TL;DR: The cheapest way in is the Free Forever plan at $0 a month, which takes 5% of every sale you make. Most creators selling regularly end up on Plus at $29 a month, where Payhip’s cut drops to 2%. Pro at $99 a month removes Payhip’s cut entirely. There is no annual billing, so every plan runs month to month with no lock-in. Sign up through Rewardio and you get an effective 30% off your plan fee, recurring every month you stay subscribed.
Payhip pricing looks simple on the surface, and for once the simplicity is real. Three plans, one page, no feature-gating anywhere. The catch is that the sticker price is only half of what you actually pay.
Payhip charges you twice. There is a monthly plan fee, and there is a cut of every sale you make. The plan you choose decides how big that cut is. Pick the wrong one and you either hand over more revenue than you need to, or you pay for a subscription your sales cannot yet justify.
This article spells out both halves. Every figure below came off the live pricing page on the date at the top, not from an old screenshot. If you want the wider feature picture first, start with our Payhip review. Otherwise, here is exactly what it costs.
Payhip pricing: every plan at a glance
| Free Forever | Plus | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0/mo | $29/mo | $99/mo |
| Annual (per month) | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Payhip transaction fee | 5% per sale | 2% per sale | 0% per sale |
| Best for | Testing a first product, or sales under roughly $967 a month | Steady sellers between roughly $967 and $3,500 a month | Established stores clearing $3,500 a month or more |
| Key inclusions | All features, unlimited products, unlimited revenue, storefront, courses, memberships, coaching, physical products, affiliate system, EU/UK VAT and US/Canadian sales tax handled | Identical to Free, lower per-sale cut | Identical to Free, no per-sale cut from Payhip |
| Cashback via Rewardio | N/A | 30% | 30% |
If you want the Payhip pricing official line, it sits on payhip.com/pricing, and every number in that table came from it today.
Comparing the plans, and which one you actually need
Here is the thing that makes Payhip unusual. All three tiers include exactly the same features. Payhip states plainly on its own pricing page that it does not gate features, so the free tier gets the store builder, courses, memberships, coaching, the affiliate system, discount codes, licence keys and PDF stamping. You are not buying capability. You are buying a smaller per-sale deduction.
That turns plan choice into arithmetic rather than judgement.
Free to Plus. On Free you pay 5% of sales. On Plus you pay $29 plus 2%. The two costs meet at about $967 in monthly sales. Below that, Free wins. Above it, Plus wins.
Plus to Pro. Plus costs $29 plus 2%. Pro costs $99 flat. Those meet at $3,500 in monthly sales. Under that number, Pro is a waste of $70 a month.
Free straight to Pro. Skipping Plus only pays off once you clear roughly $1,980 a month, and even then Plus is cheaper until $3,500.
Run the numbers on your last three months before you upgrade anything. Plenty of creators jump to Plus at the first sign of momentum and quietly lose money for a year. If you sell $400 a month, Free costs you $20 in Payhip fees. Plus would cost you $37.
Stepping up genuinely earns its keep at two points only: when your sales sit comfortably above $967, and again above $3,500. Nothing else changes.
Monthly vs annual: there is no annual option
This is the part most pricing articles get wrong, so it is worth being direct. Payhip does not sell annual plans. The pricing page lists monthly rates only, and the billing help article confirms it. You pick a tier in Account, Settings, Billing and Invoices, and you pay every month.
The downside is obvious. There is no prepay discount to chase, so the usual “save 20% by paying yearly” lever does not exist here. Compared with rivals that knock 15% or so off for annual commitment, Payhip’s headline price is what you pay.
The upside is real too. Nobody is locked into twelve months. If your sales dip in January, you can drop from Plus back to Free for a month and lose nothing but the lower fee rate. That flexibility suits seasonal creators far better than a discounted annual contract would.
The catches to watch
Every pricing page hides something. Here is what Payhip’s leaves out.
- The plan fee is not your total fee. Payhip connects to your own Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie, Paystack or one of a dozen other gateways, and each charges its own rate on top. Stripe’s standard US online card rate runs 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, and UK rates differ again. Payhip’s own FAQ confirms it does not absorb these. So Pro’s “no transaction fee” means no Payhip fee, not no fee at all.
- That flat 30 cents bites hardest on cheap products. Sell a $3 template and the processor’s fixed fee eats 10% before Payhip takes anything. Sellers of low-priced digital goods feel this far more than the plan tier they chose.
- Fees come off gross revenue, not profit. The 5%, 2% or 0% applies to what customers pay, regardless of your margins.
- Cancelling mid-cycle costs you the remainder. Payhip does not prorate, so you get no refund for unused days. Time your downgrade to the end of a billing period.
- Cancel by downgrading, never by deleting. Payhip’s own account FAQ warns that clicking Delete Account cancels immediately and you lose access at once. Your store goes offline, and buyers lose their download links. Dropping to the Free plan achieves the same billing outcome without torching anything.
- There is a 5GB cap on individual file uploads, per Payhip’s terms. Video course creators shipping large masters should check this before committing.
- Some categories are banned outright. Payhip’s terms exclude gambling, virtual currencies, get-rich-quick material, PLR and MRR products, credit repair and adult content. Building a store on prohibited goods is the most expensive mistake available here, because removal costs you everything.
Free plan, free trial and refunds
The Payhip pricing free plan is not a trial, and that distinction matters. Free Forever has no time limit, no product cap and no revenue cap. Payhip asks for no credit card to open an account, so you can build a store, list products and take real money without spending a penny.
That is why there is no separate free trial. You do not need one when the entry tier is permanently free and includes every feature.
There is no money-back guarantee on plan fees either, and Payhip does not advertise one. The protection you get instead is the absence of commitment. You can cancel any time, and the free plan is always there to fall back to.
How to pay less for Payhip
Payhip pricing fees stack in layers, so the savings do too. Pull all of these levers, not one.
- Stay on Free longer than feels natural. Until you are clearing roughly $967 a month in sales, the free plan is mathematically the cheapest option. Recheck each quarter rather than upgrading on instinct.
- Do not skip Plus. Pro only beats Plus above $3,500 a month. Below that it is $70 a month of nothing.
- Downgrade in quiet months. No annual lock-in means no penalty for moving between tiers as your sales move.
- Raise your average order value. Bundling three $5 products into one $15 purchase pays the fixed processor fee once instead of three times. This often saves more than a plan change does.
- Ask about the charity rate. Payhip’s pricing FAQ states it sets up discounts for good causes on request. If you run a nonprofit or charitable project, email contact@payhip.com before you subscribe.
- Take the cashback. There is no reliable public Payhip promo code, and hunting expired ones on coupon sites is wasted effort. No code is needed through Rewardio, and you get an effective 30% off your plan fee instead.
That last one changes the break-even maths in your favour too. A lower effective plan cost means Plus starts paying for itself at a smaller sales figure than the $967 headline crossover.
How the cashback works
Rewardio earns a commission when someone signs up to Payhip through our link. We pass a share of that commission back to you as cashback. That is the whole mechanism, and it costs you nothing extra at checkout.
For Payhip the rate is an effective 30% off your plan fee, and it recurs. This is the part worth understanding properly. It is not a one-off first-month discount. Every billing cycle you stay subscribed to Plus or Pro, the effective 30% applies again, month after month, with no end date.
Cashback typically confirms within 30 to 60 days once Payhip verifies the subscription is active, then lands in your Rewardio balance with no minimum withdrawal. Activate it on the Payhip cashback page before you sign up, because tracking only works if you click through first.
Is Payhip worth the money?
For most creators, yes, and the reason is the free tier rather than the paid ones. Very few platforms hand you courses, memberships, an affiliate system and a full storefront at $0 with no expiry. Gumroad charges a flat 10% plus 50 cents with no way to reduce it. Payhip lets you buy your way down to 0%.
The honest limits sit elsewhere. Analytics stay basic, checkout customisation is limited, and there is no built-in marketing email, so you will bolt on a separate tool. Payhip now handles EU and UK VAT plus US and Canadian sales tax as a marketplace facilitator, which is a meaningful improvement, though other jurisdictions remain your job.
For a full head to head against Gumroad, Sellfy, Podia and the rest, read our Payhip alternatives comparison.
FAQ
What is Payhip?
Payhip is a UK e-commerce platform, running since 2013 with more than 130,000 sellers, that lets creators sell digital downloads, online courses, coaching, memberships and physical products from a hosted storefront. Payments go directly into your own Stripe or PayPal account.
How do I cancel a Payhip subscription?
Go to Account, then Settings, then the Billing and Invoices tab, and downgrade to the Free plan. That stops all future charges and keeps your store, products and customer records intact. Avoid the Delete Account route, which cancels immediately and removes everything. Payhip does not prorate, so cancel near the end of your billing month.
How much is Payhip per month?
Free Forever is $0 a month with a 5% fee per sale. Plus is $29 a month with a 2% fee. Pro is $99 a month with no Payhip fee. Your payment processor charges its own rate on top of all three.
Does Payhip have a free trial?
No, and it does not need one. Payhip pricing and fees start at a permanent free plan with every feature included and no credit card required, so you can test the platform properly before paying anything.
Is there a Payhip discount?
There is no dependable public promo code. The reliable route is cashback: sign up through Rewardio for an effective 30% off your plan fee, recurring every month you stay subscribed. Charities and good causes can also email Payhip directly to arrange a rate.
Verdict
Payhip’s pricing is one of the fairest in the creator tools market, mostly because it refuses to hold features hostage. Start free, upgrade on the numbers rather than on ambition, and remember the processor fee that Payhip’s headline rates leave out. Our full scored breakdown, with sub-scores for ease of use, features, value and support, lives on the Payhip cashback and review page, where you can also activate your 30% recurring cashback before signing up.
Rewardio earns a commission when you sign up to Payhip through our links, and we pass a share of that back to you as cashback. That is how the site stays free to use. Either way, the plans and prices above are laid out as they stand, not bent to push the sale. We would rather earn your trust than a single click. Pricing changes often, so every figure here is accurate at time of writing, check before you buy.
