gumroad alternatives | The Blog Pros

December 27, 2022

How to Switch from Gumroad to WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to switch from Gumroad to WordPress?

Gumroad is an online marketplace where users can sell digital goods. From games to music to courses and videos, Gumroad used to be a good eCommerce platform for creators. However, many users are looking to switch from Gumroad to WordPress because they have raised their fees to 10% for each transaction.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily switch from Gumroad to WordPress, so you can grow your online business without the Gumroad tax.

Why Do You Need to Switch From Gumroad to WordPress?

Gumroad is a popular eCommerce platform that allows users to sell digital goods online.

However, they now charge a 10% flat fee on each sale. This 10% does not include credit card processing or PayPal fees.

Plus, an additional 10% fee is charged if a product is sold through the ‘Gumroad Discover’ feature, or their ‘Global Affiliates’ program. That’s a lot of fees.

On the other hand, WordPress is free and doesn’t charge you any fee for the items you sell.

Unlike Gumroad, WordPress gives you the freedom to sell anything online, including physical versions of your digital goods. Plus, you can use any payment gateway you want and promote your website freely.

To learn more, see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.

Important: When we say WordPress, we are talking about WordPress.org aka self-hosted WordPress, and not WordPress.com which is a hosting platform. For more details, please see our article on the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.

That being said, here is a quick overview of the things we’ll cover to switch from Gumroad to WordPress.

What Do You Need to Switch from Gumroad to WordPress?
Setting up Your WordPress Website
Setting up Payment Gateway
Importing Gumroad Products in WordPress
Moving Subscription Products From Gumroad to WordPress
Choose and Customize Your WordPress Theme
Customize Easy Digital Download Emails
Growing Your Business in WordPress

Ready? Let’s get started.

Step 1. What Do You Need to Switch from Gumroad to WordPress?

You’ll need the following things to switch from Gumroad to WordPress.

A domain name – This will be your website’s address on the internet (e.g. wpbeginner.com)
A web hosting account – This is where all your website files will be stored. All websites on the internet need hosting.
Free Easy Digital Downloads plugin for WordPress
30 minutes of your time.

Normally, pricing for a web hosting account starts at $7.99 per month.

Luckily, the folks at SiteGround have agreed to offer WPBeginner users a generous discount on eCommerce-ready hosting.

Basically, you can get started for $2.99 per month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive SiteGround offer ←

If for some reason, you don’t want to use SiteGround, then you can also install WordPress on other hosting companies like Bluehost, Hostinger, and WP Engine following a fairly similar process.

Let’s go ahead and walk through how to purchase your domain, web hosting, and SSL certificate.

First, you need to visit the SiteGround website and choose a plan by clicking on the Get Plan button.

SiteGround Hosting for Easy Digital Downloads and WordPress

After that, SiteGround will ask you to enter a domain name for your website.

You can look up a domain name or if you already have one then you can add that as well.

If you don’t already have a name in mind, then you can see our guide on how to choose the best domain name.

Lastly, you will need to add your account information. You will also be able to purchase some optional extras.

You can always add these extras at a later date if you decide that you need them. If you’re unsure then we recommend skipping this step.

You can now finish the setup by making the payment.

After that, you will get an email from SiteGround with a link to log in to your hosting account control panel.

From here, switch to the websites tab and click on the WordPress Admin button next to your website.

This will take you to the WordPress admin area of your website where you’ll notice Easy Digital Downloads pre-installed on your website.

Your WordPress admin dashboard will look like this

Step 2. Setting up Your WordPress Website

By default, WordPress does not come with eCommerce shopping cart functionality.

If you followed our advice and signed up with SiteGround, then your WordPress site will now have Easy Digital Downloads installed which provides all the Gumroad features you’ll need to sell digital goods.

On the other hand, if you are using some other WordPress hosting provider, then you’ll need to install Easy Digital Downloads first.

Simply, install and activate the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: For the sake of this tutorial, we are using the free version of Easy Digital Downloads. There is also a premium version that comes with additional features and priority support.

Upon activation, you need to visit Downloads » Settings page in your WordPress admin area to set up your store.

First, you need to provide a business name and type.

After that, enter your business address and country. This information is used for calculating taxes.

Finally, click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store your settings.

Next, you need to switch to the ‘Currency’ tab and select the default currency you want to use on your store.

Don’t forget to Save your changes to store your settings.

Step 3. Setting up Payment Gateway

In order to accept payments online, you’ll need to set up a payment gateway provider.

Easy Digital Downloads supports PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon payment gateways by default. You can also add support for additional payment gateways using add-ons.

To set up payments, simply switch to the Payments tab under the plugin settings.

From here, you need to select the payment services you want to use. You can choose more than one payment service if you want.

We recommend using Stripe since it lets you accept credit cards from anywhere in the world.

After that, select a default payment gateway and check the payment method icons you want to display on checkout.

Finally, click on the Save changes button to store your changes.

After that, you need to click on the individual payment gateway tabs to configure them.

For instance, clicking on Paypal will show you a button to connect your PayPal account.

Similarly, you can switch to the Stripe tab and click on the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button to set it up.

Step 4. Importing Gumroad Products in WordPress

The next step is to import the products from Gumroad to Easy Digital Downloads in WordPress.

Unfortunately, Gumroad does not provide an easy way to export your product data in a WordPress-compatible format.

You’ll need to manually move your products from your Gumroad account to Easy Digital Downloads.

To create your first digital product, go to the Downloads page and click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

You can now type a name for your product into the ‘Enter download name here’ field. Below that you can provide details of your item.

Feel free to use images, videos, emojis, and text to write a compelling description. You can also just copy and paste the description from your Gumroad product.

Tip: Learn how to use the WordPress block editor to create beautiful content layouts.

You can also organize your downloads into categories and tags. This helps users browse and discover product downloads that interest them.

Add categories, tags, and a download image

You also need to provide a download image, this will be the main featured image for your download and will be displayed in different locations on your website.

Feel free to use the image you used for your Gumroad product.

Below the editor, you will find the Download options. First, you can set the download price.

After that, you can choose the download type. EDD supports both single downloads and bundles as download types.

Below that, you can provide the download file name and then click on the Link button in the File URL field to upload your download file.

If you need to add more files to a bundled product then click on the ‘Add New File’ button to add them.

Finally, you can provide any optional download instructions or notes. These will be displayed on the purchase receipt and some plugins and themes may also use these instructions.

Once you are finished, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button at the top right corner of the screen to publish your download.

This will make your download publicly available for purchase.

Once published, you can click on the ‘View Download’ button to see your download product in action.

Here is how it looks on our test site.

Repeat the process to move all your products from Gumroad to your WordPress website.

Step 5. Moving Subscription Products From Gumroad to WordPress

Some users sold subscription-based downloads on Gumroad. Basically, customers purchased a membership plan to access downloads.

EDD offers recurring digital subscriptions as part of their Pro plugin which you can purchase from their website.

Alternatively, if you’re selling memberships or online courses, then the easiest way to sell these products is by using MemberPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market.

MemberPress allows you to sell membership subscriptions, file downloads, and even online courses.

For more details, follow our guide on how to make a membership website with step-by-step instructions.

Step 6. Choose and Customize Your WordPress Theme

Themes are the design templates for your WordPress website. They control how your website looks to the users.

There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can use on your website. However, this abundance can be a bit overwhelming for beginners.

To make things easier, you can pick a theme from our expert pick of the most popular WordPress themes.

Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress theme to get it live on your website.

Each WordPress theme comes with a bunch of options that allow you to customize it to your own needs. You can change colors and layout, as well as add your own images and logo.

After your theme is installed, you can use our guide on how to customize your WordPress theme to make it your own.

You can also use SeedProd to create a custom WordPress theme (without coding).

How to create a landing page in WordPress with SeedProd

SeedProd is the best WordPress page builder on the market.

It also allows you to easily create any type of landing page, product page, and custom login page using a drag-and-drop interface.

Step 7. Customize Easy Digital Download Emails

Just like Gumroad, Easy Digital Downloads also relies on emails to send users to purchase receipts, account information, and download instructions.

However, since you are now selling on your own platform, you may want to use your own branding with those emails.

Simply go to the Downloads » Settings page and switch to the ‘Emails’ tab.

From here, you can provide a logo to be used in your emails.

Below that, you can add a name that will be used as the sender’s name. You can also provide an email address to send the email from.

We recommend using a business email address because it looks more professional. Your hosting provider can also offer a free business email address that you can use.

Lastly, you will need WP Mail SMTP plugin to configure your emails. It ensures that all your emails reach users’ inboxes and not end up in spam.

For more details, see our guide on how to set up WP Mail SMTP to improve email deliverability.

Once you are finished, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store your settings.

Here is how a properly branded Easy Digital Downloads email would look like:

You can also customize the text of the emails by switching the to the ‘Purchase Receipts’ tab.

From here, you can enter a title, headline, and text for the purchase email receipts.

Below that you will find a bunch of tags that you can use inside the email template.

You will be able to display dynamic information such as customer name, their downloads, and receipt by using the tags provided beneath the text field.

Step 8. Growing Your Business in WordPress

A big advantage of moving from Gumroad to WordPress is the ability to use a ton of free and paid tools to grow your business.

Following are some of the must-have WordPress plugins that will help you sell more downloads.

WPForms Lite – the best WordPress contact form plugin that helps you easily add any type of form to your website.
All in One SEO Lite – The best WordPress SEO toolkit that helps you get more visitors from search engines.
OptinMonter – It is the best conversion optimization software that helps you convert website visitors into paying customers.
MonsterInsights Lite – Allows you to easily install Google Analytics and see how much traffic your downloads are getting.
PushEngage – is the best push notification software, which allows you to send personalized notifications to users. You can announce new downloads, sale events, or special offers.
AffiliateWP – Run your own affiliate program and partner with marketers to help you sell more downloads with affiliate marketing.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily switch from Gumroad to WordPress. You may also want to see our article on growing your business on a shoestring budget or take a look at our ultimate WordPress SEO guide.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Switch from Gumroad to WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

December 23, 2022

13 Best Gumroad Alternatives (Cheaper + More Powerful)

Are you looking for a Gumroad alternative to create an online store?

Gumroad is a popular eCommerce platform that lets you sell digital products, online courses, and membership-only content. However, their service isn’t flexible, and they recently increased their fees by quite a lot.

In this article, we’ll share the best Gumroad alternatives and competitors that you can use to sell digital products and make money online without the high costs.

Best Gumroad Alternatives - Cheaper and More Powerful

Why Do You Need an Alternative to Gumroad?

Gumroad is a hosted eCommerce platform where you can upload your products and start selling. You don’t need a hosting service, a payment service, or an online store to sell digital goods.

While it is beginner-friendly, there are several drawbacks to using Gumroad.

For starters, the platform now charges a flat 10% fee for every sale. These charges are in addition to the transaction fee.

Previously, the percentage would decrease as your revenue grew. However, the new pricing change takes a significant amount of your income.

For creators, this means aside from your local government taxes, now you’re going to be paying a Gumroad tax which simply isn’t acceptable.

Besides that, Gumroad doesn’t offer much flexibility compared to other eCommerce solutions.

For instance, you don’t get features for cross-sell or upsell products to boost sales. If you’re selling online courses, then Gumroad is at a disadvantage as it doesn’t include a learning management system (LMS).

Other alternatives to Gumroad provide more features for personalizing your online store and providing a better customer experience.

That said, let’s look at some of the best Gumroad alternatives.

1. MemberPress

MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin that lets you sell subscription-based digital products and online courses.

It’s a great alternative to Gumroad, as the plugin is user-friendly. You can easily create a membership site, set up multiple subscription levels, and control who can access content and products.

MemberPress also offers a built-in drag-and-drop course builder functionality to create and sell online courses. Besides that, it includes a virtual classroom feature, which produces an immersive learning experience.

Another feature offered by MemberPress that you won’t find in Gumroad is automatic drip content. The plugin allows you to release paid content to subscribers over time or once they’ve cleared a particular module.

MemberPress also integrates with other popular WordPress plugins. For instance, you can track your site’s performance by combining it with MonsterInsights or create your affiliate marketing program by connecting it with AffiliateWP.

Pricing: MemberPress pricing starts from $179.50 per year with their Basic plan. If you want more features like quizzes and premium integrations, then you can go for the Pro plan.

2. Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is another Gumroad alternative you can use for selling digital products like ebooks, plugins, software, PDF files, and more.

The plugin is best for bloggers, developers, marketers, artists, designers, and other creators to sell products online. It offers powerful features and allows you to create beautiful digital goods stores.

You can start with EDD for free with SiteGround EDD hosting or just try the free version from their website.

We use Easy Digital Downloads ourselves to sell our MonsterInsights and WPForms software, which shows just how powerful the plugin is. Plus, there are managed hosting services that come with EDD pre-installed.

Other than that, Easy Digital Downloads offers multiple extensions. You can easily integrate different payment services, email marketing tools, messaging services, and more.

The best part about using EDD is that it has a software licensing feature. It allows you to sell SaaS products, apps, and other tools with proper digital rights.

Pricing: Easy Digital Downloads premium pricing plans start from $99.50 per year. However, you can also use a free version of EDD to get started and start selling online.

3. WP Simple Pay

WP Simple Pay is the best Stripe payment plugin for WordPress, and you can use it to accept online payments without setting up a shopping cart.

It’s a great alternative to Gumroad, as you can sell digital products by simply adding a payment form using the plugin. The best part, WP Simple Pay offers a free version. You can accept one-time or recurring payments directly from your WordPress site.

With WP Simple Pay, you get 13 payment methods in 135+ currencies spread across 45+ countries. Some popular methods include credit card payments, ACH debit payments, Google Pay and Apple Pay services, and more.

You can also offer to buy now, pay later payment plans using WP Simple Pay. The plugin supports Klarna and Afterpay/Clearpay, which allow customers to pay in installments. This is great if you’re selling high-value or luxury products.

Pricing: WP Simple Pay premium plan starts from $49.50 per year with the Personal plan. If you want to add recurring payments or buy now, pay later options, then you’ll need the Pro license. To get started, you can also use a WP Simple Pay Lite version for free.

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It is an open-source platform that you can use to create any kind of digital store.

For instance, it lets you sell physical products online, set up membership plans, offer digital downloads and affiliate products, create dropshipping stores, and more.

The best part is that there are many themes designed for WooCommerce. This allows you to fully customize and control the design of your eCommerce store.

Another advantage of using WooCommerce over Gumroad is that you can use built-in options or third-party plugins to upsell and cross-sell products, recover cart abandonments, offer discount codes, free shipping, and more by using powerful tools like FunnelKit.

Plus, it easily integrates with different payment services and third-party plugins. WooCommerce also offers premium extensions. You can easily optimize your store for SEO and boost search engine rankings to attract more visitors.

To create a WooCommerce store, you’ll need WordPress hosting and a domain name. However, many hosting companies like Bluehost come with WooCommerce pre-installed.

Pricing: WooCommerce is a free eCommerce platform you can use as a Gumroad alternative. While the plugin is free, you’ll still need to pay for website hosting. Please see our guide on how much does an eCommerce store cost for more details.

5. WPForms

WPForms is the best drag & drop online form builder, and it can be an excellent alternative to Gumroad if you want a simple way to accept credit card payments.

It lets you easily build payment forms, so you can accept credit card payments using Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, and Square payment gateway.

Aside from that, WPForms also integrates with hundreds of email marketing services, so you can automatically add your customers to your marketing automation drip campaigns.

You can use WPForms to accept both one-time as well as recurring payments, and the best part is that it doesn’t charge any additional transactional fees.

Pricing: While WPForms has a free version, you will need the WPForms Pro plan which costs $199.50 to accept payments.

6. LearnDash

LearnDash is one of the best LMS plugin for WordPress and allows you to run online courses. The plugin offers powerful features to manage your courses, add quizzes, run surveys, and easily accept online payments.

Since Gumroad doesn’t offer a learning management system, LearnDash is an excellent alternative for anyone looking to sell online courses.

With LearnDash, you get a drag-and-drop course builder and multimedia support to run webinars, videos, and tutorials. The plugin also lets you add badges and rewards using different gamification tools. This helps make your lessons engaging.

Pricing: LearnDash premium plans start from $199 per year for 1 website.

7. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a popular email marketing and eCommerce platform built specifically for creators. They allow you to easily sell digital products, run paid newsletters, sell recurring subscriptions, and even set up tip jars.

The best part is that you get an integrated eCommerce and marketing platform, so when someone becomes a customer, you can send them automated email sequences, targeted marketing, and other subscriber engaging content.

ConvertKit is a hosted platform so it comes with a landing page builder, custom form templates, and it allows you to get unlimited traffic.

Pricing: ConvertKit is free to use for up to 300 subscribers, but your pricing will increase based on the number of subscribers you have. To access the CreatorPro tools, you will need to upgrade to the $25 per month plan.

8. Teachable

Teachable is another popular course-building platform that lets you create and sell online courses. You can use it as an alternative to Gumroad to market and promote your online courses.

It is similar to LearnDash and provides a complete solution for creating courses. What makes Teachable different is that it is a hosted platform, so you don’t have to worry about managing any additional software or installing updates.

Teachable is beginner friendly to use and offers a drag-and-drop course builder. It also takes care of online payments and offers multiple payment options. Other features provided by the service include integration with third-party marketing and analytics tools.

Pricing: You can get started on Teachable for free, but it will charge a $1 to 10% transaction fee. There are also premium pricing plans starting from $29 per month.

9. Thinkific

Thinkific is similar to Teachable and also a self-hosted platform to sell online courses. It is easy to use and is a fitting Gumroad alternative to creating courses.

It offers a drag-and-drop course builder that is very easy to use. Plus, you get different themes and templates to get started quickly. Thinkific also allows you to create subscription-based programs, landing pages, and a membership community.

Besides that, it also easily integrates with 40+ different tools and platforms like MailChimp, Shopify, Google Analytics, and Salesforce.

Pricing: Thinkific offers a 6-month premium plan for $196.

10. Payhip

Payhip is another Gumroad alternative that you can use as an eCommerce platform. It lets you sell digital downloads, online courses, memberships, coaching, and physical products.

Besides that, it offers a lot of customization, which isn’t available in Gumroad. For instance, you can use the store builder to create a beautiful and professional online business site within minutes.

If your customers are from Europe or the United Kingdom, then the platform will take full responsibility for complying with the value-added tax (VAT) laws. It will automatically detect their location and apply the correct sales tax or VAT amount to their transaction.

Other features offered by Payhip include different marketing tools to boost conversion rates. For example, it lets you add coupons, cross-sell or upsell products, order bumps, add referrals and affiliates, and show customer reviews to add social proof.

Pricing: Payhip offers a free plan that you can use to get started. However, Stripe and PayPal will charge a 5% transaction fee in the free plan. There are also premium plans starting from $29 per month.

11. Sellfy

Sellfy is the next Gumroad alternative on our list, and it helps you create a storefront for selling digital and physical products. It lets you promote your products anywhere online. Simply embed the Sellfy checkout process on your own website and market your digital goods.

You can also launch a print-on-demand merchandise store using Sellfy. Simply design, create, and sell using different storefront themes. Other than that, you can use it to sell digital downloads and subscriptions.

What makes Sellfy different from Gumroad is that it includes built-in marketing features like upselling, email marketing, and discount codes. Plus, it offers more customization features compared to Gumroad.

Pricing: Sellfy offers premium pricing plans starting from $22 per month (billed annually), and you get a 14-day free trial.

12. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a popular eCommerce platform, and you can use it as a Gumroad alternative.

It is a fully hosted eCommerce service that easily integrates with WordPress. You can use it to sell all kinds of digital and physical products.

The service automatically creates different pages for your store, including a shopping cart, sign-in page, account area, sales page, and more.

What makes BigCommerce different is that it lets you sell products across various channels like Amazon and social media platforms like Instagram. Plus, the eCommerce solution doesn’t charge any transaction fees and lets you choose from multiple payment gateways.

Pricing: BigCommerce pricing plans start from $29.99 per month, and you get a 15-day free trial.

13. Shopify

Shopify is the last Gumroad alternative on our list. It is an all-in-one eCommerce solution that you can use to create an online store. It offers more customization options and third-party integrations compared to Gumroad.

With Shopify, you don’t have to worry about web hosting, security, backups, updates, and caching. It does this for you, so you can focus on uploading products to the site and promoting them.

Shopify offers pre-built themes that you can use to set up a store. Plus, it makes it easy to manage inventory and accept online payments from a single platform. You can even use Shopify with WordPress to sell products online.

Pricing: Shopify pricing starts from $1 per month with the Basic plan. However, if you want low transaction costs and advanced features, then there is an Advanced plan costing you $299 per month.

Which Gumroad Alternative Should You Use?

After comparing different eCommerce solutions, we believe MemberPress is the best Gumroad alternative. It is a paid WordPress plugin that helps create subscriptions, sell digital products to premium members, and set up online courses without any extra fees.

If you’re looking for a free alternative to Gumroad, then we highly recommend Easy Digital Downloads. You can use its free version to get started and start selling digital products like ebooks, PDFs, spreadsheets, videos, digital art, apps, plugins, and more.

If you’re looking for a simple solution that lets you accept online payments without the complexity of creating a shopping cart, then WP Simple Pay is your best option.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to create an online store from scratch and have full control over it, then WooCommerce is the best option. You get more customization options, online store management features, and integrations compared to Gumroad.

We hope this article helped you find the best Gumroad alternative. You may also want to read our guide on how much does it cost to build a WordPress website and must have WordPress plugins for business sites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 13 Best Gumroad Alternatives (Cheaper + More Powerful) first appeared on WPBeginner.