haveSales sourced by Gumroad Discover are charged a flat 30%, processing included. |
| Drafts the product itself | No, you upload a finished file | No, you upload a finished file |
| Best for | Selling a finished product to strangers, tax handled | Monetizing an audience you already have, cheaply |
Pricing verified August 2026 on each platform's own pricing page. "You keep" assumes a single $49 digital product sold through your own link, with card processing estimated at 2.9% + $0.30. Gumroad's pricing page states 10% + $0.50 per direct sale but does not say whether card processing sits inside that fee; the figure above assumes it is charged on top, and if it is in fact included you would keep $43.60. Ko-fi's figure is its free plan; Ko-fi Gold removes the 5% for a monthly fee that is excluded here. Platforms change pricing, so check their sites for the latest.
There is no price at which Gumroad’s direct-sale fee is lower: 5% beats 10% plus 50¢ at every number. The reason to pay the difference is on the other rows: the tax remittance, and a marketplace that occasionally sells for you.
Where each one wins
Two platforms doing two different jobs.
Gumroad · tax
Gumroad: it becomes the legal seller
Since 1 January 2025 Gumroad is the merchant of record on every transaction, which means it calculates, collects and remits sales tax, VAT and GST worldwide. You are not registering in other jurisdictions and you are not filing there.
For a solo creator selling into Europe, that is worth real money and more real hours.
Gumroad · reach
Gumroad: a marketplace that can sell for you
Gumroad Discover puts products in front of people browsing rather than people who already follow you. Those sales carry a flat 30%, processing included, triple the direct rate.
Expensive per sale, but they are sales you would not otherwise have made. Ko-fi has no real equivalent.
Ko-fi · the fee
Ko-fi: half the rate, and nothing on tips
Ko-fi’s free plan takes 5% of a shop sale, a membership or a commission, and 0% of a tip. Ko-fi Gold removes the 5% entirely for a flat monthly fee.
If your audience mostly tips, Ko-fi’s platform cut is genuinely zero, which is a thing Gumroad cannot offer at any volume.
Ko-fi · the money
Ko-fi: paid straight into your own account
Ko-fi does not process payments. Buyers pay your PayPal or your Stripe, so the money is yours the moment it clears, with no platform balance, no payout schedule, no threshold.
The same fact is why Ko-fi cannot be your merchant of record. The speed and the tax burden are two sides of one design.
The honest breakeven
Ko-fi Gold removes the 5%, so it pays for itself at its monthly price divided by that rate, about $120 a month in shop sales if you are charged $6, about $240 a month if you are charged $12. Ko-fi has changed what it bills new accounts, so confirm your own price before you do the sum. Gumroad has no equivalent lever: 10% + $0.50 is the rate at every volume, and no plan buys it down.
A third option
Both of them assume the product already exists.
Gumroad and Ko-fi are checkouts, and good ones. This page has spent its length saying so. Neither helps you make the thing you are selling. If you are reading a fee comparison because you have the expertise and no file to upload yet, that is a different problem, and it is the one MKKT was built for.
| Platform | You keep on a $49 sale | Per-sale fee | Monthly fee | Builds the product with you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MKKT | $43.85 | 7% flat | $0 | Yes, AI product studio |
| Gumroad | $41.88 | 10% + $0.50 | $0 | No |
| Ko-fi (free plan) | $44.83 | 5% on shop sales | $0 | No |
Pricing verified August 2026. "You keep" assumes a single $49 digital sale through your own link, with card processing estimated at 2.9% + $0.30 shown separately from each platform's own cut. Gumroad's page does not state whether processing sits inside its 10% + $0.50. Ko-fi's row is its free plan; Ko-fi Gold removes the 5% for a monthly fee excluded here. MKKT's rate is two points above Ko-fi's free-plan shop fee, so it lands about $0.98 lower on this sale. Platforms change pricing, so check their sites for the latest.
- AI product studio drafts the product itself
- 7% per sale, no monthly plan
- One branded storefront holding your whole catalog
- Files delivered automatically the moment payment clears
MKKT sets up your payment account from your email, so there are no bank details on day one. Payments are processed by Whop; you verify your identity with Whop once before your first withdrawal, and your balance sits with Whop until then, slower to reach you than Ko-fi paying your own PayPal directly.
The honest limits: MKKT is newer than both, it is not a merchant of record the way Gumroad is, and product files cap at 100 MB.
FAQ
Questions, answered straight.
- Which is cheaper, Gumroad or Ko-fi?
- Ko-fi, on every sale. Ko-fi takes 5% of a shop sale on its free plan and nothing at all on tips, while Gumroad takes 10% plus $0.50 on a direct sale. On a $49 product that is $2.45 to Ko-fi against $5.40 to Gumroad. Card processing of roughly 2.9% + $0.30 applies on both.
- Can I move my products from Gumroad to Ko-fi?
- Yes. The files are yours, so download them from Gumroad and re-upload them to a Ko-fi Shop listing. What does not move is your buyer list, your reviews, and any Gumroad Discover ranking you had built up, so expect early sales to come from your own audience rather than from browsing traffic.
- Does Ko-fi handle VAT and sales tax the way Gumroad does?
- No. Since 1 January 2025 Gumroad is the merchant of record and calculates, collects and remits sales tax, VAT and GST worldwide on your behalf. Ko-fi does not process payments, so it cannot be your merchant of record; it gives you tools to add VAT or GST at checkout, but working out what is owed and remitting it stays your job.
- Which is better for a first digital product?
- Gumroad, in most cases. Its Discover marketplace can put a new product in front of buyers you do not have yet, and it settles your tax obligations, which matters more than the fee gap while volume is low. Ko-fi overtakes it once your own audience drives the traffic. If the product itself does not exist yet, a tool like MKKT that drafts it is a third route.
Compare MKKT with more platforms
Or start from
what you know.
If the product is still in your head, MKKT drafts it, prices it, and puts it on a page. 7% per sale, nothing monthly.
Free to start · 7% per sale · no card required