How to Sell an Ebook on Your Own Website

Selling from your own site means a buyer clicks a button on your page and pays on a hosted checkout, and a file reaches them afterward. Four common options are Stripe Payment Links, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad. The fees and tax statements below are from each provider's own pages, read between 2026-10-20 and 2026-10-23 (US figures). Pricing changes, so check the current pages before you commit.

The difference that matters: who handles tax

A merchant of record is the company that legally sells to the buyer, so it collects and remits sales tax or VAT. With Stripe Payment Links directly, you are the seller: Stripe's Payment Links page says you can collect taxes at checkout, and Stripe's pricing page lists Stripe Tax as a separate product, but registering and filing stay your job unless you pay for Stripe's tax plan that also registers and files, or use Managed Payments (below).

• Gumroad says it is a merchant of record: "Since January 1, 2025, Gumroad handles ALL your tax obligations," with sales tax collection and remittance worldwide.
• Lemon Squeezy says it is your merchant of record: it takes on the liability of tax collection and calculation and pays taxes on your behalf.
• Payhip doesn't use the term on the pricing page we read. It says Payhip automatically collects, reports and remits digital EU/UK VAT as well as US and Canadian sales tax on your behalf, and that you can set up other taxes with it.
• Stripe directly is not a merchant-of-record setup, but Stripe sells one: Managed Payments, which its pricing page calls a merchant of record solution for digital commerce, at 3.5% per successful transaction on top of Payments fees. Its eligibility page lists e-books among the digital products it supports, on Payment Links too, for businesses in supported countries (the US is one), after Stripe reviews each business.

This is not tax advice. If you sell through your own Stripe account, ask an accountant what you owe where your buyers live.

The four options

Stripe Payment Links. Stripe's pricing page lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic US cards, and says accepting payments with a payment link is included with Payments at no extra charge. Stripe's docs describe a no-code, Stripe-hosted payment page, plus an embeddable buy button you paste into your site. Stripe's page doesn't describe delivering a file: its docs say you can show a custom confirmation message or redirect to a URL of your choice, and automate fulfilment through a Stripe partner such as Zapier or through the API and webhooks. So you build the download step yourself.

Payhip. Its pricing page lists a free plan with a 5% transaction fee, Plus at $29/mo with 2%, and Pro at $99/mo with no transaction fee, all with every feature. It says PayPal and Stripe still charge their standard rates on every plan. Its page we read doesn't detail embeds or file limits, so check its help pages for the buy-button embed and download rules.

Lemon Squeezy. Its pricing page lists 5% + 50¢ per transaction with no monthly fee, with sales tax and VAT handled as merchant of record. Its fees page adds 1.5% for transactions outside the US, 1.5% for PayPal and 0.5% for subscriptions. Stripe bought Lemon Squeezy in 2024, and a January 2026 post on its blog says the goal is an easy move for its users to Stripe Managed Payments, and that support and product updates have slowed meanwhile.

Gumroad. Its pricing page lists 10% + $0.50 per transaction on sales through your profile or direct links, and 30% on sales found through its Discover marketplace, with no monthly fee. Its fees help article says the 10% + $0.50 does not include credit card processing (2.9% + $0.30) or PayPal fees, and that the 30% Discover fee includes all processing. Once your paid sales in a calendar month reach $20,000, it says, new direct sales that month are 5% + $0.50, and on a refund it returns its own fee but keeps the processing portion. For an overlay or embed, check Gumroad's help pages: the pricing page doesn't cover it.

What each costs on a $19 ebook

An example sum on a $19.00 ebook paid by a US card, using only the percentages above. For Payhip and Gumroad, we add Stripe's card rate (2.9% + $0.30) because their pages say processing is charged on top, an assumption that PayPal buyers would change. Lemon Squeezy's row is its standard fee for a US buyer paying by card. The sums assume no sales tax or VAT is added to the price. Examples, not forecasts.

• Stripe Payment Links

  Fees on the sale

  $0.85

  Left after fees

  $18.15

  What the fee includes

  Card processing only; you handle tax and delivery

• Stripe + Managed Payments

  Fees on the sale

  $1.52

  Left after fees

  $17.48

  What the fee includes

  Adds the 3.5% merchant of record fee; digital products, after Stripe's review

• Payhip Free

  Fees on the sale

  $1.80

  Left after fees

  $17.20

  What the fee includes

  5% plus card processing

• Payhip Plus ($29/mo)

  Fees on the sale

  $1.23

  Left after fees

  $17.77

  What the fee includes

  2% plus card processing; the monthly fee is not in this row

• Payhip Pro ($99/mo)

  Fees on the sale

  $0.85

  Left after fees

  $18.15

  What the fee includes

  Card processing only; the monthly fee is not in this row

• Lemon Squeezy

  Fees on the sale

  $1.45

  Left after fees

  $17.55

  What the fee includes

  5% + 50¢ as listed; merchant of record

• Gumroad, direct link

  Fees on the sale

  $3.25

  Left after fees

  $15.75

  What the fee includes

  10% + $0.50 plus card processing; merchant of record

Read the table as shape, not a ranking. Flat fees weigh more on a low price, monthly plans only pay off at volume, and the cheapest row with no monthly fee leaves tax work with you.

Getting the file to the buyer

• With Stripe directly, nothing in Stripe's Payment Links docs delivers a file. Either redirect to a page that offers the download or automate delivery by email or webhook, and think about what stops a link being forwarded.
• With Payhip, Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad, each says it sells digital products, but we did not verify their delivery limits (file size, download counts, link expiry) on the pages we read. Check those before you pick.
• Keep the file simple. A PDF reads on any device; an EPUB suits e-readers. You can offer both in one purchase if your platform lets you attach two files.
• Test as a buyer. Buy your own product with a real card, open the receipt and download on a phone.

Refunds, disputes and receipts

Digital goods get refund requests and card disputes like anything else. Stripe's pricing page lists a $15.00 fee for each dispute you receive, and its docs list no-code refunds and automatic receipts for Payment Links. Gumroad's fees article says it returns its own fee on a refund. We didn't read the other refund or dispute rules, so check them and then write your own refund policy in plain words on your sales page.

Which to pick

This part is judgment, a starting point to test. If you don't want to file tax anywhere, a merchant-of-record platform takes on sales tax and VAT in the regions it covers, for a higher cut. If you are comfortable with tax and a little automation, Stripe directly has the lowest listed fee with no monthly charge. If you sell from several places, compare in KDP vs Gumroad vs Etsy, read Gumroad vs Payhip for ebooks, or look at how to sell ebooks on Etsy.