Starting an online business has never been more straightforward. You see, freelancers are thriving by offering sought-after services like writing, marketing, design, and development. Plus, there’s a whole world of opportunity beyond services – digital products such as eBooks, books, and even physical items can find a lucrative market through dedicated sales pages.

Venturing into digital product sales can be a fantastic way to bolster your income. Whether you’re a seasoned webmaster, a prolific blogger, or simply someone with a valuable solution to offer, there’s ample room for success.

However, even in the digital realm, attention to detail matters. How you present your products and manage customer support can make all the difference.

Which is the best platform for selling digital products?

Without further ado, let’s have a look at the best platforms to sell digital products and downloads:

1. Sellfy

Best platform for beginners looking to sell downloads

Sellfy provides simple and extremely easy solutions to sell digital products on your website. In addition to the eCommerce platform, it offers smart and agile tools to enhance sales and promote products via social media. The platform is home to more than 32,000+ creative artists selling products and making money all this time you have not! Amongst the most popular items sold through Sellfy, you will find eBooks and comic books, video, and music content, though the most popular one is design items that can be found in a range of 150,000+ unique items for sale.

Sellfy is the #1 platform for selling digital products without a website. However, you can combine it with your website to have more control over design and brand presence.

Key Sellfy Features:

• Instant Delivery: Products are automatically delivered to customers immediately after purchase.
• Simple Store Setup: Quickly create a store with no technical skills required, complete with customization options to match your brand.
• Unlimited Products: Sell as many digital products as possible, from ebooks to software.
• Payment Processing: Integrated payment solutions with PayPal and Stripe for easy transactions.
• Marketing Tools: Built-in features like discount codes and email marketing to help promote your digital products.
• Analytics: Track sales and customer behavior to refine your marketing and sales strategies.

Pricing: Sellfy prices for selling digital downloads start at $19/month with a 14-day free trial.

2. Podia

Best platform for selling online courses, memberships, and downloads

Right now is always the best time to start your business or at least turn your passion into income. 

With Podia, you can quick-start your project without the need to undergo the tedious task of starting everything from scratch. It is a nifty and easy-to-use platform that works ideally for online courses, downloads, memberships, and webinars. Podia also includes email marketing, website builder, and customer interaction via messaging. You can start a blog, too, and introduce content marketing to take your business to new heights.

I recommend using Podia to sell online courses, downloads, webinars, and other memberships based on subscriptions.

Key Podia Features Podia Features For Digital Products

• All-in-One Platform: Podia serves as a one-stop-shop, allowing you to sell digital products, memberships, and online courses from one platform. This consolidation can increase sales by simplifying the management of different product types and providing customers with a seamless shopping experience.
• No Transaction Fees: Unlike other platforms, Podia doesn’t charge any transaction fees on sales (excluding payment processing fees from Stripe or PayPal). This can result in higher net earnings for sellers, which can be reinvested into marketing and product development.
• Email Marketing: Podia includes built-in email marketing tools, allowing you to send newsletters, drip campaigns, and targeted emails to your audience. This direct line of communication can be a powerful tool for driving sales and nurturing customer relationships.
• Customizable Sales Pages: You can easily create beautiful, conversion-optimized sales pages. Podia provides a variety of templates and customization options to make your product stand out, which can help convert visitors into buyers.
• Membership and Community Features: Podia allows you to create membership sites and build online communities around your brand. This can foster a sense of loyalty and encourage repeat sales from community members.
• Webinars and Live Events: The platform offers the ability to host webinars and live events, which can be used for product launches, live training, and customer engagement. This interactive approach can help increase interest and drive sales.
• Upsells and Bundles: You can easily create upsells and product bundles within Podia, encouraging customers to purchase more and increasing your average order value.
• Affiliate Marketing: Podia supports affiliate marketing, enabling you to recruit affiliates to promote your products in exchange for a commission. This can expand your reach and increase sales without a corresponding increase in marketing efforts.
• Instant Payouts: Get immediate access to your funds after a sale, which can be critical for cash flow, especially for smaller businesses or individual creators.
• Customer Support: Podia prides itself on its customer support, offering live chat support to both creators and customers. Good support can enhance the user experience and increase customer satisfaction and sales.
• Unlimited Everything: Podia offers unlimited bandwidth, products, customers, sales, and email sends, allowing your business to scale without worrying about hitting limits.
• Embeddable Buy Buttons: You can embed buy buttons on your existing website or blog, making it easier for customers to purchase without leaving your site.

Pricing: You can start using Podia for free without any limits. However, the free plan comes with an 8% transaction fee for every payment you receive. Regular pricing starts at $33/month, including all the necessary features to sell your online course or downloads.

3. Selar

Selar is the best platform to sell your ebooks both downloadable and non-downloadable in any format. You can host your courses & membership sites with unlimited videos & files, unlimited storage, and unlimited students. You also get content security to prevent theft.

Key features:

• Very quick payouts.
• Takes off the liability of running a self-hosted e-commerce store.
• Exemplary customer service.
• Lots of features in the Free plan.
• Very simple to use and beginner-friendly.
• Allows multiple streams of currency payment
• Flexible payment integration for Africans to transact with different people from around the world.

Pricing: Pricing: Free but there are paid versions.

4. Shopify

Best platform for big eCommerce stores

Shopify has expanded to support eCommerce, social eCommerce, and straightforward shopping options with single click-to-buy buttons. 

It is the leader in modern eCommerce and allows its customers to create eCommerce stores for digital and physical goods. The best part is that you can experience the full potential of Shopify’s platform by signing up for a free trial and seeing the results yourself. 

An extensive directory of styles and themes (with full customization options) and a directory of paid and free plugins will let you create an online store that resembles the works of Amazon and Newegg regarding product selling.

Key Shopify Features to Sell Digital Downloads

• Instant Downloads: Shopify lets customers download their purchased digital products immediately after payment, enhancing the user experience and satisfaction.
• Automated Delivery: Digital products are delivered automatically to customers via email, which includes a secure download link post-purchase, reducing the need for manual intervention and ensuring secure transactions.
• File Protection: Shopify provides unique, secure download links for each customer, helping to prevent unauthorized sharing of digital products and protecting the seller’s intellectual property.
• Download Limits: Store owners can limit the number of times a digital product can be downloaded, helping to control distribution and prevent abuse.
• Storage and Bandwidth: Shopify offers generous storage and bandwidth to accommodate many digital products and high-volume traffic, ensuring smooth and reliable product delivery.
• Digital Product Variants: Sellers can offer multiple versions or variants of a digital product (such as different file formats or packages) within the same product listing, offering more options to customers.
• Easy Product Updates: When a digital product is updated, Shopify allows sellers to push the new version to customers who have already purchased it, providing them with the latest version and enhancing customer service.
• Integration with Digital Download Apps: Shopify’s app ecosystem includes specialized apps for selling digital products, such as “Digital Downloads” by Shopify or “SendOwl,” offering additional licensing, subscriptions, and digital rights management features.

Pricing: Shopify comes with a 14-day free trial. The Basic plan starts at $29/month, but you will receive higher payment processing fees. Once your store grows, upgrading to a higher pricing tier would make sense to save some money on commissions.

5. Gumroad

Best platform for digital creators selling via social media.

Gumroad bridges the gap between a product and the customer. It’s one of the most popular digital selling platforms thanks to its simplicity, a record of security, and ease of use. Upload your albums, books, games, films, online courses and more to the Gumroad servers; set a price and let everything unfold naturally. The embeddable Gumroad widget makes it incredibly easy to integrate Gumroad into your website, giving you peace of mind over how you sell and promote your digital products.

While you can integrate Gumrod into your website, it is widely used as a standalone platform to sell digital products by promoting them on social media. It is comparable to Sellfy for selling digital products without a website.

Key Gumforad Features For Selling Digital Products

• Product Variants: Gumroad allows you to offer different versions of a digital product, such as various file types or bundled content, giving customers the flexibility to choose according to their needs.
• License Keys: For software and other licensed digital goods, Gumroad can automatically generate and distribute unique license keys to customers, which is crucial for managing the use of your digital products.
• Pay-What-You-Want Pricing: This feature enables creators to allow customers to set their price for a product, which can encourage more downloads and potentially higher earnings, as some users may pay more than a set price.
• Rentals: Gumroad offers a rental option for digital products, perfect for video content or other media that customers may prefer to access temporarily, broadening the potential market for your products.
• Pre-Orders: You can set up pre-orders for upcoming digital products on Gumroad, allowing you to gauge interest and generate sales before a product is released.
• Streaming: Rather than downloading, customers can stream video and audio content directly from Gumroad, a convenient option for users who prefer immediate access without using up storage space.
• Updates and Versioning: When you update a digital product, Gumroad can notify all existing customers, allowing them to access the latest version, thereby improving customer satisfaction and trust.
• Analytics and Customer Management: Gumroad provides in-depth analytics about your customers and sales patterns, as well as tools to manage customer relationships, such as the ability to issue refunds, and discounts, or respond to customer inquiries directly.

Price: You can start selling for free with 9% transaction fees + an additional $0.3 for every transaction. As your sales grow, your commission will decline to 2.9% + $0.3 for every transaction.

6. Mainstack

Mainstack represents a streamlined approach for entrepreneurs and creators. By utilizing cutting-edge software solutions, businesses can create compelling storefronts, manage customers efficiently, and analyze sales data effectively. 

Embedded payments simplify the purchasing process for customers, resulting in a seamless user experience and higher conversion rates. With global payment solutions integrated into the platform, entrepreneurs can cater to a diverse audience, accepting multiple currencies and payment methods to maximize revenue potential.

Key features:

• Storefront. Create a store that turns visitors into customers.
• Invoicing. Manage all payments in one place. 
• Booking. Effortlessly manage your appointments and events with our user-friendly booking app that simplifies scheduling, saves you time, and provides a seamless experience for both you and your clients.

Price: get started today for FREE

7. Easy Digital Downloads

Best platform for WordPress developers. (Technical knowledge required for a proper setup)

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the planet. It’s only right that someone took the initiative to build a natively built selling platform for WordPress. They call it Easy Digital Downloads. It’s a full-fledged eCommerce selling platform where you can easily sell your digital downloads through your WordPress blog. It’s a complete e-commerce solution selling digital products in a light, easy-to-use plugin. Rather than attempting to provide every feature under the sun, Easy Digital Downloads makes digital selling simple and complete by providing just the features you need.

Key EDD Features For Selling Digital Products

• Software Licensing: Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) offers a Software Licensing extension that generates license keys and enables license activation, management, and tracking, which is essential for selling software or other licensed digital products.
• Frontend Submissions: The extension allows users to sell their digital products on your website, transforming your site into a multi-vendor marketplace and expanding your digital product offerings.
• Variable Pricing: EDD allows sellers to set multiple price points for a single digital product, enabling the sale of different licenses or packages (e.g., standard, premium) under one product listing.
• Discount Codes: Create and manage discount codes with EDD to run promotions and encourage more sales. You can set percentage or flat rate discounts and control their expiration and usage.
• Download Activity Tracking: EDD tracks the number of downloads and attempts per customer, giving you insight into customer behavior and helping you prevent unauthorized distribution.
• Payment Gateways: EDD supports numerous payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon Payments, providing customers with various payment options for their digital product purchases.
• File Access Control: Protect your digital products with EDD’s access control features, which allow you to define download limits and file access expiration, ensuring that your products are not freely distributed after purchase.
• Customer Management: EDD provides a comprehensive system that logs all customer activity, including purchase history and lifetime value, allowing for targeted marketing and support initiatives.

Price: Free with basic functionality. After that, prices start at $99.50/year (only yearly billing is available). If you need to sell subscriptions, it will set you back $199.50/year and licensed software $299.50/year, but that doesn’t include many valuable extensions that will set you back $499.50/year. EDD is one of the priciest ways to sell your downloads, but it is the best for software developers.

8. Nestuge

Nestuge offers creators, coaches, and businesses a seamless solution to monetize their expertise and offerings on a global scale. By leveraging Nestuge’s platform, users can effortlessly sell their digital products while automating various aspects of their workflow. 

This includes everything from sales and distribution to customer management, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on what they do best: creating valuable content and services. 

With Nestuge’s user-friendly interface and robust features, individuals and organizations can effectively showcase their expertise and connect with a diverse audience, maximizing revenue potential and streamlining operations.

Price: Free but there are also paid versions ranging from 10USD to 39USD per month.

9. Thinkific

Best platform for selling online courses

It does not matter what niche or industry you are in; with Thinkific, you can build online courses quickly with as little effort as necessary. 

Thinkific is an all-in-one platform that takes care of anything and everything. From kicking things off and building your first online course to distribution and sales, you manage and maintain everything from one location. 

Many professionals are already successfully utilizing the powerful platform that Thinkific is, so there is no reason you would not want to join. You can even start for free to keep the hype at an all-time high.

Want to sell online courses but don’t know how to get started? Here is a detailed guide on how to create and sell online courses.

Key Thinkific Features For Selling Digital Products

• Drip Content: Thinkific allows you to release course content over time, which is useful for keeping students engaged and ensuring they don’t feel overwhelmed by too much material at once. This feature is particularly beneficial for digital courses and membership sites.
• Multimedia Course Content: You can create courses using a variety of digital content types, including videos, PDFs, quizzes, surveys, and more, providing a rich and interactive learning experience for your students.
• Secure Cloud Hosting: Thinkific hosts your digital products on secure cloud servers, ensuring fast and reliable access for your customers while protecting your content from unauthorized use.
• Customizable Course Pages: With Thinkific, you can create custom landing pages for your digital products, allowing you to design a unique branding experience and optimize for conversions.
• Membership and Subscription Options: Thinkific lets you offer digital products as part of a membership or subscription, providing a steady revenue stream and giving customers ongoing access to your content.
• Coupons and Promotions: You can create and manage promotional offers and coupons, which can be applied to individual courses or bundles, encouraging sign-ups and increasing sales.
• Student Tracking and Reporting: Thinkific provides detailed analytics on student progress, completion rates, and engagement, helping you understand how your digital products are being consumed and where improvements can be made.
• Integrated Payment Processing: Thinkific includes built-in payment processing, which accepts payments from students directly within the platform via Stripe or PayPal, simplifying the purchase process for digital courses and content.

Price: You can start selling online courses for free with a limited amount of courses. The basic plan is $39/month (billed yearly) with unlimited students and courses.

10. E-junkie

Affordable way of selling digital products

E-junkie has grown on such a large scale over the last decade thanks to its pledge not to charge any fees other than the flat monthly fee you must pay to use services. 

It’s popular among creative artists who create books, digital items like themes, and other graphics work and those who want to sell services for marketing and business. 

Everything is managed within the platform itself; once a user finishes a purchase and the platform verifies its validity, the user will download the given files instantly.

There is also an affiliate platform available. That means you can earn more sales for your products through the help of customers who run websites and blogs. 

Manage inventory, learn more about your sales through analytics, and many other great features that will set you on a path of success in digital selling.

Price: E-junkie starts at $5/month for selling up to 10 digital products. An unlimited plan is $40/month with no file size or product limit.

11. Teachable

Best platform for online knowledge business.

Teachable is a dope platform for selling online digital products related to knowledge and education. It does not matter what you specialize in; Teachable is for everyone. 

On the other hand, just like you can create your courses, students can join the platform and learn from you. 

Teachable also has a must-see webinar on creating your first course using the platform. You have the freedom to create an outcome exactly to your liking. Teachable even takes care of EU VAT – how cool is that? Start with any of the three plans and make an immediate difference.

Price: Free plan has $1 + 10% transaction fees on all sales; only one course is included. The basic plan is $29/month (billed yearly) with 5% transaction fees and unlimited courses you can sell.

12. FastSpring

Best platform for SaaS eCommerce platforms

If you are a software company looking for an alternative to help with online sales, consider FastSpring. 

It is a compelling platform that gets you moving in the right direction. It is a full-blown solution that takes care of the selling part. 

The features include global payments, subscriptions, branded checkout, global taxes, 3rd-party integrations, etc. For instance, you can use FastSpring with WordPress, Facebook, impact, you name it. Before fully committing, you can also request a demo and see how FastSpring can grow your software business to the next level.

Price: Price depends on the scale of your business. Custom quotes are available on request.

13. DPD

Best for selling eBooks, software and downloads

DPD is a multi-purpose platform for selling downloads, like software, eBooks, themes, music, graphics, well, you get the gist of it. You upload your files to DPD and let it do all the heavy lifting instead of you. 

You can copy and paste the “add to cart” button almost anywhere. DPD works on websites, blogs, and Facebook and integrates with over five hundred marketing tools. 

With secure and responsive checkout, customers easily and quickly complete the purchase, and all the funds get directly to your account. Finally, DPD delivers the files without needing you to do anything else. Start with the right foot forward and go with DPD.

Price: Price starts at $10/month for up to 20 products with payment processing fees.

14. ClickBank

Best platform for attracting affiliate marketers

ClickBank is a household name amongst those who have been into internet marketing for the past few years. It’s the most well-known platform for selling and buying digital goods. 

It’s the perfect marketplace for anyone who wants to reach out to a base of customers who are always looking to learn something new and unique about their specific market. 

The affiliate program is known for driving hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for those who want to use the full potential of ClickBank’s promotional tools.

Many of the products on ClickBank are all about teaching others how to use internet marketing to its full potential, lately going in-depth about email marketing and organic promotion techniques.

Price: $49.95 product initial listing fee followed with 7.5% + $1.00 per sale. It seems pricy, but you get good exposure through their marketplace and affiliate partners.

15. SendOwl

Most affordable way of selling digital goods for beginners.

SendOwl is happy to work with experienced and inexperienced clients in selling digital products. The platform is much like eCommerce software; the only difference is that everything is happening within the cloud, not on your server.

Thus, you can sell and promote your products without extra worries. Enjoy features like a progressive affiliate system, an upsell system that will help you increase your revenue, offer discount codes. 

Track their performance to see which ones attract the most customers. You can even integrate a “Pay What You Want” pricing module that could break the bank for your digital products. SendOwl promises security and safety.

Price: You can start selling for free with no account limits. However, the free plan has a 5% transaction fee. The regular plan is $19/month with no transaction fees.

16. PayLoadz

Best for those looking to start their business for free.

PayLoadz has been around for more than a decade. It’s home to some 600,000+ sellers who are selling 3,500,000+ items. 

PayLoadz can help you launch up your own sales page within minutes. This can range from a photograph, a logo concept, an eBook, or a video game. PayLoadz can convert and naturally help you make sales. 

The vast experience over the years gives PayLoadz the advantage of understanding how the digital goods market works. It can provide invaluable advice and insights to those who seek it.

Key PayLoadz Features For Selling Downloads

PayLoadz is a digital goods e-commerce service that allows you to sell downloadable items such as software, ebooks, music, movies, digital art, manuals, articles, crafts, templates, files, and anything else that can be downloaded. Here are some features of PayLoadz:

• Automated Delivery: PayLoadz specializes in the instant and automatic delivery of digital goods once a customer has made a purchase. The system sends a secure download link to the customer’s email address.
• eBay Integration: PayLoadz offers integration with eBay auctions, which means that sellers can automatically deliver digital products to buyers who win their eBay listings.
• Affiliate System: PayLoadz has an affiliate system that enables sellers to set up their affiliate programs. This can help increase sales by leveraging the marketing efforts of affiliates who promote your products for a commission.
• Secure Storage and Delivery: The service provides secure storage for your digital files and ensures that only authorized buyers can access the download links, which typically expire after a set period to prevent unauthorized sharing.
• Multiple Payment Options: PayLoadz integrates with various payment processors such as PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, and others, giving customers a range of payment options.
• Customizable Sales Pages: Sellers can create custom sales pages for their digital products, which can be used to provide detailed descriptions, images, and other important information to potential buyers.
• Download Protection: PayLoadz offers security features to protect your digital goods, including limiting the number of times a file can be downloaded or the time frame in which it can be accessed.
• Copy-Paste Purchase Buttons: You can generate HTML code for “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” buttons that can be easily embedded on your website, blog, or social media, simplifying setting up an online storefront.
• Product Bundling: Sellers can bundle multiple files into one product, which can be an effective sales strategy for offering complementary items or creating more value for customers.
• Reporting and Analytics: PayLoadz provides sales reporting and analytics tools that help you track your sales performance, understand customer behaviour, and make informed decisions about your digital products.

Price: You can start selling for free without limits but must pay a 30% transaction fee. The regular price is $29, which offers unlimited flexibility at no extra cost.

17. Creative Market

Best for designers selling graphics

Creative Market is home to more than 10,000+ artists. This involves designers and developers who share and sell their most unique and beautiful work on the marketplace. 

The great thing is that anyone can become a seller, although there is a thorough approval process. Also, they must expose themselves to hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors. They come to find things like unique photography for their projects, graphics like objects and textures, and templates of all kinds. They also visit content management system themes and more.

Price: 0 initial setup fees but you have to pay 40% transaction fees and your account must be approved before you can start selling.

18. ThemeForest by Envato

Best for selling WordPress themes and website templates

Envato is home to eight huge digital marketplaces that have sold millions of dollars in total revenue. Marketplaces like ThemeForest and Codecanyon are household names for purchasing digital artwork and digital code work. Envato’s database comprises over 5,000,000 unique products that allow customers to build their dreams and ideas within minutes. They can build rather than hire individuals separately for all the custom work. This also means those who wish to sell on Envato will be pleasantly surprised. They will learn that millions of people visit Envato’s marketplace every month. Everyone is guaranteed to make at least a few sales, given the product is up to the latest standards. Not to mention that there is a very popular affiliate program you can find every blogger advertising these days.

Price: No initial setup fee but all your products must be approved before selling them.

Non-Exclusive Author Fee (products are sold on Themeforest and elsewhere): 55%

Exclusive Author Fee(items are sold only on ThemeForest): 12.5% – 37.5%. The more you sell, the lower are fees. Themeforest is costly but you get unmatched exposure via their marketplace.

Conclusion

The digital marketplace provides a plethora of platforms tailored to sell various digital products, from ebooks to software. Each platform offers unique features and benefits, catering to different business models and needs. Whether you’re a beginner looking for simplicity or a seasoned entrepreneur seeking scalability, there’s a platform suited to your requirements. With these diverse options, entrepreneurs can efficiently monetize their digital offerings and reach a global audience in today’s digital landscape.

If you would like to know how to sell your products online, I’m your girl! Follow me on Instagram @digitalcreatorchic_