My review of Payhip, which I use!

What is Payhip?

Payhip is primarily the name of a company founded in 2013 and based in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧.

It’s also the name of their tool designed to facilitate the online sale of digital products, services, and even physical products!

What can you do with Payhip?

Let me first tell you about everything I do with Payhip. That’s often more informative!

✅ I sell:

• PDF files, for individuals looking to become physical therapists in France;
• ebooks, for physical therapists and patients;
• e-learning courses for healthcare professionals;
• proofreading services for cover letters for individuals looking to become physiotherapists.

✅ Payhip is the intermediary that allows me to store files, process payments, and present them attractively without spending too much time on it.

✅ Through Payhip, I could also sell:

• apps; exclusive content reserved for subscribers:
• membership;
• coaching services;
• physical products: mugs, notebooks, you name it!

✅ Payhip manages file storage and distribution, as well as payment, and even VAT.

Payhip collects VAT on your behalf (if you need to invoice it, if not, you tell them not to invoice it by checking a simple box) and remits it to the relevant states. And this is validated by the French tax authorities, as evidenced by the letter below that I received:

✅ Payhip also allows you to apply promo codes or set up affiliate programs.

✅ And if you don’t have a website, you can even create one through Payhip!

✅ If you have a website, you can integrate the Payhip interface into your own site: your visitors will buy your products directly on your site. That’s what I did by creating a subdomain: boutique.kinedarbois.fr:

What can’t you do with Payhip?

Payhip doesn’t allow you to showcase your products: you have to promote them and direct traffic to Payhip yourself.

For example, through your website, social media, or a newsletter.

❌ Unlike Amazon, for instance, Payhip isn’t a platform or a catalog where people go to shop.

That’s why, unlike Amazon, Payhip’s commission is much lower because it doesn’t provide accidental discovery.

Now let’s see how much Payhip costs.

How much does Payhip cost?

Payhip is appealing for its two different pricing options:

Option 1: You pay a 5% commission on each sale (plus PayPal or Stripe fees of around 1%);

Option 2: You pay a fixed amount per month.

This allows you to get started without any investment: you only pay if you sell something!

Here are the more precise rates.

✅ I recommend starting with the free option.

Payhip will deduct 5% from your sales. For example, if you sell an ebook for €15:

Payhip will take €0.75; Stripe or Paypal will take around €0.30. So, you’ll be left with almost €14 for yourself.

➡️ Once you consistently sell at least €500 worth of products per month, it’s worth upgrading to the €26 per month plan (do your calculations, of course).

I personally used the free version for a year, and I just switched to the monthly plan.

Is Payhip easy to use?

✅ Absolutely: Payhip is very user-friendly.

No coding skills are required!

🚨 The only downside might be for French speakers: the Payhip interface for you (but not for your customers) is 100% in English.

Personally, it’s not an issue for me, but I have a decent grasp of written English comprehension.

It’s up to you to decide if it’s a deal-breaker for you or not!

✅ Payhip offers super easy-to-follow step-by-step guides to explain how to use it.

It’s no more complicated than browsing the internet and managing documents in Word if you take the time at the beginning to read the tutorials according to what you want to do.

➡️ Payhip tutorials are available here: help.payhip.com. And if you can’t find out how to do something, you can contact support via email, which is very responsive and courteous: I’ve always received a response the same day.

What are the alternatives to Payhip?

There are dozens (even hundreds!) of similar tools/platforms to Payhip: System.io, Podia, SendOwl, Gumroad, Shopify, Teachable, Thinkify, Clickfunnels, Kajabi, Thrivecart, Memberpress, etc.

I’ve used or considered other options, and ultimately, I stuck with Payhip.

Here’s a quick overview of the alternatives to Payhip that I’ve spent enough time with, and why I preferred Payhip.

I’ll probably write more comprehensive articles on each of them soon: you can subscribe to the blog to stay informed of new articles!

Payhip VS Podia

Podia was the first platform I used to start selling an ebook and teleconsultations.

What made me choose Podia:

• the interface is in French (while Payhip is in English for the creator);
• possibility to start for free with one product;
• fairly easy to use.

But I quickly encountered limitations with Podia, which led me to look for another tool:

❌ you’re entitled to only one free product. After that, the subscription is at least €30/month, which may not be quickly profitable;

❌ limitations in customization. It’s great to have a simplified tool to save time, but I find that you’re quickly limited with Podia.

Payhip VS System.io

After finding Podia’s limitations for my needs, I turned to System.io, which I used with 2 accounts for over 2 years.

System.io has two advantages over Payhip:

• for french speakers: the interface for you is also in French;
• you can also send emails without needing another tool.

However, System.io has significant drawbacks, which led me to definitively stop using it and even boycott it:

❌ Poor VAT management: VAT management is not automated like on Payhip or Podia. System.io does not collect it for you, and it’s a real hassle to manage.

That’s why I never put my digital products on System.io. I only used it for my newsletters and lead magnet email capture forms.

❌ Difficult to use. Even though the tool is well-designed and highly customizable, it’s ultimately a bit too much. You spend a lot of time creating a sales page even when using templates, due to the multitude of possible customizations.

❌❌❌ Business practices that don’t meet my standards. I had several issues with System.io that led me to definitively boycott their service.

Assessment: How to Determine if Payhip is Right for You? I hope this article has helped you determine if Payhip could meet your criteria!

Here are the situations in which I think Payhip is not relevant:

❌ You are not comfortable with written English at all. In this case, I recommend Podia.

❌ You’re looking for a tool that generates invoices according to French standards;

Payhip (like most of its competitors) does not generate invoices according to French standards.

So, you’ll have to edit invoices yourself: I create one for each amount Payhip has paid me, through my automated accounting tool, Indy.

❌ You want a tool that is 100% customizable, even if it takes time.

On the contrary, I think Payhip may suit you if:

✅ You like the idea of not having to pay right away, while waiting to see if your products or services find their audience;

✅ You value the simplicity of using a tool, while offering a minimum level of customization;

✅ Your legal status requires you to invoice VAT. You are looking for a simple solution to manage this;

✅ You’re looking for a tool that allows you to sell different things online: ebooks, PDFs, online courses, coaching, membership, physical products, etc.;

✅ You value using a tool with responsive customer service that doesn’t push you to upgrade to higher-tier plans.

***

If you have any questions about Payhip, I’m available to answer them in the comments section below the article. Feel free to also share your opinion (even if it differs from mine 🙂) on Payhip and its competitors!