For most people, the best Stan Store alternative in 2026 is InBio: the page is free to start, and Business sells downloads and paid one-to-one calls at 0% for $29 a month, Stan Creator's price. The page around them can be any theme, font and layout. Pick Beacons if you sell a course and want 0% from $30 a month. Pick Podia from $49 for courses with email and a community, or Kajabi from $179 once the course is a real business. Pick Komi if you only sell downloads and want 0% for $20 a month.
If you already sell a course, calls and downloads together, nothing here does all three for less than Stan Creator's $29. Beacons Creator Plus comes closest, at $30 with 0% fees, so staying may be the right answer. Nine alternatives are compared below, with Stan's own row so you can weigh that.
Checked October 2026: Stan Store, Beacons, Podia, Kajabi, Komi, Gumroad and Carrd against each company's own pricing page or help center. Payhip's $29 and $99 plans are confirmed in a 2026 help article, but its fee rates come from one last updated in 2021; confirm them on payhip.com. Linktree's fees are from its own pricing page; it shows prices by region, so its US prices come from a third-party write-up. Prices here move often, so confirm before you commit.
Every alternative compared
| Tool | Best at | What it sells | Cheapest plan at 0% |
|---|---|---|---|
| InBio | Downloads and paid calls on a fully designed page | Downloads, paid bookings, lead forms | Business, $29/mo |
| Beacons | Courses and email at 0% for $30 | Downloads, courses, memberships, appointments | Creator Plus, $30/mo |
| Payhip | A percentage instead of a subscription | Downloads, courses, memberships, coaching, physical | Pro, $99/mo (Free takes 5%) |
| Podia | Courses, community and email in one | Courses, downloads, coaching, community, events | Shaker, $99/mo (Mover takes 5%) |
| Kajabi | A full course business | Courses, memberships, community, coaching, podcasts | Basic, $179/mo |
| Gumroad | No monthly fee at all | Downloads, courses, memberships | None: 10% + $0.50 a sale |
| Komi | 0% on downloads for $20 | Digital products, brand deals | Pro, $20/mo |
| Linktree | The name your audience knows | Downloads, bookings; courses via Kajabi | Premium, $35/mo |
| Carrd | The cheapest page you build yourself | Through Stripe, PayPal or Gumroad embeds | No platform fee; payments from $19/year |
| Stan Store (staying put) | Courses, calls and downloads in one store | Downloads, bookings, courses, memberships, community | Creator, $29/mo (14-day trial, no free plan) |
What changed in 2026
- Stan's prices held. Creator is still $29 a month or $300 a year and Creator Pro $99 or $948, per Stan's plan comparison, updated June 2026. Still no free plan, only the 14-day trial.
- Payout speed is the complaint to check. Stan's cash-out article (updated August 2026) says a US sale can take "2-7 business days" before it can be cashed out, international creators wait up to 7, the minimum cash-out is $10, and Stan doesn't offer automatic cash-outs. Two October 2026 reviews on Trustpilot complain of slow cash-outs, one with money stuck in "Available Soon" for more than three weeks; those are user reports, not Stan's numbers, and the overall rating stays high.
- Beacons' top plan went up. Creator Max rose from $90 to $100 a month between August and late September 2026. Creator Plus, the Beacons plan that competes with Stan, is still $30.
Why people leave Stan Store
Three reasons, each from Stan's own help center or blog.
$29 a month starts before the first sale. There's no free plan, only a 14-day trial; Stan's help center notes that people mistake its affiliate-only accounts for a free store. If you're testing whether anyone will buy, you pay for the test.
The tools you grow into cost $99. Email broadcasts and flows, upsells, order bumps, payment plans, discount codes and affiliate management are Creator Pro only: $99 a month, or $948 a year, per Stan's plan comparison and pricing post. That's a $70 jump for your first discount code.
Every store starts from the same eleven templates. You can change colors and fonts, you can't add custom code, only one theme (Tyla) has an About section, and the store lives at stan.store/you with no custom domain.
Stan is still good at what it's built for. One $29 plan with unlimited courses, bookings, a community and 0% fees is a generous bundle, and Stan calls itself "designed for maximum conversions".
How we picked
Five things decide whether a Stan alternative fits, the same approach as our Linktree alternatives comparison and our best link in bio tools guide:
- What you sell. Six of the nine host a course; InBio, Komi and Carrd don't.
- What it costs before the first sale, since Stan charges from day one.
- The cut once you're selling, worked out in the next section.
- Where email, upsells and discount codes live, since that's where Stan's price more than triples.
- How far the design goes beyond colors and fonts.
Every tool gets the same five checks. The sections below are not a ranking.
Past about $600 a month, a flat 0% plan is cheapest
The monthly price is half the bill; the cut on each sale is the other half. Here's what each plan takes at $500 and $2,000 a month in sales, assuming a $25 product (20 and 80 sales) and monthly billing.
Card processing is left out, because it's a similar rate everywhere. On Stripe's standard US rate of 2.9% + 30¢, it adds about $20.50 at $500 and $82 at $2,000. Stan's help center also lists a payout fee of 0.25% + $0.25 (minimum $1), and 1.5% more for international buyers. Kajabi Basic adds 2% if you use another processor where Kajabi Payments is available.
| Plan | Monthly price | Cut on sales | You pay at $500/mo | You pay at $2,000/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| InBio Business | $29 | 0% | $29 | $29 |
| Stan Creator | $29 | 0% | $29 | $29 |
| Stan Creator Pro | $99 | 0% | $99 | $99 |
| Beacons Free | $0 | 9% | $45 | $180 |
| Beacons Creator | $10 | 9% | $55 | $190 |
| Beacons Creator Plus | $30 | 0% | $30 | $30 |
| Payhip Free | $0 | 5% | $25 | $100 |
| Payhip Plus | $29 | 2% | $39 | $69 |
| Podia Mover | $49 | 5% | $74 | $149 |
| Podia Shaker | $99 | 0% | $99 | $99 |
| Kajabi Basic | $179 | 0% | $179 | $179 |
| Gumroad | $0 | 10% + $0.50 | $60 | $240 |
| Komi Pro | $20 | 0% | $20 | $20 |
| Linktree Free | $0 | 12% | $60 | $240 |
| Linktree Starter | $8 | 9% | $53 | $188 |
| Linktree Premium | $35 | 0% | $35 | $35 |
| Carrd Pro Standard | ~$1.58 ($19/yr) | none from Carrd | ~$2 | ~$2 |
What falls out of it:
- Percentage plans win only while sales are small. Against a $29 flat plan, a 5% cut stays cheaper below about $580 a month in sales; that's Payhip's free plan. A 9% cut stays cheaper below about $320; that's Beacons Free. A 12% cut stays cheaper below about $240; that's Linktree Free, and roughly Gumroad on a twenty-five-dollar product. Below about $400, a 5% cut also beats Komi's $20.
- Under $1,000 a month in sales, Podia's Mover costs less than Shaker, because its 5% is smaller than the gap between the two plans.
- Above those lines, a flat 0% plan at $20–30 is the cheapest pricing model, whichever tool it's on.
The same arithmetic for selling from an Instagram bio, with Stripe's fee included, is in how to sell digital products from your Instagram bio.
Email without Stan's $99 plan
Broadcasts and email flows are Creator Pro's headline tools. Elsewhere they cost less:
| Tool | Email to your list | From |
|---|---|---|
| Komi Pro | Unlimited campaigns | $20/mo |
| Beacons | 50 sends a month free; unlimited on Creator Plus | $0 / $30/mo |
| Podia | Every plan; 100 subscribers on Mover, upsells from Shaker | $49/mo |
| Kajabi | Email and funnels on every plan | $179/mo |
| Stan Store | Broadcasts and flows on Creator Pro | $99/mo |
InBio: downloads and paid calls at 0%, on a page you design
InBio is a link-in-bio page for anyone, and it turns into a store when you need one. The same page at in.bio/yourname holds your links, posts and galleries, then sells digital downloads and paid one-to-one calls on Business. Calls book against live availability, and a slot can't be sold twice. Payments go through your own Stripe account, and InBio takes 0%.
Pricing: Free is your page with links, media and galleries, plus basic analytics: views, clicks, click-through rate and time on page. Beginner, $4/mo or $40/yr, adds every theme, font and layout, and image and video backgrounds.
Pro, $9/mo or $90/yr, adds contact forms and lead magnets (a file delivered when someone signs up), advanced analytics (clicks per link, traffic sources, countries and devices), and removes InBio branding. Business, $29/mo or $290/yr, adds selling downloads, paid bookings, 0% selling fees, an AI chat that answers visitors in your words, and a checkmark the InBio team verifies. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial for first-time subscribers. Billing is per page, so each brand runs on its own plan; see pricing.
What's good: Business matches Stan's price and fee, and you move to it when you start selling rather than on day one. Paid calls are built in, which Komi, the cheaper 0% option, doesn't list. The design goes well past colors and fonts.
What to watch: InBio doesn't host courses or send email, so if your product is a course, Beacons, Podia or Kajabi fit better.
Beacons: courses and email at 0% for $30 a month
Beacons bundles a link page, a store, courses, memberships, appointments with Google Calendar, email, a media kit and Instagram DM automation. Its free plan sells unlimited digital products, runs one course without video hosting, and includes 50 email sends a month. Creator, at $10, adds a custom domain.
Pricing: Free; Creator $10/mo ($100/yr); Creator Plus $30/mo ($300/yr); Creator Max $100/mo.
What's good: you pay nothing until something sells, and Instagram DM automation is on every plan. Creator Plus at $30 adds unlimited courses with video, memberships, unlimited email and 0% fees, for about what Stan Creator costs.
What to watch: Free and Creator take 9% of every sale; past about $320 a month in sales, that costs more than a flat $29.
Payhip: a percentage instead of a subscription
Payhip builds a store website that sells downloads, courses, memberships, coaching and physical products; your bio links to it. The free plan includes every feature.
Pricing: Free Forever, $0 with a 5% fee; Plus, $29/mo at 2%; Pro, $99/mo at 0%. PayPal and Stripe charge their own fees on top.
What's good: nothing to pay until you sell, and it ships physical products, which Stan doesn't handle.
What to watch: Plus at $29 still takes 2%, so it never beats a flat 0% plan. Coaching is scheduled through Payhip's Calendly or Zoom integrations, or any calendar link, not a calendar of its own.
Podia: the course platform with email on every plan
Podia puts courses, downloads, coaching, events, a community, a website on your own domain, and email marketing on every plan.
Pricing: Mover $49/mo ($42/mo billed yearly) with a 5% fee; Shaker $99/mo ($84) and Earthquaker $179/mo ($150) with no Podia fee. No free plan; a 14-day trial with no card.
What's good: email and custom domains on every plan, and the course and community tools are the product, not an add-on.
What to watch: Mover's email covers 100 subscribers, and affiliates and upsells start on Shaker at $99, the same line Stan draws.
Kajabi: the step up for a full course business
Kajabi runs courses, memberships, communities, coaching, podcasts, newsletters, funnels and a website on one bill.
Pricing: Basic $179/mo ($143 billed yearly), Growth $249/mo ($199), Pro $499/mo ($399). No revenue share. Kajabi Payments processing starts at 2.9% + 30¢. Every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What's good: the widest course and membership toolset on this list, with no revenue share.
What to watch: $179 a month is more than six Stan Creator plans, and Basic caps you at 5 products. Worth it once the course business already exists, not before.
Gumroad: no monthly fee, a bigger cut
Gumroad has no subscription at all; you pay per sale. It sells downloads, courses and memberships, and since January 2025 it handles sales tax for you as the merchant of record.
Pricing: $0 a month; 10% + $0.50 per direct sale, with card processing on top. Sales through Gumroad's Discover marketplace carry a flat 30%, processing included. Once a month's sales pass $20,000, direct sales for the rest of that month are 5% + $0.50.
What's good: zero fixed cost, and sales tax handled for you, which is real admin saved.
What to watch: on a $25 product the fee works out at 12% of every sale, the same as Linktree's free plan; see the cost table for what that means at your volume.
Komi: 0% on downloads for $20 a month
Komi is a link-in-bio site aimed at influencers, with a brand-deal side alongside the store.
Pricing: Pro is $20/mo, or $16/mo billed yearly, with 0% on digital product sales, unlimited email campaigns, branding removed and a custom domain.
What's good: the lowest monthly price for 0% among the store builders here, with email and a custom domain included. Carrd costs less, but you build the checkout yourself.
What to watch: Komi's pricing page and help center list digital products, email and brand deals, but no bookings, courses or memberships. Its pages also disagree about a free plan: the pricing page shows a free Starter that can't sell, and the help center says there's no free plan, only a trial.
Linktree: 0% only on the $35 plan
Linktree is the name your audience already knows, and it now sells digital products and courses, the courses powered by Kajabi.
Pricing: Starter $8/mo, Pro $15/mo, Premium $35/mo, billed monthly in the US. Fees on sales: 12% on Free, 9% on Starter and Pro, 0% only on Premium, plus processing. Linktree's Pro card says 0%, but the fee table on the same page says 9%; plan on 9%.
What's good: recognition, and Premium's 0% is close to Stan Creator's price.
What to watch: below Premium, every sale loses 9–12%; the cost table shows what that adds up to.
Carrd: the cheapest page, if you'll build the checkout yourself
Carrd is a one-page site builder priced per year. With a Stripe, PayPal or Gumroad embed it becomes a sales page for almost nothing.
Pricing: free for 3 sites; Pro Lite $9/yr; Pro Standard $19/yr adds embeds and a custom domain; Pro Plus $49/yr adds Stripe payment forms.
What's good: $19 a year, your own domain, and total design freedom.
What to watch: there's no store underneath: no file delivery, bookings or customer list unless the service you embed provides them, and Gumroad's fee applies if that's what you embed.
Switching from Stan Store without losing a sale
- Download your customer list first. Stan's Income tab has a Download CSV button. Do it before anything else changes.
- Rebuild the products, then the page. Re-upload each file, rewrite each checkout, and recreate each booking type with the same length and notice. Keep the prices identical.
- Set the new calendar to open after the last call already booked on Stan, so nobody can book you twice while both pages are live.
- Give course students and members their place on the new platform before you announce the move, and tell them the date.
- Cancel members' Stan subscriptions yourself, then your plan. Stan's help center is explicit: cancelling your plan, or deleting a membership product, does not cancel your customers' memberships, and they keep being charged. By default Stan runs payments through a Stripe account it manages, so those subscriptions won't follow you.
- Swap the URL everywhere in one sitting. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, your email signature, so no profile points at the old store.
- Check your numbers after a week. That's when you learn which products and which platforms actually sell — what to look for.
Who should pick what
- Most people: InBio. Free until you sell; then Stan's price and 0% fee for downloads and paid calls, on a page you design.
- Courses and email at 0% for $30: Beacons Creator Plus, about the price of Stan Creator.
- A course business with community and email: Podia; Kajabi once it's large.
- Under about $400 a month in sales: Payhip's free plan, 5% and no subscription. Check payhip.com first; its fee rates here come from a 2021 help article.
- 0% on downloads for the least per month: Komi Pro, $20.
- The cheapest page you build yourself: Carrd, $19 a year.
- A course, calls and downloads together: Beacons Creator Plus at $30 does the same mix with unlimited email; otherwise stay on Stan.
Whichever you pick, download your customer list from Stan before you touch anything else. Products can be rebuilt; buyers you can't reach can't.
This post is part of our link in bio basics series: what a link in bio is, how the tools compare, and what the numbers mean.
We make InBio. Every tool here, InBio included, was checked the same way: against its own pricing page or help center, in October 2026.
