best-platforms-to-sell-digital-products-online

10 Best Platforms to Sell Digital Products Online for Free

Does this sound familiar?

You write an ebook on your favorite topic, package it, design it, and fix it at a price of ₦5,000.

Then you advertise to your friends across social media and everybody wants to get this book, why not?

You upload it to a cloud drive and manually send the link to anyone who pays for the book after manually confirming their payment.

On the first day of the book launch, you think it’s workable, and although you’re tired, you can’t give up because this is your dream.

3 days in, you’re tired. You can’t keep up with the messages, the bank alerts don’t come in time so you can’t even tell who paid and when.

You’re frustrated.

As a smart person, you go to Google and search “best platforms to sell my ebook online” because what you really want to do is sell and get paid not die in the process.

Of course, many e-commerce platforms allow you to sell any product online but which of them specifically caters to your needs?

Regardless of which type of digital product you create, you will need an easy-to-use platform to sell your digital products and deliver them to your customers.

In this article, we’ll highlight the best platforms to sell digital products online and in Nigeria.

1. Selar

Probably the best of all time, Selar is an e-commerce platform that allows you to sell any kind of digital product or service anywhere in the world.

The platform is so easy to set up, such that you can upload your digital products and start selling in minutes.

You can easily host over 10 courses on Selar, upload your ebooks, worksheets, or templates, create sales pages to boost sales of your products, and leverage affiliates to increase your revenue.

It also comes with lots of relevant features like analytics, automated follow-ups, and payment flexibility.

Selar is a feature-rich platform for all your product needs and serves any kind of digital products – online video courses, audio, documents, resources, workbooks, and more securely in less than 5 minutes.

Unique Features Of Selar 

  • Upload unlimited course video content without worrying about storage.
  • In-built analytics, customizable landing pages, and legal pages.
  • You can connect your domain name if you want to build a solid brand.
  • Upload ebook or any product without worry of intellectual theft
  • Create sales pages to boost sales of products.
  • Abandoned cart emails to remind your customers of their pending cart and get them to buy from you.
  • Receive payouts in 24hrs or less.
  • Incentivize your customers through coupon codes and discounts.
  • Create membership sites and coaching programs for exclusive students of your choice.
  • Sell tickets to your events, webinars, and coaching programs
  • Accept payment in 8 different currencies/PayPal/Stripe integration.
  • Pre-launch your course seamlessly on Selar.
  • Selar marketplace that recommends your products to prospective customers, helping you grow faster.
  • Tailored for the African creator’s need and serves this need with its diverse features.
  • Use Selar’s affiliates to promote your product and increase sales of your product.

It’s free to sign up and start selling. However, to access key features of the platform and sell as many products as you like, sign up for the pro plans.

Pricing: Free plan, Pro plan: ₦8,000 / $20 per month, Turbo plan; ₦15,000 / $35 per month; 20% discount on annual plans.

2. Gumroad

Founded in 2011, Gumroad is a platform where creators can host and sell their digital products.

More than just a hosting platform, Gumroad combines relevant features such as analytics, sales pages, and email marketing, to help creators get paid for what they know.

Its payment methods are flexible, as it accepts all major credit cards like Mastercard, Visa, and more. Also, the company processes all payments through a proprietary payment gateway, rather than using pre-built solutions like Stripe. Unfortunately, the company doesn’t support cryptocurrencies, Apple pay, or Skrill.

One of the unique features of Gumroad is its “Pay what you want” feature which allows customers to enter any figure of their choice when paying for a product.

Registration is longer because you are required to enter accurate information to recommend your product on Gumroad Discover which is a marketplace where you can see available products from other creators.

Gumroad uses Paypal to send payout to creators, so you’ll need to have a Paypal account and connect it to Gumroad to receive payouts.

Pricing: Free to use but charges you per sale. That is, if you sell a book for $50, Gumroad takes $5 + processing fees.

LEARN: How to Easily Create and Sell Digital Products Online

3. Sellfy

Sellfy provides an easy-to-use platform to sell all kinds of products, both digital and physical. It offers the opportunity to sell digital products, physical products, print-on-demand merchandise, and so much more.

The unique feature of Sellfy is that it has in-built marketing tools that track your store performance and sets up incentives to help your customers spend more.

Its print-on-demand feature lets you offer shirts, hoodies, hats, and mugs. It will print products as soon as orders come in and then send them to your customers. You don’t even have to lift a finger.

Other built-in features include discount codes, pixel tracking, email marketing, and Stripe/Paypal integration, and landing pages.

Pricing: Starter ($29/month), Business ($79/month), Premium ($159/month). You can pay yearly or bi-annually.

4. Podia

Podia is an ideal platform for selling digital products like online courses, memberships, and downloads.

In essence, Podia is an e-commerce platform that supports you to sell all kinds of digital products online. You can create a website to sell your goods, leverage affiliates, or add a live chat widget to assist customers.

One unique feature about podia is that it allows you to upload unlimited videos and files, so you never have to worry about storage. Also, you can have various price tiers for your products, and use other marketing tools such as upsells, presells, and drip content.

Podia doesn’t charge a transaction fee but you’ll still need to pay the Stripe and PayPal processing fees. If you want recurring payments, you can always create a membership program.

Unlike other platforms Podia doesn’t offer a robust data analytics system, hence, you cannot make many data-driven decisions for your business.

Pricing: Free plan, Mover plan: $33/month, Shaker plan: $75/month, Earthquaker: $166/month.

LEARN: How to Build a 6-Figure Online Business With Digital Products

5. SendOwl

SendOwl makes it easy to sell digital products from websites and social media. It allows you to start and customize an online store that can be integrated into your website or blog in minutes.

You can also create social links that direct customers to your sites when you share them on social media.

SendOwl makes checkout and payment relatively easy. Customers can add to their cart and continue shopping, and it has flexible payment options. And if you want to add physical products to the card, it handles that for you.

One unique feature of SendOwl is that it supports multi-language and multi-currency transactions and you can easily keep track of your store’s progress.

Pricing: Free, Starter ($15/month), Pro ($39/month), Premium ($99/month).

create-an-automated-sales-funnel

6. Teachable

Teachable is another one of the best places to sell digital products online. It is ideal for creators who want to sell online courses and coaching sessions. The platform is designed for creators and entrepreneurs who enjoy using other learning tools such as online quizzes and coaching products to teach.

With Teachable you have a wide range of features to successfully sell your online course, collect payments without worrying about VAT or tax, track insights, and monitor student progress.

One of Teachable’s unique features is that you can easily build a checkout page with robust e-commerce features so you can get paid quickly without the need for third-party integrations.

Hence, creators can easily use Teachable with zero tech skills required.

Pricing: Free, Basic: $39/month, Pro: $119/month, Business: $299/month; 25% discount on annual plans.

LEARN: 10 Best Digital Products to Sell Online

7. Kajabi

Kajabi is designed for creators to sell online courses. Being an all-in-one platform, users can create, host, market, and distribute their courses on Kajabi.

One feature that makes Kajabi easily stand out is how they’ve niched down to providing the best features for creators who want to sell online courses. Kajabi provides all the tools needed for easy course creation from start to finish.

They also provide other tools like website builder, product launch tools, and webinar funnels that helps you easily manage your online course business. Online course creators love Kajabi because you do not need to worry about coding.

Unlike Selar, Kajabi does not offer a free plan and the prices are slightly higher than the other platforms.

Pricing: Basic: $149/month, Growth:$199/month, Pro: $399/month; 20% discount on annual billing.

8. Payhip

Another one of the best places to sell digital products is Payhip. Payhip focuses on helping users who want to sell digital downloads do so easily.

You can use this platform to sell ebooks, online learning resources, software, files, and subscriptions.

Transactions done on Payhip are secure so you can sell your digital products from anywhere and get paid for it.

The checkout process is so seamless, as customers who pay will be able to download your products immediately. Even better, Payhip sends emails to your customers pointing them in direction of the download page.

The unique feature of Payhip is that you can digitally stamp your products to prevent customers from illegally sharing them.

And if you want to sell software, Payhip offers software keys so your product remains protected.

Pricing: Free, Plus: $29/month, Pro: $99/month.

LEARN: How to Sell Your Knowledge Online: Digital Creator 101

9. Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is an ideal e-commerce platform where you can sell all kinds of digital and physical products.

What makes this a full-option website is that it has all you need to get started in e-commerce and sell your digital products to anyone anywhere.

You can design a website with templates to customize and use third-party apps to add more features to your online store.

One unique feature of Bigcommerce is that it is designed for expansion. So you can focus on growing your businesses without worrying about storage or anything. There’s also an in-built mobile optimization so all your landing pages are automatically optimized for mobile.

If you add other features such as SEO, discounts, and email marketing, Bigcommerce makes a pretty good tool.

Pricing: Standard: $29.95/month, Plus: $79.95/month, Pro: $299.95/month

10. Shopify

Want to venture into e-commerce full-time? Think Shopify. Shopify is one of the best platforms to sell digital products, physical products, and in fact, anything online. It is an all-in-one platform for e-commerce

The platform has expanded to support eCommerce, Social commerce, and easy shopping with click-to-buy options.

The best part is that you have a wide array of third-party apps that you can integrate to get the full experience of e-commerce.

Shopify handles all your eCommerce needs from start to finish such as site hosting, security, updates, apps, etc. You don’t need to buy hosting or a domain name. Shopify handles all that for you.

Also, there are lots of apps that integrate with Shopify, some of which can be pricey to use but offer a lot of advantages such as adding more functionality to your store.

The downside to using this platform as a creator is that Shopify has its in-built payment system so you may have to pay a 2% extra fee to use third-party apps like PayPal.

Pricing: Basic: $32/month, Shopify: $92/month, Advanced: $299/month

What are the best platforms to sell digital products?

Here are the top ten platforms to sell digital products online and in Nigeria;

  • Selar
  • Gumroad
  • Sellfy
  • Podia
  • SendOwl
  • Teachable
  • Kajabi
  • Payhip
  • Bigcommerce
  • Shopify

When selecting a platform, there are a few things to consider. Some of these include; budget (especially for first-time creators), features, payment flexibility, and constraints.

Our advice would be to start with a platform designed for digital creators like Selar, then as you grow, you can decide to take up more expenses and launch your site. It’s entirely up to you.

Selar makes it very easy to sell to anyone in any part of the world, receive payments, and get paid for what you know. It doesn’t get better than this!