Freemius vs Gumroad

Freemius is a merchant-of-record platform that handles software payments, subscriptions, taxes, licensing, fraud, and disputes. Its hosted or embedded checkout supports subscriptions, trials, licensing, cart recovery, and multiple currencies. Sellers can set trials of 7, 14, or 30 days, choose what features remain after expiry, and apply licensing rules that enable or disable features according to a customer’s plan. Customers can use a self-service portal to manage subscriptions, billing details, downloads, invoices, and licenses. Supported products include SaaS, desktop apps, Chrome extensions, Electron apps, and WordPress products. Named integrations include Zapier, Segment, Customer.io, HubSpot, and Mailchimp. Freemius says it calculates, collects, reports, and remits sales tax and VAT, and follows PCI DSS 4.0; it also says card details do not reach or remain on its servers. The company traces the platform to a micro-SaaS launched by its founder in 2010. Transaction pricing is 3.8% + 50¢ per transaction plus gateway fees; no setup or monthly fees are listed.

Gumroad is a platform for selling digital products and services such as books, memberships, and courses. Creators can customize a storefront, connect a custom domain, or place payment and follow widgets on an existing site; adding those widgets requires the ability to edit its HTML. Payment options include one-time, recurring, fixed-length, and pay-what-you-want charges in different currencies. Memberships can provide a content library with billing periods including monthly, quarterly, biannually, and yearly. Digital product support includes PDF, ePub, and Mobi versions, plus generated software license keys and lightweight DRM. Creators can import email lists, export follower and customer details, send broadcasts, and create automated workflows. Sales analytics and tracking support Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, and TikTok Pixel. Gumroad also provides an API and buyer apps for Android and iOS. Payout methods vary by country; direct deposit or PayPal may be available. The maker says it handles worldwide sales-tax collection and remittance as merchant of record. Direct sales cost 10% + $0.50 per transaction; Discover sales to new customers cost 30% per transaction.