Lanternbee vs Gumroad

Lanternbee as a Gumroad alternative

A simple way to sell digital products, with no monthly fee. Its prices and features sit next to Lanternbee’s below, including where Gumroad does better.

Not open yet. We’re letting authors in from the waitlist, a few at a time.

What Gumroad is

Gumroad lets creators sell downloads, memberships and courses from a profile page or a direct link. You pay nothing a month; Gumroad takes a share of each sale instead.

Who it suits

Authors who sell now and then, want to start in minutes, and would rather pay a bigger fee per sale than any monthly bill.

What Gumroad costs

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

Plan	Price	Fee on sales
Gumroad	Free	10% + US$0.50 per sale; 30% on sales through Gumroad’s Discover marketplace

Gumroad and Lanternbee side by side

Gumroad and Lanternbee, feature by feature
What you need	Gumroad	Lanternbee
One book in several formats	YesBuyers can pick PDF, EPUB or MOBI.	Yes. Ebook, audiobook, paperback and hardback live on one book page.
Series with a reading order	PartlyProfile sections group books, with no reading order.	Yes, with the reading order you set.
Bundles and box sets	YesSeveral books sold together for one price.	Yes. Readers who own book one pay less for the rest.
Ebook and audiobook delivery	YesFiles in the buyer’s Gumroad library.	Yes. Download links by email, and a reader library.
Send to Kindle	PartlyMOBI and PDF files up to 16 MB; not EPUB.	Yes, from the reader library.
Print on demand for books	Not listed	Partly. Printed formats are set up for BookVault or Lulu; sending orders to the printer is being built.
Your reader list	YesEmail broadcasts and workflows.	Yes. Every buyer lands on your reader list, with tags.
Your own domain	Yes	Yes. yourname.lanternbee.shop or shop.yourname.com.
Monthly cost	Gumroad: Free	Free: nothing a month. Author: US$39 a month, or US$29 paid yearly.
Fee on sales	Gumroad: 10% + US$0.50 per sale; 30% on sales through Gumroad’s Discover marketplace	None, on every plan.

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

What Gumroad does better

Fair reasons to stay where you are.

No monthly fee at any level, and you can start selling the same day.
Gumroad is the merchant of record and collects taxes where it has to. On Lanternbee you are the seller, and you file the tax Stripe works out.
The Discover marketplace can show your book to new buyers, for a 30% fee.

Moving from Gumroad

There’s no importer for Gumroad. 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.
Download your customer list from Gumroad and keep it in your email tool. Lanternbee cannot import a reader list from Gumroad yet.
Connect MailerLite or Klaviyo so new Lanternbee buyers join that list too.
Swap your Gumroad links for your Lanternbee book links in your back matter, website and newsletter.

Questions about Gumroad and Lanternbee

Is Lanternbee cheaper than Gumroad?

On a US$5 ebook, Gumroad’s fee is US$1.00 (10% plus US$0.50). Lanternbee takes no fee on any plan: Free covers up to 3 books, and Author has no limit. Card fees apply on both.

Can readers send a Gumroad purchase to Kindle?

Only MOBI and PDF files up to 16 MB, according to Gumroad’s help pages; EPUB files do not work. On Lanternbee, readers send EPUB ebooks of up to 25 MB to their Kindle from their library.

Who handles sales tax?

Gumroad acts as the merchant of record and collects tax where it has an obligation. On Lanternbee you sell through your own Stripe account, Stripe Tax works out the tax at checkout, and you report and pay it.