business tools
Best tools for digital products
Create, sell, and deliver digital products with this streamlined tool stack.
Quick recommendation
Create, sell, and deliver digital products with this streamlined tool stack.
Tools for Creating & Selling Digital Products
1. Gumroad — Fastest Way to Start Selling
Use for: selling e-books, templates, courses, software licenses, and memberships in minutes. Gumroad handles payments, file delivery, VAT/sales tax, and affiliate marketing. 10% fee on free plan, 0% + $10/mo on paid. The lowest-friction way to validate a digital product idea.
2. Teachable — Online Course Platform
Use for: creating and selling online courses with video lessons, quizzes, certificates, and student communities. Teachable handles hosting, payment, and student management. Free plan available with $1 + 10% transaction fee. Upgrade to paid plans ($59/mo) for 0% transaction fees.
3. Canva — Design Digital Products
Use for: creating e-book covers, workbook templates, social media templates, planners, and printables. Canva's template marketplace shows you what sells. Create your own templates and sell them on Gumroad, Etsy, or Creative Market. Pro plan ($15/mo) unlocks brand kits and premium assets.
4. Kit (ConvertKit) — Sell Through Email
Use for: building an audience and selling digital products directly through email. Kit Commerce lets you sell products without a website — just a checkout page. Automated email sequences nurture subscribers and promote your products on autopilot. Free for up to 10,000 subscribers.
5. Notion — Product Creation & Management
Use for: planning your product roadmap, writing content, tracking sales, and managing customer feedback. Notion templates themselves are a popular digital product — many creators sell Notion template packs on Gumroad for $20-100 each.
Quick Comparison
| Platform | Best For | Fee Structure | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad | All digital products | 10% or $10/mo | Yes |
| Teachable | Online courses | $1+10% or $59/mo | Yes |
| Canva | Design assets | Free / $15/mo | Yes |
| Kit | Email sales | Free / $25/mo | Up to 10K subs |
| Notion | Planning & templates | Free / $10/mo | Yes |
How to choose for digital product creators
Validate with Gumroad first
Don't build a custom sales platform before you've sold $1,000 on Gumroad. The platform handles everything so you can focus on creating and marketing. Migrate to your own site only when Gumroad's 10% fee exceeds the cost of building and maintaining your own solution.
Productize your knowledge
The most profitable digital products solve a specific problem for a specific audience. Instead of a "Social Media Guide," create "30-Day Instagram Reel Templates for Fitness Coaches." Niche down, then expand.
Build once, sell forever
Digital products have near-zero marginal cost. A $27 template that takes 10 hours to create only needs 4 sales to pay for your time. Every sale after that is pure profit. Focus on creating high-quality assets that sell repeatedly without ongoing work.