On February 1st 2023, Gumroad increased its fees to a flat rate of 10% (not inclusive of credit card fees).

My first reaction was: “Let’s find a cheaper alternative, RIGHT NOW!”

And many big-name creators were on my same wavelength:

If you have revenue numbers similar to those of Thomas Frank, by all means, jump ship. ConvertKit, Lemon Squeezy, and many others offer cheaper alternatives.

Otherwise: wait.

3 reasons for waiting

1. Other companies may soon increase their fees as well.
2. Testing new platforms is time-consuming and risky.
3. Gumroad will improve its service 🤞

Care to go deeper?

Read below 👇

1. Other companies may soon increase their fees as well

Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad’s founder, said that the fee increase was necessary for the long-term sustainability of the company.

Does he want to squeeze the customers too much?

Is it a concrete necessity?

Will competitors have to increase their fees, as well?

I can’t say with certainty.

For sure, the creator landscape appears to be in a phase of rapid transformation.

And…

2. Testing new platforms from scratch is time-consuming and risky

Chances are your Gumroad fees didn’t jump from 3% to 10% (+ credit card fees), as it happened with Thomas Frank.

Sure, you can move to a new platform and save 2–6% of your revenues.

It isn’t irrelevant, I agree.

But it will take time. You have to:

• set up a new account,
• explore a new platform,
• change your procedures,
• upload your products there,
• fix or re-create your sales pages,
• find a workaround for the features that are missing.

And there’s a non-zero chance of picking the wrong option.

For many years Gumroad has been the standard. It was the starting point for many creators. And if you were going to use it, you had clear expectations.

Moving to less-known solutions will take time. And ultimately, the new service can result inferior to your expectations.

People like Thomas Frank have an urgency to find a superior alternative to Gumroad.

And they have the resources to do the testing without wasting too much energy or time.

Let’s see what they find out. In a few months, there will be a new market standard. At that point, leaving Gumroad will be a less risky proposition.

Plus…

3. Gumroad will improve its service 🤞

I have this hope because the backlash against the new Gumroad flat fee was quite noisy.

Many complained.

And the other competitors promoted their cheaper solutions aggressively.

Gumroad has to justify its price increase with a better service.

And I suspect that, at least for the next 6 months, they will try to upgrade the quality of their platform at a faster pace.

For example, a couple of days ago they announced the upcoming release of a feature that customers had asked for the past 2 years:

So what will you do?

Will you stick a bit longer with Gumroad? Are you going to leave it soon? Or did you already move your product to a new platform?

Let me know in the comments.

BTW Thomas Frank is coming up with an in depth comparison of Gumroad’s alternatives. If you want to find a cheaper option, keep an eye out for it.