How to Sell Digital Products Without a Website (5 Setups, With Real Fees)

Plenty of first products never launch because the seller thinks they need a website first. You don't. A buyer needs a place to pay, a way to get the file and a reason to trust you, and all three can live on pages someone else hosts. Here are five setups that work without a site, what each costs on a $20 sale, and when a site becomes worth it.

The short answer

1. Take payment with a hosted checkout link, such as a Stripe Payment Link. Stripe's own pricing page describes Payment Links as "no-code links to sell online without a website."
2. Deliver the file from a hosted page or a share link, shown right after payment.
3. Put the link where your buyers already are: a link-in-bio page, a profile, a pinned post, a community resource thread that allows it.
4. Collect emails from people who aren't ready yet, with a free sample.
5. Or let a marketplace host everything, and accept a bigger cut in exchange for its storefront and (sometimes) its traffic.

Wondering what the setup costs? Here's what it costs to start selling digital products, itemized from our own $10.46 setup.

Option 1: A Stripe Payment Link

A Payment Link is a checkout page Stripe hosts for you. Create a product and price in the dashboard, create the link, and paste the URL anywhere: a bio, an email, a DM, a QR code.

What it costs: Stripe lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% if currency conversion is required. There's no monthly fee for the standard plan. On a $20 sale paid with a domestic card, that's $0.88, so you keep $19.12 before any tax.

The catch: with Stripe you are the seller, so sales tax and VAT on digital products are your responsibility. Stripe Tax can calculate and collect it on Payment Links; its no-code pricing is listed at 0.5% per transaction where you're registered to collect taxes. Our Stripe Payment Links walkthrough covers setup, the test purchase and the tax options step by step.

Option 2: Hosted delivery, no site needed

Stripe takes the money but doesn't send the file. Without a website you still have two clean ways to deliver it.

• A custom confirmation message. Stripe's docs say that under "After the payment" you can replace the default confirmation message with a custom one, or redirect buyers to a URL you choose. Put your download link in that message.
• A share link to the file. Upload the PDF or zip to a cloud drive and share it with "anyone with the link," or use the tool's own copy link for a template (Notion's duplicate link, Canva's template link, a Google Sheets "make a copy" link). Put that link in the confirmation message, and send it again in a short follow-up email so buyers can find it later.

The trade-off: anyone who has the link can share it. For a $10 to $30 product that's usually an acceptable risk at the start. To verify each payment before showing the file, our guide to delivering a digital download after a Stripe payment compares four methods, from no-code to secure.

Option 3: A link-in-bio page as your storefront

If your buyers find you on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Pinterest or YouTube, a link-in-bio page can act as a small sales page. Make it work like one, not like a list of links:

• One line on who it's for and what it solves, in the buyer's words.
• One image of what's inside, ideally a real page, not a 3D mockup.
• The price and the refund policy, stated plainly.
• One main button to your Payment Link, and one secondary link to a free sample.

Some link-in-bio tools have their own built-in checkout with their own fees, so check the tool's pricing page. A plain button pointing to your Payment Link sends buyers to Stripe's checkout. For the one line that matters most, our free sales page headline generator turns five answers about your product into headline options you can use at the top of the page.

Option 4: An email list as your shop window

An email list is the one channel you control on any platform. Most email tools give you a hosted signup form you can link from your bio or posts. The usual pattern:

1. Offer a free sample that solves a small slice of the same problem: a one-page checklist, the first chapter, one template.
2. Send a short welcome sequence that delivers the sample and explains what the full product does.
3. Announce the product with the Payment Link, then send a reminder and a last call. Our free launch email templates write those three emails from your product name, price and launch date.

You don't need a paid plan to start. Brevo, for example, says every new account starts on a Free plan and can send up to 300 emails per day once the account is approved for sending. For ideas on what to give away, see our list of lead magnet ideas for digital products.

Option 5: Marketplaces and creator platforms

A marketplace or creator platform hosts the product page, checkout and delivery in one place, and some handle sales tax as the merchant of record. You pay with a larger share of each sale. Listed fees on each platform's own pricing page, checked October 27, 2026, with the arithmetic on a $20 sale:

Notes, from the same pages: Gumroad says it has been a merchant of record since January 1, 2025 and handles sales tax collection and remittance. Lemon Squeezy says it's a merchant of record and notes that transactions outside the US may carry small additional fees. Ko-fi's Gold plan is listed at $12 a month with a 0% service fee. This table is arithmetic on listed rates, not a full cost comparison: international cards, currency conversion, payouts and tax change the real number. For a deeper look, see Gumroad vs Stripe Payment Links and Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy vs Payhip. If you want a Payment Link but with tax handled, Stripe's own merchant-of-record option is covered in Stripe Managed Payments for digital products.

Marketplaces such as Etsy bring their own search traffic, which a Payment Link can't. Their fees have several parts, so read the current fee page before you price.

Which setup should you pick?

• You already have followers somewhere: Payment Link + link-in-bio page + a confirmation-message download. Cheapest per sale, live in an afternoon.
• You have no audience and want buyers to find you: a marketplace with search traffic, and a free sample that grows your email list on the side.
• You don't want to deal with sales tax yet: a merchant-of-record platform. You pay more per sale and skip the registrations.
• You want to see real numbers first: our free price calculator shows a suggested price range with the Stripe fee math, and the launch checklist generator gives you a dated plan for launch week.

Whichever you choose, run one real test purchase on your phone before you share the link. Broken delivery is the fastest way to turn a first sale into a refund.

When a website is worth it

A site earns its keep once you want search traffic you own, several products, or one home for your sample pages, refund policy and FAQ. Then our guide to selling digital products on your own website picks up. Until then, a link that works beats a site that isn't finished. For the full path from file to first buyers, see how to sell digital downloads and how to sell digital products without an audience.

Where to go from here

For a free start, our 6-page guide has the "is it payable?" idea test, five product ideas and a one-page launch checklist.

For the full process from idea to first sale, the 30-Day Revenue Operator Pack ($17 founding price for the first 20 buyers until Nov 1, then $27) is a 42-page playbook plus 16 templates and trackers, including the checkout setup checklist, a sales page template and a 30-day launch calendar. You can read sample pages first, word for word. We make and sell it; everything in this guide works without it.

Sources (checked October 27, 2026)

• Stripe pricing: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards; +1.5% for international cards; +1% if currency conversion is required; Payment Links described as "no-code links to sell online without a website"; Stripe Tax no-code integration 0.5% per transaction where you're registered to collect taxes
• Stripe docs: after the payment: custom confirmation message or redirect to a URL of your choice
• Gumroad pricing: 10% + $0.50 per transaction via your profile or direct links; 30% via Discover; merchant of record since January 1, 2025
• Lemon Squeezy pricing: 5% + 50¢ per transaction; merchant of record; small additional fees may apply outside the US
• Ko-fi pricing: Standard $0/month + 5% service fee; Gold $12/month, 0% service fee; plus standard payment processor fees
• Brevo pricing: new accounts start on a Free plan; up to 300 emails per day once approved for sending