Disclosure: We sell our own digital products and make free tools for sellers; some are linked on this page. We have no partnership with any company compared here and aren’t paid for any link.

If you already have a blog, a portfolio or a WordPress site, you may not want to send buyers off to a marketplace page. You want a buy button on your own page, a checkout that works, and a file that reaches the buyer automatically. SendOwl, Payhip, Sellfy and systeme.io can all do that, but in different ways: some put the checkout in a pop-up on your page, some send the buyer to a hosted checkout, and one of them has no embeddable checkout at all.

We read each platform’s pricing page and help articles on October 20, 2026, with Gumroad as a reference point. We left out limited-time promotions. Prices and features change, so check the linked pages before you decide.

The short version

  • The most complete checkout to plug into your site: SendOwl gives you Buy now, Add to cart and View cart buttons, payment links and an overlay checkout that keeps buyers on your page, plus PDF stamping and license keys, on every plan. It’s also the most expensive to start ($39 a month).
  • Free to start, tax handled: Payhip has a $0 plan (5% per sale) with an embeddable buy button and direct checkout links, and it collects and remits EU/UK VAT and US/Canadian sales tax for you.
  • Flat fee, store widgets you can drop in: Sellfy lets you embed a single button, a product card or your whole store, with checkout in a pop-up on your site and no transaction fee, from $29 a month ($22 billed yearly).
  • Lowest cost per sale, but no embedded checkout: systeme.io charges 0% even on its free plan, but you link from your site to a systeme.io order page instead of embedding a checkout, and you deliver the file from the thank-you page or by email.
  • Reference: Gumroad has overlay and embed widgets too, but the checkout itself always happens on Gumroad.

Selling from your own site: how each one works

  SendOwl Payhip Sellfy systeme.io Gumroad (reference)
What you paste on your page HTML for a Buy now, Add to cart, View cart or Product Sales Page button; or a payment link A JavaScript snippet in the page head plus an HTML button; or a direct checkout link An iframe snippet for a Buy now button, a product card, or all products / a category A normal link or button pointing to your order-form page (embeds are for opt-in forms and popups only) gumroad.js plus a link for the overlay, or an embed of the product page
Where the buyer pays Overlay (“modal”) checkout without leaving your page is listed on every plan; buttons can also open SendOwl’s checkout page Payhip’s checkout; Payhip’s Shopify help page says the button lets customers buy “without leaving the page”, and its Weebly page says they pay “without leaving your Weebly site” A pop-up window on your site The systeme.io order page (on systeme.io or your custom domain) Always on Gumroad’s checkout page; it can’t be completed on your domain
Several products in one cart Yes, with Add to cart and View cart (one-time products only) Unclear: some help articles show an Add to cart button type, but a February 2026 reply on Payhip’s blog says the embedded button now supports only single-product checkout; the Payhip store has a cart Yes, pair the embed with Sellfy’s shopping cart feature Not from your site; you link to one order page per offer Yes, in Gumroad’s checkout
What can’t be embedded Subscriptions get only Buy now and the sales-page button Courses, memberships, coaching and bundles (button works for digital and physical products) Nothing excluded in the help article Checkout itself Checkout itself
File delivery Automated delivery; PDF stamping, license keys and drip content on every plan; monthly download bandwidth limits Buyer downloads after paying Download delivery built in You add a download link on the thank-you page, or send it by email with an automation rule (attachments up to 5 MB) Download delivery built in
Tax “Automatic tax calculation and compliance” for sales tax and EU VAT Collects, reports and remits EU/UK VAT and US/Canadian sales tax “Advanced VAT & tax settings” on all plans Not covered in what we checked Gumroad is merchant of record and handles sales tax
Your own domain Not checked Point a subdomain such as shop.yourdomain.com at your Payhip store “Connect your own domain” on all plans 1 custom domain on the free plan Not checked
Payment processors Stripe and PayPal (Apple Pay and Klarna via Stripe) PayPal and Stripe, your own accounts PayPal or Stripe Stripe or PayPal Gumroad processes the payment

A practical note for WordPress users: Payhip says its button needs a script in the page head, which on WordPress means a header-scripts plugin, and on WordPress.com its Business plan or above. Sellfy’s embeds are iframes and SendOwl’s are plain HTML, but every option here needs access to your page’s HTML or a custom-code block.

What it costs: the same worked example

Assumptions, matching our other guides: $20 products, US domestic cards through Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢, monthly billing unless noted, sales tax left out. That’s $22.00 of processing a month at $500 (25 sales) and $132.00 at $3,000 (150 sales). International cards and PayPal cost more on every platform.

Selling $500 a month (25 sales):

Option Platform fees Card processing Total Share of sales
systeme.io Free $0 $22.00 $22.00 4.4%
Payhip Free 5% × $500 = $25.00 $22.00 $47.00 9.4%
Sellfy Starter (under $10k a year) $29 ($22 billed yearly) $22.00 $51.00 ($44.00 yearly) 10.2% (8.8%)
SendOwl Launch (under $10k a year) $39 ($32.50 billed annually) $22.00 $61.00 ($54.50 annually) 12.2% (10.9%)
Gumroad direct (reference) 10% × $500 + 25 × $0.50 = $62.50 $22.00 $84.50 16.9%

Selling $3,000 a month (150 sales, $36,000 a year):

Option Platform fees Card processing Total Share of sales
systeme.io Free (under 2,000 contacts) $0 $132.00 $132.00 4.4%
systeme.io Startup (2,000 to 5,000 contacts) $17 $132.00 $149.00 5.0%
Sellfy Business ($36k is over Starter’s $10k cap) $79 ($59 billed yearly) $132.00 $211.00 ($191.00 yearly) 7.0% (6.4%)
SendOwl Grow ($36k is exactly Grow’s cap) $87 ($72.50 billed annually) $132.00 $219.00 ($204.50 annually) 7.3% (6.8%)
Payhip Plus $29 + 2% × $3,000 = $89.00 $132.00 $221.00 7.4%
Gumroad direct (reference) 10% × $3,000 + 150 × $0.50 = $375.00 $132.00 $507.00 16.9%

What this shows:

  • systeme.io is cheapest in both examples because it adds nothing on top of processing. You give up the embedded checkout and SendOwl-style file protection for that.
  • At $500 a month Payhip Free is the cheapest option with a real embeddable button on monthly billing, because it has no monthly fee. If you pay for a year up front, Sellfy Starter ($44.00) edges it out by $3. Payhip Plus beats Payhip Free above about $967 a month.
  • At $3,000 a month Sellfy, SendOwl and Payhip land within $10 of each other on monthly billing, so pick on features rather than price. If your sales go even slightly over $36,000 a year, SendOwl moves you to Scale ($159), which adds $72 a month.
  • To check your own numbers, try our seller fee comparison calculator.

Who each one is best for

SendOwl is best if your website is the shop: you want a cart across several products, an overlay checkout on your own page, and protection for what you sell (PDF stamping, license keys for software, drip content). Every feature is on every plan, so you only upgrade for higher sales and order limits. SendOwl also lists Shopify, WordPress and Notion integrations.

Payhip is best if you want to start for $0 and don’t want to think about VAT and sales tax: Payhip collects and remits them for you. Use its embed button or direct checkout links for single products on your site, and link to your Payhip store when buyers want to browse or buy several things.

Sellfy is best if you’d rather paste a ready-made product card or your whole store into a page than build product pages yourself, and you’d like a flat monthly fee with no transaction fee. It also sells subscriptions and print-on-demand merch alongside downloads.

systeme.io is best if you’re happy to send buyers from your site to a separate sales page and checkout, and want the lowest cost per sale plus email and funnels in the same tool. See our systeme.io vs Kit vs Payhip guide for its free-plan limits.

Gumroad is the simplest to set up if you’re fine with checkout happening on Gumroad, and it’s the only one here that acts as merchant of record. It costs the most per sale in both examples.

The honest downsides

SendOwl

  • The highest starting price: $39 a month, or $32.50 billed annually. The pricing page shows a free trial but no free plan.
  • Two caps per plan (sales and orders, over a trailing 12 months); you’re upgraded automatically when you pass one.
  • Download bandwidth is limited per month (10 GB, 20 GB and 50 GB on the plan cards) and overages are charged.
  • Subscriptions can’t go in the cart.

Payhip

  • 5% per sale on the free plan; processing is extra on every plan.
  • The embed button doesn’t cover courses, memberships, coaching or bundles, and multi-product carts from your own site are unclear (see the table).
  • The button needs a script in your page head, which some site builders make awkward.

Sellfy

  • No free plan, only a 14-day free trial.
  • Yearly sales caps ($10k, $50k, $200k); Sellfy says it may charge a 2% overage fee if you pass one and don’t upgrade.
  • Starter keeps Sellfy branding and leaves out upsells, cart abandonment and an affiliate program.

systeme.io

  • No embeddable checkout: buyers leave your page for the systeme.io order page.
  • File delivery is a thank-you-page link or an email you set up yourself; email attachments are capped at 5 MB, and the free plan allows only 1 automation rule.
  • The free plan stops at 2,000 contacts.

Gumroad (where our own products are sold)

  • Checkout always happens on Gumroad, even with the overlay.
  • About 16.9% of sales in both examples once card processing is added.

How to choose in two minutes

  1. You want buyers to stay on your page and fill a cart: SendOwl, or Sellfy if you want product cards and a flat fee.
  2. You sell a few downloads and want a $0 start with tax handled: Payhip Free, then Plus above about $967 a month.
  3. You’re fine linking out to a sales page and want the lowest fees: systeme.io Free.
  4. You sell software or worry about PDFs being shared: SendOwl (license keys and PDF stamping on every plan).
  5. Before you commit, open the platform’s pricing page. The numbers above were correct on October 20, 2026.

Tools and kits for Gumroad sellers

Sources

All checked 2026-10-20 on each company’s official site.

  • SendOwl pricing (Launch $39 / $32.50, Grow $87 / $72.50, Scale $159 / $132.50, Business from $299; 5k/25k/50k orders and $10k/$36k/$100k sales a year; 10/20/50 GB bandwidth; embeddable cart, modal checkout, payment links, PDF stamping, license keys, tax and EU VAT, Stripe and PayPal, all features on every plan; free trial): https://www.sendowl.com/pricing
  • SendOwl help, embedding website buttons (Buy now, Add to cart, View cart, Product Sales Page; subscriptions only Buy now and sales page; needs a connected gateway): https://help.sendowl.com/help/embedding-sendowls-website-buttons
  • Payhip pricing (Free $0 + 5%, Plus $29 + 2%, Pro $99 + 0%; same features on all plans; PayPal/Stripe fees extra; VAT and US/Canada sales tax collected and remitted): https://payhip.com/pricing
  • Payhip help, add Payhip to your website (embed button for digital and physical products only, two snippets, direct checkout links, store subdomain): https://help.payhip.com/article/68-add-payhip-to-your-website
  • Payhip help, WordPress (head script needs a plugin; WordPress.com Business plan or above): https://help.payhip.com/article/154-add-payhip-to-wordpress-gutenberg-editor
  • Payhip blog, add a shopping cart to your website (single-product embedded button, reply dated February 18, 2026): https://payhip.com/blog/add-shopping-cart-to-website/
  • Sellfy pricing (Starter $29 / $22, Business $79 / $59, Premium $159 / $119; 0% transaction fees; $10k/$50k/$200k caps; 2% overage; 14-day trial; own domain on all plans; branding, upsells, cart abandonment and affiliates from Business): https://sellfy.com/pricing/
  • Sellfy help, sell from your own website (iframe embeds: Buy now button, single product, all products or a category; pop-up checkout; shopping cart): https://docs.sellfy.com/article/216-how-to-embed-sellfy-on-my-website
  • systeme.io pricing (Free: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule; Startup $17; 0% transaction fees): https://systeme.io/pricing
  • systeme.io help, link a funnel to an external website: https://help.systeme.io/article/231-how-to-connect-a-sales-funnel-or-a-page-to-your-website
  • systeme.io help, embed a form or popup on an external website (opt-in forms only): https://help.systeme.io/article/266-how-to-create-and-integrate-a-form-or-a-popup-on-your-external-site
  • systeme.io help, sell your eBook (email attachment up to 5 MB, download link, thank-you page): https://help.systeme.io/article/155-how-to-sell-your-ebook
  • Gumroad help, integrating Gumroad into websites (overlay and embed; checkout can’t be completed on your site): https://gumroad.com/help/article/44-build-gumroad-into-your-website
  • Gumroad fees (10% + 50¢ direct; 2.9% + 30¢ processing): https://gumroad.com/help/article/66-gumroads-fees
  • Stripe US card rate 2.9% + 30¢: https://stripe.com/pricing