Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy
Gumroad
gumroad.com
Lemon Squeezy
lemonsqueezy.comSide by side
| Figure | Gumroad | Lemon Squeezy |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 6 |
| Spec score · Merchant of Record Software | 8.6 (#5) | 8.7 (#4) |
| Spec score · Ecommerce platforms | 8.7 (#47) | 8.9 (#32) |
| Spec score · Digital Product Selling Platforms | 8.6 (#7) | 8.8 (#4) |
| Analytics | Built-in analytics are intended to help sellers evaluate products and messaging. | The dashboard reports metrics including MRR, refunds and average order value. |
| Company profile | LinkedIn lists Gumroad as privately held, headquartered in San Francisco, founded in 2012, with 11–50 employees. | LinkedIn lists Lemon Squeezy as privately held, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with 11–50 employees. |
| Founded | 2011 | 2019 |
| Limit: fees | G2 reviewers complain that combined platform and payment fees can reach about 13% and become uneconomic at higher sales volume. | Independent analysis says the 5% plus 50¢ charge can become expensive for high-volume, low-price or international sales, with extra surcharges in some cases. |
| Merchant of record | Since January 1, 2025, Gumroad says it handles worldwide sales-tax collection and remittance as merchant of record. | It collects and remits sales tax and VAT for sellers and assumes the related filing liability. |
| Payments | Creators can offer one-time, recurring, fixed-length, and pay-what-you-want payments in different currencies. | The homepage says its no-code and API solutions support 20+ payment methods and global bank payouts. |
| Product | Gumroad describes itself as an e-commerce platform for selling digital products and services, including books, memberships, and courses. | Lemon Squeezy is an all-in-one platform for SaaS businesses selling digital downloads, subscriptions, and software licenses. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.2 out of 5 from 17 reviews | 0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 1.4 out of 5 from 418 reviews | 1.2 out of 5 from 182 reviews. |
| Storefront | Creators can build and customize a storefront on Gumroad, connect a custom domain, or embed its payment platform and follow button on an existing site. | Each account can launch a customizable, SSL-secured, mobile-optimized ecommerce storefront without coding. |
| Subscriptions | Subscription billing supports monthly, quarterly, biannual and yearly payment schedules. | Sellers can offer weekly, monthly or yearly recurring billing, including upgrades, downgrades, cancellations and free trials. |
| What it does | Gumroad lets creators sell digital products directly to consumers, including books, courses, software, memberships, music and video. | Lemon Squeezy is a merchant-of-record platform for selling digital products, software, subscriptions and licenses. |
Plans
Gumroad
- Discover marketplacePrice not published
- Direct sales$10, paid once
- Discover marketplace sales$30, paid once
Lemon Squeezy
- EcommerceFree
- Email marketingFree
- ecommerce$550, paid once
- Ecommerce$550, paid once
- email marketingPrice not published
- Email marketingPrice not published
In their own words
Gumroad
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.
Lemon Squeezy
Lemon Squeezy is an all-in-one platform for SaaS businesses selling digital downloads, subscriptions, and software licenses. It says it acts as merchant of record for digital sales taxes and compliance. Merchants can embed no-code checkout forms on an existing site or share checkout links; its no-code and API solutions support 20+ payment methods and global bank payouts. Subscription billing can run weekly, monthly, or yearly, with management for upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, and free trials. The platform can issue software license keys and provides signed, throttled download links. Lemon Squeezy says its fraud protections use machine learning and real-time analytics to identify suspicious transactions. Its REST API documentation states a limit of 300 calls per minute, and documented integrations include ConvertKit, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Ecommerce has no monthly charge and costs 5% + $0.50 per transaction when sales are generated, with sales tax collection and remittance included. Email marketing is free for up to 500 subscribers. Lemon Squeezy was founded in 2019.