Shopify Vs Gumroad: Which eCommerce Development Platform is Right For You?

Gumroad was founded back in 2011, it is a self-publishing marketplace platform that is best utilized to sell digital services such as memberships, courses, books, and so much more. Shopify Plus, on the other hand, provides a plethora of marketing and administrative capabilities to each merchant for free, and merchants feel like it offers them the ability to expand as large as they want. When we put shopify vs gumroad, gumroad feels more like a budding start-up that hasn’t yet reached maturity. It is about as simple as it gets for selling things online, making it ideal for newcomers. Those that want more robust customer management tools and invoicing capabilities, on the other hand, will require the extra capacity that comes with even the most basic Shopify subscription.

Shopify vs Gumroad: Pricing

While we’re on the subject of gumroad vs shopify pricing, let’s take a brief look at the transaction costs users have to pay on their respective platforms.

The transaction cost on Gumroad: Gumroad levies a 5% processing fee for every non-zero sale if you utilize its free plan. In other words, if you make money, Gumroad takes 5% of it as a transaction fee. However, if you subscribe to its premium Creator plan, Gumroad will no longer charge you a fee for every transaction. In both programs, you must pay a payment gateway fee of 3.5% + 30cents.

Transaction costs on Shopify: Regardless of your plan, Shopify charges a transaction fee. However, the proportion varies depending on the subscription you choose. A 2% transaction fee is charged to Basic Shopify customers. For Shopify plan customers, this price is reduced to 1%. It is further reduced to 0.5% if you utilize Shopify’s Advanced Shopify package.

Shopify vs gumroad fees are quite variable and it depends upon the seller to calculate their feasibility for the pricing costs. Shopify plans cost $29, $79, and $299 and provide a high return on investment if compared to gumroad.

Gumroad or Shopify : Features

When talking about features, people question whether to use gumroad or shopify 2022 as recently there have been major developments across e-commerce platforms. Let us analyze the different features provided.

Administration features of Shopify: The Shopify organization admin allows you to manage all of your company’s stores from one location. Only Shopify Plus merchants may access the administration features in the Shopify organization admin such as the overview, stores, users, and flow by Shopify. Shopify also has apps and channels for specific purposes. Shopify Plus merchants get access to premium Shopify applications developed for fast-growing businesses. Shopify Plus businesses can only utilize the following channels and apps:

• Launchpad.
• Scriptwriter.
• Wholesale distribution route.
• Account Inviter in Bulk.
• Transporter application.

Checkout customization for Shopify: The “checkout.liquid” file includes a customizable checkout that offers store owners greater control over the store’s branding. API documentation Shopify Plus includes extra API methods that allow you to interface with third-party apps. Shopify Plus businesses can only utilize the following API resources:

• GiftCard.
• Multipass.
• User GraphQL.

Launch team assistance for Shopify: The Launch Team will assist you in getting your business up as quickly as possible by aiding with migration tools and strategy, bespoke integrations, and solutions to match your needs.

Shopify Program for Merchant Success: The Merchant Success Program assists you in getting the most out of Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus enables limitless employee accounts, allowing you to expand your workforce without incurring additional charges.

Gumroad Features

• Make license keys: If you sell a form of software on gumroad, you can generate license keys easily to get you back into Beta.
• Sell multiple variants: You can allow the users to choose between Mobile formats, ePub, or PDFs. You could even charge more for lossless audio or special formats.
• Start quickly using tools: Gumroad provides a very versatile page builder that can help create a profit-making machine easily. You can even provide follow buttons so your followers can access your existing site.
• Add your existing followers. If you already have your follower, you can import your existing email lists very quickly and effortlessly. You can also export your customers and followers whenever needed.
• Protect your work. Gumroad can help develop a very lightweight DRM that can assist customers by protecting their digital property.
• Easy Payment: The payment gateways are seamless and safe. This makes it very easy for the customers to listen, read and watch the purchases easily.
• Make data-driven decisions: You can dive deeper into business decisions by using data from your sales. These insights can help you make better marketing plans and incorporate feedback into the items.
• Post fresh updates, send email blasts, and use sophisticated automated processes to engage with and expand your following.
• Create a shop and adjust the colors of your site using our powerful page builder. If you already have a website, connect it to gumroad using a custom domain.

Gumroad vs Shopify plus features are quite similar and both are great options to sell digital products on. If we compare gumroad and Shopify for value, Shopify is great for physical products whereas gumroad may be a better option for digital products but people still choose Shopify over gumroad.

Read Also Teespring VS Shopify

Gumroad versus Shopify: Designs and User experience

The design and user experience of both platforms are quite commendable. Let us compare the usability and design features provided by both platforms.

• Getting started on Shopify and Gumroad is both very fast.
• Both platforms provide and maintainance custom domains and free domains.
• Shopify however has customized themes whereas gumroad doesn’t have them.
• Shopify provides a free trial but gumroad also has a free plan.
• Shopify supports unlimited integrations whereas gumroad has limits.
• Shopify pricing is very straightforward and has a flat rate but gumroad pricing is complex.

Thus when choosing a gumroad vs shopify 2023 store, it is best to look at the technology comfort you have. If you are highly tech-savvy, there is no problem. But if you need some assistance, it is best to check out the shopify vs gumroad review for helping purposes to get an idea of what to do.

Compare Gumroad and Shopify Extensions

Gumroad does not support third-party add-ons. In other words, you must take advantage of the built-in functionality that Gumroad provides.

Gumroad provides the following features which are out of the box.

1. You can provide discount codes.
2. You can accept pre-orders.
3. Memberships can be sold.
4. You will have access to analytics.
5. You can control delivery costs when selling tangible things.

Gumroad also allows you to connect your store to services such as Zapier, Gumroad WP Plugin, Convertkit, IFTTT, Sketchfab, Order Desk, Drip, Youtube Annotations, and BookLaunch.

Shopify’s eco-system is one of the most advanced and mature ones on the market. The Shopify app store offers over 5000 apps as of the writing of this article. Shopify applications can help you improve online stores. These applications are classified according to their principal function. You can, for example, choose one or more apps from the following categories and use them for the store easily. These extensions or apps can be used for store design, sales and conversion campaigns, shipping order fulfillment, customer support, reporting, inventory management, marketing, orders, product discovery, productivity, trust and safety, selling locations, and finance management.

All major third-party e-commerce software, such as Spocket and Printful, have pre-built connections with Shopify. Shopify applications come in both free and premium versions. Paid applications are often charged on a recurrent basis. Furthermore, Shopify provides you with access to sophisticated APIs. If the app store does not offer an app that meets your needs, you may engage developers to create a bespoke Shopify app for your business. If you have problems following manuals, you can always search for gumroad vs shopify youtube to help you choose which platform to go for.

Gumroad vs Shopify:  Dropshipping

The topic of gumroad vs shopify dropshipping is another widely discussed one. Both platforms support dropshipping but Shopify excels in it. The advantages of using Gumroad for dropshipping are:

• Gumroad is a simple platform for dropshipping digital items.
• Super effective statistics that allow you to acquire appropriate information about product sales.
• The price choices are pretty reasonable, starting at $10/month for unlimited goods.

When we consider Shopify for dropshipping, its benefits are:

• An easy-to-use platform that enables businesses of all sizes to begin selling things online.
• Shopify is user-friendly, making it easy for company owners to get started with selling things online. It includes a wide range of capabilities for businesses of all kinds, including the option to create unique logos and designs, accept payments using PayPal, and track orders in real time.

SEO

SEO is available for Shopify as well. It has multiple integrations and apps that can be used to help the store rank better on search engines. Similarly, one can also choose Gumroad for SEO. So when considering gumroad enterprise vs shopify plus for SEO, the obvious choice would be to go for Shopify plus due to their maturity level in the e-commerce domain.

Customer Help and Technical Support

Companies today require the greatest e-Commerce platform to execute transactions. Gumroad’s dependable customer care may assist you in processing transactions and building solid connections with clients. You have numerous options for improving client management while using Gumroad. Preorder lists, for example, might make it easier for shoppers to discover new items. You may choose a release date for your items, and Gumroad will not charge you until they are ready to ship. Furthermore, imported email lists allow you to migrate current customers and followers to a new e-commerce system development. As a consequence, it will be simple for you to set up communication and payment channels.

CRMs are extremely useful tools for eCommerce firms. A Shopify CRM combines sales, marketing, and customer support on one platform. While each function is necessary, they all serve different fundamental functions. The sales function’s primary goal is to generate income by turning leads into clients.

Integration

Gumroad provides three alternatives for selling things directly from your website. The easiest method is to include a link on your website that directs consumers to your Gumroad product page (for example, gumroad.com/l/YourProduct).

This is possible if you have:

1) The access and permission to install Javascript on your site.

2) Access your original site’s HTML Header.

You may easily integrate the Gumroad purchase page onto your website without driving your customers elsewhere. For integration, there are two Widget options: Gumroad Embed and Gumroad Overlay.

Read Also Shopify Custom App vs Private App

You can provide all your application features to customers of your store merchants. You can achieve this by integrating your application with online stores. Shopify also provides a very flexible platform to support app development. This allows the partners to use Liquid templates, host their assets on the Shopify CDN, and easily deploy with a versioning release pipeline. Shopify also allows merchants to provide customers with a customized payment experience that is safe, secure, fast, and very easy.

Sales Features

Shopify has sales features such as:

• A simple and quick checkout process.
• Inventory management that is synchronized both in-store and online.
• Complete client profiles that include order history.
• Payments are fully integrated.
• Mobile point-of-sale hardware
• Individualized staff permissions.

Features of Gumroad sales:

• Payment processors can easily accept all the major credit cards as well as PayPal.
• The free plan.
• Payment plans and subscription plans are supported.
• Create instant offers and discounts.
• Both SD and HD streaming are supported.
• Portable platform working.
• Email Marketing Automation tools.
• Create a software license.

Inventory Management

The inventory management on gumroad is quite simple. It has to be purchased though, whereas Shopify has a built-in dashboard to help users manage the inventory Customers that try to place an order on your Shopify site benefit from accurate inventory. You must first set up inventory tracking for a product before you can view or alter its inventory levels. When you track inventory for a product in Shopify, you can see the product’s inventory history for the last 90 days.

Final Thoughts – Shopify Vs Gumroad

You may sell your things online using either platform. It all comes down to your preferences, whether you choose Shopify or Gumroad. If you simply need to sell a few things, you could always start with Gumroad and progress to Shopify as your online business grows. Gumroad offers fewer features since it prefers to keep things simple. It’s also less expensive than Shopify. Shopify’s increased cost, on the other hand, comes with a slew of sophisticated features.

FAQs: Shopify vs. Gumroad

What is the difference between Shopify and Gumroad?

• Shopify: A robust platform for creating and managing full-featured online stores with extensive e-commerce tools.
• Gumroad: A simpler platform designed for creators to sell digital products and memberships with minimal setup.

Is Gumroad good for dropshipping?

No: Gumroad lacks dropshipping features like inventory management and supplier integrations, making it unsuitable for dropshipping.

Who is better than Shopify?

Alternatives:

• WooCommerce: Best for WordPress users.
• BigCommerce: Great for scalable, fee-free e-commerce.
• Squarespace: Ideal for integrated website and e-commerce needs.
• Wix eCommerce: Easy-to-use for small businesses.

Is it easy to sell on Gumroad?

Yes: Gumroad offers a quick, user-friendly setup for selling digital products, physical goods, and memberships.