Lanternbee vs Gumroad

Looking for a Gumroad alternative for your books?

A simple way to sell digital products, with no monthly fee. Here is what it costs, where it does better than Lanternbee, and what moving would take.

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% + $0.50 per sale; 30% on sales through Gumroad’s Discover marketplace

Gumroad and Lanternbee side by side

The jobs a bookstore has to do, and how each one handles them.

Gumroad and Lanternbee, feature by feature
What you need	Gumroad	Lanternbee
One book with several editions	YesBuyers can pick PDF, EPUB or MOBI.	Yes. Ebook, audiobook, paperback and hardcover live on one book page.
Series with a reading order	Not listed	Yes, with the reading order you set.
Bundles and box sets	Not listed	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	Yes, through BookVault or Lulu.
Your reader list	YesEmail broadcasts and workflows.	Yes. Every buyer lands on your list, with tags.
Your own domain	Yes	Yes. yourname.lanternbee.shop or shop.yourname.com.
Monthly cost	Gumroad: Free	Free: nothing a month. Author: $45 a month, or $35 paid yearly.
Fee on sales	Gumroad: 10% + $0.50 per sale; 30% on sales through Gumroad’s Discover marketplace	Free: 5%, only when you sell. Author: none.

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

What Gumroad does better

No store is right for every author. These are fair reasons to stay.

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 is no importer for Gumroad. Here is what you would do by hand.

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 $5 ebook, Gumroad’s fee is $1.00 (10% plus $0.50). On Lanternbee Free it is $0.25 (5%), and on Author there is none. Card fees apply on both. Gumroad has no monthly fee at all, so for very small sales it can still make sense.

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.