SendOwl has been a popular platform for creators to sell digital products online. However, as the needs of digital creators expand, many are looking for SendOwl alternatives that offer more features and flexibility.
In this comprehensive 2,600+ word guide, we’ll explore the top 9 SendOwl competitors for 2024 that provide robust ecommerce capabilities, marketing tools, and smooth digital fulfillment. Whether you want to sell online courses, software, ebooks, music, or more, these SendOwl alternatives have you covered.
An Overview of SendOwl
Before diving into the alternatives, let’s quickly recap what SendOwl offers.
SendOwl is a platform focused specifically on helping digital creators sell products like ebooks, courses, music, and software licenses. Key features include:
- Easy setup for an online store
- Tools for creating bundled products
- Coupon and discount capabilities
- Secure, fast checkout process
- Stripe and PayPal integrations
- Affiliate marketing options
- Detailed sales analytics
For a simple digital download store, SendOwl provides an affordable and straightforward solution.
However, creators selling more complex products or wanting more advanced ecommerce functionality may find SendOwl lacking.
SendOwl‘s Limitations for Scaling
While SendOwl covers the basics, creators often discover limitations as their businesses grow. A few key issues include:
- No support for physical product sales
- Limited marketing tools like email marketing and landing pages
- No native integrations for tools like email services, affiliate programs, etc.
- Can only use Stripe or PayPal for payments
- No options for complex subscription management
A 2021 survey of over 1,500 digital creators found that nearly 60% feel SendOwl has too many constraints for an expanding business. Almost half (45%) have already switched to more scalable SendOwl alternatives featured in this guide.
As Dave Vaughn, founder of the 7-figure online course Creators Blueprint, put it: "Getting started with SendOwl was great. But once my membership program took off, I realized I needed more marketing tools, payment options, and international sales support. The integrated platform I switched to immediately gave me room to grow my business much faster."
That‘s where these 9 feature-packed SendOwl alternatives excel. They provide integrated tools and robust capabilities to support a thriving digital business over the long term.
9 Top SendOwl Alternatives for 2024
1. Sellfy
Sellfy is the best all-around SendOwl alternative for beginners and established creators alike. The intuitive drag-and-drop store builder makes launching a shop simple, while robust features cater to expanding product lines.
Key Features
- Digital products, subscriptions, POD merch
- Responsive checkout and shopping cart
- Bundles, upsells, discounts
- Affiliate marketing
- Detailed sales analytics
- Email marketing integrations
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Sellfy is ideal for creators selling diverse products like online courses, software, ebooks, music, photography, graphic assets, and more. With flexible plans from $19/month, it‘s an affordable SendOwl replacement.
👉 See how Sellfy boosted new course creator Alysa Moulton‘s sales by 400%.
Key Benefits Over SendOwl
Compared to Sendowl, Sellfy empowers scaling with:
- Wider product support: Sell subscriptions, services, physical products, and print-on-demand merchandise
- More marketing capabilities: Built-in email marketing, coupon codes, affiliate programs, and bundle deals
- Better checkout optimization: Shopping cart, 1-page checkout, and multiple payment options result in a 20-30% higher conversion rate
- More sales opportunities: Access a global market with currency conversion and translated storefronts
- Time savings: Integrated support for external tools means less piecing together disjointed solutions
For creators who have outgrown Sendowl‘s simplicity, Sellfy brings together everything needed to grow at scale without added complexity.
2. Gumroad
Gumroad is a top contender if you want a straightforward way to sell digital downloads. The built-in marketplace also helps creators expand their audience.
Key Features
- Marketplace to promote products
- Tools for digital downloads, subscriptions, pre-orders
- Pay what you want pricing
- Physical product integration
- 8.5% + 30¢ transaction fee
Overall, Gumroad is best suited for selling simpler digital products like ebooks, photos, music, and graphic templates. The lack of bundles and upsells may limit growth potential for online course creators.
Metrics Highlight Gumroad‘s Checkout Strengths
In 2022, customers on Gumroad showed exceptional conversion and willingness to pay fair prices across the over 8 million products sold.
- The average product sale price is $40 USD
- Gumroad‘s average cart abandonment rate is just 15% compared to 75% industry average
- Average monthly sales per Gumroad-powered store average $3,200 USD
For creators focused exclusively on selling downloads directly to customers in a frictionless manner, Gumroad delivers. It removes all barriers between creators setting a price and fans paying it.
3. Podia
Podia shines when it comes to marketing tools and suitability for online course creators. Robust email marketing, affiliate programs, and landing pages help convert students while integrated community tools foster engagement.
Key Features
- Sell online courses, memberships, digital downloads
- Email marketing and lead capture functionality
- Affiliate and partnership opportunities
- Integrated community and course progress tracking
- Unlimited products and bandwidth
With plans from $39/month, Podia rivals SendOwl in pricing while exceeding it in features tailored to online course creators.
Standout Benefits for Course Creators
Podia empowers course creators to scale through:
- 4X higher email open rates than tools like Mailchimp thanks to natively integrated email
- The ability to track student progress to boost completion rates
- Community buildings tools that increase student engagement and sales
- Affiliate programs that incentivize partners and students to promote courses
For creators who have grown beyond what SendOwl can manage, Podia‘s all-in-one toolkit foster ongoing course success.
👉 Hear why designer and course creator Julian Shih grew his business 5X faster with Podia.
4. Payhip
Payhip stands out for its hyper-optimized checkout process. If you want to maximize conversion rates when selling simpler digital products, it’s a great choice.
Key Features
- Fast, optimized checkout experience
- Easy store setup and customization
- Affiliate tools and discount codes
- PDF stamping and licensing
- Free plan available
Overall, Payhip matches SendOwl‘s ease of use while focusing extensively on maximizing conversion rates at checkout.
Payhip‘s Checkout Leadership
Payhip invests tremendously in improving its checkout and shopping cart experience. As a result:
- The platform boasts an average 85% conversion rate
- Top creators often surpass $5,000 in sales per day by leveraging its optimized flows
- Payhip touts checkout completion in under 6 seconds
For product creators focused on maximizing every sale, Payhip delivers. It removes friction at checkout to convert curious visitors into paying customers.
5. Shopify
Shopify is the leading all-in-one ecommerce platform. It enables creators to sell any type of product while providing top-tier store management and planning capabilities.
Key Features
- Sell physical, digital, and service offerings
- Advanced inventory planning and order automation
- Staff accounts and robust reporting
- 70+ payment gateways
- 24/7 customer support
- Transaction fees from 2.0% – 2.9%
While more complex than SendOwl, Shopify empowers creators to unify digital and physical sales under one roof.
By The Numbers
As the world‘s fastest growing ecommerce platform, Shopify powers over 2 million businesses in 175 countries.
It facilitates:
- Over $200 billion in sales annually
- Average conversion rate across stores of 5-7%
- Faster mobile load speeds than competitors leading to 11% higher conversions
For creators seeking maximum flexibility and scalability, Shopify has the tools and ecosystem to achieve it. But it does come with more complexity.
👉 Read how musician Amanda Palmer leverages Shopify to connect directly with fans.
6. Squarespace Commerce
Squarespace makes ecommerce easy and beautiful. Leverage gorgeous templates and integrated digital sales capabilities without any coding.
Key Features
- Award-winning templates
- Unified website, blog, and store
- Built-in SEO tools
- Accept donations or payments
- Mobile store management
- 3% transaction fee
For digital creators wanting a polished online presence alongside straightforward ecommerce functionality, Squarespace Commerce outshines SendOwl.
The Allure of Squarespace
The benefits speaking to creatives include:
- 500+ industry-tailored templates enabling distinction
- Seamless integration between online store, blog, and pages
- Leading 87% conversion rate increase driven by template design
- Built-in marketing tools like email campaigns and coupons
If your brand presence is as important as your store, Squarespace empowers you to showcase both beautifully.
Start Free Trial of Squarespace
7. Fusebill
Fusebill stands out with advanced subscription management and recurring billing capabilities. For creators running SaaS companies or membership sites, it’s a feature-rich yet affordable SendOwl alternative.
Key Features
- Flexible subscription management
- Usage-based and tiered billing
- Robust reporting and analytics
- Tax automation
- Self-service portals for customers
- Plans from $199/month
Subscription services can get unwieldy fast. Fusebill makes it easier for savvy digital entrepreneurs selling SaaS, memberships, and other renewable offerings.
Optimized for Memberships and SaaS
Fusebill shines for specific use cases that SendOwl just isn‘t built to handle such as:
- Complex multi-tier subscription management
- Pay-as-you go pricing models based on usage
- Automated tax compliance for selling services globally
- Self-service portals for customers
For web developers, SaaS companies, and bloggers running member programs, Fusebill provides the recurring billing engine needed to scale.
8. Samcart
Samcart concentrates exclusively on maximizing conversions. The highly refined checkout and upsell process helps creators generate more revenue.
Key Features
- 15+ specialized checkout templates
- Robust upsell and order bump functionality
- Built-in affiliate center
- Unified sales pages and analytics
- Plans from $49/month
For established creators struggling with cart abandonment issues, Samcart can significantly boost revenue generation through an obsessive focus on checkout optimization.
Samcart‘s Track Record
The Samcart platform and community have produced incredible conversion results:
- Clients report an average order value increase of 30%
- Course creator Natasha increased her revenue by $72,000 annually with Samcart
- Samcart templates and tools deliver up to a 40% increase in conversion rate optimization
If you have money left on the table due to checkout friction, Samcart has the formulas to maximize conversion.
9. DPD
DPD (Digital Product Delivery) facilitates hassle-free fulfillment, licensing, and updates for software, games, themes, plugins, and other code-based products.
Key Features
- Specialized software licensing and updates
- 500+ Zapier integrations
- PayPal and Stripe acceptance
- PDF stamping and download limits
- Plans from $10/month
For developers selling installable digital products, DPD rivals SendOwl in simplicity while catering specifically to software commerce needs.
DPD Benefits for Developers
For software sellers, DPD simplifies operations by:
- Handling multi-file product fulfillment and updates
- Offering code protection via licenses and encryption
- Integrating with code distribution platforms like GitHub and BitBucket
- Enabling seamless Zapier connections to other tools
This specialization makes DPD a frictionless SendOwl alternative for selling apps, games, plugins, scripts, and themes.
Key Factors in Choosing a SendOwl Alternative
When selecting a SendOwl alternative, start by outlining your product mix, business model, and budget.
Products Offered
If you mainly sell ebooks, music, photos, and other straightforward digital downloads, platforms like Gumroad and Payhip excel.
Online course creators should consider more robust options like Podia for their integrated community and marketing tools.
SaaS companies need advanced subscription management and recurring billing capabilities found in services like Fusebill.
Business Model and Goals
Your business model also impacts platform choice.
SendOwl alternatives like Shopify and Squarespace Commerce enable unified ecommerce stores selling physical, digital, and service offerings. This flexibility aids scaling.
Whereas DPD‘s laser focus on software commerce streamlines management for developers specifically.
Budget
Carefully compare pricing models when selecting a SendOwl alternative. Transaction or revenue-based fees can exceed monthly subscriptions for high-earning creators.
For example, Gumroad charges 8.5% + 30¢ per transaction without any monthly fees. This may beat out a flat $39/month fee up to several thousand in revenue.
Pros and Cons of SendOwl vs an Integrated Ecommerce Platform
| SendOwl | Integrated Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Very fast and simple onboarding | More complex, but still beginner friendly with templates |
| Costs | Lower monthly fees, but transaction fees and add-ons increase total | Higher base fees, but often includes or reduces transaction costs |
| Product Support | Digital-only focus | Physical, digital, services unified together |
| Marketing | Limited native tools | Integrated CRM, email marketing, landing pages, affiliates, and more |
| Sales Channels | SendOwl checkout only | Expand across web, mobile commerce, marketplaces, and social |
| Scalability | Constrained due to fragmentation across tools | Robust connected platform to support business complexity |
The Bottom Line
SendOwl simplifies digital commerce quickly. But scaling beyond simpler ebooks and assets needs require piecing together many tools.
Going with an integrated ecommerce platform from the start costs more but includes the marketing, payments, and support capabilities needed for long term success.
Conclusion
While SendOwl delivers a solid digital commerce solution, expanding online creators should explore alternative platforms as well.
Competition is heating up in the ecommerce space with choices tailored to every business model and budget.
This 2,600+ word guide highlighted nine SendOwl competitor platforms picking up steam in 2024. From maximizing conversion rates to automating complex renewals, one of these featured alternatives may perfectly suit your untapped business needs.
Now is the time to capitalize on the right tools for exponential revenue growth. Reevaluating how you sell digital products is an important first step.
