7 Lemon Squeezy alternatives for selling digital products & subscriptions

Lemon Squeezy's recent announcement of its acquisition by Stripe has created some ripples in the digital product and subscription industry.

While the full implications of this merger have yet to unfold, it's understandable that sellers who rely on Lemon Squeezy for their digital product sales and checkout processes are evaluating their options.

In this article, we compare seven platforms that serve as strong alternatives to Lemon Squeezy for digital and subscription-based product vendors.

About Lemon Squeezy

Since its launch in 2021, Lemon Squeezy has become a well-known name in the digital download e-commerce industry thanks to its ease of use, reasonable pricing, helpful marketing tools, and no-code functionality that enables users to create and customize an online store.

Lemon Squeezy's features include:

• License key management
  Automatically generate and manage license keys for software and apps, with options to deactivate, re-issue, and control licenses. This is popular with software developers and digital product sellers.
• No-code checkout forms and E-commerce store
  Sellers can create customizable, mobile-optimized checkout forms and launch an e-commerce store in minutes without any coding or design skills.
• Recurring billing and subscriptions
  Lemon Squeezy supports flexible subscription models, including weekly, monthly, or yearly billing, with options for free trials, discounts, and upgrades/downgrades.
• Integrated Marketing Tools
  Features like email marketing, discount codes, bundling, and customer segmentation help sellers grow their audience and increase conversion rates.

Lemon Squeezy as a Merchant of Record (MoR)

One of the key factors in Lemon Squeezy's popularity is that it acts as a Merchant of Record (MoR)—meaning it takes care of collecting and remitting tax on its customers' digital sales.

This certainly takes some of the finance admin off its users' plates; however, the setup also means that Lemon Squeezy owns the relationship with the buyer rather than the vendor.

This results in you, the seller, having much less freedom to interact with and build relationships with your customers because the platform owns the relationship.

5 Lemon Squeezy alternatives

In our review of alternatives below, we'll consider overall ease of use, how the platform helps take care of taxes, and their customer service approach.

1. Checkout Page

OK, so as a competitor of Lemon Squeezy, you may say we are a little biased, but we are very proud of the incredible ease and cost-effectiveness with which Checkout Page allows you to begin selling digital and subscription-based products.

Built on top of Stripe, our no-code solution enables you to spin up attractive, single-product pages in a matter of moments. Checkout Page makes selling digital downloads super easy, supports Webhooks, and has a Zapier integration that integrates with other platforms.

Compared to Lemon Squeezy, our platform is a lot more customizable. We support many payment structures; you can add your own branding and customize the confirmation messages sent to customers.

Checkout Page involves a low-cost monthly subscription, and no fees are taken from sales.

You can take one-off payments and ongoing subscription payments, and there are also 'pay what you want' options.

We use Stripe Tax to help you collect tax, after which you can use the Stripe Tax dashboard to figure out how much you need to pay.

This approach means that we don't act as an intermediary–your customers are yours, giving you freedom to engage with them.

Pros

• Create unlimited checkout pages and forms
• Create subscription and payment plan options
• User-friendly, no-code rapid setup of checkout pages pages
• High-converting page templates for events, digital products, and subscriptions
• Top-notch customer support from the founders
• Low monthly costs and no sales fees mean better profit margins
• Sell unlimited digital products with unlimited file storage
• Offer additional products and one-click upsells at checkout
• We don't act as a middleman. You maintain ownership of your audience and data

Cons

• May not be suitable for selling multiple products in a single transaction
• Not a Merchant of Record

💳 Pricing

We offer 3 different tiers of subscription:

2. SendOwl

SendOwl is an e-commerce platform that provides creators the ability to sell digital products, memberships, and subscriptions directly to their audience. With its focus on simplicity and flexibility, SendOwl enables creators to personalize the selling and delivery process for their digital content.

SendOwl does not act as a MoR but helps you keep track of your taxes, enabling you to set up different rules in your account for tax regions you do business in, and access reports on those to assist your payment calculations.

Pros

• Helps you with cart abandonment emails
• Pay what you want pricing features
• Offers pre-sell content (think Kickstarter)
• Conversion-optimized checkout flow

Cons

• Slow, email-based support

💳 Pricing

Starter plan: $18/per month and a 5% fee per order
Growth plan: $37/month and $0.47 fee per order
Pro plan: $89/month, then $0.28 fee per order

See full pricing

Note:
SendOwl currently offer a *7 day free trial and $1/month for 2 months
There is a minimum $0.89 fee per order

3. PayHip

Payhip is an e-commerce platform designed to assist individuals and businesses in selling digital products and memberships. Through a simple setup process, creators can showcase and sell their digital goods directly to their audience.

Payhip offers features for product management, marketing, and affiliate tracking to support creators in effectively selling and promoting their digital products.

Pros

• Payhip provides features like coupons, discounts, upsells, and cross-sells to boost sales
• EU & UK VAT handling: Payhip simplifies EU & UK tax handling
• It can generate license keys for software products
• Offers a free plan

Cons

• Some have found the store builder to be challenging to use due to a confusing sidebar menu and layout

💳 Pricing

Free forever plan: $0/month + 5% transaction fee
Plus plan: $29/month + 2% transaction fee
Pro plan: $99/month + 0% transaction fee

See full pricing

4. Gumroad

Gumroad is another MoR platform that empowers creators to sell digital products directly to their audience. With its easy-to-use interface, creators can market and sell products such as e-books, music, software downloads, and more, enabling them to build an online storefront with minimal hassle.

Gumroad also offers features like pre-orders, upselling, and audience management to assist creators in growing their customer base and maximizing their sales potential.

Pros

• Established a platform with existing traffic
• Quick and easy set-up process compared to creating your own website
• Can benefit from the marketplace's marketing efforts
• Merchant of Record platforms take care of your tax

Cons

• Cost! A consistent 10% fee is applied to the sales price of every product sold, followed by an additional fee taken by Stripe or PayPal when a customer pays for your product.

💳 Pricing
A consistent 10% fee is applied to the sales price of every product sold, followed by an additional fee taken by Stripe or PayPal when a customer pays for your product.

This usually stands at around 3.49% plus $0.49 for a transaction within the U.S.

For more on that, check out our article How Gumroad's pricing works + a cheaper alternative

5. Sellfy

Sellfy is an e-commerce platform focused on helping creators sell digital products directly to their audience. Its straightforward setup makes it easy for creators to offer and monetize digital goods, including e-books, music, videos, and more.

Sellfy also provides features for marketing, analytics, and integrations, supporting creators in effectively selling and promoting their digital products.

Pros

• Offers a variety of customization options
• Customers love the array of marketing tools
• Specializes in VAT tax handling for sales within the EU
• Offers a free 14-day trial.

Cons: 

• The platform's analytics features might fall short of in-depth sales analysis.
• There is a limit of $200k annual revenue

💳 Pricing

Starter Plan: Starting from $29/month for up to $10k in yearly sales

Business Plan: Starting from $79/month for up to $50k in yearly sales

Premium Plan: Starting from $159/month for up to $200k in yearly sales

6. ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a shopping cart and checkout solution that focuses on helping its users convert customers, increase average order value, and reduce cart abandonment.

It offers a range of features designed to streamline the sales process, making it appealing to solopreneurs, course creators, coaches, and digital marketers looking to optimize their checkout.

Pros

• Create stand-alone or embeddable carts using a simple drag-and-drop tool
• Setup order bumps, one-click upsells, down sells, and cross-sells to boost AOV
• One-time payment of $495*
• Offer a range of billing options to your customers to broaden your reach
• Create simple sales funnels designed to convert
• Offers simple sales tax calculation feature
• Offers help center, FAQs, chatbot, and email ticket support

Cons

• No trial period, so you cannot review before taking the leap
• The fact that you pay a one-off fee rather than a subscription means ThriveCart has less incentive to keep improving the product

💳 Pricing

* Note this is a special offer currently and is subject to change.

7. Paddle

Paddle is a billing solution for digital products that serves as a Merchant of Record (MoR), handling everything from payment processing to tax compliance, including VAT, sales tax, and more, across multiple countries.

Paddle supports subscription billing, one-time payments, and software product licensing. Its analytics dashboard provides valuable insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and revenue trends.

Pros:

• Acts as a Merchant of Record, handling tax compliance globally
• Supports subscriptions, one-time payments, and software licensing
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting tools

Cons:

• Pricing is not transparent and requires a custom quote
• Limited customization options for checkout pages compared to some competitors

💳 Pricing:

Paddle has a 'pay as you go' pricing plan whereby it takes 5%+50¢ per transaction.

Beyond that, you need to get in touch with them to receive a custom quote.

Conclusion

As we wait to hear further news about how the Stripe acquisition will potentially affect the product, it's a good time to keep one eye on other options.

We believe that Checkout Page stands out as a top alternative to Lemon Squeezy due to its competitive pricing, exceptional customer support direct from our founders, and a user-friendly interface that gets you selling in minutes.

What's more, by maintaining ownership of your customer data and offering flexible payment options, Checkout Page empowers you to maximize your profits and build strong customer relationships.

If you'd like to learn more about how we can assist you on your digital product journey, check out our library of digital product focused articles in our blog, such as Best digital products to sell in 2024.

Why not try us out by taking advantage of our free 7-day trial and seeing for yourself what a breeze our no-code page builder really is?