Best digital product platforms for side hustlers
I made my first $87 selling Notion templates on a Sunday afternoon in December. It took four hours to build the template, ten minutes to list it, and three days to forget I had even published it. Then someone in Germany bought one while I was asleep. That $87 felt ridiculous and slightly illegal, like I had accidentally started a business while watching football.
That is the thing about selling digital products. The barrier is so low it feels fake right up until the money hits your account. The hard part is not making the product. It is picking the platform that will not eat your margins, bury your listing, or force you into a pricing tier you outgrow in two weeks.
After three years of selling templates, mini-courses, and one embarrassingly short ebook about freelance pricing, I have used almost every platform that matters. Below are the three I still open when I have something new to sell, plus what each one costs you in fees and frustration.
Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I get a small commission at no cost to you. I only link things I actually use, or things I’d recommend to a friend who was not clicking anything.
What a side hustler actually needs from a platform
Before I name names, here is what I look for now that I did not know to look for in 2023.
Low fees on small transactions. If you are selling a $12 template, a platform that takes $3 plus a monthly fee is taking 25 percent before you pay taxes. That math does not work for Best print on demand platforms side hustlers.
Instant payout or close to it. Some platforms hold your money for two weeks. When you are running this as a side project, cash flow matters more than features.
No forced storefront design. I do not want to build a whole branded website. I want a clean checkout page, a download link, and an email to my buyer.
Email ownership. This is the one most people skip. If the platform owns your customer list and decides to ban your account (and they do), you have no business left. Exportable email lists are non-negotiable for me now.
Gumroad: the fastest way from idea to first sale
I listed that first Notion template on Gumroad because it took ninety seconds and did not ask for a credit card. Three years later, I still use Gumroad when I want to test a product before I commit to it.
What Gumroad does well
The onboarding is almost insultingly simple. You upload a file, write a description, set a price, and share the link. There is no theme to customize, no shipping settings to ignore, and no monthly fee unless you sell enough to hit their paid plan threshold.
Their free plan takes 10 percent of each sale. That sounds steep until you realize most competitors charge a monthly fee before you make a single dollar. If you sell zero products in February, Gumroad costs you zero dollars. That is the exact right psychology for a side hustler who is not sure whether this project will last.
The checkout page is clean, mobile-friendly, and handles VAT for EU customers automatically. I have never had a buyer message me confused about how to download their purchase. That sounds basic, but it is not.
Where Gumroad falls apart
The 10 percent fee becomes expensive fast. Once you are doing $500 or more per month, you are effectively paying $50 a month for a service that others charge $29 for. At that point, the math flips.
The analytics are bare. You get a sales chart and a list of customers. You do not get funnel tracking, conversion rates by traffic source, or cohort retention. I had to export my customer list into a spreadsheet to figure out which product was driving repeat buyers.
There is also no real course hosting. You can upload videos, but there is no student progress tracking or chapter navigation. If your Best side hustle apps make money is course-based, Gumroad is a file delivery service pretending to be a learning platform.
Who should start here
If you have not made your first sale yet, Gumroad is the right place. The time from idea to live listing is under ten minutes, and the anxiety of paying a monthly fee for a product no one buys yet is gone. Move on once you are consistently clearing $300 a month.
Another tool for comparison
If you are in the EU and want something similar with slightly better VAT handling, Payhip works almost identically. I used it for one project and found the interface a little more dated, but the fees are comparable and it has a better digital product delivery system for large files.
Lemon Squeezy: when you outgrow Gumroad but do not want WooCommerce
I moved my template shop to Lemon Squeezy after I crossed about $800 in monthly revenue. The switch saved me roughly $40 a month in fees and gave me features I did not know I needed until I had them.
What Lemon Squeezy does well
The fee structure is usage-based instead of percentage-based. You pay a small percentage per transaction plus a fixed processing fee. On a $25 product, you keep more money than you would on Gumroad’s 10 percent flat cut. The exact math depends on your price point, but for anything above $15, Lemon Squeezy is cheaper.
They handle sales tax automatically in a way that actually feels legal. Gumroad collects VAT. Lemon Squeezy collects VAT, US sales tax, and a growing list of regional obligations. If you are selling globally and do not want to think about tax compliance, this is the single biggest reason to switch.
The storefront builder is better than Gumroad’s without being overwhelming. You can add a logo, set brand colors, and organize products into categories. It still feels like a checkout page, not a full website, which is what I want.
They also have a decent email system built in. You can tag buyers by product, send broadcast emails, and build simple automations. It replaces a separate email tool for the first year of a side hustle, though it will not match ConvertKit once your list grows.
The honest downsides
Customer support is slow. Not chatbot slow, but “email us and wait two business days” slow. When a buyer messages you on Instagram because their download link expired, two days feels like two weeks.
The platform is still evolving. Features change without much warning, and some of the advanced settings feel half-built. I once spent twenty minutes trying to find where to disable a discount code that was still live after a launch ended.
If you sell physical products alongside digital ones, do not use Lemon Squeezy. Their physical product support is technically there but practically broken. I tried it for one print-on-demand experiment and gave up.
Who this works for
You should be on Lemon Squeezy if you are already making regular sales and the 10 percent Gumroad fee is starting to annoy you. You should also consider it if you sell to buyers in multiple countries and tax compliance is something you actively ignore rather than solve.
Podia: the all-in-one you graduate to
I signed up for Podia when I built my first proper mini-course. Not a PDF with a video link, but an actual course with modules, quizzes, and student comments. Podia is built for people who have moved past “side project” energy but are not ready for Teachable’s pricing or Kajabi’s complexity.
What Podia does well
Course hosting is the main draw. Students get a clean dashboard with progress bars, chapter navigation, and discussion areas under each lesson. It looks professional without you doing any design work.
You also get Best email marketing solopreneurs tested, a basic website builder, and the ability to sell coaching calls or webinars. I used the coaching feature for three months and charged $150 an hour for strategy calls booked through the same platform that hosted my courses. That integration saved me from using Calendly plus Stripe plus a landing page tool.
The pricing is flat monthly. No per-transaction cut beyond Stripe’s standard processing fees. If you are selling high-ticket products or doing steady volume, this is dramatically cheaper than percentage-based platforms.
Where Podia frustrates
It is the most expensive option on this list at $39 per month for the starter plan. If you are not selling anything yet, that fee stings. I paid for two months before I launched my course and hated every day of it.
The website builder is underpowered compared to Squarespace or Webflow. You get a few templates and some customization, but it is clearly an afterthought. I ended up building a separate site on Carrd and linking to my Podia checkout pages anyway.
Community features are present but shallow. There is a comments section and a basic forum, but it is not Circle or Skool. If your business model depends on community, you will outgrow Podia fast.
Who this works for
Podia is for side hustlers who are becoming small businesses. You have multiple products, you want to sell courses with actual structure, and you are tired of duct-taping five tools together. You should already be making $1,000 or more per month before the flat fee feels justified.
A quick comparison before you choose
| Feature | Gumroad | Lemon Squeezy | Podia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | Free plan available | Free plan available | From $39/month |
| Transaction fee | 10% on free plan | Usage-based, lower % | None (Stripe only) |
| Course hosting | Basic file delivery | Basic file delivery | Full course platform |
| Email marketing | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in |
| Tax handling | EU VAT | Global sales tax | You handle it |
| Best for | First sale | Growing to $500+/mo | Courses and coaching |
When I tried to build a brand before the product sold
I tried to build a whole branded storefront before I had proof anyone would buy anything. I spent a Side hustles start weekend under 100 on a custom logo and brand colors for a template shop that made $24 in its first month. The logo looked great. The revenue did not.
Start with Gumroad. Sell one thing to one person who is not your mom. Then decide whether you need better analytics, lower fees, or course hosting. The platform does not make the sale. The product and the positioning do.
Questions side hustlers keep asking
Do I need an LLC to sell digital products?
No. You can start as a sole proprietor and report the income on your personal tax return. An LLC makes sense once you are doing real revenue and want liability protection, but it is not a prerequisite for your first $100.
Can I use these platforms if I am outside the US?
Yes. Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy both pay out to international bank accounts or PayPal. Podia requires Stripe, which is available in most major markets. Check Stripe’s country list before committing.
What sells best as a digital product?
Templates, spreadsheets, and short guides sell faster than courses because the buyer gets instant value with no learning curve. Courses make more money per customer but require trust and marketing. If you are starting from zero, sell a template first.
How do I price my first product?
Price it lower than you think. $9 to $19 for templates and small guides. $49 to $149 for courses. You are not pricing the file size. You are pricing the outcome. A good pricing exercise: ask what your buyer would pay to have this problem solved by tomorrow.
Should I offer refunds?
Yes, with conditions. I offer refunds within 14 days for any product under $50. For courses, I offer refunds only if the student has watched less than 20 percent of the content. Clear refund policies increase conversions because they reduce risk for the buyer.
Can I sell on multiple platforms at once?
You can, but you should not. Splitting your audience and sales data across platforms makes it harder to understand what is working. Pick one platform, commit to it for six months, and then evaluate.
What I’d tell a friend over coffee
If you are still reading and have not picked a platform yet, you are overthinking this. The right platform is the one that gets your product live today. Gumroad is the right starting point for 90 percent of people who are still figuring out whether they even like selling things. When you outgrow it, Lemon Squeezy is waiting. And when you are running a course business that pays your rent, Podia is the obvious next step.
Ship the product. Worry about the platform later.