Where to Sell Digital Products: 8 Platforms Reviewed
Where you sell your digital products matters as much as what you sell. Two creators with identical products can have wildly different results because one chose a platform that suits their audience and business model, and the other didn't.
This guide is specifically for course creators and educators; people who sell courses, ebooks, templates, memberships, and digital downloads. The platforms are evaluated through that lens: how well does each one serve someone building an education-based business?
At a Glance: Platform Comparison
The Honest Guide: What Each Platform Is Actually Good For
1. FreshLearn
Best for: Course creators who want to sell courses, digital downloads, and memberships, with email marketing, community, and analytics, and without managing multiple platforms.
FreshLearn is the most relevant platform for educators building a knowledge-based business, which is why it belongs on this list; not because it's the obvious winner for everyone, but because it solves a specific problem that most platforms on this list don't: keeping your entire educator stack in one place.
Most course creators end up paying for a course platform, a separate email marketing tool, and sometimes a separate community tool. FreshLearn's pitch is that you don't need to. It includes all three natively, plus digital downloads, sales pages, checkout, affiliates, and analytics.
What FreshLearn handles that's directly relevant to selling digital products:
Digital downloads — sell PDFs, ebooks, templates, and workbooks with DRM protection, automatic watermarking (buyer's name and email embedded in each copy), preview pages, and instant delivery. No separate tool required.
Course hosting — unlimited courses with video hosting, drip scheduling, quizzes, completion certificates, and mandatory watch time for compliance requirements.
Sales page builder — drag-and-drop editor with conversion-focused templates, countdown timers, testimonial blocks, and pricing tables. No coding required.
Email campaigns — broadcasts, drip sequences, and behavioral triggers (enrolled in a course, downloaded a lead magnet, hasn't opened in 30 days). Segmented by purchase history and enrollment status.
Community — private discussion forums and membership groups built in, not bolted on.
Affiliate program — set commission rates, track referrals, and manage payouts; all within the same platform.
0% transaction fees on all paid plans. FreshLearn takes no cut of your sales; you pay only standard payment processing (Stripe or PayPal rates).
FreshLearn pricing (annual billing):
- Free: $0 — 1 product, 25 enrollments, 3 sales pages
- Pro: $41/month — courses, digital downloads, email (3K/month), sales pages, checkout, custom domain
- No Brainer: $59/month — adds community, live classes, certificates, gamification, referral program, mobile app
- No Brainer+: $119/month — advanced automation, API access, 12K emails/month
The honest limitation: FreshLearn is built for educators. If you're selling software, physical products, or creative assets like fonts and stock photos, you'll be better served by a platform purpose-built for those product types. And if you're already deeply set up in a tool like Kajabi or Teachable, the migration could take a week or more; factor that into your evaluation.
2. Kajabi
Best for: Established course creators and coaches who want email marketing, funnels, and course delivery under one roof, and whose revenue justifies the premium.
Kajabi is the most capable all-in-one platform for online educators. Its combination of course hosting, email marketing, sales funnels, landing pages, community, and coaching tools makes it the closest thing to a complete business operating system for creators who have outgrown simpler tools.
What Kajabi does particularly well for educators in 2026: its AI tools have become genuinely useful: Creator Studio generates marketing content (emails, social posts, mini courses) from your video content, and AI dubbing and translation tools are available for creators building international audiences. The redesigned checkout reportedly lifts conversions significantly for users who've migrated to it.
The honest case for Kajabi: if you're currently paying for a course platform + email tool + funnel builder separately, Kajabi often costs less than the stack it replaces. The math changes once you add up Kit or ActiveCampaign ($50–$100/month), a landing page tool ($49/month), and a course platform ($74–$99/month). Kajabi Basic at $143/month replaces all of that.
The honest case against it: Kajabi removed its Kickstarter plan in 2025. There is now no entry point below $143/month (annual). For early-stage creators who are still validating their first product, that's a real barrier. And Kajabi adds a 0.5–2% surcharge on transactions if you use your own Stripe account rather than Kajabi Payments; something its marketing doesn't lead with.
Kajabi pricing (2026, annual billing):
- Basic: $143/month — 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community
- Growth: $199/month — 50 products, 25,000 contacts, automations, affiliates
- Pro: $399/month — unlimited products, 100K contacts, 3 websites, custom code
No transaction fees on Kajabi Payments. 0.5–2% surcharge when using your own Stripe (depending on plan). 14-day free trial available; 3-month access at $99 currently offered as a promotional entry point.
3. Teachable
Best for: Course creators who want a focused, well-built course platform and already have (or plan to add) separate email and marketing tools.
Teachable is the most straightforward course-selling platform on this list. It does one thing: help you build, sell, and deliver online courses; and it does it well. Student management, video hosting, drip content, quizzes, completion certificates, mobile apps, and affiliate marketing are all included across paid plans.
What makes Teachable genuinely useful for educators: its course builder is clean and student-focused. The student experience is a traditional learning environment (not a funnel-style page sequence), which matters for creators whose students return to course content repeatedly over weeks or months. Its affiliate marketing tools are also stronger than most comparable platforms.
The critical pricing caveat: Teachable dropped its free plan in June 2025. Its Starter plan at $29/month (annual) carries a 7.5% transaction fee, which erases the apparent savings very quickly. A creator doing $1,000/month in revenue on the Starter plan pays $75/month in Teachable fees on top of the $29 plan cost. Upgrading to Builder ($69/month, 0% fees) typically pays for itself within two to three sales.
What Teachable doesn't include: email marketing, sales funnel builder, or community (beyond course discussion forums). You'll need external tools for those, which adds cost and integration work.
Teachable pricing (2026, annual billing):
- Starter: $29/month — 1 course, 7.5% transaction fee
- Builder: $69/month — unlimited courses, 0% transaction fees, affiliate marketing
- Growth: $179/month — advanced reports, custom user roles, bulk student enrollment
- Plus: $649/month — dedicated CSM, custom onboarding
4. Gumroad
Best for: Creators who want to test a product with zero upfront cost before committing to a platform subscription.
Gumroad is the simplest entry point for selling a digital product online. No monthly fee, no setup complexity; upload your product, set a price, and start selling. Gumroad takes 10% of each sale plus standard payment processing fees.
For educators, Gumroad works well in two situations: testing demand for a new product before investing in a full platform, and selling simple digital files (templates, ebooks, worksheets) to an existing audience that you're directing from elsewhere. Its "pay what you want" pricing option is also useful for educators who want to offer flexible access to lower-income students.
Where Gumroad falls short for course creators: there's no course delivery environment, no email automation, no community, and no sales funnel capability. It's a checkout tool and digital file delivery system, not a course platform. And at 10% per sale, the economics invert quickly as your revenue grows. At $3,000/month in sales, Gumroad takes $300/month; more than a FreshLearn Pro plan that includes everything Gumroad doesn't.
Gumroad pricing: No monthly fee. 10% flat commission on every sale plus Stripe/PayPal processing fees (~3%). The 10% applies to every transaction with no volume discount.
5. Shopify
Best for: Creators who sell digital products alongside physical goods, or who want the most robust e-commerce infrastructure available.
Shopify is the most powerful general e-commerce platform on this list. If you sell anything physical alongside digital products, such as printed workbooks, merchandise, or physical course materials, Shopify handles the full stack better than any other platform here.
For pure digital product creators, Shopify is capable but adds complexity. Digital product delivery requires a third-party app (like SendOwl or Sky Pilot) since Shopify doesn't natively handle digital downloads with the controls educators need (access limits, DRM, expiry). That means an additional monthly cost on top of the Shopify subscription.
For course creators: Shopify has no native course delivery environment. You can sell access to a course through Shopify and deliver it through a separate platform, but that's two platforms to manage rather than one. Unless you're running a hybrid physical-digital business, there are more educator-appropriate options on this list.
Shopify pricing (2026, annual billing):
- Starter: $5/month — buy buttons only, no full storefront
- Basic: $39/month — full store, 2 staff accounts, basic reports
- Grow: $105/month — 5 staff accounts, professional reports, lower transaction fees
- Advanced: $399/month — custom reports, 15 staff accounts, lowest transaction fees
- Plus: From $2,300/month — enterprise features
Transaction fees apply when not using Shopify Payments (0.5–2% depending on plan). 14-day free trial.
6. Squarespace
Best for: Educators who want a professionally designed website with integrated digital product sales, and don't need course-specific features like drip content or quizzes.
Squarespace is the best-looking website builder on this list. Its templates are genuinely beautiful and mobile-optimized, and the drag-and-drop editor produces professional results without design skills. For educators whose primary product is an ebook, a downloadable template pack, or membership content, rather than a structured video course, Squarespace is a practical all-in-one website and sales solution.
What it handles well for digital product creators: digital downloads, membership sites (gated content by subscription tier), appointment booking (useful for coaches), and basic email marketing through Squarespace Email Campaigns (available as an add-on).
What it doesn't handle: course-specific features like drip content scheduling, progress tracking, completion certificates, quizzes, or student management. If your "course" is essentially gated video or PDF content delivered through a membership site, Squarespace can manage it. If you need a proper learning environment, it can't.
Pricing note: the Core plan ($23/month annual) charges a 3% transaction fee on digital product sales. The Plus plan ($39/month annual) reduces this to 0%. For creators selling meaningful volume, the Plus plan pays for itself quickly.
Squarespace pricing (2026, annual billing):
- Basic: $16/month — website only, no e-commerce
- Core: $23/month — e-commerce with 3% transaction fee on digital products
- Plus: $39/month — 0% transaction fee, lower payment processing
- Advanced: $99/month — advanced shipping, selling in multiple currencies
- 14-day free trial on all plans
7. Sellfy
Best for: Creators who want a dedicated digital storefront that's quick to set up and handles large file sizes, without needing a full website builder.
Sellfy is the most focused digital product storefront on this list. It's not trying to be a course platform, website builder, or email marketing tool. It does digital file delivery, video streaming, and product sales cleanly and quickly, and that simplicity is its main appeal.
For educators selling digital downloads, ebooks, workbooks, template packs, video lessons, Sellfy handles large files (up to 10GB per product), video streaming with piracy protection, subscription products, and instant delivery well. Its storefront can be embedded into an existing website or used standalone.
What it doesn't do: course hosting with drip content, quizzes, certificates, student progress tracking, or community. Like Gumroad, it's a delivery and checkout tool rather than a full creator platform.
Its pricing is based on annual sales volume rather than subscriber count, which suits creators with inconsistent sales patterns better than subscriber-based pricing.
Sellfy pricing (2026):
- Starter: $29/month (monthly) / $22/month (annual) — up to $10K annual sales, 0% transaction fees
- Business: $79/month (monthly) / $59/month (annual) — up to $50K annual sales, cart abandonment, upsells
- Premium: $159/month (monthly) / $119/month (annual) — up to $200K annual sales, priority support
- 14-day free trial, no credit card required
8. Creative Market
Best for: Graphic designers, font creators, and illustrators, not course creators.
Creative Market is included here because it appears on many "where to sell digital products" lists, and it's worth being clear about who it actually suits.
Creative Market is a marketplace for design assets: fonts, templates, Photoshop brushes, Canva graphics, stock photos, and website themes. It has a built-in audience of buyers specifically looking for those products, which is its main advantage over building your own storefront from scratch.
For course creators and educators: Creative Market is the wrong fit unless your primary product is a design asset (a Canva template pack, a printable planner, a social media graphics kit). It doesn't host courses, doesn't support memberships, and takes approximately 50% of each sale, a commission rate that makes less sense as your products become more premium.
If you sell Canva templates or design resources alongside educational content, Creative Market can be a useful additional channel. As a primary platform for an educator, it's not the right tool.
Creative Market pricing: No monthly fee. Approval required to open a shop. Commission is approximately 50% per sale, the exact rate varies by shop and product.
9. Patreon
Best for: Creators with an existing, loyal audience who want predictable recurring income from a membership model.
Patreon is a different model from every other platform here. Rather than selling individual products, you create membership tiers where subscribers pay monthly for ongoing access to your content, community, and exclusive material.
For educators, Patreon works when you're already producing regular content your audience values, videos, articles, podcasts, live sessions, and want to monetize that consistency rather than launching discrete products. Many educators use Patreon as a complementary revenue stream alongside their main course platform rather than as a replacement for it.
The platform fee (5–12% depending on plan, on top of payment processing) compounds as your subscriber revenue grows. At $5,000/month in Patreon revenue, even the Lite plan's 5% takes $250/month, before payment processing.
Patreon pricing:
- Lite: 5% of monthly earnings + payment processing — basic tier management
- Pro: 8% of monthly earnings + payment processing — multiple tiers, analytics, app integrations
- Premium: 12% of monthly earnings + payment processing — dedicated partner manager, team accounts
How to Choose: A Framework for Course Creators
If you're just starting and want to test demand: Gumroad. No monthly cost, instant setup, 10% commission only when you make a sale. Validate that people will pay for your product before investing in a platform.
If you want one platform for everything — courses, email, community, downloads: FreshLearn or Kajabi. FreshLearn is better value at earlier stages ($41–$59/month). Kajabi makes more sense at scale when you need advanced email automation, mature funnel tooling, and are ready to migrate your full stack.
If you just need a solid course platform and handle email separately: Teachable Builder ($69/month) is the clearest choice: focused, well-built, 0% transaction fees, and strong affiliate tools.
If you sell design assets alongside educational content: Creative Market for the design assets, a separate platform for your courses. Don't conflate the two.
If you sell digital downloads alongside physical products: Shopify with a digital delivery app.
If you want beautiful website design with simple digital product sales: Squarespace Plus ($39/month) handles ebooks, downloads, and membership content cleanly.
If you want recurring subscription income from an existing audience: Patreon as a complementary channel alongside your main course platform.
The Revenue Math: Why Platform Choice Compounds Over Time
The platform fee question matters more than most creators realize at the start. Here's what different commission structures actually cost at $3,000/month in digital product revenue:
At $3,000/month, Gumroad's "no monthly fee" approach costs $300/month in commissions; more than any paid platform on this list. The 0% commission platforms pay for themselves quickly once you're generating consistent revenue. Payment processing fees (Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) apply to all platforms equally and aren't included above.
FAQs
1. What's the best platform to sell digital products if I'm just starting?
Gumroad for pure validation: upload your product and start selling with no monthly fee, paying 10% only when you make a sale. If you want a platform you can grow into, FreshLearn's free plan supports up to 25 enrollments and includes a sales page and checkout. Once you're consistently generating revenue, upgrade to a paid plan and eliminate the commission.
2. Can I sell digital products without a website?
Yes. Gumroad, Sellfy, and Patreon all give you a hosted storefront without requiring your own website. FreshLearn's free plan also includes a sales page. If you want a proper website alongside your digital products, Squarespace or Shopify are the cleanest options.
3. What's the difference between a marketplace and a platform for digital products?
A marketplace (Creative Market, Etsy, Envato) brings built-in traffic in exchange for a significant commission: typically 30–55% of each sale. You get discoverability; you lose revenue share and customer ownership. A platform (FreshLearn, Kajabi, Teachable, Sellfy) charges a flat monthly fee and takes 0% commission. You drive your own traffic, but you keep the revenue and the customer relationship permanently.
4. Do I need to pay tax on digital product sales?
Digital product tax obligations vary significantly by country and by where your customers are located. EU VAT rules, US sales tax by state, and other regional requirements may apply. Most platforms handle tax calculation automatically: Shopify, FreshLearn, Kajabi, and Teachable all include tax tools. If you're selling internationally at meaningful volume, consult an accountant familiar with digital product tax rules for your specific situation.
5. What platform is best for selling both courses and ebooks?
FreshLearn natively supports both courses with full LMS features and ebooks as digital downloads with DRM protection, watermarking, and preview pages; on the same platform and under the same student account. Kajabi also supports both. Teachable handles courses well, but digital downloads less elegantly. Gumroad handles ebooks and simple downloads, but not structured courses.
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