We’re aware that both Sellfy and Gumroad offer excellent platforms to sell your digital products online, but which one outshines the other?
While these two platforms have a lot of similarities, they also have differences that fit different customer profiles and needs. In this review, we will compare both platforms by their ease of use, features, and pricing.
Which one is more user-friendly?
Starting off with user-friendliness, it’s important that the platform doesn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary stuff and provides easy access to all features. While both platforms are considered to be user-friendly, one is better than the other:
Sellfy:
Before we get into the ease of use, we must take into account that Sellfy offers more features than Gumroad, so it may look like this platform is more complex.
However, Sellfy has a very modern interface that simplifies things a lot. The whole interface kind of reminds me of Wix, and it is really easy to navigate things there.
Everything you need is on your left, and as I regular user of WordPress and Wix, I prefer to keep everything this way.
Before you even start creating your store with Sellfy, its artificial intelligence system will ask some questions about your goals.
It will ask what is your field, how are you planning to sell, and what is your audience size, and all – to optimize the whole selling process according to your needs.
Also, Sellfy likes giving explanations of their features, and tips for your better performance, so in case you are a beginner you can quickly get familiar with everything on this platform.
What also makes Sellfy very user-friendly is a preview feature that allows you to preview your store in a live mode. The users can see the instant changes of what they apply to their store, and that’s what really makes this platform pleasant to use.
Gumroad:
Now, while Gumroad is also a very simple and easy platform to use, its simplicity may result in a lack of features, such as in-depth analytics, or 1-click upsells.
As for the first impression of Gumroad, everything just seems not so alive there, and the interface looks quite outdated compared to Sellfy’s.
Also, Gumroad lacks explanations of their features and there are not many tips for better performance, so it can be harder for a complete beginner to use this platform.
Another thing to mention is that there are not many options to customize your product pages, and I am not even talking about the preview feature – Gumroad does not have that.
When it comes to the 3rd party integrations, Gumroad doesn’t offer many of them and that might make people look for other all-in-one alternatives, such as Sellfy.
VERDICT: Sellfy offers way more features and it’s more flexibile than Gumroad. Also, Sellfy’s interface is very functional and modern, and that makes this platform more user-firendly than Gumroad.
Features:
Features are very important when choosing your e-commerce platform. While both platforms share a lot of similarities, Sellfy offers some important features that Gumroad doesn’t.
What is common?
Both Sellfy and Gumroad share these same features:
- Sell digital products
- Sell physical products
- Sell memberships
- Sell unlimited products
- Ecom integration to website
- Ecom integration to social media
- Custom product pages
- Custom checkout pages
- Mobile responsiveness
- Email integrations
- Discount codes/coupons
- Mobile app versions
- Social discounts
- Affiliate system
- Sales reports
- Download limit
- “Pay what you want” feature
- Minimal price set
- VAT reports
- Analytics
- PDF stamping
What is Gumroad Lacking?
Since Gumroad and Sellfy share so many features, why so many people prefer using Sellfy over the Gumroad, and what Sellfy offers that Gumroad doesn’t?
1. No storefront builder:
Gumroad only works as the integration to your current websites or social media sites, like Facebook or Twitter. Whereas with Sellfy, you are not only able to embed your shopping cart anywhere, but also build a complete store from scratch.
Sellfy allows you to easily create a fully-functional website that can be hosted under your own domain name.
2. No upsells:
Upsells are where the massive chunk of income comes for many sellers. Unfortunately, Gumroad does not have this feature.
3. No product trials:
If you are selling software, or memberships to access your products, forums, and online groups, there’s no such option as providing trials on Gumroad. However, Gumroad provides the license keys for software buyers, and that’s useful as developers can take their hands off this task.
4. Limited customization:
Unless you are familiar with CSS, there’s nothing much you can do with Gumroad’s product and checkout pages when it comes to design or customization. Whereas on Sellfy, its WYSIWYG editor gives you the way more freedom and customization to design your entire store.
5. Limited integrations:
Gumroad does not offer a lot when it comes to an email service provider and other useful app integrations.
By default, you won’t find anything like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Twitter Conversion Tracking, Facebook Chat, or Patreon integrations as you would find on Sellfy.
On Gumroad, you will only find 3 integrations with email service providers like:
- ConvertKit
- Infusionsoft
- Drip
If your ESP is GetResponse, AWeber, or any other platform that’s not on the list, you can still integrate these platforms through Zappier, however it would be nice to have them all in house.
VERDICT: Sellfy offers the way more features than Gumroad does. Not having a storefront builder, upsells, product trial options, as well as enough customizations and integrations can be painful in a successful selling journey.
Payments:
Payments are also a very important part of any e-commerce platform. You definitely want to have a flexible and secure system in your store. Let’s see what these platforms have to offer:
Sellfy
Sellfy works with the two major global payment gateways – PayPal and Stripe, and it accepts entirely all payment options.
The great thing with Sellfy is that the payments are available immediately in your account, so neither Sellfy, Paypal or Stripe will hold your money after you sell something.
Gumroad
Unlike Sellfy, Gumroad takes a direct payment from major credit cards including, Visa, MasterCard, American Expres. They also accept Paypal, so the vast majority of possible payment options are covered.
However, since Gumroad does not support Stripe, it also doesn’t support the following payment options:
- Payoneer
- Authorize.Net
- Skrill
- Braintree
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Cryptocurrencies
VERDICT: Both Sellfy and Gumroad provide great payment solutions, and even if Gumroad doesn’t support several payment options it covers the vast majority of them.
Pricing:
When it comes to pricing it’s important that you get what you pay for. In my opinion, both platforms offer solid pricing plans, it’s just one allows you to start completely for free.
Sellfy:
While back in the day Sellfy had a free plan, it does not offer that anymore. However, it offers a 14-day trial that requires no upfront credit card details, but as soon as trial finishes, you will have to pay for the platform.
Sellfy works best for those who already have an established customer base, and willing to take their sales up to the moon as this platform has no transaction fees.
There are 3 pricing options on Sellfy. You can either pay yearly, or monthly, and obviously paying upfront for the year saves you a lot of money – 34% off.
Here are the pricing plans for paying yearly:
- Started – 19$/month
- Business – 39$/month
- Premium – 89$/month
Gumroad:
Gumroad is completely free to start, and they will only take off money when you make a sale.
As for the free plan option, Gumroad charges 5% plus another charge fee of 3.5% + 30¢. That’s quite a lot compared to other e-commerce platforms with free plans, like Payhip, which only charges 5% per transaction.
Must mention that some of the features with free plan are limited. For example, Gumroad doesn’t provide much in customization of product and checkout pages for their free plan users, and it doesn’t let to host these pages under your own domain.
If you want to minimize the transaction fees and have some more features onboard you can upgrade to a paid plan, which is $10 per month allowing you to have less than 1,000 customers. However, there are still going to be a transaction fee of 3.5% + 30¢ applicable.
If it happens that you get more than 1,000 subscribers, you will have to upgrade to more expensive plans:
VERDICT: If you are a complete beginner you might save some money starting off with Gumroad, however you will get to use the limited features and face the transaction fees, which are quire high compared to the other platforms. With Sellfy, you will have to pay upfront, however you will get no transaction fees, more features, and you will save a lot if you have higher volume of sales going on.
The Final Verdict:
Both Gumroad and Sellfy are great platforms to use, however one is more superior to the other.
In my personal opinion, it feels way nicer to navigate things on Sellfy, as its interface looks modern and clean. Plus, Sellfy offers more features, and it’s more like an all-in-one selling platform.
Sellfy works best for both – beginner and advanced levels of sellers. With this platform, you can start completely from scratch as it allows you to build your own complete independent store in just minutes.
And if you are an advanced seller, Sellfy allows selling as much as you want without charging any transaction fees.
At last, Sellfy offers all the necessary selling features, while Gumroad lacks some of them. However, Gumroad can favor you if you are a beginner who wants to start on a budget.