Do you create digital products and are looking for the best platform to sell your digital products on?
I’ve compiled the best platforms for selling digital products in this article including the ones I’ve used.
You can also sell a lot more than digital products on some of these platforms too.
What Are Digital Products?
Digital products are intangible goods and services that exist in digital form. You can sell these products or services online and no physical products are shipped to the customer.
Digital products are easy to acquire instantaneously, there’s no inventory which makes it cost-effective for both seller and customer, and you don’t need a storefront.
You can make even more money by turning digital products into physical products where applicable.
The most common of these are e-books that can also be sold as paperback.
However, just because a product or service is digital doesn’t mean you get to compromise on quality. Online customers matter as much as offline customers.
A digital product needs to provide loads of value so customers come back for more or show interest in any new releases.
What Type of Digital Products Can You Sell Online?
There are many different types of digital products you can sell online with the most common being:-
- Ebooks
- Apps
- Astrology readings
- Music
- Printables
- Podcasts
- Fonts
- Logos
- Artwork
- Patterns
- Textures
- Backgrounds
- Illustrations
- Icons
- Articles
- Graphics
- Games
- Guides
- Images
- Planners
- Product mocks ups
- Workbooks and worksheets
- Courses
- Services like a virtual assistant, social media management, etc
- Webinars
- Tutorials
- Themes
- Templates
- Memberships
- Consulting
- Coaching
The products highlighted in blue are digital goods and services I sell.
Is Selling Digital Products Profitable?
Selling digital products is very profitable if done correctly, using the right platforms, and if you create a valuable product.
A lot of people slap together sparse information copied online, package it and try to sell it to people.
You might sell a few but all it takes is a few bad reviews for your business to start tanking everywhere. It’s not worth it.
Take the time to create an invaluable product and/or service that addresses people’s pain points, market it correctly and you can be sure the rewards will eventually come along.
Below are my sales in April from one of my platforms. I offer a unique service that took me a year to set up and finalize. I had customers already lined up before I even launched.
Irrespective of whichever digital product or service you create, you will need an appropriate platform to sell your digital products on.
How to Start Selling Digital Products
To start selling digital products, you need a reliable online platform that provides all of the following features:-
- Easy to set up, upload information about your digital products, and start selling ASAP.
- Multiple ways for customers to pay you and easy ways for you to withdraw your funds.
- Deliver products directly to customers upon payment without manual input from you.
- Makes the process as automated as possible. The less time you have to spend mucking about behind the scenes, the more effectively you can price your digital products.
- Let’s you sell multiple types of digital products and not just one type of digital product.
- Allows customers to set up accounts if they want so it’s easier to come back and purchase additional products.
- PDF stamping of customer information on products to prevent illegal sharing – this is usually a name and email address.
- You can sell across multiple platforms i.e. the platform doesn’t require exclusivity.
- Cost-effective for you. It will take time to start generating sales so you need something that doesn’t cost a lot of money upfront.
With the above in mind, I’ve curated the most reliable platforms for selling digital products below including the ones I currently use:-
9 Best and Budget-friendly Platforms to Sell Digital Products in 2023
1. Selling Digital Products With Payhip
Payhip is one of the most successful e-commerce platforms for small businesses with over 130,000 sellers across the world.
On Payhip, you can sell digital products like e-books, memberships, software, music, and subscriptions.
Payhip offers simple customization options and layout with easy to embed shopping carts and checkout pages for your website or social media accounts.
These features can also be customized to match the look and feel of your branding. Additional features of note in Payhip include:
- Create unlimited coupon codes for all your products
- Customers can only download their purchase 3 times
- License keys available for software and related products
- Create an affiliate program so customers can promote your store to their friends and earn money
- PDF stamping of customer information
- Sync customers to your mailing lists on platforms like MailerLite, ConvertKit, and GetResponse
- Customers can set up an account with Payhip
- You can sell to customers worldwide
How Much Does Payhip Cost?
Payhip pricing starts from free all the way to $99/month for the pro account. All features are available across all levels.
The difference is the transaction fee between each sales level.
- Free plan – 5% transaction fee
- Plus plan – 2% transaction fee
- Pro plan – no transaction fee
If you have simple digital products with low sales, you’re OK to stay on the free forever plan. Whichever one you choose will depend on your sales volume.
However, you can start with the free plan and scale up as your Payhip store grows.
Get started on Payhip for free here.
2. Selling Digital Products With Creative Market
Creative Market was created solely to sell creative content online. On Creative Market, you can sell graphics, fonts templates, add-ons, themes, 3D digital products, and more.
The standards for opening a store on Creative Market are quite high and you will be required to request an invite and tell them more about your digital products before your shop is approved.
Once approved, it’s straightforward to set up your store and start listing your products. If potential customers have any questions, they can easily drop it in the comments section of the store.
Tip – to get more visibility for your store, be sure to participate in the community discussions board.
How Much Does Creative Market Cost?
It’s free to open an account and list all your digital products on Creative Market. The platform gets paid when you sell anything.
Creative Market operates on a revenue split with 60% of each sale going to the seller.
Get started on Creative Market for free here.
3. Selling Digital Products With Send Owl
SendOwl offers the opportunity to sell virtual content exclusively through its simple platform.
You can sell all manner of digital products on SendOwl and easily embed your store into your website. Other SendOwl features include:-
- Drip functionality to release products over time.
- An affiliate system.
- Opportunity to upsell products when customers are checking out.
- Unlimited coupon codes.
- Add-ons and extensions to optimize store functionality available.
- Detailed reporting and analytics
- Multiple payment options including Bitcoin
How Much Does SendOwl Cost?
SendOwl standard plan starts from $15/month for 30 digital products and goes all the way up to the business plan for $39/month for unlimited digital products.
You can opt for a free 30-day trial to test the platform and see how you like it before committing to any plan.
Get started on Send Owl for free here.
4. Selling Digital Products With Udemy
Udemy is a marketplace for primarily selling courses. If you have one or more skills people will want to learn, you can package it into a course and sell it on Udemy.
You can sell a course on pretty much any topic on Udemy. As long as the content is valuable and well put together, there are people that are willing to buy it.
It’s easy to set up a store on Udemy and you can either let Udemy promote it for a cut of the profits or promote it yourself and keep most of the profits.
How Much Does Udemy Cost?
Setting up an account and uploading your course content on Udemy is free. If Udemy promotes for you, there’s a revenue share of 50%.
If you sell the courses through your own efforts, then the revenue for you is higher.
Learn more about selling courses on Udemy here.
5. Selling Digital Products With Envato Market
Envato Market is a giant online platform with marketplaces for selling different types of digital products.
Digital products you can sell on Envato Elements include digital templates, graphics, website templates, photography, plugins, videos, and more.
Content creators with a great portfolio and an eye for creating trendy items in high demand are welcome to join Envato Market.
How Much Does Envato Elements Cost?
It’s free to become an author with Envato Elements. Once you submit an application and you’re accepted, you can create an account and start uploading your digital products for sale.
Learn more about becoming an Envato Elements Contributor here.
6. Selling Digital Products With Etsy
Etsy originally started as a platform for selling vintage items but it has grown exponentially to include pretty much anything that you created yourself.
It’s easy to open an Etsy store and you can sell a wide variety of digital products on there such as printables, planners, e-books, templates, illustrations, and graphic design elements.
Once you open your store, it’s fairly easy to add listings and customize your storefront.
How Much Does Etsy Cost?
It’s free to open your store on Etsy. You pay for each listing at $0.02, billed at the end of every month.
You keep all proceeds from your sale. If you opt for your products to be included in Etsy’s marketing initiative, you will be charged a certain percentage for every sale.
You can also buy advertising on Etsy so you can push your digital products to new eyes in the listings category.
Get started on Etsy for free here.
7. Selling Digital Products With Gumroad
Gumroad is a simple, no-frills sales platform for selling digital products. The platform was built solely for creators.
Digital products you can sell on Gumroad include e-books, subscriptions, courses, pre-orders, printables, planners, coaching, consulting, and even physical products.
Features of all Gumroad plans include:-
- Unlimited products
- PDF stamping
- Real-time analytics
- Embeddable checkout buttons and checkout pages for your website
- Generate license keys for certain products
- Unlimited coupon codes creation
- Create an affiliate program
- You can sell to customers worldwide
You can sell pretty much anything on Gumroad, with some exceptions which they’ve broken down HERE.
Gumroad has a responsive help center as well as a very active Facebook group for creators.
How Much Does Gumroad Cost?
It’s free to get started with Gumroad and you can remain on the free plan forever or upgrade to a higher plan for more benefits.
The free plan is $0 + 5% transaction fees while the higher plan costs $10/month + 3.5% transaction fee.
Start with the free plan and upgrade when and if it makes financial sense.
Get started on Gumroad for free here.
8. Selling Digital Products With WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the best eCommerce platforms to build a professional-looking store on.
You can sell anything on a WooCommerce store including digital products. However, this is a plugin and you will need a WordPress website to utilize this platform.
If you already have a website then this should be a simple process but if you don’t have a website yet, then the other suggestions in this article are more appropriate.
Additional WooCommerce features include:-
- Loads of plugins and extensions to optimize store functionality.
- Plenty of free and paid WooCommerce templates.
- WooCommerce integrates easily with GeneratePress.
- Many payment gateways in addition to the typical gateways.
How Much Does WooCommerce Cost?
WooCommerce is a free plug-in. Just download and activate to start setting up. The add ons and extensions are also free with paid options for even more features.
Interested in setting up a website to use with WooCommerce? Have a look at the earlier article on setting up a WordPress website in 30 minutes.
Download the WooCommerce plugin for free here.
9. Selling Digital Products With Easy Digital Downloads
Like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads is a plugin and requires a WordPress website to use it.
The plugin was designed to help you optimize the process of selling digital products only.
Just upload the plugin to your website, activate it, and start setting up your storefront.
Easy Digital Downloads also includes great customer support with a forum and detailed tutorials.
How Much Does Easy Digital Downloads Cost?
The plugin is free to download with an option to buy a personal pass for access to add-ons, extensions, and extra features available.
Download the Easy Digital Downloads plugin for free here.
All the platforms I’ve recommended above are free to open a shop and start selling immediately or involve minimal cost to start.
I have purposely left out the more expensive ones like Teachable and Shopify because of cost and ease of use and deliverability.
I might do individual reviews on those types of platforms later on. You can sign up below so you’re notified whenever the article is uploaded.
How to Promote Your Digital Products
If you have a huge social media following, then you can easily sell your digital products via that avenue.
Outside that, the best way to get your digital products out there and get customers is via your own website and mailing list.
Sure, the sales platforms might feature your store or include you on a sale to get your store in front of more customers but this is a game that you don’t know when it will pay off.
The best way remains to create your own website and then integrate the sales platform with your website and of course, build a mailing list.
- Learn more about how to create a website here.
- Learn more about creating and growing a mailing list here.
Best Platforms to Sell Digital Products Summary
To summarize this article, below is a quick reference point for all the digital products platforms recommended above:-
If you have any questions about selling digital products online, drop them in the comments section.
Anna gave up her 9 – 5 to implement her life plan after paying off over $40,000 in debt. She started The Writer Entrepreneur to share her journey and encourage other people to pay off debt and pursue their life plans. She has been featured on HuffPost, YouQueen & Fitnancials among others. Learn more about Anna HERE.
This post may contain affiliate links which means I will make a small commission if you purchase through those links. Read full disclosure HERE.