Best Platforms to Sell Digital Products in Australia (2026): Ranked by Fees
A fee-first comparison of Cash Cart, Gumroad, Stan Store, Lemon Squeezy and Payhip for Australian creators. AUD pricing, payout speed and real costs compared.
Most platform comparison articles are written by affiliates. They earn a commission when you sign up through their link, which changes what they recommend. This article is not that.
What follows is a fee-first comparison for Australian creators. The four things that actually determine which platform is worth using are: what the fee structure costs you, who pays the fee (you or the buyer), whether you get AUD pricing, and how quickly money reaches your bank account. Everything else is secondary.
The differences between platforms are significant. The one that looks cheapest on the surface is not always the one that puts the most money in your pocket.
The fee comparison table
| Platform | Fee model | Who pays | AUD pricing | Instant payouts | Monthly cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash Cart | 6% + $0.30 | Buyer | Yes | Yes | Free | Australian creators, beginners |
| Gumroad | 10% + $0.50 | Seller | No | No (weekly) | Free | Creators with an existing audience |
| Stan Store | 0% platform + Stripe processing | Seller | No | Yes | $29–$99 | Full-time creators with consistent revenue |
| Lemon Squeezy | 5% + $0.50 | Seller | No | No (twice monthly) | Free | Software and SaaS sellers needing global tax handling |
| Payhip | 5% / 2% / 0% (tiered by plan) | Seller | No | Yes | Free / $29 / $99 | Budget-conscious creators with varied product types |
One thing that table makes clear: Cash Cart is the only platform where the buyer pays the transaction fee rather than the seller. That difference is explained properly in the "who pays the fee" section below, because it matters more than most creators realise.
Cash Cart
Cash Cart is a digital product platform built specifically for simplicity and speed. You set a price, share your link, and the money goes directly to your Australian bank account via Stripe.
The fees: 6% + $0.30 per sale, added to the buyer's checkout total. The seller keeps 100% of the listed price.
What Australian creators need to know: Cash Cart prices natively in AUD (as well as USD, NZD, GBP, EUR and CAD). Payouts are instant through Stripe Connect direct to your Australian bank account. There is no weekly schedule and no minimum balance to withdraw. There is no monthly fee and no free trial that expires.
Best for: Any Australian creator who wants to start selling without a monthly bill, and who wants to know exactly what they'll receive on every sale before it happens.
The honest downside: Cash Cart is a newer platform. The community and ecosystem around it are smaller than Gumroad's. If you're looking for a built-in marketplace where strangers discover your products organically, Cash Cart is not there yet. It works best when you're driving traffic from your own channels.
Gumroad
Gumroad is the platform most creators have heard of. It has been around since 2011, has a large user base, and has a Discover marketplace where buyers can find products without coming from your own traffic. That name recognition is real.
The fees: 10% + $0.50 per sale on direct transactions. If a sale comes through Gumroad Discover, the fee rises to 30%. There is no monthly cost on the free plan.
What Australian creators need to know: Gumroad prices in USD only. Australian sellers list products in US dollars, receive USD, and convert to AUD themselves, absorbing whatever the exchange rate and conversion fee happens to be at the time. Payouts run on a weekly schedule. You cannot receive money faster than that regardless of your sales volume.
Best for: Creators who already have a following on Gumroad, or who want access to the Discover marketplace and are willing to absorb the fees in exchange for passive traffic.
The honest downside: The 10% fee compounds badly as revenue grows. A creator doing $3,000 per month in sales pays $300 per month in platform fees before Stripe processing. The lack of AUD support and the weekly payout delay are genuine friction points for Australian sellers. For a breakdown of how Gumroad compares specifically for Australian creators, this article goes into more detail.
Stan Store
Stan Store is built for creators who live on social media. The interface is clean, link-in-bio focused, and optimised for mobile. The pitch is zero platform transaction fees on top of Stripe's standard processing rate.
The fees: No platform transaction fee. Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) still applies to every sale. The platform itself costs $29 per month for the Creator plan or $99 per month for Creator Pro. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial.
What Australian creators need to know: Stan Store does not support AUD pricing. Products are listed and sold in USD. The $99 per month Pro plan is where most of the useful marketing tools (email automations, upsells, affiliate management) actually live. At $29 per month, the feature set is functional but limited. The monthly fee means Stan Store only makes financial sense if you're earning consistently.
Best for: Full-time creators with predictable monthly revenue who want a polished storefront, are comfortable with USD pricing, and can justify $29 to $99 per month as a fixed operating cost.
The honest downside: A creator doing $500 per month in sales on the $29 plan is spending roughly 6% of revenue on the monthly fee before Stripe processing. At that volume, the "zero transaction fee" advantage disappears. Stan Store works well for established creators. It's a hard sell for someone just starting out.
Lemon Squeezy
Lemon Squeezy was acquired by Stripe in 2024. It operates as a merchant of record, which means it handles sales tax and VAT compliance globally on your behalf. For software sellers who need to manage EU VAT, US state taxes, and other international obligations, that is a genuine advantage.
The fees: 5% + $0.50 per transaction. An additional 1.5% applies to transactions outside the United States, which means every sale made to an Australian buyer, or made by an Australian seller, incurs the surcharge. Payouts run twice per month with a 13-day hold and a minimum $50 balance to withdraw.
What Australian creators need to know: Lemon Squeezy's merchant of record model handles EU VAT and US state sales tax automatically. It does not handle Australian GST. For most Australian digital product creators selling to consumers, GST obligations are straightforward and do not require a merchant of record platform. The 1.5% international surcharge applies to all Australian sellers. The 13-day payout hold means you can wait close to two weeks to receive money from a sale made today.
Best for: Software developers and SaaS founders selling globally who need hands-off tax compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
The honest downside: The payout delays are a real problem for creators who need cash flow. The Stripe acquisition has created uncertainty among some sellers about the platform's direction. Australian creators absorb the international surcharge on every sale, which pushes the effective fee to 6.5% + $0.50 before anything else.
Payhip
Payhip has been around since 2013 and supports a wide range of product types: digital downloads, online courses, memberships, coaching, and physical products. The free plan with a 5% transaction fee makes it accessible, and the paid plans reduce that fee to 2% or 0%.
The fees: Free plan at 5% per transaction. Plus plan at $29 per month with 2%. Pro plan at $99 per month with 0%. Payouts are instant on all plans.
What Australian creators need to know: Payhip does not offer AUD pricing. Products are listed in whatever currency you choose, but there is no native AUD storefront experience. Payhip handles EU and UK VAT compliance automatically. It does not handle Australian GST or US state sales tax. The storefront design is functional but not polished by modern standards.
Best for: Creators who want a low barrier to entry, sell a variety of product types, and are comfortable with the 5% fee until volume justifies a paid plan.
The honest downside: Account closures have been reported by users without clear explanation, which is a risk worth knowing about. The 5% fee on the free plan is not dramatically different from Cash Cart's 6% + $0.30, but on Payhip the seller pays it rather than the buyer. For low-price products, the per-transaction math can favour one over the other depending on your average order value.
How to choose
If you are just starting out, have no consistent revenue yet, and do not want a monthly bill, the choice is between Cash Cart, Gumroad, and Payhip's free plan. Cash Cart is the only one of the three with AUD pricing and instant payouts. Gumroad has more brand recognition and a discovery marketplace. Payhip has a broader product type range. For an Australian creator at zero revenue, Cash Cart removes the most friction.
If you are earning consistently, say $2,000 or more per month, and want the lowest possible fee over time, Stan Store's zero platform fee (above Stripe's standard processing) becomes more attractive despite the monthly cost. At $2,000 per month in revenue, Stan Store at $29 per month costs roughly 1.5% of revenue in platform fees. Payhip's $29 plan brings your transaction fee down to 2%, giving a similar total. The monthly fee only makes sense once the per-transaction savings cover it.
If you are an Australian creator who wants AUD pricing, instant payouts, and no monthly cost, Cash Cart is the only platform on this list that offers all three at once. The buyer-pays model means your listed price is what you receive, which simplifies your own pricing decisions significantly.
Who actually pays the fee
Most platforms take their transaction fee from the seller's payout. If you list a product at $20 on Gumroad, you receive $18 (after the 10% fee) or slightly less. The buyer pays $20, you receive less.
Cash Cart works differently. The 6% + $0.30 fee is added to the buyer's total at checkout. If you list a product at $20, the buyer pays $21.50 and you receive $20. Your listed price is your income.
This distinction matters for two reasons. First, it changes how you think about pricing. On seller-pays platforms, you have to factor the fee into your price mentally to know what you'll actually receive. On a buyer-pays model, the listed price is the answer. Second, as your volume grows, the seller-pays structure quietly takes a larger and larger share of your earnings. On Cash Cart, every dollar of additional revenue stays with you.
The bottom line
If you are an Australian creator who wants AUD pricing, instant payouts, and no monthly bill, Cash Cart is worth five minutes of your time. Your store is live in under 60 seconds and you keep the price you set on every sale.
For global software sellers who need hands-off tax compliance, Lemon Squeezy makes sense despite the fees. For high-volume creators who have outgrown transaction fees, Stan Store's flat monthly cost pays off. For everyone else comparing the free-plan options, the fee structure and AUD support are the deciding factors, and on both counts Cash Cart comes out ahead for Australian creators.