Gumroad
Sell downloads, build a website, and create courses (without high transaction fees)
With Gumroad, you’ll pay a 10% transaction fee on every sale you make. Forever. At Podia, you can start for free or upgrade to remove transaction fees and unlock advanced features, giving you more flexibility as your business grows.
Podia vs. Gumroad
Both Podia and Gumroad let you sell digital downloads, but Podia also lets you build a beautiful website with custom landing pages, create online courses, grow your email list, and set up a community in a single platform.
Podia
✓ Free plan
✓ Sell digital downloads
✓ Possible to remove transaction fees
✓ Online course builder
✓ Community feature
✓ Full website
✓ Unlimited customizable landing pages
✓ Integrated email marketing & automations
✓ Customer chat messaging
✓ Sell coaching and webinars
Gumroad
✓ Free plan
✓ Sell digital downloads
x Not possible to remove transaction fees
x No online course builder
x No community feature
x No custom website
x Product pages with limited customizations
x No email marketing
x No customer chat messaging
x Sell coaching and webinars
Comparing Podia vs. Gumroad
Podia
Gumroad
Free plan
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Price
Podia isFree, or $4/month to $89/month
Gumroad isFree + transaction fees
Remove transaction fees
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Free migrations
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Digital downloads
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Online courses
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Course builder and viewer
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Coaching
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Communities
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Memberships & subscriptions
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Webinars
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Unlimited products
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Unlimited customers
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Email marketing
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Coupons
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Upsells
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Affiliate program
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Messaging
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Full website
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Blogging
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Custom domains
Podia is yes
Gumroad is yes
Unlimited sales pages
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Teammates
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Chat support
Podia is yes
Gumroad is no
Creator friendliness score
Podia is90.91
Gumroad is66.67
Coming from Gumroad, Podia is a breath of fresh air. Their fees are reasonable, and their tech support is fast and top-notch!
— Gary Friedman, photographer & writer
Video demo
Podia in action
Wondering if Podia is a better platform for you? Go behind the scenes in this video walkthrough, where Ben will explain all the differences between Podia and Gumroad.
Sell more than just digital downloads.
Gumroad works fine for selling files, but Podia empowers you to do so much more. Offer 1:1 coaching, build a brand community, create interactive courses, and sell virtually any digital product you can imagine. No loopholes. No clunky workarounds.
Connect with integrated email marketing.
With Podia Email, you can design beautiful emails, create automated campaigns, tag and segment your audience, and send as many messages as you want. Everything is already connected to your products and customers.
Build a full website for your business.
Storefronts are nice, but a complete multi-page website can elevate your business to new heights. Showcase your digital products and share your mission with the world through a customizable website and unlimited sales pages – 100% for free.
Why creators choose Podia over Gumroad
Here are some reasons creators choose Podia to power their business.
Dedicated course builder and viewer
Podia’s top-notch online course builder gives your students a better elearning experience. Rather than receiving a bunch of files, customers can enjoy your content through our beautifully optimized course viewer.
Create an online community
Build brand loyalty, make connections, and provide value to your audience through an online community. With Podia, free and paid communities are included on all plans. Create the network you’ve been dreaming of without extra integrations or messy algorithms.
A support team that's here for you
The number one reason people cite for loving Podia? Our customer service. We’re always here to help, with real people offering chat support 7 days a week.
Free migrations
Sit back, relax, and let us do the heavy lifting. Our migration service makes switching to Podia easy, and it’s completely free on all annual Mover and Shaker plans.
Podia vs. Gumroad: What's right for me?
Great question! We obviously think we’re pretty great, but here’s an honest answer:
Both platforms allow you to sell digital downloads. Both give you email tools, affiliate marketing, and helpful selling features like coupons and payment plans.
But that’s about where the similarities stop.
Gumroad is primarily a digital download platform where you can sell files and set up a basic online store.
Podia is an all-in-one platform that replaces many tools for your business, including your website builder, email marketing software, online course platform, community host, live chat plugin, and much more.
Let’s dive into the details to help you decide which platform is best for you.
All prices and features are accurate at the time of writing, but they may change over time.
Sell more than just digital downloads
One big difference between Podia vs. Gumroad is the type of products you can sell.
As mentioned above, Gumroad is an ecommerce platform primarily designed for selling digital downloads. It’s possible to sell physical products too, but files are their bread and butter.
With Gumroad, you can accept payments in different currencies, create license keys for software, and sell multiple formats of the same product.
It’s technically possible to sell courses with Gumroad, but this option is pretty basic. Gumroad does not have a native course builder, but you can:
- Attach multiple videos and PDF files to a single product listing for the customer to download
- Create a dripped email course using automations and Gumroad’s “workflows” feature
You can’t include interactive elements, and it’s not possible to sell cohort courses. Gumroad also doesn’t have a way to sell coaching, services, or online communities.
With Podia, selling digital downloads is a breeze. It’s easy to upload and build a sales page for your digital product, and customers can access all the content they’ve purchased from you in one beautiful dashboard.
But that’s just the beginning. Podia also allows you to go beyond digital downloads and offer a variety of product types like full-scale online courses, webinars, coaching, and communities.
If you sell online courses, you can include quizzes, embeds, file downloads, and as many lessons and modules as you like. There are no bandwidth restrictions or storage limits to worry about, so you can build to your heart’s content.
Easily manage course availability by pre-launching, pre-selling, and selecting a future start date. This is a great way to build hype around your launch and offer real-time cohort courses.
To increase participation, you can enable student commenting and even make a private community area for your students to connect.
Beyond courses, Podia also makes it easy to sell 1:1 and group coaching products. Offer live or pre-recorded webinars, build a beautiful membership area, and encourage audience engagement through an online community.
You can even bundle products together and offer upsells at checkout to improve your bottom line.
Build a full website
A well-designed website is a great way to showcase your work.
With Gumroad, you can make a simple storefront with a profile image, description text, email capture button, and gallery of your products.
You can also make a listing for each item with a written description, product details, pictures, and videos. However, you can’t customize much beyond that, and you can only make one listing per product.
By contrast, Podia allows you to build an entire website for your business, complete with unlimited pages.
With just a few clicks, you can create an “About” page to share your story, a testimonials page to highlight positive reviews, or a “link in bio” style page to share on your social media accounts.
For example, creator Emily Mills from Sketchnote Academy uses her Podia website to promote a wide range of product offerings, share testimonials, and encourage new visitors to join her email list. You can explore her website here.
You can also make unlimited landing pages and sales pages for each item you sell. Rather than using a standard product listing for all your products, you can add banner sections, images, testimonials, and more on your Podia product pages.
Compared to Podia’s full website builder, Gumroad’s storefront tool is pretty bare bones. You might need to use a third-party website tool to get all the features you need.
Communicate with customers
Gumroad has an email marketing tool called Workflows. Using Workflows, you can send simple email messages with file attachments to sections of your audience. You can also set up automated messages and sequences to go out after someone makes a purchase.
Podia comes with built-in email marketing tools and customer messaging. With Podia’s email features, you can offer free lead magnets to grow your list, send newsletter broadcasts to your fans, and build automated sales campaigns to increase conversions.
You also get a live chat messaging tool. If a potential buyer visits your website and has a question, they can easily connect with you. Likewise, if an existing customer needs to get in touch, they can send you a note directly from the platform.
In a few clicks, you can give your customers an amazing experience and never worry about missed connections again.
Integrations
Software tools communicate with each other through integrations. As your business grows, you may want to use third-party platforms and plugins for additional functionality – but with an all-in-one option like Podia, you might not need integrations at all.
Here are the native integrations currently supported by Gumroad and Podia.
Gumroad integrations:
- Zapier
- Printful
- ConvertKit
- BookLaunch
- Gumroad WP
- Infusionsoft
- IFTTT
- Youtube Annotations
- Sketchfab
- Drip
- Order Desk
- Pabbly Connect
- N8n.io
- Acutrack
- Mailchimp
- ConvertKit
- Aweber
- Drip
- ActiveCampaign
- MailerLite
- GetResponse
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Google Analytics
- HotJar
- YouTube Live
- Zoom
- Calendly
- Acuity
- SavvyCal
- YouCanBook.me
- Facebook Pixel
- Pinterest ads
- Google Ads
- Sumo
- Fomo
- Deadline Funnel
- Zapier
Customer support
Entrepreneurship is challenging. Don’t let tech issues add unnecessary stress.
Podia is known for having best-in-class customer service so you never feel stuck for long. Simply chat with one of our friendly support team members, and they’ll help you quickly troubleshoot any issues that arise.
If you need help with your Gumroad account, you can reach out to their support email address. There’s no chat support.
Pricing
A big difference between Gumroad and Podia is the pricing structure.
Podia offers four plans, including a free plan and paid plans with diminishing transaction fees.
Gumroad doesn’t charge a monthly fee, but you’ll pay transaction fees on every sale you make on the platform.
Podia pricing plans:
- Free (10% transaction fee)
- Starter: $9/month or $4/month when paid annually (8% transaction fee)
- Mover: $39/month or $33/month when paid annually (5% transaction fee)
- Shaker: $89/month or $75/month when paid annually (no transaction fees)
See what’s included with each Podia pricing plan here.
Gumroad pricing plans:
Gumroad charges a 10% transaction fee for all creators, no matter how much you sell on their platform.
While a free platform might be tempting, transaction fees can add up quickly and may cost you more money in the long run.
Here’s how this shakes out in real life:
Let’s say you’re a new creator who wants to test the waters of online entrepreneurship.
Both Podia and Gumroad are free to join, and you’ll pay 10% transaction fees on any sales you make.
If you earned $600 in your first month, you’d pay $60 ($600 x 10%) in transaction fees with Podia and Gumroad.
Now let’s fast forward. Your business is happily growing, and you’re earning a consistent $3,000 per month from your digital products. Great job!
If you were using Gumroad, you’d pay $300 a month in transaction fees.
On Podia, you could upgrade to the Starter or Mover plan to lower transaction fees, or the Shaker plan to remove them entirely. On the Shaker Plan, you’d only pay a flat rate of $89/month.
Best of all, you won’t pay more as your income grows.
Podia: The best platform for building your online business
If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform that makes it simple to run your online business, has world-class customer service, and won’t charge you an arm and a leg in transaction fees, we built Podia just for you.
Whether you’re a new creator or a seasoned entrepreneur, we can’t wait to see what you dream up next.
Try Podia for free, or take a video tour to see these features in action.
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Absolutely! You can check out our Podia demo site, which we’ve built to show you what the Podia experience will look like for both you and your customers.
There are also dozens of creator example sites on our Examples page, so you can see what other creators just like you have built using Podia.
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Yes! We offer free (and hassle-free) migrations on all annual Mover and Shaker plans. Get started here.
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Yes! Podia has a free forever plan that includes your full website, blogging, one digital download, one coaching product, customer chat messaging, and your online community. Sign up for free today to see for yourself!
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Absolutely! You can see how Podia stacks up to many of our competitors right here.
We also have some head-to-head comparisons of other leading platforms in case you’re choosing between those, including:
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We’d love to. Podia’s customer support is here for you, seven days a week. Just reach out to us on chat and a real, friendly person will be delighted to help you out.