Six of the best websites and features to market digital downloads online

Find the most important features to sell digital downloads online. This guide covers what to find and the most popular platforms to sell digital downloads.

The top platforms for selling digital downloads for different types of creators

In determining where you will sell your digital downloads ensure you choose an application that is easy of entry, functionality, customer support, marketing capabilities, minimal fees, and reasonable prices.

• Shopify and Etsy are specifically designed to sell physical goods but allow the sale of digital downloads, too. Their digital product selling options may be less limiting.
• Gumroad offers robust features, and allows you to sell a variety of types of data without fee recurring. But the catch is that they charge high transaction fees for each sale.
• Easy Digital Downloads is a WordPress plugin where you can sell your products directly from your site. While it's totally free to use however, you'll probably require additional extensions and integrations.
• It's easy to establish and permits you to sell any type of document without restrictions. There are advanced marketing features built into the platform, and we provide excellent support and fast - at least that's what our customers say.

Before launching my first digital download, I thought that the toughest part would be turning the contents of my brain into something that would actually be wanted by people who bought it.

We don't want that for you.

There are many places where you can offer digital downloads nowadays, however, deciding the best software to sell your goods is a matter of a timesink.

Why should you sell digital downloads?

Digital downloads include files that are sold through the web. As a creator, digital downloads can be an attractive part of your product lineup.

Below are the reasons selling digital downloads might be a good idea for your business:

There is no need to worry the logistics of inventory and shipping. If taking daily trips at the postoffice sound like your nightmare digital products are the way to go.

6 features to look for when deciding where to sell digital downloads on the internet

But some platforms kick things up a notch with advanced capabilities, and it's crucial to determine which platform will best suit what you hope to create as of today, and also in the future.

Let's face it: migrating your items from one platform to the next is as fun as a trip to the dentist. You can avoid the toothache by picking an instrument that is easy to use yet also offers space to expand.

In order to make the decision a bit more simple, here are some features you should look for:

Accessibility:First and foremost, the platform that you use to sell digital downloads should be easy to use to you as a creator.

Functionality:You're a multifaceted creator and you could want to offer different types of digital goods later on. Keep an eye out for platforms that don't restrict the kinds of files you can upload.

Helpline:If you're in the same boat as more than two thirds of users  are, then you're expecting answers to any support issues within ten minutes of asking these questions. Selecting a firm with excellent support can spare the customer from frustration in the future.

Fees for transactions:Transaction fees are a tiny percentage of every sale that the platform keeps. They typically amount to 1-10% of the total cost of the transaction. There are some platforms that charge listing fees and credit card processing fees and can quickly grow with each transaction.

Price:Finally, we have to crunch the numbers. It's true that cheaper may not be better since lower-cost platforms typically come with higher charges and hidden costs.

Now that we know what features to look for, let's compare some top choices to determine what they have in common.

For example, creator Emily Conners uses her site to share the free digital downloads as well as offer live cohorts or on-demand classes, along with 1:1 coaching packages.

Best of all, has a free plan. You can create your site as well as manage your online community and even make a sale of one digital download and one coaching program for free.

Do you want to test it yourself? Register your free account now.

Here are the pros to using :

The free plan makes it easy to sell your first digital download without having to make a massive upfront investment.

It is possible to sell any kind of digital download, with unlimited file sizes.

While we may think it's pretty awesome, no software is right for everyone. There are a few reasons that may not be the right option for you.

We're digital all the way and if you're looking to sell physical products using a platform such as Shopify or Etsy may be a better fit.

Features

Ease of entry: 5 out five. The creator-facing dashboard on is clean and easy to use. Thanks to our custom-designed onboarding process as well as step-by step instruction videos your product will be listed in just a matter of seconds.

Function: 5 stars out of 5. With , you can sell documents in almost any type of format and there's no restriction on the size of files. You're free to bundle your products and offer them for additional products, and set the price according to your preferences.

Support: 5 out of 5. Have you had a chat with our support team? If not, it's time to do so! Go to the chatbox at the bottom of the page and say hello. We provide the best quick, helpful, and friendly chat service in town.

Marketing 4.5 five stars. Our goal was to create a one-stop shop for all requirements of your business, and marketing features constitute a crucial piece of that puzzle. It is possible to prelaunch and sell products, distribute coupons or create an affiliate program right out of the box.

I've shaved half of a percent off as we don't have a marketplace function although this isn't a requirement for all businesses We help you build your own audience through our lead capture tools.

Fees for transactions: 4.5 out of 5. With , there are no transaction fees for paid plans. Free plan users pay an 8% transaction fee for sales of products.

The cost is kept low while beginning your business, but it's always possible to upgrade and remove transaction fees as your business expands.

Like most platforms, there are also payment processor charges that aren't associated with . Stripe or PayPal charges a basic transaction fee of 2.9 per cent plus 30 cents/. Additionally, we provide instant payments to authors so that you can get your cash fast.

Price: 's free plan offers a web site, an online community, one digital download, and one coaching program. Plans that are paid range from $39 -- $199/month.

Are you interested in learning more about running your business online using a platform like ? Participate in the live demo and try the software out:

Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce giant and a household name in the world of creators. The company has more than 1.7 million businesses make use of Shopify to manage their online shops and its creators on Shopify have made more than 200 billion dollars in sales.

Shopify is most well-known for selling physical goods however, it is additionally possible to market digital goods. Since its inception, Shopify has also added several international features for e-commerce.

If you're a creator that wants to market digital and physical goods to clients all over the world, Shopify might be a good place to start.

These are Shopify benefits:

Shopify has powerful features for marketing and integrations with social media platforms.

Shopify is an in-house payment processing system, Shopify Payments. It's easy to use and it's included with every plan, meaning you do not have to join with other processors, if you do not want to.

You can create beautiful website designs, with storefronts that can be customized and even storefronts.

Here are the Shopify negatives:

Shopify's focus is on selling physical products. You can get premium features that will not require if your business is only offering digital products.

If you do not use Shopify Payments, there are additional charges that are in addition to the monthly subscription price.

The fee system, in general, is intricate.

Shopify offers

Ease of entry: 3 out of 5. Because Shopify was originally designed to be a platform for the purpose of selling physical items it is necessary to take additional steps in order to offer digital downloads. They have videos that walk users through how to upload your items using the Digital Downloads app, but it's not the most intuitive process.

Functionality 3/5. Another time, Shopify loses points because a lot of the features are intended for the sale of physical items.

To sell digital downloads the maximum file size for sale is 5GB for each file. You can only sell one file per product variant, but it's possible to include multiple variants, such as different image resolutions or ebook formats. You'll need to use the ZIP file to incorporate multiple files into the same product.

Support: 3 stars out of 5. Shopify has 24/7 chat support, 24/7 email help, and a support community in which you can seek help from other users. There are many online reviews that mention slow response times from Support.

Marketing 5/5/5. Shopify is a standout when it comes to marketing. They offer a robust site builder, which lets you build your online store and create a blog.

There's built-in email marketing with ecommerce templates, and you are able to create coupons, gift cards and vouchers as well as display authentic customer reviews. It also works with social media platforms.

Fees for transactions: 2.5 out of 5. The Shopify fee structure is a bit complicated. It's difficult to determine exactly how much your transaction as well as the processing fee for credit cards are for a purchase.

There are no transaction fees when you make a payment using the Shopify Payments platform. But if you don't use Shopify Payments, there's a fee to use an external payment processor.

Additionally, if you use major credit cards, you'll pay the credit card company a fee for each purchase. The percentages vary based on the type of plan you pick.

Basic Shopify:

The processing cost for credit card transactions: 2.9% + $0.30

Fee for transactions if you do not use Shopify Payments 2.2%

Shopify:

Credit card processing fee: 2.6% + $0.30

Fee for transactions if you do not use Shopify Payments: 1%

Advanced Shopify:

Processing fee for credit cards: 2.4% + $0.30

Charge for transaction if you don't use Shopify Payments: 0.5%

Price: $29 -- $299/month. Shopify offers three plans. You'll pay the monthly rate plus the costs that are listed below.

Etsy

Millions of shoppers turn to Etsy for unique and handmade merchandise. Etsy has a reputation as the site to purchase custom antique, quirky, and vintage items created by individuals and small companies.

Etsy gets almost 400 million visitors per month  that's an impressive amount of people looking at your products. They also have a robust marketplace that allows you to sell your items and be discovered by potential buyers.

On the plus side:

Etsy is a well-known brand that can instill trust in customers.

In your store's shop page, it is possible to subdivide your merchandise into categories for better organization and easy access.

Etsy has an intuitive seller dashboard where you can receive reviews, message customers, create coupons, and even offer discounts.

It's an excellent platform to sell items like art, templates, presets and vectors, fonts, and other creative works.

On the flip side:

Etsy is designed to allow sellers to sell physical items in addition to digital ones. Make sure to clearly state on your listing that the merchandise is digital, to avoid confusion.

While being listed in the Etsy marketplace is a nice perk, there's lots of competition, and products in popular categories could get lost.

Etsy offers

Easy to use: 4 out of 5. Etsy has adjusted to the online marketplace well. It is possible to set up your shop in an afternoon, and adding products is as simple as filling in a description form, uploading your product images and then adding them to the site clicking the publish button.

Functionality: 3 out of 5. With Etsy the possibility of selling many different file types, but you are only able to upload 5 files for each product. With a maximum size of 20MB for each document, this may restrict some creators.

Support 3.0 out five. On the one hand, Etsy has a great user community for creators where you can ask questions. Sellers are also able to access comprehensive help materials as well as a guide for sellers.

On the other hand, Etsy support is only contactable via the email. At present, they have a 1-2 day turnaround time, which isn't great for requests that are urgent.

Marketing 5 out of 5. Etsy has some attractive marketing features that are available to sellers. Although other platforms might offer the ability to sell on a market, none of them have the presence of Etsy.

There is a lot of competition, but it's possible to bring in serious customers to your website and products. Actually, there exist third-party keyword research tools designed specifically for Etsy ranking in search results. Etsy offers advertising options available to sellers.

Transaction fees 2.5. There are a number of charges to be aware of in selling items on Etsy. In the beginning, you'll have to pay the $0.20 listing fee for each item you list in your shop. Each listing is active for four months or until it sells.

When you offer a service and you pay for a 5% transaction fee in addition to a 3% + $0.25 payment processing cost.

Price Free -- 10 bucks per month. The creation of an Etsy shop is completely free however, it will cost $0.20 to list a product as well as additional transaction fees.

Simple Digital Downloads

It's specially designed to sell digital goods, however it requires some extra lifting in order to provide the same capabilities as some of the other options on this list.

The upside is:

EDD is an excellent option if you already have an WordPress website and to keep your products in the WordPress ecosystem.

It's also a great choice for users who need more advanced customizations. However, keep in mind that you'll need to have a good understanding of programming and creating.

To the negative:

In order to get the features you need to sell digital downloads you'll have to make use of extensions as well as integrations with other products.

Additional extensions and integrations might have their own costs and technical difficulties.

Easy Digital Downloads comes with features

Easy to enter: 3 out of 5. If you're comfortable with WordPress and have already uploaded plugins in the past the process of setting up EDD is just like usual. If you've not used WordPress, this wouldn't be the most effective tool as you'll need to master two different interfaces.

Functionality: 3 out of 5. With EDD it is possible to sell any file you can upload onto WordPress. It gives you a broad choice, however, be aware of your hosting bandwidth in case you are planning to offer large-scale products.

Like we've said, EDD can be linked to third-party tools for more features. It's highly customizable, but managing multiple systems is difficult.

Essentially, it's best for anyone who wishes to construct and run their own sales setup. Building blocks can be useful but the real question is: do you want to do the construction?

Support: 2 5. EDD provides customer service via a ticket system, and it doesn't have live chat. Priority support is only available in higher-level plans.

Another thing to consider is that if you have issues with your integration, you may need contact support for the integration also. This could result in unpleasant back-and-forth conversations.

Marketing: 2.5 out of 5. Out of the box, EDD offers coupons and discounts, as well as a useful shopping cart feature.

Through extensions, you can flesh out your marketing suite to include affiliates, email stars, reviews of star ratings as well as cross-selling and upselling, but some of these integrations are only accessible on plans with higher tiers.

First, you'll need to create first a WordPress website. This comes with domain and hosting costs. You'll also have fees for any integrations with premium pricing you want to make use of.

Price: Free -- $999/year. The basic EDD plugin is available for free. If you'd like to add more features however, you'll need to purchase them separately and upgrade to a higher plan for full features.

Gumroad

Gumroad is an online platform on which creators can sell digital downloads of all dimensions and shapes. In the last decade Gumroad's creators collectively achieved over $500 million in revenue from digital goods.

It's user-friendly and a popular option for creators But is it the best choice for you? We'll look at the pros and cons.

This is the place where Gumroad shines:

Gumroad allows you to get started as well as you are able to sell pretty much any kind of product imaginable, including physical items if you select.

It's free for anyone to use. You'll only be charged transaction fees if you make a sale. It's a great option if you're still on the fence about selling digital items and wish to test before you commit to using a premium instrument.

Creators have access to Gumroad Discover which is a marketplace on which prospective customers can find your items.

Here are some Gumroad cons:

The customization options aren't as extensive for product pages and checkout pages. It's not easy to design an ordinary sales page and there's no website builder.

While it might be free to join, there are high transaction fees on each sale. This is fine when you're beginning out, but when you get bigger, it could seriously reduce your income.

Gumroad features

Easy to use: 4 out of 5. Setting up products using Gumroad is easy and intuitive. You can publish your first product in a matter of seconds, and then you'll be ready to start selling.

The functionality: 4.5 out of 5. Gumroad is a great platform for selling products. Gumroad it is possible to sell digital files, physical products such as memberships, variations of products rental and variations. You can also choose the release date of your product, sell the keys to license if selling software, and offer subscriptions.

For paid products, there's a file size limit of 16 GB. In the case of free items the limit for file size is 250 MB. Every product is able to include the number of files you want.

Help: 2.5 five out of 5. Gumroad has a resource library featuring helpful content and videos. They've lost points because there's the absence of live chat and contact number, therefore the most effective method to contact them to inquire about specific issues is via their contact email.

Marketing: 4 out of 5. In the marketing department, Gumroad's affiliate system shines. If you're planning to implement affiliate marketing to promote your products, Gumroad lets you set this up for free with their easy-to-use process.

Gumroad offers a variety of integrations so you can connect your email marketing tools along with a Zapier integration.

Transaction charges: 2.5 out of 5. With transaction fees ranging between 9% and 2.9 percentage in this area, it is that Gumroad has the greatest loss of points. The cost of transactions is lower as you increase the amount you sell however 9% is still quite high for the new creators. You also are required to pay an additional $0.30 fee on each sale.

Gumroad has weekly payouts as long as you've met a $10 USD threshold.

Price: Free plus Charges. There's no recurring monthly price, but there are transaction charges based on your number of annual sales.

What are the most important things to consider when deciding where to sell digital downloads

All creators are unique. It's why it's good to be able to choose the software that will run your enterprise.

With a reliable and secure digital download platform by your partner, you'll get to an improved product lineup and a plethora of earning opportunities.