Posted by the FileFreight team. We build a flat-rate delivery tool for digital sellers: secure download links, per-buyer PDF stamping, and license keys. Pricing figures below are from Payhip's own pricing page (checked October 2026) and ours.
If you sell digital downloads on Payhip's Free plan, you pay 5% of every sale. That's fine when you're starting out — but there's a specific dollar amount where a flat $19/month fee becomes cheaper. It's lower than most sellers expect: $380/month in sales.
Here's the math, no hand-waving.
Payhip's actual fees (from payhip.com/pricing)
- Free Forever: $0/month + 5% transaction fee per sale
- Plus: $29/month + 2% per sale
- Pro: $99/month + 0% per sale
And on every plan, Stripe or PayPal processing (roughly 2.9% + $0.30) applies on top — Payhip's pricing page says so explicitly.
The breakeven vs a $19/month flat fee
A $19/month flat fee with 0% per-sale fees (that's our Pro plan) beats Payhip Free the moment your 5% cut exceeds $19:
$19 ÷ 0.05 = $380/month in sales.
At $500/month in sales, Payhip Free takes $25. Flat $19 saves you $6/month. At $1,000/month, Payhip takes $50 — flat saves $31/month. The gap widens every month you grow.
Against the other tiers it's even starker:
- Payhip Plus ($29 + 2%) never beats $19 flat — it costs more per month and takes a bigger cut at every sales volume.
- Payhip Pro ($99, 0%) costs $80/month more for the same 0% cut.
The honest caveats (read these)
We'd be lying if we said the fees were the whole story. They aren't:
- Payhip is a merchant of record. It handles EU/UK VAT and sales tax for you. We don't — payments go straight to your own Stripe account, so tax responsibility stays with you. If you sell mostly to the EU and dread VAT paperwork, that alone can be worth Payhip's cut.
- Payhip is a storefront builder. It has themes, course hosting, memberships, email tools, and an affiliate system. We're delivery-only: secure expiring download links, per-buyer PDF stamping (leaked copies trace back to the buyer), license keys with revocation, refund auto-revoke. If you need the storefront and courses, stay.
- No automatic importer. We can't one-click migrate your Payhip products (yet). We do offer free white-glove migration for our first 20 sellers — we rebuild your products, files, and license keys by hand within 48 hours.
- We're not a Shopify app, and Stripe processing fees apply on our plans too — the 0% is our cut, not the card network's.
Who should actually switch
- Selling over ~$380/month on Payhip Free? You're paying more in percentage fees than a flat $19 would cost. The math is unambiguous.
- On Payhip Plus? You're paying $29 + 2% — a flat $19 is cheaper at literally every volume.
- Selling under $380/month and happy with Payhip's storefront, VAT handling, and courses? Honestly, stay. Fees aren't everything, and switching costs are real.
If the math works for you: filefreight — Free plan is $0 + 5% per sale (same as Payhip Free), Pro is $19/month flat with 0% per-sale fees. And if you're on Payhip now, we'll move you for free (first 20 sellers).
Fee figures: payhip.com/pricing, checked October 2026. Ours: getfilefreight.com/#pricing.
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