Beacons vs Gumroad: The Simple & Honest Review for Creators

I remember just staring at my computer screen. In one tab, I had Beacons. In the other, Gumroad. My brain felt like it was turning into mush. 

They both look so good! They both say they will help me, a creator, make money from my stuff. But which one is right? 

It’s a big question, and I spent so much time trying to figure it out.

I read everything, I clicked everything, and I got very confused. But now, I think I understand. 

I want to write this all down for you, so your brain doesn’t have to turn to mush. This is my big Beacons vs Gumroad review. 

I will try to make it super simple, using easy words, so anyone in the world can understand. Let’s figure this out together.

Beacons: Your All-in-One Best Friend

First, let’s talk about Beacons. Imagine you have a toolbox. But instead of a hammer and a screwdriver, this toolbox has everything for your online business. 

That is what Beacons tries to be. It calls itself “THE All-in-one Creator Platform.” It’s a very bold claim, yes?

The whole idea of Beacons is to put all the tools you need in one single place. So you don’t need to jump between five different websites to run your little empire. 

You don’t need to know how to code or hire a fancy designer. Beacons want to make it easy.

It all started with the “link-in-bio” problem. You know on Instagram or TikTok, you only get to put ONE link in your profile?

 It is so annoying! 

You have a new YouTube video, an Etsy shop, a blog… where do you send people? Beacons solved this. It gives you one pretty page where you can put all your links.

But then, Beacons got bigger. Much bigger. It’s not just a page for links anymore. It grew into a full business hub. 

From that one Beacons link, you can now sell things, send emails, and even find brands to work with. It wants to be with you for your whole journey, from your first follower to your first million dollars (we can dream, right?). 

It’s like a little business operating system, made just for people like us who live on social media.

The Cool Stuff Beacons Can Do (Its Features)

So what is actually inside this Beacons toolbox? Let’s look.

• Link-in-Bio Builder: This is the heart of Beacons. It’s a page builder that is super easy to use. It’s like playing with building blocks. You drag a block for a link, you drop in a block for a video. You can change the colors and fonts to make it look exactly like you. And it’s made to look great on a phone, which is important because most of our fans are on their phones.

• Digital Storefront: This is HUGE. You can build a little shop right on your Beacons page. You can sell your digital products—like eBooks, photo presets, guides, templates, anything! You can also book appointments if you are a coach, or even just let your fans give you a tip or a donation. A really cool part: on the free plan, you can list an UNLIMITED number of products. That is very generous.

• Email Marketing: Beacons has a tool to help you talk to your fans. You can put a little box on your page that says “Join my email list!” When people sign up, you can send them emails. You can send a welcome email, a weekly newsletter, or an email to tell them about a new product you made. If you pay for a bigger plan, you can send unlimited emails and even set up automatic email series.

• Audience Manager (CRM): This sounds complicated, but it’s not. CRM is just a list of your fans and customers. Beacons keeps a list for you. You can see who bought what, who clicked which link, and who is a super fan. You can even add little tags to people, like “Loves my art” or “Bought my course.” This helps you send the right messages to the right people.

• Analytics Dashboard: This is your report card. It shows you how many people visited your page, which links they clicked, how much money you made, and where your visitors came from (like Instagram or TikTok). This information is gold. It helps you understand what is working and what is not.

• Media Kit: If you want to work with brands, you need a media kit. It’s like a resume for your creator business. Beacons helps you make a simple one that shows brands your stats and how many followers you have. It makes you look super professional.

• AI-Powered Tools: This is the future, and it’s a big deal in the beacons ai vs gumroad discussion. Beacons has some Artificial Intelligence helpers. It has an AI that can help you write emails to brands. It has another AI that can help you create a digital product. You give it an idea for a mini-course or a guide, and it writes a first draft for you. This can save you SO much time.

• More Power with Paid Plans: If you decide to pay for Beacons, you unlock even more stuff. You can get a custom domain name (so it looks like yourname.com instead of beacons.ai/yourname). You can sell full online courses and memberships, and you can sync multiple calendars for your appointments. The biggest plan even gives you a special person to help you set everything up.

Who is Beacons For?

Beacons is very clear about who its friends are. It’s for “TikTokers, YouTubers, Instagram creators, coaches, and freelancers.” 

It’s for influencers and people making a business on social media. Because it’s built around that single link, it’s perfect for creators whose audience lives on these apps. If you are always on your phone, managing your business from there, Beacons will feel very natural to you.

Gumroad: The Simple, Powerful Shopkeeper

Now, let’s switch gears and talk about Gumroad. If Beacons is the all-in-one toolbox, Gumroad is the single best hammer you will ever own. It doesn’t try to do everything. It does one thing—selling stuff online—and it does it incredibly well.

Gumroad has been around for over 10 years. It’s like the wise old grandpa of selling digital products. Its whole philosophy is about making selling simple. 

It knows that setting up an online store can be a nightmare. There are so many things to worry about: payments, file delivery, invoices, and oh god, taxes. Gumroad says, “Don’t worry about that. We’ll handle the boring, difficult parts. You just focus on making cool things.”

You can literally start selling on Gumroad in a few minutes. It is famous for how quick and easy it is. 

This makes it perfect for creators who just want to get their product out into the world and see what happens, without building a whole complicated website first.

The Great Stuff Gumroad Can Do (Its Features)

Gumroad’s feature list is very focused on making the selling experience smooth for both you and your customer.

• Supports Many Product Types: This is where Gumroad really, really shines. You can sell almost any kind of digital thing you can imagine. Ebooks, music, digital art, video courses, templates… you name it. But it also has special powers. You can sell software and Gumroad will automatically create unique license keys for each customer! This is a huge deal for developers. You can also sell different versions of a product (like a PDF, an ePub, and a Kindle version of your book) at different prices. It even lets you sell physical things, but most people use it for digital.

• Customizable Shop Page: You get your own storefront on Gumroad. You can change the colors and add a background image to make it your own. But Gumroad is also very flexible. If you already have your own website or blog, you can just embed a Gumroad “buy” button right on your site. So people can buy from you without ever leaving your website. It’s very seamless.

• Flexible Payment Choices:

  • Memberships & Subscriptions: You can easily set up recurring payments. Maybe you have a private newsletter or a library of content that people pay for every month or every year. Gumroad makes this easy.

  • Pay What You Want: I love this feature. You can let your customers choose the price they want to pay for a product. You can set a minimum (like "$5+"), but it’s a great way to be generous and sometimes, people will surprise you and pay more!

  • Accept Money from Anywhere: Gumroad lets you sell to people all over the world in their own currency. This is very important for a global audience.

  • VAT Handling: This is a lifesaver. If you sell to customers in the European Union, there is a special tax called VAT. The rules are very confusing. Gumroad automatically handles all of this for you. It calculates the tax, collects it, and pays it to the EU. You don’t have to do anything. This alone is worth so much.

• Marketing Tools:

  • Email Marketing: Gumroad also has email tools. You can send updates (they call them "posts") to all your customers or followers on Gumroad. You can also set up automatic email sequences, like a 7-day course delivered by email.

  • Affiliate Program: You can set up your own affiliate team. This means your fans or other creators can share a special link to your product. If someone buys through their link, they get a small percentage of the sale. It’s a great way to get more people to promote your work.

  • Discover Feature: Gumroad has its own marketplace where it recommends products to its users. For an extra fee, you can get your product featured there. This can help new people who have never heard of you find your work.

• Protecting Your Work: Gumroad offers simple ways to protect your digital files, like stamping a PDF with the buyer’s email address. This helps discourage people from sharing it illegally.

Who is Gumroad For?

Gumroad is for the makers. The “independent creators, small businesses, and entrepreneurs.” This includes graphic designers selling templates, programmers selling code, musicians selling albums, and writers selling their novels. 

It's for anyone who has a product and just needs a simple, reliable way to sell it.

It’s especially good for people who already have an audience somewhere else—like a big email list, a popular blog, or a YouTube channel. 

They don’t need an all-in-one hub. They just need a powerful "cash register" and delivery system. And Gumroad is the best at that.

The Big Comparison: Beacons vs Gumroad

Okay, we’ve met both our contenders. Now let’s put them side-by-side in this Beacons vs Gumroad review. This is where you will see the real differences and decide which one is for you.

The Main Idea: Hub vs. Shop

This is the most important difference.
Beacons are an Audience Hub. It’s built around your social media profile. The link-in-bio page is the center of its universe. 

Everything—the store, the emails, the CRM—is connected to that central hub.
Gumroad is a Product Shop. 

It’s built around the transaction. The product page is the center of its universe. Its main job is to make the process of buying and selling that product as smooth as possible.

Think of it like this: Beacons is a mall where you have your shop, a cafe to meet your fans, a post office to send them letters, and an office to manage it all. 

Gumroad is the most efficient, most secure, most high-tech cash register and delivery service in the world for your shop.

Let’s Talk About Money: The Fees

This part is SO important. Their prices work in very different ways.

Beacons Pricing:
Beacons has different levels (tiers).

• Free Plan ($0/month): You can build your page and sell unlimited products, but Beacons takes a 9% transaction fee from every sale.

• Creator Pro Plan ($10/month): You get more features like a custom domain, but Beacons still takes that 9% transaction fee.

• Store Pro Plan ($30/month): This is the magic level. It costs $30 a month, but the transaction fee goes down to 0%. ZERO! You only pay the standard payment processor fee (like from Stripe or PayPal). This plan also unlocks courses and memberships.

• Business Pro Plan ($90/month): This is for big agencies and brands, with extra support. Also 0% fees.

Gumroad Pricing:
Gumroad is much simpler.

• One Plan ($0/month): There is no monthly fee to use Gumroad. Ever.

• But, for every sale, Gumroad takes a 10% transaction fee. On top of that, there are the payment processing fees from Stripe or PayPal (usually around 3-4%).

Which one is cheaper?

Let’s do some quick math. Imagine you sell $400 worth of products in one month.

• On Gumroad, they take 10%. so that's 40 plus payment processing fees. you probably pay around $55 - $60 in fees.

• On Beacons’ Store Pro plan, you pay the flat $30 for the month. That’s it. You just saved $25!

The more you sell, the more money you save with Beacons' Store Pro plan. The break-even point is around 300 - 400 sales per month.

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Who Wins on Features?

• For Selling a Variety of Things: Gumroad wins if you sell weird or technical stuff like software with license keys. It’s built for that.

• For Building a Community: Beacons wins here. Its built-in CRM and audience tools are more powerful for understanding and talking to your audience in a deep way.

• For Getting Help from AI: Beacons, for sure. The AI tools are unique to Beacons and can be a massive help. This is a key part of the beacons ai vs gumroad debate.

• For Global Selling: Gumroad has a big advantage with its automatic VAT handling and multi-currency support. It makes selling internationally much less scary.

• For Working with Brands: Beacons wins with its built-in Media Kit feature.

• For Getting Help from Others: Gumroad wins with its built-in affiliate program.

So, Who Should You Choose? My Final Advice

After all this, it comes down to who you are as a creator. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

You should choose Beacons if...

• You are a social media creator (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube). Your audience is on those platforms, and you need a central home for them to go to.

• You want to have many ways to make money from one place: sell products, book coaching calls, get tips, and find brand deals.

• You want to build a deep relationship with your audience using a built-in CRM and email tools.

• You plan to sell more than $400 a month and want to save money on fees by paying a monthly subscription.

You should choose Gumroad if...

• You are a product-focused creator. You make amazing ebooks, art, music, or software, and you just need the best, simplest way to sell it.

• You already have an audience on a blog or email list and just need to plug in a "buy" button.

• You want to sell internationally and not have to worry about complicated VAT taxes.

• You want to start for free with absolutely no monthly bill, and you are okay with the 10% fee.

• You need special features like software license keys.

My Final, Final Thoughts

This whole Beacons vs Gumroad thing is a battle between two different ideas. Beacons is for the audience-first creator. Gumroad is for the product-first creator.

One is not better than the other. They are just different tools for different jobs. Look at your own business. What is your main goal right now? 

Is it to build and manage your audience from social media? Go with Beacons. Is it to sell your amazing digital creation as easily as possible? Go with Gumroad.

I hope this super long Beacons vs Gumroad review has helped make things clearer for you. It’s a big decision, but you can’t really make a “wrong” choice. Both are great platforms that want to help us succeed.

Now, stop reading and go make something amazing! You can do it.