Most creators looking for Stan Store alternatives hit the same wall: the price. Stan has no free plan, so you pay $29/month for the Creator plan once your trial ends, and some selling tools sit behind the $99/month Creator Pro plan.
If you’re selling digital products or courses from your link in bio and that math no longer adds up, this guide has you covered. We’ve rounded up ten options ranging from free Stan Store alternatives you can use today to full eCommerce platforms built to scale.
What are some good alternatives to Stan Store?
Some of the best alternatives to Stan Store are Beacons, Linktree, Payhip, Gumroad, Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, Podia, Kajabi, Shopify, and Etsy.
They range from free link-in-bio tools to full eCommerce platforms, so the right one depends on whether you sell digital products, run courses, or want to grow into physical merch.
Platform | Best for | Free plan | Monthly plans from | Transaction fee | Native support for physical products |
Beacons | Running an all-in-one link in bio | Yes | $10/mo | 0%-9% by plan | No |
Linktree | Link-in-bio directory | Yes | $6/mo | 0%-12% by plan | No |
Payhip | Building a full online store | Yes | $29/mo | 0%-5% by plan | Yes |
Gumroad | Selling digital products | Yes (no monthly fee) | - | 10% + $0.50 | No |
Ko-fi | Collecting fan support and tips | Yes | $12/mo | 0% on tips, 5% otherwise | Yes |
Buy Me a Coffee | Accepting fan support quickly | Yes | - | 5% flat | Original creations only |
Podia | Selling online courses | No | $42/mo | 0%-5% by plan | No |
Kajabi | Scaling a course business | No | $143/mo | 0% via Kajabi Payments | No |
Shopify | Building your own branded store | No | $22/mo | 0% via Shopify Payments | Yes |
Etsy | Selling to a large marketplace | No | - | 6.5% (+ $0.20 listing fee) | Yes |
Why look for alternatives to Stan Store?
Stan Store offers creators a platform to monetize their content, but its pricing floor and paywalled features lead many to seek alternatives.
What Stan Store offers
Stan Store lets you sell digital products, online courses, downloadable assets, and services from a single link in your bio. The fast, mobile-first setup means you can launch in minutes.
Stan Store charges zero transaction fees on both the Creator and Creator Pro plans, so you keep your full sale price – minus standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees. The 14-day free trial lets you try the platform before paying.
Where Stan Store falls short
Stan Store has real limits that matter for growing a creator business:
- Stan Store has no free plan, so every seller pays at least $29/month to open an online store.
- Removing the “Try 14 days free” banner requires Creator Pro.
- The platform doesn’t allow the use of a custom domain, which limits branding control.
- Marketing features like upsells, affiliate management, and advanced email marketing are available only with Creator Pro at $99/month.
- Stan Store doesn’t natively support selling physical products or Print on Demand, so you’ll need to manually collect addresses and ship each order yourself.
Quick tip:
Want to sell merch without inventory? Choose an alternative that connects to Printify. Shopify and Etsy integrate with it directly so that you can add custom t-shirts, mugs, and home goods on demand. You upload the design, and the Print Providers handle printing and shipping.
10 Best Stan Store alternatives
These Stan Store competitors range from free link-in-bio tools to full eCommerce platforms, so you can match one to how you actually sell products.
1. Beacons
Source: Beacons
Beacons is one of the best free Stan Store alternatives – you get a link-in-bio page, store, media kit, and email tools in one platform, with a genuine free plan that Stan doesn’t offer.
Best for: Creators who want a sales channel and a link-in-bio page without paying upfront.
Fees and pricing: Free plan available. Paid tiers are Creator at $10/month, Creator Plus at $30/month, and Creator Max at $90/month. The seller fee is 9% on Free and Creator, dropping to 0% on Creator Plus and above.
Standout feature: An auto-updating media kit pulls your latest follower and engagement numbers from your social media channels, so you can pitch brands for deals – a built-in tool Stan Store doesn’t offer.
The drawback: The 9% fee adds up fast. Selling more than about $333/month makes the $30 Creator Plus plan cheaper. Beacons also handles physical products only through manual fulfillment, so merch still means shipping each order yourself.
2. Linktree
Linktree is a widely recognized link-in-bio tool that now allows users to sell digital downloads and courses.
Best for: Creators who mainly want one link that sends followers to all their content, with light selling on the side.
Fees and pricing: Free plan available, with paid tiers starting at $6/month. The platform fee on digital downloads and courses ranges from 12% on the free plan down to 0% on the top tier.
Standout feature: Linktree’s analytics focus on audience and traffic – where visitors come from, what they’re into, and how your social following grows – which suits creators who care more about growing their audience than making sales.
The drawback: Linktree doesn’t support custom domains or forwarding, so every page stays linktr.ee/username. Its free plan can also show ads to your visitors.
3. Payhip
Source: Payhip
Payhip is a full online store builder rather than a link-in-bio page, letting you sell courses, memberships, and digital and physical products from your own branded storefront.
Best for: Selling online for free with robust marketing tools that aren’t locked behind higher tiers.
Fees and pricing: Free plan available, with paid tiers starting at $29/month. Payhip charges a 5% transaction fee on the free plan, which drops to 0% on the top tier.
Standout feature: Payhip’s built-in marketing tools include an affiliate program, cross-sells, coupons, and a refer-a-friend tool for free on every plan. On Stan Store, affiliate management and upsells are locked to the $99/month Creator Pro plan.
The drawback: Unlike Stan Store, Payhip doesn’t have built-in community features that allow creators and members to share posts and connect.
4. Gumroad
Another free alternative to Stan Store, Gumroad charges no monthly subscription fee to launch a custom storefront.
Best for: Creators selling digital products who want zero fixed costs and a beginner-friendly setup.
Fees and pricing: No monthly fee, but Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 per sale. The transaction fee drops to 5% + $0.50 once your digital product sales pass $20,000 in a month. Sales through Gumroad’s own marketplace, Discover, carry a higher 30% fee.
Standout feature: Gumroad acts as the merchant of record, calculating, collecting, and remitting sales tax and VAT worldwide for you. Stan Store only collects tax in your registered region and leaves filing to you, so Gumroad saves international sellers far more admin.
The drawback: That 10% + $0.50 per sale is higher than most platforms on this list, which hurts at higher volume or on low-priced items. Gumroad also only allows selling digital downloads, so offering physical merch isn’t possible.
5. Ko-fi
Source: Ko-fi
Ko-fi started as a tip jar and grew into a fuller toolkit, letting fans support you with one-time or monthly tips while you also sell digital products, take commissions, and run memberships.
Best for: Creators who make money online from fan support but still want a simple way to sell a few things.
Fees and pricing: Free to use, with a 0% transaction fee on one-time tips and a flat 5% on everything else, including shop sales, memberships, and monthly tips. The optional Ko-fi Gold plan at $12/month drops that fee to 0% across the board.
Standout feature: When someone supports you, the money goes straight to your PayPal or Stripe account, so you don’t have to wait on a payout schedule or a minimum balance, as you do with many other platforms.
The drawback: Ko-fi offers no custom domain, so your page stays ko-fi.com/yourname.
6. Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a Coffee keeps things simple: one clean page where supporters can tip you, join a membership, or buy a digital product, with no plans or advanced features to wrestle through.
Best for: Beginners and casual creators who want to start taking support in minutes, without setting up a store.
Fees and pricing: No monthly subscription fee, but Buy Me a Coffee takes a flat 5% transaction fee on everything – tips, memberships, and digital product sales.
Standout feature: One-tap checkout means supporters can pay without creating an account.
The drawback: Unlike Ko-fi or Payhip, Buy Me a Coffee has no paid plan that drops fees to 0%, so high-volume sellers keep paying 5%.
7. Podia
Source: Podia
Podia runs your whole online business from one comprehensive platform: courses, community, digital downloads, coaching, and email marketing live together on a website you control.
Best for: Online course creators and coaches.
Fees and pricing: There is no free plan. The Mover plan is $42/month and charges a 5% transaction fee. Shaker at $84/month and Earthquaker at $150/month both drop that fee to 0%.
Standout feature: Every Podia plan includes built-in email marketing, with broadcasts, automated sequences, and sales features. Meanwhile, Stan Store keeps automated email behind its $99/month Creator Pro plan.
The drawback: Podia is a full website you send traffic to, not a link-in-bio storefront built for quick mobile buying.
8. Kajabi
Kajabi sits at the premium end of the market, giving creators more advanced features than Stan Store for selling courses, memberships, and coaching.
Best for: Established creators who have outgrown simpler tools and need more robust features to scale their online business.
Fees and pricing: No free plan. The Basic subscription starts at $143/month, and Kajabi takes a 0% revenue share when you use Kajabi Payments or PayPal, though an outside processor adds a 0.5-2% fee by plan.
Standout feature: Kajabi can put your courses and community in your own branded app in the App Store, listed under your name.
The drawback: Kajabi carries a steeper learning curve and a far higher price than Stan Store, so it only pays off once your revenue is large enough to justify the cost.
9. Shopify
Source: Shopify
Shopify has powered everything from first-time sellers to major international brands. With customizable templates, unlimited products, and thousands of integrations, you can build a scalable online store without any coding skills.
Best for: Building a long-term brand with its own storefront, rather than selling straight from a social media bio.
Fees and pricing: Shopify offers a 3-day free trial, then $1/month for the first three months. After that, plans start at $22/month. Shopify charges no transaction fee on sales through Shopify Payments, though using an outside payment provider adds a fee of 0.6%-2%, depending on the plan.
Standout feature: Unlike Stan Store, Shopify can be integrated with print-on-demand services like Printify, so you can design a product, publish it, and have our Print Providers ship it for you with little financial risk.
The drawback: Shopify is built around physical and digital products, so selling online courses, coaching, or memberships usually means adding paid apps.
10. Etsy
Source: Etsy
On Etsy, you can sell digital downloads, print-on-demand items, craft supplies, and vintage goods to millions of shoppers.
Best for: Creators selling handmade, custom, or personalized products, which is exactly what Etsy shoppers come looking for.
Fees and pricing: Etsy charges $0.20 to list an item and takes 6.5% of each sale, plus a one-time setup fee. Optional costs include Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads, which charge a fee on any sales those ads drive.
Standout feature: Its built-in Marketplace Insights tool reveals real buyer search terms and trends so that you can shape products around proven demand.
The drawback: The marketplace is crowded, so you’ll be competing against similar shops to bring in new customers.
Key features to look for in a Stan Store alternative
Monthly fees vs transaction fees
The right Stan Store alternative depends on whether you’re starting out or outgrowing the platform’s tools.
Free alternatives to Stan Store skip the monthly fee and charge a percentage of each sale instead, which stays small while your sales are low. Here’s how that compares at $100 in monthly sales (excluding payment processing fees):
At $100 in monthly sales | Monthly cost | Per-sale fee | What you pay |
Stan Store (no free plan) | $29 | 0% | $29 |
Beacons free | $0 | 9% | $9 |
Payhip free | $0 | 5% | $5 |
As you can see, a free Stan Store alternative is worth it while you’re making a few sales or testing an idea. Just be mindful of the growing per-sale fees as you sell more.
If you’re moving to a paid platform instead, make sure it gives you more than Stan Store does for the money, not just a different link in bio. Payhip’s Plus plan, for example, costs the same $29/month but adds a custom domain and physical-product support:
For $29/month | Stan Store (Creator) | Payhip (Plus) |
Per-sale fee | 0% | 2% |
Custom domain | No | Yes |
Sell physical products | Manual only | Yes, natively |
Selling tools
Stan Store comes with a solid set of selling tools like upsells, affiliate management, and advanced email marketing, but they all sit behind the $99/month Creator Pro plan.
To make the switch worthwhile, match the essential features you use most against what comes included, not what costs extra. For example, Ko-fi lets you create discount codes to drive sales on its free plan, while Stan Store reserves this feature for its highest-tier plan.
Branding control
If owning your branding matters, look for three features Stan lacks or limits: a custom domain so your store lives at yourname.com, the option to remove the platform’s branding, and drag-and-drop design to match your own colors and fonts.
Beacons, for instance, offers customizable templates that make it easy to brand your page without any design skills.
Taxes
Stan Store only collects tax in your registered region and leaves the filing to you, which gets complicated fast if you sell internationally.
If that’s a burden you’d rather avoid, look for a platform that handles it for you. Gumroad acts as the merchant of record and collects and remits sales tax worldwide, while Payhip automatically handles sales tax for the EU, the UK, the US, and Canada.
Product types
Stan Store lets you sell digital downloads, online courses, and bookings, but it doesn’t natively support physical products.
If you want to expand into merch, look for a platform with features like shipping rate settings and order management so you can mark items as shipped and send tracking info.
Better still, eCommerce channels like Shopify and Etsy connect directly to Printify, so you don’t have to hold inventory or pack orders. You design a product, publish it, and our Print Providers print and ship each order for you.
Sell merch on your creator store with Printify
Want to sell custom merch alongside your digital products? The easiest way is with Printify’s print-on-demand service. Just choose a product, add your design, and we print and ship each order. You keep full control of your pricing and product strategy.
With a flexible supplier network of 70 Print Providers, you can compare quality, price, and shipping times and choose the best fit for each product. Every order is covered by built-in safeguards, such as refunds and reprints, if anything arrives damaged or misprinted.
Here’s how to sell merch with Printify:
- Sign up for a free Printify account and choose from over 2,000 custom products in our Catalog, from apparel to mugs to home goods.
- Add your design by uploading your own artwork, generating one with AI, or using the free graphics inside our Product Creator.
- Preview your design in realistic mockups and pick the ones that best showcase it.
- Price your products with help from our Pricing tool, which suggests a competitive range and flags whether you’re too low, too high, or just right.
- Connect your online store and list your products – we’ll handle the printing and shipping on every order.
FAQ
Which Stan Store alternative is right for you?
The right Stan Store alternative depends on what and how you sell.
- If you’re just starting out, Beacons and Linktree both let you create a link-in-bio page for free.
- To sell digital products without building a link-in-bio page, Gumroad keeps it simple, with no monthly fee and a shareable checkout.
- For building a full online course business, Podia and Kajabi offer deeper tools that Stan Store keeps behind its top plan.
And if you want to expand into physical merch, Shopify and Etsy connect directly to Printify, so you can create custom products while we handle printing and shipping. Sign up for free today and launch your first design in minutes.
