Lanternbee vs Payhip

Lanternbee as a Payhip alternative

A store for digital products, with courses, memberships and physical goods too. Its prices and features sit next to Lanternbee’s below, including where Payhip does better.

What Payhip is

Payhip lets you sell downloads, courses, memberships and physical products from one simple store. Many authors use it to sell ebooks direct, often on the free plan.

Who it suits

Authors who mostly sell ebooks and PDFs, want something simple and cheap to start, and want sales tax handled for them.

What Payhip costs

US prices, checked against the sources at the bottom of this page.

Plan	Price	Fee on sales
Free Forever	Free	5% on each sale
Plus	$29 a month	2% on each sale
Pro	$99 a month	None

Payhip and Lanternbee side by side

Payhip and Lanternbee, feature by feature
What you need	Payhip	Lanternbee
One book with several editions	YesVersions or formats of one product.	Yes. Ebook, audiobook, paperback and hardcover live on one book page.
Series with a reading order	Not listed	Yes, with the reading order you set.
Bundles and box sets	Yes	Yes. Readers who own book one pay less for the rest.
Ebook and audiobook delivery	YesA download page and email links.	Yes. Download links by email, and a reader library.
Send to Kindle	Not listed	Yes, from the reader library.
Print on demand for books	Not listedPhysical products are shipped by you.	Partly. Print editions are set up for BookVault or Lulu; sending orders to the printer is being built.
Your reader list	YesEmail marketing is built in.	Yes. Every buyer lands on your list, with tags.
Your own domain	Yes	Yes. yourname.lanternbee.shop or shop.yourname.com.
Monthly cost	Free Forever: FreePlus: $29 a monthPro: $99 a month	Free: nothing a month. Author: $45 a month, or $35 paid yearly.
Fee on sales	Free Forever: 5% on each salePlus: 2% on each salePro: None	Free: 5%, only when you sell. Author: none.

US prices. “Not listed” means we could not find it on Payhip’s own pages or in the sources below, so check with them. Card fees apply everywhere; on Lanternbee they are Stripe’s, with nothing added.

What Payhip does better

Fair reasons to stay where you are.

Payhip works out, collects and pays sales tax for you in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU. On Lanternbee, Stripe Tax works out the tax at checkout, but you file and pay it yourself for now.
Courses and memberships sit next to your books, if you teach or run a paid club.
PDF stamping marks each file with the buyer’s details.
It is open today. Lanternbee is still on a waitlist.

Moving from Payhip

There’s no importer for Payhip. Moving by hand takes these steps.

Add your books on Lanternbee: covers, blurbs, files and prices. Put every format of a book on one page and set your series order.
Download your customer list from Payhip if your plan lets you, and keep it in your email tool. Lanternbee cannot import a list of readers from Payhip yet.
Connect MailerLite or Klaviyo, so new Lanternbee buyers join the same list as your Payhip buyers.
If your Payhip store used your own domain, point it at Lanternbee and add redirects from your old book links. Then update the links in your back matter and newsletter.

Questions about Payhip and Lanternbee

Is Lanternbee a good Payhip alternative for authors?

If you sell print books, audiobooks or whole series, it can be. Lanternbee puts every edition of a book on one page, sets up print editions for BookVault or Lulu, and lets readers send ebooks to their Kindle. If you only sell a few ebooks and want tax handled for you, Payhip is hard to beat today.

Who handles VAT and sales tax?

Payhip collects and pays it for you in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU. On Lanternbee you are the seller: Stripe Tax works out the right tax at checkout, and you report and pay it. We plan to take EU VAT on ebooks off your hands, but that is not live yet.

Do my Payhip buyers keep their books?

They keep the files they already downloaded. Their Payhip purchases do not appear in a Lanternbee library, because there is no Payhip importer. Tell them where your store lives now in your next newsletter.