Sellfy vs Payhip: A Yearly Sales Cap or a Fee per Sale

The short answer: if your downloads sell for less than $580 a month, Payhip's $0 plan, which keeps 5% of each sale, costs less than Sellfy Starter at $29; past $2,500 a month, and up to Sellfy's $50,000 yearly cap, Sellfy Business at $79 costs less than Payhip Plus at $29 plus 2% (monthly billing, platform charges only, card processing extra on both, checked on 26 October 2026 on the Sellfy and Payhip pricing pages). For a seller in Europe the fee is rarely the deciding line. Payhip charges, reports and pays over digital VAT for EU and UK buyers; Sellfy works out the VAT and leaves the return with you. Choose Payhip if your job is selling ebooks, templates, courses or coaching to buyers in several countries without a VAT registration of your own. Choose Sellfy if your job is a creator store with print-on-demand merch beside the downloads, and someone already files your VAT.

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Work it out on one sheet:

1. Last year's sales, divided by twelve. For example, $9,600 a year is $800 a month. On Payhip's $0 plan that month costs 5% x $800 = $40, on Plus $29 + 2% x $800 = $45, and on Sellfy Starter a flat $29, since $9,600 sits under its $10,000 cap (Payhip pricing, Sellfy pricing). At that size Sellfy is the cheaper store by $11 a month.
2. The accounts and the registration you already hold. Both stores pay each sale into your own Stripe or PayPal account, per Payhip's Stripe article and the Sellfy pricing FAQ. If you already file a quarterly One Stop Shop return, Sellfy's VAT report fits that routine. If you have never registered, Payhip spares you the registration.
3. The figure to read every month after launch. Platform charges plus card fees, divided by gross sales. On Sellfy, keep a second line: sales over the last 12 months against the plan's cap, the window its revenue limit article uses, because crossing it changes the plan rather than the fee.

A year of fees at four sales levels

Platform charges only, worked from the Payhip pricing page and the Sellfy pricing page with its cost article, checked on 26 October 2026. Sellfy's plan is set by the yearly cap the sales fall under.

Card processing comes on top of every cell, typically 2.9% + 30¢ on Stripe per Payhip's Stripe article, varying by country. If you pass a Sellfy cap without upgrading, its pricing FAQ says a 2% overage may be charged on the revenue above the limit.

Read across the rows. On monthly billing Payhip is cheaper at both ends, and Sellfy Business is cheaper from $30,000 a year, where Payhip Plus costs $29 x 12 + 2% of $30,000 = $948, up to the $50,000 cap. Paying Sellfy a year ahead moves that crossover down to $18,000, where $348 + 2% of $18,000 = $708, on the figures from the Payhip and Sellfy pricing pages.

Three things the fee table leaves out

Who files the VAT

Payhip's pricing page says it charges, reports and pays over the VAT on digital sales to EU and UK buyers, plus US and Canadian sales tax, and its VAT article shows the setting is on by default, with two checkboxes to switch it off. Since 1 July 2026 it handles US sales tax at no charge, though its US sales tax article warns that a seller with a physical presence in a state may still owe that state a zero-dollar return.

Sellfy is not the merchant of record. Its tax article says Sellfy cannot file taxes for you; it applies current EU VAT rates at checkout, and its EU VAT article offers a report for the quarterly return, or a switch that blocks EU and UK buyers. Above the EUR 10,000 EU-wide threshold on the Commission's One Stop Shop portal, that return is yours to file every quarter.

What a product can be

Sellfy sells downloads, subscriptions billed weekly, monthly or yearly, physical goods and print-on-demand merch shipped from 11 fulfilment centres, per its homepage. Payhip sells downloads, courses with quizzes, assignments and certificates, memberships, physical stock and one-to-one coaching booked through Zoom or Calendly, per its homepage. A hoodie with your logo points one way. A cohort course with a coaching call points the other.

What sits behind the next tier

Payhip's pricing page lists all features on all three plans; only the fee changes. Sellfy fences some tools: upselling, cart abandonment emails, affiliates and removing its branding start on Business, and the largest file per product grows from 10GB on Starter to 20GB on Premium, per its plan table.

A cap check by agent, before the renewal

Sellfy documents an MCP server on every plan and during the trial; it cannot email buyers, refund, move money or delete a product. Payhip's help centre lists no connector of its own on 26 October 2026.

1. Add Sellfy to your AI app with the server URL https://api.sellfy.com/mcp and sign in with your Sellfy account; no API key is involved.
2. Ask for your sales by month for the last twelve months, the month in which the running total passed your plan's cap, and what Payhip's three fee levels would have charged on each month, with the sums shown.
3. The human check: request the order export under Orders, Export, as Sellfy's tax article describes, and match the monthly totals before anyone moves a product. The MCP page's FAQ notes that its read tools return buyer names and emails to the AI provider you connected, so connect only an assistant whose terms you accept.

Free first, and the toggle on Sellfy's page

Payhip's $0 plan charges nothing until a sale arrives, so one product listed there and sent to your list costs nothing to test. Sellfy's 14-day trial needs no card, per its homepage, but its cost article says checkout is switched off during the trial, so the trial shows you the store and not the sales.

Then look at which side of Sellfy's toggle the pricing page loads on: Yearly, where Starter reads $22. That figure is $264 paid for twelve months at once, and because the trial cannot take an order, a seller who accepts the page as it opens has paid Sellfy for a year before the store has proved it can sell for a month. Pay monthly until two months of real orders tell you which cap you live under.

Choose Sellfy if

• Merch without stock belongs in the shop, printed after each order.
• Sales sit between $2,500 a month and the $50,000 yearly cap, where Business costs less than any Payhip plan (Sellfy pricing).
• Your VAT is already filed by you or your accountant each quarter.

Choose Payhip if

• Your products are courses, memberships or coaching as well as files.
• Buyers are spread across the EU and the UK and nobody on your side files VAT.
• Orders arrive in bursts around launches, and a percentage that shrinks in a quiet month sits better with you than a fixed plan.

The Sellfy entry and the Payhip entry cover plans in more depth; Sellfy vs Shopify and Payhip vs Shopify set each one against a full store, and how to use Payhip turns a free download into sales.

FAQ

Does either one take a cut of each sale?

Payhip does, on two of its three plans: 5% on the $0 plan and 2% on Plus, nothing on Pro at $99 a month. Sellfy charges no transaction fee and instead caps each plan by yearly sales, per the Sellfy and Payhip pricing pages.

Which one handles EU VAT for me?

Payhip, for digital products, unless you untick it in its Taxes settings (VAT article). Sellfy calculates the VAT and gives you the report; filing stays with you (tax article).

When does the money reach me?

At the moment of sale on both, into your own Stripe or PayPal account (Payhip pricing, Sellfy pricing FAQ).