4 ms·

Gumroad Increases Fee to 10%

58 points by alexellisuk 4y ago

thenerdhead 4y ago
Dang I was gonna migrate to gum road but think I’ll just pay a provider with lower fees instead. Not okay with being tithed a 10% for a middle man’s stripe support.
paypro_global 4y ago
[dead]
alexellisuk 4y ago
As a big user of Gumroad for eBooks and subscriptions this will really hurt our business. The timing couldn’t have been worse in this economy. I don’t mind paying more, but this is 3x. It incentivises customers to move SaaS subscriptions off the platform. The fact that Sahil thinks this is fair game makes me worry he’ll get overconfident and increase it further to 20% at a moment’s notice. What can he do to restore credibility after this move?
- alexellisuk 4y ago
  Turns out this poor communication from Gumroad actually means a 13+% fee since the Stripe fee is no longer included in what Gumroad take. So 10% + 2.9% + 50c?
- monological 4y ago
  You should check out prodbump.com, they only charge 1% (plus stripe fees). Seems like they have a pretty clean interface.
  - tut-urut-utut 4y ago
    Apples to oranges. Prodbump is not merchant of record. If you want to compare apples to apples, you should take a look at Getrevin.
    - unD 4y ago
      I didn't know Getrevin, but it's possibly out of scope for the average Gumroad creator. I mean, they charge $799 per month (according to them, they're competitive if you have a monthly volume of 150K) There's plenty of MoRs out there: FastSpring, Paddle, Lemonsqueezy, and I'm sure the ones that I don't know will flood Twitter in the next days :-)
      - tut-urut-utut 4y ago
        Wow. What a jump. I swear last time I checked, maybe few weeks ago, they were charging flat 1% plus Stripe fee. Looks like it’s not only Gumroad rising prices.
    - strzibny 4y ago
      I am building a list of alternatives that handle VAT: https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/ https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/
photoGrant 4y ago
Whoah as if the move alone doesn't dis-incentivize loyalty to the platform, now the level playing field means it's just as wise to spread your product over multiple shell accounts and now the market looks flooded but it's just as dying as before the money grab?
tdeck 4y ago
Patreon increased their fee a few years back while providing the same service. I guess Gumroad's leadership saw that strategy play out fine and decided to copy it.
asicsp 4y ago
I think it is 10% + payment processing fees. And not sure if https://help.gumroad.com/article/66-gumroads-fees https://help.gumroad.com/article/66-gumroads-fees has been updated properly - it still says increased earning will result in reduced fees: >Gumroad's fees >Fees on Gumroad are simple: When you make a sale, we charge a 10% fee. That’s it. This does not include credit card processing or PayPal fees. There are no monthly payments or other hidden charges, and as your earnings grow, we also reward you with decreased fees. --- That said, I'll stick with them for my ebooks. The new pricing is still better than Leanpub. Also, before the introduction of tier structure, the fees were 10% + .3 (unless you paid $10 per month, which didn't make sense for low sales like mine).
sourcecodeplz 4y ago
This was expected tbh. They do offer A LOT. Did you know you could use them just for building your email list? They even have an autoresponder and list segmenting with no limits to contacts.
tluyben2 4y ago
I made a little list here [0]. I was looking for something like it and was going to go with Gumroad automatically; now I'm making comparisons. [0] https://brainfisheatfishbrain.com/post/sales-and-marketing-saas/ https://brainfisheatfishbrain.com/post/sales-and-marketing-s...
strzibny 4y ago
I will try to document alternatives here https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/ https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/ For example for $100 a month you can be selling without any further fees (apart payment processing). Their best customers will switch.
smartgirlcredit 4y ago
I support Gumroad. It has been a great platform to me. Every business at some point must raise prices. What business do you know of that has never raised their prices? 0. I support them and vow to create more products to help them.

58 points by alexellisuk 4y ago

Dang I was gonna migrate to gum road but think I’ll just pay a provider with lower fees instead. Not okay with being tithed a 10% for a middle man’s stripe support.

paypro_global 4y ago

[dead]

alexellisuk 4y ago

As a big user of Gumroad for eBooks and subscriptions this will really hurt our business. The timing couldn’t have been worse in this economy. I don’t mind paying more, but this is 3x. It incentivises customers to move SaaS subscriptions off the platform. The fact that Sahil thinks this is fair game makes me worry he’ll get overconfident and increase it further to 20% at a moment’s notice. What can he do to restore credibility after this move?

alexellisuk 4y ago
Turns out this poor communication from Gumroad actually means a 13+% fee since the Stripe fee is no longer included in what Gumroad take. So 10% + 2.9% + 50c?
monological 4y ago
You should check out prodbump.com, they only charge 1% (plus stripe fees). Seems like they have a pretty clean interface.
- tut-urut-utut 4y ago
  Apples to oranges. Prodbump is not merchant of record. If you want to compare apples to apples, you should take a look at Getrevin.
  - unD 4y ago
    I didn't know Getrevin, but it's possibly out of scope for the average Gumroad creator. I mean, they charge $799 per month (according to them, they're competitive if you have a monthly volume of 150K) There's plenty of MoRs out there: FastSpring, Paddle, Lemonsqueezy, and I'm sure the ones that I don't know will flood Twitter in the next days :-)
    - tut-urut-utut 4y ago
      Wow. What a jump. I swear last time I checked, maybe few weeks ago, they were charging flat 1% plus Stripe fee. Looks like it’s not only Gumroad rising prices.
  - strzibny 4y ago
    I am building a list of alternatives that handle VAT: https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/ https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/

photoGrant 4y ago

Whoah as if the move alone doesn't dis-incentivize loyalty to the platform, now the level playing field means it's just as wise to spread your product over multiple shell accounts and now the market looks flooded but it's just as dying as before the money grab?

tdeck 4y ago

Patreon increased their fee a few years back while providing the same service. I guess Gumroad's leadership saw that strategy play out fine and decided to copy it.

asicsp 4y ago

I think it is 10% + payment processing fees. And not sure if https://help.gumroad.com/article/66-gumroads-fees https://help.gumroad.com/article/66-gumroads-fees has been updated properly - it still says increased earning will result in reduced fees: >Gumroad's fees >Fees on Gumroad are simple: When you make a sale, we charge a 10% fee. That’s it. This does not include credit card processing or PayPal fees. There are no monthly payments or other hidden charges, and as your earnings grow, we also reward you with decreased fees. --- That said, I'll stick with them for my ebooks. The new pricing is still better than Leanpub. Also, before the introduction of tier structure, the fees were 10% + .3 (unless you paid $10 per month, which didn't make sense for low sales like mine).

sourcecodeplz 4y ago

This was expected tbh. They do offer A LOT. Did you know you could use them just for building your email list? They even have an autoresponder and list segmenting with no limits to contacts.

tluyben2 4y ago

I made a little list here [0]. I was looking for something like it and was going to go with Gumroad automatically; now I'm making comparisons. [0] https://brainfisheatfishbrain.com/post/sales-and-marketing-saas/ https://brainfisheatfishbrain.com/post/sales-and-marketing-s...

strzibny 4y ago

I will try to document alternatives here https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/ https://nts.strzibny.name/gumroad-alternatives-eu-uk-vat/ For example for $100 a month you can be selling without any further fees (apart payment processing). Their best customers will switch.

smartgirlcredit 4y ago

I support Gumroad. It has been a great platform to me. Every business at some point must raise prices. What business do you know of that has never raised their prices? 0. I support them and vow to create more products to help them.