Is Payhip free? The Free Forever plan and its 5% fee

Is Payhip free? What the Free Forever plan costs

Yes, Payhip is free to start: its Free Forever plan costs $0 a month, as read on 6 October 2026, but Payhip keeps a 5% transaction fee from each sale. A transaction fee is the percentage Payhip itself takes. PayPal or Stripe charge their own standard rates on top, on every plan.

What the Payhip free plan includes

Payhip says every plan has the same features: its pricing page lists all features, unlimited products and unlimited revenue on Free Forever, Plus and Pro alike, and its pricing FAQ says there is "no feature-gating."

A pattern designer on Free Forever gets a store with a URL based on a username, so no website of your own is needed, and a domain you already own connects for free. Each file can be up to 5GB. A product can have variants, which are options such as sizes or formats with their own assigned files.

Coupon codes, a download limit you set yourself and PDF stamping are in the same account. PDF stamping prints the buyer's email and purchase date on each page of a portrait PDF below 250MB.

What a sale on the free plan costs

Each sale carries two separate charges: Payhip's 5%, then the standard rate of PayPal or Stripe, the processor that takes the payment, for which Payhip's pricing page gives no figure.

Payhip says it has handled US sales tax for sellers since July 1, 2026, at no cost, though a seller may still have a state sales tax return to file. Payhip fees sets all three plans side by side.

No free trial of Plus or Pro

Payhip's pricing page shows no free trial of Plus or Pro and no money-back guarantee. Plus is $29 a month for a 2% transaction fee, and Pro is $99 a month with no Payhip transaction fee. An upgrade takes a credit card, and the pricing FAQ says an account can be canceled whenever you like.

Opening a Free Forever account asks for no credit card; a card comes in only if you move to Plus or Pro.

Other ways to start selling for free

• Lemon Squeezy: $0 a month and 5% plus 50 cents a sale. It says it is your merchant of record, and its docs say the fee covers card transaction fees and taxes, with extra fees possible on some payments.
• Ko-fi Standard: $0 a month plus a 5% service fee, with normal payment processor fees on top. Payments go to your own PayPal or Stripe account.
• Beacons Free: $0 a month with a 9% seller fee and unlimited digital products.

Pick Payhip's free plan for a store of your own at a lower platform cut than Beacons Free's 9%. Pick Lemon Squeezy for a merchant of record whose fee covers card fees and taxes, and Ko-fi for a creator page that also takes tips. The best platform to sell digital products for free compares more options, and the Payhip review covers every plan.