Stan Store vs Shopify: which is better for digital products?
·Founder, Stakk
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10 October 2026
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6 min read
For digital products sold from a social bio, Stan Store is the better fit: $29 a month, a 0% cut, and courses and bookings on the same plan. Shopify is the better fit for a full store, especially one that ships physical goods, from $39 a month on Basic with digital files added through a free app. Card processing is 2.9% + $0.30 a US sale on both entry plans. Stan Store checked 30 September 2026, Shopify 12 September 2026.
They get compared because both charge a monthly fee and take no cut of your sales on their own payments. Past that they are built for different people, and the price is the smaller part of the decision.
What is the difference between Stan Store and Shopify?
Stan Store is a store that lives in your bio. It is one mobile page built around a creator: digital downloads, courses, coaching calls and a community, sold to people who arrive from Instagram or TikTok.
Shopify is a full ecommerce platform. It is built around products, variants, inventory and shipping, with themes, a domain and a set of sales channels around them. Digital products are supported, but they are added on top of a model designed for physical goods.
So the useful question is not which one is better, but what you sell. A creator selling a guide and a course from a link in bio is Stan's customer. A brand selling merch with a few downloads alongside is Shopify's.
What do Stan Store and Shopify cost?
Stan has two plans and no free one. Stan's plan comparison lists Creator at $29 a month or $300 a year, and Creator Pro at $99 a month or $948 a year. Shopify's cheapest plan open to new stores is Basic, and Shopify's pricing page lists it at $39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | US card rate | Platform cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $39 | $29 a month | 2.9% + $0.30 | 0% on Shopify Payments, 2% on another provider |
| Shopify Grow | $105 | $79 a month | 2.7% + $0.30 | 0% on Shopify Payments, 1% on another provider |
| Stakk | $0 | $0 | Included | From 10% + $0.50, processing included |
| Stan Store Creator | $29 | $300 a year | 2.9% + $0.30 | 0% |
| Stan Store Creator Pro | $99 | $948 a year | 2.9% + $0.30 | 0% |
Shopify's 0% only applies if you use Shopify Payments. Run your sales through another payment provider and Shopify adds its own fee on top of that provider's rate. Stan's card payments run through Stripe on every plan.
Which is cheaper for selling a $20 digital product?
Stan, by about $10 a month. Per sale the two entry plans cost the same: a $20 sale paid by US card carries $0.88 of processing on both. The difference is the subscription, $29 on Stan Creator against $39 on Shopify Basic, billed monthly.
Stan adds one line Shopify does not. Its transaction fees article charges 0.25% + $0.25 each time you cash out, with a $1 minimum, plus 1.5% when the buyer is in another country. On yearly billing the gap narrows: Stan Creator is $300 a year, and Shopify Basic is $348.
Our own arithmetic on published US rates. At 24 sales Stakk costs $60.00 and Shopify Basic $60.12: $39, plus $21.12 of card processing. At 25 sales Stakk costs $62.50 and Shopify $61.00.
Below those lines, a platform with no monthly fee costs less. That is where Stakk sits, at from 10% + $0.50 a sale with card processing included. Above them, the flat subscriptions win, and I would rather tell you that than have you work it out later.
Can you sell digital products on Shopify?
Yes, with Shopify's own free Digital Products app. Shopify's help center says there are no additional fees for selling digital products on your online store, so a download carries the same plan price and card rate as anything else.
Two things are worth knowing first. Shopify's Starter plan, the low-cost plan aimed at selling through social media, is closed to new stores, so a new creator starts on Basic at $39 a month. And selling a file means setting up a store and adding the app first, where Stan is one page.
Which has better tools for selling to an audience?
For a creator, Stan, as long as you pay for the right plan. Stan's $29 Creator plan includes a storefront, courses, calendar bookings, a community and lead magnets. Its $99 Creator Pro plan adds the selling tools: order bumps, upsells, funnels, discount codes, email broadcasts and flows, and affiliate management. The bump is one per product and is not on the $29 plan, which is covered in whether Stan Store has order bumps.
Shopify does more as a shop. It has full themes, a custom domain, reporting across sales, products and customers, and 10,000 free marketing emails a month on Basic and up. What its pricing page does not list is an order bump; on Shopify that comes from an app in the Shopify App Store.
Where does the money go on each one?
On Stan, into a Stripe account that Stan manages. Its Stripe setup article says you create a new Custom Stripe account through Stan and cannot connect an existing one. Sales settle inside Stripe in 2 to 7 business days, and you cash out from Stan's Income tab, paying the payout fee each time.
On Shopify, through Shopify Payments to your bank. Shopify is not the seller: its help center says Shopify isn't liable for chargebacks, so disputes and refunds are yours on both platforms. Which platforms let you use your own Stripe account explains why the account itself matters as much as the fee.
Which should you choose?
Choose Stan if you sell digital products, courses or calls from your bio and want it running in an afternoon. Its $29 plan is a lot of tool for the money, and its 0% cut means the cost stays flat as you grow. Stan Store's full pricing covers the payout fee and what sits on each plan.
Choose Shopify if digital is a sideline to physical goods, or if you want a full branded store with its own domain, deeper reports and room to grow into a larger catalog.
When would I send you somewhere else?
If you want courses, coaching calls, a community or memberships, Stakk is the wrong choice, and it is wrong for a full store with shipping too. Stakk has no course hosting, no booking, no community, no memberships and no subscriptions, no link-in-bio page builder, US dollars only and no prices above $999. Pick Stan or Shopify for those.
If you want the lowest cost per sale with no monthly fee, Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 a domestic card sale, and Systeme.io takes 0% on its free plan. Both beat Stakk on every sale.
Want to sell without a monthly fee first?
Both Stan and Shopify charge you before your first sale. Stakk does not: it costs nothing a month and takes from 10% + $0.50 a sale, card processing included, so a month with no sales costs nothing. The money lands in your own Stripe account rather than one a platform manages.
What you get on every account is the checkout that Stan keeps on its $99 plan and Shopify leaves to apps. The order bump rides the same charge as the product, so it carries one fee rather than two, and the upsell after payment is one tap against the card already on file. That layout came out of funnels that ran for agency clients before Stakk existed.