Stan Store alternatives: where to go and how to leave cleanly
Seven platforms, one for each reason to leave, and a seven-step exit plan.
Short answer: Beacons if you want to stay on a link-in-bio page but start free; Payhip or Gumroad if you sell occasionally and want to drop the flat fee; Systeme.io if you need funnels and email without paying $99; Podia if your courses need a real site; Kajabi if you sell premium programs. One thing first: Stan exports your customers and orders, not your courses, and your recurring subscriptions can't move with you. We compared the seven platforms here and checked their prices in 2026.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a rating.
Why creators leave Stan
Stan gets a lot right: a store live in an evening, 0% transaction fees, Instagram AutoDM, and strong public reviews (4.7 out of 5, nine in ten at five stars). People leave over the flat fee, the $99 tier, and what they discover the day they try to go. Six reasons, all checked in 2026.
You pay before you earn
There's no free plan, just a 14-day trial, then $29 a month on Creator ($300 a year). If your first product takes three months to sell, you've spent close to $90 on nothing. New creators say it plainly: $29 doesn't sound like much, but the months add up.
Marketing lives on the $99 plan
Email broadcasts and flows, contact import, discount codes, limited-quantity offers, upsells and order bumps, installment payments, funnels, affiliates and ad pixels all require Creator Pro: $99 a month or $948 a year. One welcome sequence triples your bill.
Slow payouts, support that can go quiet
Payouts need at least $10 and empty your whole balance. One-star reviews describe sales stuck in processing, a greyed-out withdraw button and several support tickets with no reply. These cases are a minority (5% of reviews are one star), but they hurt most when they hit you.
Charged after cancelling during the trial
Some creators say they deleted their account during the trial and were still charged. Stan's help center is clear: cancel under Settings, Billing, before the billing date. Subscription refunds are case by case, for a payment under 30 days old, one period only.
Your payments aren't really yours
Stan creates and manages the Stripe account for you, so you can't connect an existing one, and the country is fixed at signup. A store runs in a single currency. That's fine until you leave: billing history and recurring subscriptions stay behind.
A page, not a website
You get one page on the stan.store domain, with little room for search traffic. Courses stay basic: no quizzes, certificates or progress tracking. And nothing transfers on its own when you leave: courses don't export, and each customer subscription has to be cancelled by hand.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right Stan Store alternative depends on what's pushing you out. Usually one line fits. Each card jumps to the full write-up.
Free at 9% per sale, 0% from $30 a month.
You sell occasionally and hate the flat feePayhip5% on Free, every feature on every plan.
You are trying a first product with no budgetGumroad$0 a month, 10% + $0.50 per sale, taxes handled.
You need email and funnels without $99Systeme.ioFunnels and unlimited email on the free plan.
Your courses need a proper sitePodiaSite, courses and email, with assisted migration.
You sell high-ticket programsKajabiAll-in-one, no revenue share, 30-day guarantee.
Stan Store alternatives, one by one
For each platform: why move there, who it fits, the catch, how to move from Stan, and what it costs. Prices are as listed in 2026.
Beacons: the closest swap, with a free start
Closest to StanWhy move to Beacons. Beacons does what Stan does (a link-in-bio page that sells) but lets you start for $0. You can open the store, sell your first downloads and only pay a subscription once sales justify it. If you're still figuring out whether your audience buys, that's the lowest-risk path.
Who it's for. Instagram and TikTok creators selling small digital products (guides, presets, templates) who want to keep the link-in-bio format.
Who it's not for. Anyone already selling a few hundred dollars a month on the free plan: the fee soon costs more than Stan's flat price.
The catch. Free and Creator ($10/month, $8.33 billed yearly) take 9% of every sale. You need Creator Plus ($30/month, $25 yearly) to drop to 0%. Creator Max is $100/month ($83.30 yearly).
Tip. At 9%, the free plan costs you $30 once you pass about $333 in monthly sales. Above that line, Creator Plus ($30, 0%) is the cheaper option.
Moving from Stan. Rebuild your page product by product, import your customer list from Stan's CSV, then swap the link in every bio on the same day. Keep the same photo and button order so followers don't feel they landed somewhere new.
- Free plan
- yes, 9% fee
- Paid
- Creator $10, Creator Plus $30/mo
- 0% fee
- from Creator Plus
- Catch
- 9% on low tiers
Payhip: every feature on every plan, and EU VAT handled
Best for no subscriptionWhy move to Payhip. Payhip doesn't lock features behind tiers: discount codes and affiliates are on the free plan, where Stan keeps them for its $99 tier. It also collects and remits EU VAT on digital sales, which matters the day a buyer from Germany or France checks out.
Who it's for. Writers, template makers and small course creators who want to pay only when they sell.
Who it's not for. Creators who want a highly visual mobile storefront or deep email funnels.
The catch. It works on a sliding fee: 5% on Free, 2% on Plus ($29/month), 0% on Pro ($99/month), plus Stripe or PayPal fees. At high volume, Pro costs the same as Stan Creator Pro.
Tip. Under roughly $580 in monthly sales, Payhip Free (5%) costs less than Stan Creator's $29.
Moving from Stan. Create your products, import buyers from Stan's CSV, then put Payhip links in your bio. For recurring members, plan an email asking each one to resubscribe on Payhip.
- Free plan
- yes, 5% fee
- Paid
- Plus $29, Pro $99/mo
- EU VAT
- collected and remitted
- Catch
- no advanced funnels
Gumroad: no monthly fee, taxes handled
Pay per saleWhy move to Gumroad. Gumroad costs nothing per month. You only pay when something sells, and since 2025 it acts as merchant of record, so it handles sales tax and VAT on your sales. If your sales are small or irregular, it's the simplest way to stop paying Stan for empty months.
Who it's for. Creators who sell a handful of products a month, or who are trying out a first product.
Who it's not for. High-volume sellers: at 10% per sale, the fee quickly passes any flat subscription.
The catch. The fee is 10% plus $0.50 per sale, and 30% on sales that come through Discover, Gumroad's marketplace. The 10% part alone reaches $29 at $290 in monthly sales, before the $0.50 per order.
Moving from Stan. Recreate your products, import buyers and email them the new links. If you ever leave Gumroad too, our guide to switching from Gumroad covers the exit.
- Monthly fee
- $0
- Per sale
- 10% + $0.50
- Taxes
- handled by Gumroad
- Catch
- 30% via Discover
Systeme.io: funnels and email on a real free plan
Most on freeWhy move to Systeme.io. Stan charges $99 a month before you can send an email sequence, build a funnel or create a coupon. Systeme.io puts funnels and unlimited emails in its free plan, no card required, with 0% transaction fees on every plan.
Who it's for. Coaches and course creators who want store, email and courses in one tool without paying before the first sale.
Who it's not for. Creators who mainly want a slick mobile link-in-bio page: Systeme.io builds funnels, not bio pages.
The catch. Free covers 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course and 1 custom domain. Paid plans are $17, $47 and $97 a month, with two months free on yearly billing. It does a lot, so expect more than one evening to learn it.
Moving from Stan. Import Stan's customer CSV as contacts, rebuild products, then re-upload courses module by module (Stan has no course export).
- Free plan
- 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels
- Paid
- $17, $47, $97/mo
- Fees
- 0% on all plans
- Catch
- steeper learning curve
Podia: a full site for courses, with a migration hand
Courses and siteWhy move to Podia. Stan gives you one page; Podia gives you a site with sales pages, courses and email. Courses go further than Stan's, which lack quizzes, certificates and progress tracking. Podia also helps you move: its team migrates up to 50 products on Mover and 150 on Shaker.
Who it's for. Course creators who have outgrown a single product and want one site instead of five tools.
Who it's not for. Someone selling a single $9 guide: you'd be paying for a site you won't use.
The catch. No free plan, but a 14-day trial with no card. Mover is $49/month ($42 yearly) with a 5% fee; Shaker, $99 ($84 yearly), drops to 0%. Earthquaker is $179/month ($150 yearly).
Moving from Stan. Request the assisted migration on day one, with the course files you pulled out of Stan by hand. Then import your customers from the CSV.
- Trial
- 14 days, no card
- Paid
- Mover $49, Shaker $99/mo
- Migration
- assisted, up to 150 products
- Catch
- 5% on Mover
Sellfy: a real storefront, no transaction fee
Store, no feeWhy move to Sellfy. Sellfy is a store, not a bio page. It takes no cut of your sales: money lands straight in your own Stripe or PayPal account. Compare that with Stan, which creates and manages the Stripe account for you and won't connect the one you already have.
Who it's for. Creators selling digital products, and physical ones too, from a store under their own name.
Who it's not for. Anyone looking for a rich course platform or advanced email funnels.
The catch. Starter is $22/month billed yearly ($29 monthly), Business $59 ($79), Premium $119 ($159). In our review, Sellfy scores 3.6 out of 5.
Moving from Stan. Rebuild the store, import buyers, then connect your own Stripe or PayPal. Our full Sellfy review breaks down the plans.
- Labs score
- 3.6/5
- Paid
- Starter from $22/mo yearly
- Fee
- none
- Catch
- no free plan
Kajabi: the high end for premium courses and coaching
PremiumWhy move to Kajabi. If you sell coaching or courses priced in the hundreds, Kajabi bundles site, courses, email and funnels in one tool. It takes no share of revenue: only payment processing applies.
Who it's for. Established coaches and educators whose revenue justifies a three-figure monthly bill.
Who it's not for. Beginners: the entry plan costs about six times Stan Creator.
The catch. Basic is $179/month ($143 yearly), Growth $249 ($199), Pro $499 ($399). There's a 30-day money-back guarantee. In the US, payment fees are 2.9% plus $0.30.
Moving from Stan. Rebuild your courses in Kajabi, import contacts from Stan's CSV, and use the 30-day guarantee window to set everything up before you commit.
- Paid
- Basic from $143/mo yearly
- Revenue share
- none
- Guarantee
- 30 days
- Catch
- high entry price
What each option really costs
It comes down to a flat subscription versus a cut of each sale. Stan Creator is $29 a month no matter what. Payhip Free (5%) stays cheaper under about $580 a month in sales. Gumroad (10% + $0.50) hits $29 at $290 in sales. Beacons Free (9%) reaches $30 near $333, the price of its 0% plan. Past a few hundred dollars a month, flat pricing wins again and features decide.
| Free plan and fee | First paid plan and strength | |
|---|---|---|
| Stan StoreWhere you start | No free plan, 14-day trial; 0% fee | Creator $29/mo; email and coupons on Creator Pro at $99 |
| BeaconsLink-in-bio | Free at 9% per sale | Creator $10 (9%), Creator Plus $30/mo at 0% |
| PayhipNo subscription | Free at 5% per sale | Plus $29 (2%), Pro $99 (0%); EU VAT handled |
| GumroadPay per sale | $0/mo; 10% + $0.50 per sale | No paid tier; merchant of record |
| Systeme.ioFunnels | Free: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, unlimited email; 0% | $17/mo; funnels and email from the free plan |
| PodiaCourses and site | 14-day trial, no card | Mover $49 (5%), Shaker $99/mo (0%); assisted migration |
| SellfyStorefront | No free plan; no fee | Starter $22/mo yearly ($29 monthly) |
| KajabiPremium | No free plan; 30-day guarantee | Basic $179/mo ($143 yearly) |
Entry prices before tax and payment processing, subject to change. Rerun the math with your real monthly sales.
Leave Stan Store in seven steps
Order matters. Each step protects something: your buyers, your money, your members, your bio link.
List everything running on Stan
FirstWrite down every product with its price and files, every course and its modules, bookings, paid memberships or communities, and your Instagram AutoDM replies. Then list every place your stan.store link lives: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, email signature, printed QR codes.
That list becomes your checklist on switch day. Anything not on it gets forgotten.
- Time
- about an hour
- If skipped
- a link pointing to a dead store
Export customers and orders as CSV
DataIn the Customers tab, open the ⋯ menu and download the CSV (names and emails). In the Income tab, download the orders CSV. Keep both files: they show where your list came from if a new platform asks.
- Where
- Customers, then Income
- Contains
- names, emails, orders
Pull your courses out by hand
ManualStan's help center describes no course export. Download your videos, PDFs and text from your original files, or copy them module by module. If you built everything inside Stan, budget time for this: it's usually the longest step.
- Automatic export
- none
- Tip
- keep source files outside Stan
Rebuild on the new platform before cutting anything
In parallelOpen the new platform while Stan is still live. Recreate products, upload courses, import customers, rebuild email sequences. Run one full trial purchase: payment, confirmation email, access to the file or course.
- Check
- one full purchase
- Stan
- still live
Cancel customer subscriptions one by one
CriticalThis is the big trap. Deleting a membership, community or course product on Stan does not cancel your customers' subscriptions, and neither does closing your Stan account. Each one has to be cancelled individually. Because Stan runs the Stripe account itself, recurring billing can't move with you: every member must resubscribe on the new platform.
Do it in order: email members the new link, give them time to rejoin, then cancel on Stan. Otherwise some will pay twice.
- Cancellation
- one customer at a time
- Risk
- double billing
Cash out your full balance
MoneyThe minimum payout is $10 and you must withdraw the whole balance; partial payouts aren't possible. Transfers land in 24 to 48 hours, but Stripe processing takes 2 to 7 business days in the US (up to 7 elsewhere), and affiliate earnings 7 to 12 days. Withdraw what's available, wait for processing to clear, then withdraw the rest.
- Minimum
- $10, full balance
- Processing
- 2 to 7 business days in the US
Swap your links, then cancel before your billing date
Last dayReplace your stan.store link everywhere using your inventory, then cancel under Settings, Billing, Cancel. Your account stays active until the end of the paid cycle. After that, the store goes inactive and stan.store/yourname goes offline; your data is kept and you can reactivate with a card. There's no pause option.
- Where
- Settings, Billing, Cancel
- After
- store offline, data kept
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What breaks a Stan exit
The same mistakes keep coming up. None are technical; they're oversights, and each costs more than the time it would have taken to avoid.
Deleting a product and assuming billing stops
Removing a paid community or course doesn't cancel your customers' subscriptions. They keep paying for access that no longer exists. Cancel each one by hand, after warning them.
Cancelling on billing day
Cancel before the billing date, not on it: refunds of Stan's own subscription are never automatic. Your account stays active through the paid cycle, so cancelling early costs nothing.
Leaving with money in processing
A payout empties the full balance, and recent payments can sit in processing for days. Stop selling on Stan, wait until everything clears, withdraw, then cancel.
Forgetting a stan.store link
Once the cycle ends, your stan.store link goes offline. A QR code on a business card, a pinned post, an email signature: all now lead to a dead page. Your inventory list catches them.
Losing your courses
There's no course export. If your videos only exist inside Stan, download them before cancelling. Afterwards the store is inactive and you'd have to pay again to get back in.
Choosing on sticker price, not volume
A 9% fee looks free at $100 in sales and expensive at $1,000. Take your last three months of sales and rerun the comparison above before you pick.
Stan Store alternatives: common questions
Is there a free version of Stan Store?
No. Stan offers a 14-day free trial, not a free plan; after that it's $29 a month. If you want $0 upfront, Beacons, Payhip and Systeme.io have free plans, and Gumroad has no monthly fee at all.
Does Stan take a percentage of sales?
No. Stan charges 0% on both plans; you only pay standard Stripe or PayPal processing. Some comparison sites quote a 3% or 5 to 10% cut: that's wrong.
What's better than Stan Store for courses?
Podia if you want a full site with assisted migration, Kajabi if your programs sell at a premium. Either is a clear step up from Stan, whose courses have no quizzes, certificates or progress tracking.
Is Stan Store legit?
Yes. It's a real platform with 4.7 out of 5 across more than 2,200 public reviews. The complaints that do exist cluster around payouts held in processing and slow support when something goes wrong.
Can I move my customers from Stan to another platform?
Your list, yes: Stan exports customer names and emails, plus orders, as CSV. Recurring subscriptions, no: Stan manages the Stripe account, so each member must resubscribe on the new platform. Email them before you cancel.
How long do Stan payouts take?
Transfers arrive 24 to 48 hours after you request them, but Stripe processing takes 2 to 7 business days in the US and affiliate earnings 7 to 12 days. The minimum is $10, and you must withdraw the full balance.
Can I pause my Stan account?
No, there's no pause option. If you're taking months off, cancel: the account stays active to the end of the cycle, then the store goes offline but your data is kept, and you can reactivate with a card.
Stan or a plain link-in-bio tool?
A link-in-bio tool sends people elsewhere; Stan sells right on the page. If you're weighing both formats, our guide to switching from Linktree compares bio pages that can sell, Stan included.
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