Gumroad vs Buy Me a Coffee: Where Can You Make More Money?
Gumroad and Buy Me a Coffee are similar but in terms of a few things they are not even close.
The main purpose of Buy Me A Coffee is all about receiving a tip from your followers.
On the contrary, Gumroad's primary concern is to help you sell physical and digital products easily.
You know what's weird? They both can help you sell stuff.
Got a bit confusing now? In that case, let's see what makes both different from each other!
1st - Check This if You Hate Reading...
| Feature | Gumroad | Buy Me a Coffee |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | A platform where you can sell your digital products without any initial investment. | A platform that makes it easy for your followers to send a little support—enough for a heartwarming cup of coffee with a few other additional perks. |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 (Requires learning) | 8/10 (Requires learning) |
| Integrations | Twitter, Discord, WordPress, Zapier, etc. | Mailchimp, Convertkit, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Zapier, etc. |
| Starter’s Plan | Free | Free |
| Best suited for those who are trying to... | Sell ebooks, video courses, membership, bundles, or any physical product without any initial investment. | Gain an army of supporters who don’t mind buying a cup of coffee once in a while, join memberships, 1-on-1 zoom calls, physical goods, and a lot more without any initial investment. |
2nd - Let's Read!
Gumroad Overview
Gumroad was founded in 2011. It's a great invention for creators, SaaS developers, artists, or anyone who wants to create and sell their digital products online.
Whether it's an eBook, video course, or some exclusive content, you can put it for sale in an instant.
The best part? It helps you with discount codes, payments, refunds, email marketing, and so many other things without any initial investment.
Key Features
Customization
- Unique username in your Gumroad subdomain
- 6 fonts for profile design
- Freedom to choose background and highlight color
- Add a custom description for your products
- Add a custom domain
- Upload a thumbnail for your product
- Add a summary to explain how your product might help
- Include additional details to help users learn more about your product
- Allow customers to pay any amount other than the sale price
Monetization
- Checkout system for your digital and physical products
- Offer memberships for recurring income
- Get paid for live 1-on-1 class
- Allow affiliates to sell your products
- Become a collaborator to split revenue with your teammates
Analytics
- Track sales, views, and earnings in one place
- See top refers and locations of your traffic
- Check past 30 or 7 days earnings in your dashboard
- Real-time followers in your analytics
- Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel
Marketing
- Add as many team members as you want
- Send email blasts to your subscribers
- Create custom checkout forms
- Add product recommendations during the checkout process
- Offer upsell to your customers
Management
- Send your earnings to your PayPal or bank account directly
- Help center for creators
- Support is available via contact form (usually respond within 24 hours)
Buy Me a Coffee Overview
Buy Me a Coffee was launched in late 2017. It allows creators to get funding or donations from their followers.
What I like the most about this platform is it can set up a recurring source of income for you.
Just like Patreon, you can create subscription tiers that your followers can join.
Key Features
Customization
- Create different types of content including posts, polls, audio, and album
- Add images to your personal gallery
- Add a bio, cover image, and a separate shop section
- Mark as NSFW for 18+ content
Monetization
- Accept support while you’re streaming
- Offer memberships to your followers
- Set up an online store
- Monetize your exclusive posts
Analytics
- Track via Google analytics
- Total earnings are visible in the dashboard
Marketing
- Create a custom URL for your Buy Me a Coffee page
- Automatic twitter shoutouts helps you say a thank you to those who supported you in your journey
- Integrate with WordPress and Zapier for many marketing related tasks
- Website buttons and widgets
- Creator kit
- Generate a fancy QR code
- Several GIFs and stickers for creators
Management
- FAQ section
- Email support
- Feature request
- Changelog
Gumroad vs Buy Me a Coffee: Comparison & Walkthrough!
#1 - Popularity
Gumroad has over 16,500 creators. On the other hand, Buy Me a Coffee claims to have more than a million users.
Now it may look like Buy Me a Coffee is more popular than Gumroad, in reality it’s not even close.
According to Semrush, Buy Me a Coffee has 10 million visitors per month on an average.
But in another Semrush report, it looks like Gumroad has over 30 million visitors. So apart from creators, it’s also about the visitors.
Winner: Gumroad
#2 - Dashboard
Gumroad has an easy to navigate dark interface where you can follow up with the instructions.
As you can see here, there are actionable instructions that can help you set up your Gumroad store quite easily.
On the left-hand side, you’ve got all the basic features you need to sell your products online.
If we look at Buy Me a Coffee’s dashboard, the first thing we will notice is our earnings of course.
Looks sad, no? Well, yours will be way better than mine :)
Compared to Gumroad, it seems Buy Me a Coffee’s dashboard is more neat and clean.
But yes, both are incomparable as their main revenue model is completely different.
Winner: Tie (Both are great in their own ways)
#3 - Monetization Techniques
Gumroad allows you to sell your product and services in many ways:
You can put a fair tag on your product or service.
Just in case you want to go down the coffee path, offer great value and ask your fans to name a fair price.
Just like this guy did here:
On Buy Me a Coffee, we have three ways to monetize:
First, you can make a link for your social media bio and ask your supporters to buy you a coffee.
Just like this one:
Second, you can start memberships like this:
Or… You can start a shop like this one:
Since both serve the same purpose differently, I can’t tell which one is best. After all, they both have made a great system for this.
But somewhere along the lines, I’d choose Gumroad over Buy Me a Coffee because bulk mailing is easier for marketing.
Winner: Gumroad
#4 - Analytics
You can track views, sales, and total earnings on Gumroad.
As compared to that, you don’t get much on Buy Me a Coffee. In fact, they’re relying on Google Analytics.
But still, you can track earnings inside the Buy Me a Coffee dashboard.
What’s interesting? Gumroad also allows you to track via Google analytics.
Hence…
Winner: Gumroad
#5 - Profitability
Buy Me a Coffee charges a 5% transaction fee on your earnings. So if you’re earning $100, you’ll get $95.
If we look at the other side, Gumroad asks for a flat 10% on your total earnings. That amount is 2X of what Buy Me a Coffee charges.
On both platforms, you don’t need to worry about initial investment or monthly payments. It’s all pay as you go.
Winner: Buy Me a Coffee
The Final Verdict
There’s a thin line between Buy Me a Coffee and Gumroad.
If you’re planning to sell products and don’t want to receive donations at all, I’d suggest you should go for Gumroad even if it’s charging a 10% flat fee on your sale.
After all, it’s more recognized and people will be more likely to buy it. Plus, you’ll have additional tools that will help you grow your sales further.
Just in case you want people to pay for your cup of coffee because you did something out of gratitude, Buy Me a Coffee is the one you should go for.
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