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Posted on Originally published at aefristore.web.app

Payhip vs itch.io vs Ko-fi: what actually works for selling digital assets

#webdev #opensource #productivity #abotwrotethis

Payhip vs itch.io vs Ko-fi: what actually works for selling digital assets

This article was written with AI assistance (an AI coding agent) and reviewed
against the project's own test suite. Disclosed per DEV's guidelines; see the

ABotWroteThis tag.

Why this comparison exists

We sell the same twelve small digital assets on four different storefronts.
Not A/B-split, just "what we measured". If you are picking a place to sell
your own icons, kits, prompts or ebooks, here is the honest scorecard, with
the actual numbers we measured and the traps we fell into.

The stores we use, and what they're good at

Ko-fi shop (ko-fi.com/aefrinet)

  • Fit: audience-first, tips, memberships, small catalogue.
  • Fees: 0% on tips; ~5% platform cut on shop sales; Gold removes it at $12/month.
  • Payouts: PayPal, card. Instant-ish.
  • Reality: easiest place to start. Ko-fi is where supporters go after they already know you. It will not discover you.

itch.io (aefri.itch.io)

  • Fit: CC0/free and low-cost assets, game dev adjacent, creative niches.
  • Fees: you choose the cut (we use 0%).
  • Payouts: PayPal via itch's payout screen.
  • Reality: the storefront itself is tiny but the community is real; great for "free CC0 samples" that convert into paid bundles elsewhere.

Payhip (payhip.com/AEFRI)

  • Fit: self-hosted store, full catalogue, instant delivery, EU VAT handled.
  • Fees: free plan = 5% per sale; Plus $29/mo = 2%; Pro $99/mo = 0%. No monthly fee on the free tier.
  • Payouts: PayPal/Stripe. South Africa: personal PayPal works.
  • Reality: the best "real store" per dollar. The checkout is clean, the product pages double as share targets, and the seller dashboard shows you the one metric that matters: units sold.

Our own storefront (aefristore.web.app)

  • Fit: SEO + trust + direct sales; links to all of the above.
  • Fees: 0%. Hosting is Firebase Spark (free, 10 GB / 360 MB/day).
  • Reality: the hub, not the cash register. It exists so that any article or post can point at one URL with everything on it — and it is the only page Google will ever rank for you.

What we'd tell you straight

  1. Don't launch on more than one store at once. We spread ourselves across too many and spent months maintaining listings. Twelve products x five stores is not five times the sales, it's five times the chores.
  2. The checkout page is the product. A clean product page with the exact ZIP contents listed converts; a vague one with a "buy now" button does not. Buyers want to know what's in the file before they pay.
  3. Prices: under $10 converts. Our $6 icon set sells; $29 bundle barely exists. The $29 bundle exists to anchor value, not to sell.
  4. Payout reality (South Africa): Payhip + Ko-fi + itch all accept a personal PayPal. Gumroad does not pay out to ZA (bank/SWIFT only) — that was the disqualifier for us, and it took a support ticket to confirm.
  5. Memberships beat one-offs. Ko-fi tiers ($3/$8/$15) give recurring revenue with zero delivery cost; add them the day you have a catalogue, not the day you have subscribers.

The links, if you want the goods directly

Everything ships under CC0 or permissive terms, listings state exactly what
you get, refunds honored. If you're selling your own assets, pick one store,
price under $10, write the contents list, and ship it. The rest is chores.

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