Founder series · 1 September 2026 · 7 min read
Founder series: how to choose where you sell before you build anything
Most founders pick a selling platform by vibe and pay for it later in fees, lost emails and a checkout they cannot change. There are only four numbers that matter, and once you have them the choice usually makes itself — differently for a novelist than for an illustrator or a coach.
1. Number one: what you actually keep per sale
Write down the fee stack, not the headline rate: platform percentage, payment processing, currency conversion, and any monthly floor. A 10% take rate on $29 is $2.90, but a $39/month plan on six sales a month is $6.50 a sale. Cheap and expensive swap places at low volume, so run the arithmetic at the volume you have this month, then again at the volume you expect in six.
2. Number two: who owns the buyer
If you cannot export buyer emails, you are not building an asset — every launch starts from zero and the platform keeps the compounding. Direct selling exists mostly for this: the second product sells to the first product's buyers at almost no acquisition cost. Treat email ownership as a hard requirement, not a feature.
3. Number three: how the file reaches the buyer
Delivery is where refunds come from. You want per-order expiring links, a receipt that contains the download, and a re-download page for the buyer who changes laptops. EPUB, large ZIPs and video all have their own failure modes, which is exactly why the comparison changes by niche.
4. Number four: how fast you can change something
Pricing, bundles, coupons and copy will all change monthly in year one. If a change takes a developer or a support ticket, you will stop making changes, and that is the real cost. Optimise for edit speed early and for margin later.
5. Then read the comparison for your niche
The four numbers weigh differently depending on what you sell: authors care about royalties and EPUB delivery, artists about print licensing and file size, coaches about scheduling, cohorts and payment plans. The niche pages below score the same platforms against those realities so you are not translating generic advice.
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FAQ
- Should I start on my own store or a hosted platform?
- Start hosted so you can be selling this week, keep every buyer email from day one, and move to your own store once direct sales are steady enough that the saved fees pay for the setup.
- Do marketplaces bring traffic worth the fee?
- Sometimes for discovery-heavy goods, but the buyer stays theirs. Treat marketplace sales as paid acquisition and keep a direct store for repeat buyers.
- How do I avoid refunds on digital files?
- Show exactly what is inside before checkout, deliver instantly with an expiring link in the receipt, and offer a re-download page. Most refund requests are delivery problems wearing a costume.
Founder series: keep going
Same four numbers, scored for the way your kind of creator actually sells:
- Best platform for indie authorsAn indie author's comparison of Gumroad, Payhip, Shopify, Etsy and your own store — royalties, EPUB delivery, reader emails and pre-orders for selling direct instead of only through retailers.
- Best platform for artists & illustratorsAn artist's comparison of Gumroad, Payhip, Shopify, Etsy and your own store — commission, licensing, high-resolution file delivery and who owns the collector's email.
- Best platform for coaches & consultantsA coach's comparison of Gumroad, Payhip, Shopify, Etsy and your own store — client emails, workbook delivery, upsells into calls and how each supports a paid program.
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