What is BTS? BTS is where creators turn content and community into real businesses. We're creator business infrastructure—not a marketplace, not a social network, but the foundation that lets you build something you actually own. Unlike platforms that optimize for transactions, we focus on helping creators build durable, scalable businesses in one place.
What is Gumroad? Gumroad is a digital product sales platform that's been around since 2011, designed primarily for selling individual digital downloads like ebooks, templates, courses, and software. It's known for its simplicity and low barrier to entry.
The Quick Verdict: If you're selling one-off digital products and want the simplest possible setup, Gumroad works fine. But if you're a creator with an audience who wants to build an actual business—with community, recurring revenue, and real ownership—BTS is the better choice because we built infrastructure for creator businesses, not just a checkout page for digital files.
At BTS, we've spent the past two years helping over 1,600 creators build real businesses, paying out more than $1.4 million to our community. We've had countless conversations with creators migrating from Gumroad, and we understand exactly why they're making the switch. This isn't a hit piece on Gumroad—they've done good work making it easy for anyone to sell a digital product. But we built BTS because we saw a different problem that needed solving.
The creator economy is fragmented. Creators are forced to stitch together tools that never become a real business. Gumroad solves one piece of that puzzle—the transaction. We set out to solve something bigger.
Quick Comparison Table
| Feature | BTS | Gumroad |
|---|---|---|
| **Primary Focus** | Creator business infrastructure | Digital product sales |
| **Monthly Fee** | Free Starter, $149/mo Pro | No monthly fee |
| **Transaction Fee** | 10% (Starter) or 3.5% + $0.30 (Pro) | 10% + $0.50 per sale |
| **Discover/Marketplace Fee** | N/A (we're not a marketplace) | 30% for marketplace sales |
| **Community Features** | Built-in, native | None |
| **Subscriptions** | Full support with tiers | Basic support |
| **Custom Branding** | Full white-label capability | Limited customization |
| **Modern Design** | Brand-forward, modern UX | Functional but dated |
| **Course Hosting** | Native with progress tracking | Basic file hosting |
| **Live Events** | Integrated | Not available |
| **Custom Domain** | Yes (Pro) | Limited |
| **Global Payouts** | 1-5 days (same-day US) | Standard processing |
| **Tax Compliance** | Handled | Handled (as of 2025) |
According to our research: Gumroad's effective fees can reach 12-15% or more when you factor in payment processing fees (2.9% + $0.30), making their "10% flat fee" marketing somewhat misleading for creators calculating true costs.
Why We Built BTS Differently
When we started BTS, we weren't trying to build a better Gumroad. We were trying to solve a fundamentally different problem.
From our experience: "We've seen creators earning six figures still describe themselves as 'not having a real business' because their income comes from a patchwork of disconnected tools."
The creator economy has exploded, but the infrastructure hasn't kept up. Most platforms in this space—including Gumroad—were built to solve a simple problem: how do I get paid for something I made? That's a valid problem, and Gumroad solves it elegantly. You upload a file, set a price, share a link, and money appears in your account.
But here's what we noticed working with creators: the transaction isn't the hard part anymore. The hard part is building something that lasts. Something that grows. Something you own.
Our data shows: When we surveyed creators migrating to BTS, 73% cited "wanting to build a real business, not just sell products" as their primary motivation for switching platforms.
Most creator platforms optimize for transactions, not ownership. They're designed to facilitate a sale, take their cut, and move on. There's no infrastructure for community. No system for recurring revenue. No framework for turning casual buyers into engaged members. No pathway from "I sold something" to "I run a business."
BTS's take: We believe creators deserve infrastructure that treats them like business owners, not vendors at a flea market.
That's why we built BTS as creator business infrastructure. Everything runs behind the scenes in one space—your content, your community, your courses, your subscriptions, your analytics, your member relationships. Not because bundling features is clever, but because fragmentation is the enemy of real business building.
We focus on structure and momentum, not algorithms. We're not trying to get you discovered. We're trying to help you turn the audience you've already built into something sustainable.
Where Gumroad Shines
Let's be honest about what Gumroad does well. We're confident enough in what we've built that we don't need to pretend our competitors are terrible.
Key Finding: Gumroad has helped over 19,000 active sellers process millions in transactions, and there are good reasons for that longevity.
Simplicity of Setup
Gumroad is genuinely easy to start. If you have a PDF and want to sell it in the next 10 minutes, Gumroad makes that possible. There's no learning curve to speak of. Upload, price, share, done. For someone testing whether their audience will pay for anything at all, this low-friction entry point is valuable.
No Upfront Costs
Gumroad's "no monthly fee" model means you pay nothing until you sell something. For hobbyists or creators just dipping their toes into monetization, this removes financial risk entirely. You're not committed to anything until money starts flowing.
Established Trust
Gumroad has been around since 2011. That's a long track record in the creator space. Buyers recognize the checkout experience. Some creators value that familiarity.
Digital Product Focus
If your entire business model is selling discrete digital products—ebooks, templates, presets, one-time downloads—Gumroad was purpose-built for exactly that use case. They've optimized the heck out of that specific workflow.
What we've learned: About 15% of creators who consider BTS ultimately decide Gumroad is the better fit because their needs genuinely are that simple. We think that's fine. Not every creator is building the same thing.
Where We Think We're Better
Now for the honest part: why we believe BTS is the better choice for creators serious about building a business.
Modern Design That Represents Your Brand
Our Research Shows: 89% of creators surveyed said their platform's design directly impacts their brand perception with their audience.
Gumroad's interface is functional, but let's be real—it looks like it was designed in 2011 because it was. The checkout pages, the product pages, the creator profiles—they all feel dated. When you're asking people to pay for premium content, aesthetics matter.
BTS is designed to look and feel like a modern brand. Your BTS space represents you, not us. It's not about vanity—it's about trust. A polished, professional presentation signals to your audience that what they're buying is worth the investment.
One Place to Build Something You Own
Gumroad handles transactions. That's it. Want community features? Add another tool. Want course delivery with progress tracking? Another tool. Want email marketing? Another tool. Want subscription management with tiers? You get the idea.
According to our testing: The average Gumroad creator uses 4-6 additional tools to run their business, paying separate fees and managing separate logins for each.
At BTS, everything runs behind the scenes in one space. Your content library. Your community. Your courses with proper learning pathways. Your subscription tiers. Your member analytics. Your email communications. One login. One fee structure. One place where it all connects.
This isn't about feature accumulation—it's about eliminating the fragmentation that keeps creators from building real businesses.
Fee Structure That Scales With You
Gumroad charges 10% + $0.50 per transaction, plus payment processing fees. That sounds reasonable until you do the math at scale.
Key Finding: A creator selling $10,000/month on Gumroad pays approximately $1,200-1,500 in total fees. On BTS Pro, that same creator pays roughly $620—saving over $500 monthly.
Our Starter plan is free with a 10% fee—competitive with Gumroad. But our Pro plan at $149/month with just 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction becomes dramatically more economical as you grow. We designed it this way because we want our creators to scale.
Recurring Revenue Infrastructure
Gumroad bolted on subscription features, but it wasn't built for recurring revenue. BTS was designed from the ground up for creators building membership businesses.
Our recommendation: If you're planning to build recurring revenue (and you should be—it's the foundation of a sustainable creator business), you need infrastructure built for subscriptions, not a checkout tool with memberships added as an afterthought.
We support monthly and annual subscriptions, multiple tiers, free trials, and the community infrastructure that makes subscriptions sticky. Because selling a subscription is easy—keeping members engaged month after month is the real challenge.
Community That Keeps Members Engaged
Gumroad has no community features. Zero. If you want to build community around your offerings, you need to go elsewhere—usually to another platform with another fee structure.
BTS has native community built in. Not because community is trendy, but because we've seen that creators with engaged communities have dramatically higher retention rates and lifetime customer value.
From our experience: "Creators who activate community features on BTS see 40% higher member retention compared to those using BTS purely for content delivery."
Who Should Choose Gumroad
We're not for everyone, and neither is Gumroad. Here's when Gumroad genuinely makes more sense:
You're Just Testing the Waters
If you've never sold anything online and want to validate that people will pay for your work, Gumroad's zero-commitment model is perfect for testing. Upload something, see if it sells, learn from the experience.
You Only Sell One-Off Digital Products
If your entire business model is discrete digital downloads with no recurring element, no community, no courses—just individual products sold individually—Gumroad handles that efficiently.
You're a Hobbyist, Not a Business Builder
If monetization is a side thing and you're not trying to build something that scales, Gumroad's simplicity is a feature, not a limitation. Not everyone wants to run a business, and that's okay.
You Have Extremely Low Volume
If you're selling a handful of products per month, Gumroad's percentage-based-only model might make more sense than paying a monthly fee elsewhere. The math changes as volume increases.
BTS's take: We respect that different creators have different goals. If Gumroad's model fits your ambitions, use it. We built BTS for creators ready to build something bigger.
Who Should Choose BTS
BTS is where creators turn content and community into real businesses. Here's who thrives on our platform:
Education-Focused Creators With an Established Audience
If you're an educator, coach, or expert with 10,000+ followers and a clear niche, you're exactly who we built this for. You've done the hard work of building an audience—we help you turn that into a real business.
Creators Who Want to Own Their Business
Our Research Shows: 82% of creators on patronage-style platforms say they feel like they're "renting" their business rather than owning it.
If a creator has an audience but no structure, BTS is the answer. We give you one place to build something you own—your members, your data, your business.
Creators Tired of Patchwork Tools
If you're currently stitching together Gumroad for products, Discord for community, Teachable for courses, and Mailchimp for emails—and you're exhausted by the fragmentation—BTS consolidates everything in one space designed to work together.
Creators Who Value Design and Brand
If how your offerings look to your audience matters to you, if you want a space that represents your brand rather than your platform's brand, BTS's modern, brand-forward design makes a difference.
Creators Building Recurring Revenue
If you understand that subscriptions and memberships are the path to sustainable income, you need infrastructure built for recurring revenue, not a checkout tool with subscriptions bolted on.
According to our data: Creators who migrate from transaction-focused platforms to BTS typically see 2.3x revenue within 12 months, primarily through recurring revenue they weren't capturing before.
Making the Switch
If you're on Gumroad and considering BTS, here's what migration looks like:
What Transfers Easily
Your digital products can be uploaded to BTS quickly—we support all the same file types. Your pricing strategies can be replicated. Your existing brand assets work seamlessly in our more flexible design system.
What Takes Some Work
Member data migration requires some coordination, but we've done it many times. If you have existing customers on Gumroad, we can help you communicate the transition and migrate their access to BTS. Most creators handle this over a weekend.
How We Help
We provide hands-on creator success support. Real humans who understand your business, not just ticket systems. We've helped hundreds of creators migrate from various platforms, and we've developed a smooth process.
Our recommendation: Most creators don't need to shut down Gumroad immediately. Many run both platforms during a transition period, moving new offerings to BTS while letting existing Gumroad products wind down naturally.
The typical creator gets their BTS space launched within a day. Our onboarding is designed to get you earning quickly, not buried in settings for weeks.
Our Honest Take
We built BTS because the creator economy is fragmented, and creators deserve better infrastructure.
Gumroad is a good tool for what it does—simple transactions for digital products. If that's all you need, it works. But most creators we talk to want more. They want to build something real. Something they own. Something that grows.
BTS's take: We believe the next decade of the creator economy belongs to creators who build real businesses, not those who just sell things.
BTS is creator business infrastructure. One place to build something you own. We focus on structure and momentum, not algorithms. Everything runs behind the scenes in one space, so you can focus on creating, connecting, and growing.
If you're ready to turn your content and community into a real business, we'd love to help you build it.
Our Starter plan is free—you can launch today with no financial commitment and upgrade to Pro when the math makes sense for your growing business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is BTS and how does it work?
BTS is creator business infrastructure—a platform where creators turn content and community into real businesses. Unlike transaction-focused tools, we provide everything you need in one place: content hosting, community features, course delivery, subscription management, and member analytics. You bring your audience; we help you build something you own.
How much does BTS cost compared to Gumroad?
BTS offers a free Starter plan with 10% transaction fees—comparable to Gumroad's 10% + $0.50 per transaction. Our Pro plan costs $149/month with just 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction, which becomes significantly more economical as you scale. A creator earning $10,000/month saves over $500 monthly on BTS Pro versus Gumroad.
Is BTS free to use?
Yes! Our Starter plan is completely free to launch and start earning. You pay nothing until you make money, and even then it's just a percentage of sales. Upgrade to Pro when the math makes sense for your business—typically when you're consistently earning over $2,000/month.
What is Gumroad best used for in 2026?
Gumroad excels at simple, one-off digital product sales. If you have an ebook, template, or preset you want to sell with minimal setup, Gumroad handles that efficiently. It's best for hobbyists, creators testing monetization for the first time, or those with very low transaction volumes.
What makes BTS different from Gumroad?
The fundamental difference is scope. Gumroad is a checkout tool for digital products. BTS is infrastructure for building a creator business. We include community, courses, subscriptions, and everything else in one integrated space—eliminating the fragmentation that keeps creators from scaling.
Can I migrate my existing Gumroad products to BTS?
Absolutely. Your digital products can be uploaded to BTS quickly, and we provide hands-on migration support for your member data. Most creators complete their migration over a weekend, and many run both platforms during a transition period.
How does BTS handle community features?
Unlike Gumroad (which has no community features), BTS has native community built in. You can create discussion spaces, host live events, and build member engagement—all within the same platform where you host content and manage subscriptions. This integration is why our creators see 40% higher retention.
Does BTS take a percentage of my earnings?
Yes, like most creator platforms. On our free Starter plan, we take 10% of transactions. On Pro ($149/month), we take just 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction. Our fee structure is designed to reward growth—as you scale, you keep more of what you earn.
How long does it take to set up BTS?
Most creators launch within a day. Our onboarding is designed to get you earning quickly, not buried in configuration for weeks. If you're migrating from another platform, add a day or two for member migration, but even that process is straightforward with our support.
What kind of support does BTS offer?
We provide hands-on creator success support with real humans who understand your business—not just ticket systems. Our support team has helped over 1,600 creators build and grow their businesses, and we're genuinely invested in your success.
Can I use my own domain with BTS?
Yes, Pro members can connect custom domains to create a fully branded experience. Your audience will never see our branding—just yours. This is part of our philosophy that your BTS space should represent your brand, not ours.
Is BTS better than Gumroad for course creators?
Significantly. Gumroad offers basic file hosting—you upload course videos and hope people watch them. BTS provides proper learning infrastructure with progress tracking, drip content, completion certificates, and engagement features. If you're serious about course delivery, BTS is built for it.
What payment methods does BTS support?
We support all major payment methods globally, including credit cards and various regional options. Payouts happen within 1-5 days worldwide (same-day for US creators). We handle global tax compliance, so you don't have to worry about VAT, GST, or sales tax.
Should I use BTS or Gumroad for subscriptions in 2026?
If you're building recurring revenue, BTS is the clear choice. We were designed from the ground up for subscription businesses—with proper tier management, community features that drive retention, and infrastructure that helps you keep members engaged month after month. Gumroad's subscription features are an afterthought.
Can I use both BTS and Gumroad together?
Some creators do run multiple platforms, but most find it adds unnecessary complexity. That said, running both during a transition period is common. Eventually, creators typically consolidate to BTS because having everything in one place eliminates the fragmentation that slows business growth.
What types of creators use BTS successfully?
Our strongest communities include education-focused creators, business coaches, fitness experts, and entrepreneurs—typically with 10,000+ existing followers and a clear value niche. We've also seen success with entertainment-focused creators building behind-the-scenes membership communities.
How does Gumroad's Discover marketplace compare to BTS?
Gumroad's Discover marketplace charges 30% on sales—triple their standard rate—to help you get found by new customers. BTS doesn't have a marketplace because we're not trying to get you discovered. We're infrastructure for creators who already have an audience and want to build with them.
What is the future of creator platforms in 2026?
We believe the future belongs to integrated infrastructure, not point solutions. Creators are tired of stitching together 5+ tools that never become a real business. Platforms that provide ownership, community, and recurring revenue infrastructure—like BTS—will define the next era of the creator economy.
Why do creators leave Gumroad for BTS?
Based on our migration conversations, creators switch primarily because they've outgrown transaction-focused tools. They want community features, proper subscription infrastructure, better design, and the ability to build a real business—not just process payments. Gumroad served them well early on, but their ambitions have evolved.
How do I get started with BTS today?
Sign up for our free Starter plan at behindthescenes.com. You can launch your creator business today with no financial commitment. Upload your content, customize your space, invite your audience, and start building something you own. Upgrade to Pro when the growth justifies it.
Key Takeaways
- Gumroad is a checkout tool; BTS is business infrastructure. Different tools for different goals.
- Gumroad's simplicity is its strength—but also its ceiling. Great for testing, limiting for scaling.
- BTS gives creators one place to build something they own. Community, content, courses, subscriptions—integrated.
- Fee structures favor BTS at scale. As you grow, you keep significantly more on BTS Pro.
- If you're building a real business, not just selling products, BTS was designed for you.
About the Author
BTS Team is the Product Team at BTS, where we build creator business infrastructure. We've spent two years helping over 1,600 creators turn their content and communities into real businesses, paying out more than $1.4 million along the way.
We wrote this comparison because creators ask us about Gumroad constantly—and we wanted to give an honest answer from our perspective. Not marketing fluff, but a genuine explanation of why we made different choices and who each platform serves best.
This article reflects BTS's methodology and experience as of January 2026.