According to predictions by Statista, global e-commerce sales will surpass $8 trillion by 2027. This presents budding entrepreneurs with an incredible opportunity to establish their e-commerce business.

With the increasingly interconnected supply chains, it is fairly simple for any entrepreneur from across the globe to set up their US business and start an e-commerce business from anywhere in the world. 

But setting up a business is the easy part (especially with doola by your side). The challenging part for budding entrepreneurs is deciding on the platform to set up their e-commerce business.

The dynamic growth of the e-commerce industry has led to an overabundance of choices and options for entrepreneurs. 

After filtering out those options, entrepreneurs are often left with two options that have the required capabilities and robust architecture to support the needs of modern e-commerce businesses: Gumroad and Shopify.

In the battle for the heart of e-commerce, the winner has to be the entrepreneur (you) in either case. 

To ensure that your business wins, we’ll decode the various nuances of both platforms, helping you make a more informed decision and ensure that your e-commerce business becomes a massive success.

This article will strictly focus on Gumroad vs. Shopify; however, if you want more options, check out our article on the ten best Gumroad alternatives. 

Without focusing on the introduction to Gumroad or Shopify (let’s be honest, if you’re reading this article, you’re already aware of them), let’s jump directly to a detailed analysis of the two platforms and what they can offer budding e-commerce entrepreneurs like yourself. 

Gumroad vs Shopify: A Detailed Analysis

For e-commerce businesses, setting up a digital storefront is just the first of the many steps to put your business on a growth trajectory. A dedicated effort follows to reach new customers and scale the inventory and business to get the maximum returns on your efforts and investment.

In this section, we’ll compare both platforms. 

🟡 How easy or complex is it to set them up?

Gumroad

Gumroad is a beginner-friendly platform that will quickly get you up to speed and offer you essential e-commerce platform features right off the bat. 

Shopify

Despite offering a no-code website builder, Shopify can sometimes be confusing for beginners. Especially if it is their first foray into the e-commerce business. 

Verdict

Gumroad is a good choice for entrepreneurs who want an easy-to-go setup and expect their e-commerce storefront to be up and running as soon as possible.

🟡 How much customization do these offer?

Gumroad

In an effort to keep the platform easy to use, Gumroad has compromised on the level of customization it offers. You can use certain buttons here and there on your webpage, but most websites built on Gumroad look and feel the same.

Further customization of websites built on Gumroad will require CSS or HTML knowledge. 

Shopify

With dozens of free and paid pre-built themes, Shopify allows entrepreneurs to personalize their e-commerce storefront as much as they desire.

This enables e-commerce entrepreneurs to stand out in a crowded market and create a niche for themselves. 

Verdict

Customers expect an intuitive user interface, distinctive designs, and categorized pages from e-commerce platforms. If you want to stand out in a crowded industry, Shopify will always be a better choice than Gumroad. 

🟡 Which type of products do they support? 

Gumroad

Although Gumroad has been built from the ground up to support digital products, there is no restriction on selling physical products on Gumroad. 

Shopify

Although Shopify has been built with everything in mind, it doesn’t offer a native solution for selling digital products. However, it offers third-party integrations enabling entrepreneurs to sell digital products. 

Verdict

If your product is only digital and will remain so for the foreseeable future, Gumroad would be a wise choice. In every other case, Shopify would be the better choice. 

🟡 Third-party integrations? 

Gumroad

Offering a limited selection of third-party integrations, Gumroad only covers essential integrations such as Zapier for automating workflows and Google Analytics for tracking website performance.

This limited number of integrations might be sufficient for smaller businesses or independent creators focused on basic functionalities but can be a constraint for those who need more advanced tools and extensive integration options to enhance their e-commerce operations.

Shopify

Shopify excels in third-party integrations, boasting a vast ecosystem of apps and plugins available through the Shopify App Store. This extensive selection of over 3000 integrations includes everything from advanced marketing tools to customer relationship management (such as HubSpot). 

Verdict

If you want to do more than just run an e-commerce website and want your e-commerce business to thrive, Shopify is the obvious choice.

In the short term, Gumroad will be able to fulfill your requirements for a brief period of time, but as your business grows, you’ll realize that your website will require a lot more tools than Gumroad offers. 

🟡 How well can you track your marketing and sales?

Gumroad

Due to its inherent simplicity, Gumroad only gives you extremely limited visibility into sales and marketing efforts. Moreover, there are no inbuilt tools for this, and entrepreneurs have to integrate Google Analytics to gain tracking capabilities. 

Shopify

On the other hand, Shopify has a robust set of inbuilt tools that give you comprehensive insights into your sales and marketing. Their AI-powered platform also provides rich insights and optimization strategies to enhance sales. 

Verdict

Sales and marketing data are a treasure trove for e-commerce businesses, enabling entrepreneurs to optimize their strategy according to customers’ demands.

Therefore, if you would like to serve your customers better, Shopify becomes the obvious choice for your e-commerce platform, as those insights will go a long way in ensuring the longevity of your business. 

🟡 What’s the pricing structure like: Gumroad vs Shopify

Gumroad

This is perhaps the only area where Gumroad offers an advantage to e-commerce entrepreneurs over Shopify. Gumroad does not charge a subscription and is free to use. They charge a flat 10% fee for every sale.

For small businesses, this may not be a problem, but for businesses with huge sales volumes, the cost can add up pretty quickly. 

Shopify

Because of its advanced capabilities and solutions for e-commerce businesses, Shopify charges a fixed monthly fee starting from $9 per month for the basic plan.

For payment processing, using Shopify Payment (Unavailable in some regions) is the only free option. Using any other payment provider will result in an extra fee ranging from 2.9-.24% per transaction plus ¢30 per transaction. 

Verdict

If you’re on a tight budget, it is a no-brainer to pick Gumroad as your e-commerce store platform. However, if you have the budget to go for Shopify, there is no better choice out there. 

🟡 Gumroad vs Shopify: Customer support

Gumroad

Offering limited support, GUmroad gives its users the option to contact support via email. They also have helpful guides and articles, but that’s about it.

One major drawback is the lack of real-time support via chat or phone, which could be a dealbreaker for some entrepreneurs. 

Shopify

Shopify offers 24/7 support via chat, email, or phone. Additionally, it boasts an extensive knowledge base, a thriving community, and online courses to help entrepreneurs maximize their collaboration with Shopify. 

Verdict

One thing entrepreneurs dread the most is downtime. Even a tiny duration of downtime can cost entrepreneurs a lot of money.

Therefore, it is imperative to opt for a platform that you can reach out to as soon as something breaks, and with the internet, we all know that things break. Shopify not only offers 24/7 support, but it also offers peace of mind to e-commerce entrepreneurs. 

🟡 Which one is more suited for growth and scalability? 

Gumroad

Ideal for small and medium-sized e-commerce companies, Gumroad, with its lack of customizations and integrations, leaves little room for growth. 

Shopify

With its vast capabilities, it is built to grow with your business. Its vast library of integrations and customizations offers you the flexibility to grow in scale and complexity without breaking a sweat or burning a hole in your budget. 

Verdict

If you are positioning your e-commerce business for the long haul (who wouldn’t?), then opting for Shopify is your ideal choice because once your business starts scaling, it’ll be difficult to move your website from one platform to another. 

Gumroad vs Shopify: Who Wins? 

You do. The entrepreneur. The next e-commerce mogul. 

If the choice of an e-commerce platform had been about numbers, features, or anything of that sort, Gumroad would have been out of business. But it isn’t. Many entrepreneurs are running successful e-commerce businesses on Gumroad. 

Ultimately, the choice of an e-commerce platform boils down to your plans, vision, and the scope of your e-commerce business.

Most entrepreneurs would benefit from having their e-commerce business on Shopify, but that does not mean that Gumroad can never be the preferred choice.

With that being said, this article aims to give you enough details about the two platforms so that you can make an informed decision. In the end, it is the entrepreneur who should be the ultimate winner. 

Start Your Dream Business With doola

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur looking to kickstart your e-commerce journey, doola offers you the chance to set up your dream US business with a simple click of a button. Our ‘business-in-a-box’ solution covers all your administrative requirements, such as bookkeeping, taxation, and compliance management.

Sign up today on our platform and witness the US dream unfolding for your e-commerce platform. 

FAQs

Gumroad vs Shopify: How to decide?

The choice depends upon your requirements, the scope of your e-commerce business, and your vision for your entrepreneurial dream. Generally, businesses looking to sell digital products at a small scale on a tight budget would benefit from Gumroad. For the rest of the cases, Shopify would be the ideal choice. 

What is Shopify and Gumroad’s pricing?

Gumroad charges a flat 10% on every transaction, whereas Shopify has a base subscription with an additional fee for add-on services.