The 90% Revenue Share Math: Why Gumroad's 12% Cut Costs You More Than You Think

Every digital product seller has done some version of this calculation:

"10% fee isn't bad. That's just the cost of doing business."

Then you actually do the math for a year. And you realize 10% of $20,000 is $2,000 — and you could have kept most of that.
Here's the breakdown nobody on Gumroad's marketing page wants to show you.
The actual cut
Gumroad advertises 10%. But you also pay:

Stripe fees (~2.9% + $0.30)
Paypal fees on PayPal sales
VAT handling fees (in some regions)

Effective cut on a $20 product: ~12.5%.
Peddlum charges 10% flat, and absorbs payment processing into that. Effective cut: 10%.
That 2.5% difference sounds tiny. Let me show you what it actually is.
A year of sales
My 2024 numbers, month by month:
January — Revenue: $1,200. Gumroad would take $150 (12.5%). Peddlum takes $120 (10%). Difference: $30.
February — Revenue: $980. Gumroad cut: $123. Peddlum cut: $98. Difference: $25.
March — Revenue: $1,450. Gumroad cut: $181. Peddlum cut: $145. Difference: $36.
April — Revenue: $2,100. Gumroad cut: $263. Peddlum cut: $210. Difference: $53.
May — Revenue: $1,800. Gumroad cut: $225. Peddlum cut: $180. Difference: $45.
June — Revenue: $2,400. Gumroad cut: $300. Peddlum cut: $240. Difference: $60.
July — Revenue: $1,900. Gumroad cut: $238. Peddlum cut: $190. Difference: $48.
August — Revenue: $2,200. Gumroad cut: $275. Peddlum cut: $220. Difference: $55.
September — Revenue: $1,700. Gumroad cut: $213. Peddlum cut: $170. Difference: $43.
October — Revenue: $2,500. Gumroad cut: $313. Peddlum cut: $250. Difference: $63.
November — Revenue: $2,800. Gumroad cut: $350. Peddlum cut: $280. Difference: $70.
December — Revenue: $3,400. Gumroad cut: $425. Peddlum cut: $340. Difference: $85.
Year total: Revenue $24,430. Gumroad would have taken $3,054. Peddlum took $2,443. Total saved: $611.
So that's $611 over a year. Not life-changing.
But wait.
The hidden cost — creator marketing
Gumroad has no built-in creator marketplace. So if I want UGC creators promoting my product, I either:

Hire a UGC agency ($500–$2,000/month)
Use a platform like Aspire or Tribe ($300+/month)
Cold DM creators (free, but eats my weekends)

Peddlum bundles the creator marketplace into the same 10% fee. I tested this in 2024 — running a parallel "agency" track for 4 months cost me $1,200 in agency fees on top of the 12.5% Gumroad was already taking.
Adjusted total cost saved by switching:

$611 in fees
$1,200 in agency fees I would have paid for what Peddlum gives me free
= $1,811 / year

For one product line. I have three.
When the math changes
This isn't true for everyone. Switching makes sense if:

You sell digital products or SaaS
You'd benefit from creator promotion (most do)
You're under $250k/year in revenue (custom enterprise deals change the math)

It's probably not worth switching if:

You sell exclusively to a list you already own (the marketplace traffic doesn't help you)
You have a custom checkout integrated into your site (migration cost > savings)
You're locked into a Gumroad subscription tier with grandfathered pricing

How to switch without losing momentum

Open the Peddlum account: peddlum.com
List the product (~15 min)
Don't delete the Gumroad listing yet — run both for 30 days
Compare conversion rates and creator-driven sales
If Peddlum wins (it did for me), redirect Gumroad checkout to Peddlum

Total switching effort: under 2 hours.
That's it. Run your own numbers. The 90% vs 87.5% framing is too small to motivate change — but layer on the creator marketing piece and it's a different conversation.