Run a one-line month-start check for Gumroad vs Stripe

You are close to the monthly line, and a fee change can change the answer. The durable move is to model your actual per-sale take-home and re-run the threshold check at the start of each month, not to react to fee announcements.

For digital products, platform choice is a margin question. You do not need a new dashboard. You need a small worksheet you can finish before the month's sales begin. Digital product pricing should start from the amount that reaches your bank. The worksheet keeps that number in one place. It is the number you can defend. Counting the hours you spend on the switch keeps the comparison honest, and the fee difference can be large enough to change the answer.

Take-home is the real fee

Gumroad does not charge creators a recurring monthly fee. That keeps the fixed cost low, but it does not remove the per-sale cost. Gumroad charges 10% plus $0.50 per transaction for sales through a creator's profile or direct links. Write that number down first, because it covers the sales you can point to with a link.

The direct-card fee is the number that matters for the worksheet. For Discover marketplace purchases, Gumroad's fee is a flat 30% and processing is included in that rate. Keep the Discover fee out of the direct-card worksheet unless the sale actually comes from Discover.

Gumroad pull request #7277, merged on August 18, added the high-volume fee constants. The high-volume rate is the part of the ladder that changes with paid sales. Keep the fee ladder in the worksheet: it tells you which rate applies before the sale, after the sale, and after a refund.

The month-start check is the durable trick

Run the check at the start of the month, before you publish a promotion, raise a price, or move the store. A month-start number is enough. Do not chase a live counter. The check answers the question that matters: what will the next sale actually pay? It is the small habit worth keeping.

• Write down the paid sales total for the current calendar month. If the total is near the line, note the distance in dollars.
• Calculate the direct-card take-home for your current price. Before the threshold, Gumroad's open-source fee code produces 12.9% plus $0.80 for a direct card sale through Gumroad's own Stripe merchant account, so the take-home is price × (1 − 0.129) − 0.80. After the threshold, the high-volume direct-sale rate is 5% plus $0.50 once paid sales in a calendar month reach $20,000, a rate that has been in the code since August 2026. If the card-processing layer stays the same, the take-home is price × (1 − 0.079) − 0.80. Write the result as a dollar amount, not a percentage. If the number is lower than you expected, that is the margin you are actually selling. The gap between the two amounts is the value of crossing the line.
• Compare that take-home with the alternative take-home from Stripe plus your merchant-of-record fee. The break-even price is where the Gumroad take-home equals the alternative take-home. Use price = (Gumroad fixed − alternative fixed) ÷ (alternative rate − Gumroad rate). If the alternative has both a lower rate and a lower fixed fee, there is no break-even price. If the break-even price is above the price you can charge, the alternative is not cheaper at your current price. That gives you a price point you can act on.
• Set the next price using the month-start check. If paid sales are within one refund of $20,000, the next sale should be priced at the 10% rate. That price protects the margin you just measured.

The next sale decides the margin

Avoid treating the 5% rate as permanent once you cross the line. If a refund lowers a Gumroad seller's paid sales below the $20,000 monthly threshold, the next direct sale is charged 10% rather than the 5% high-volume rate. Keep the worksheet open at the start of the month, not just after a surprise.