Stan Store did something clever: it looked at the link-in-bio page and asked, "why is this just a list of links when it could be a checkout?" Creators loved the answer. One clean storefront in your bio — digital products, bookings, courses — and your followers pay without ever leaving.
But if you're reading this, you've probably done the maths. Stan Store has no free plan. The entry Creator plan is $29/month ($25/month billed annually), and the features that make it a real funnel — email flows, upsells, discount codes, affiliate tools — live on Creator Pro at $99/month. That's $348 to $1,188 a year before you've sold anything. For a creator earning steadily, fine. For someone with a new audience and their first digital product, that's a tall subscription for a page.
The good news: the category Stan Store popularised now has real competition, including options that are free to start. This guide compares six honestly — what each charges, where each shines, and a simple way to pick.
What to actually compare (a 4-point checklist)
Pricing pages in this category are designed to be hard to compare. These four questions cut through:
- What does it cost before your first sale? A monthly subscription is a bet that you'll sell. A free plan with a small per-sale fee only costs you when money comes in. Early on, the second model is safer.
- What's the total take per sale? Add the platform's commission and the payment processor's standard fee (roughly 2.9% + $0.30 on cards everywhere). Some platforms charge 0% but a big subscription; others charge no subscription but 5–10% per sale.
- Can it take money the way your audience pays? Cards, PayPal and Stripe cover most of the world; if your buyers are in a specific region, check for local options like UPI too.
- Does it only work as a bio link? Your storefront shouldn't live and die inside Instagram. A page you can share as a link and print as a QR code works at events, on packaging, on a podcast — anywhere your audience actually is.
6 Stan Store alternatives compared
1. QRYZEN — the free storefront-plus-QR option. You get a link in bio page that sells: digital products, services, appointment bookings and payment at the moment of interest — cards, PayPal, Stripe, and regional options like UPI — with 0% commission from QRYZEN (you pay only the processor's standard fee). It's free to start, and every page ships with a QR code that never expires, so the same storefront works from a poster, a podcast mention or the back of a business card, not just your bio. Creators who outgrow the storefront can step up to selling courses under their own brand. Best for: creators and service businesses who want to start selling this week without a subscription bet.
2. Beacons — the AI-features-everywhere option. A genuinely generous free tier packed with tools (media kit, invoicing, email), but read the fee line: the free plan and the $10/month plan take 9% of every sale, and you need the $30/month Creator Plus plan to bring that to zero. Best for: creators who want one dashboard full of extras and expect to upgrade once sales are steady.
3. Ko-fi — the tips-first option. Beloved for one number: 0% fees on tips on the free plan. Shop sales, memberships and commissions carry 5% until you subscribe to Ko-fi's paid tier. The vibe is "support the creator" rather than "run a business" — which is exactly right for artists, writers and streamers whose audience wants to chip in. Best for: audience support and small digital sales; less ideal as a full storefront-funnel.
4. Payhip — the digital-downloads workhorse. Free forever plan with a 5% transaction fee, dropping as you move to paid plans. Strong on the mechanics of selling files — EU VAT handling, license keys, affiliates even on free. The storefront itself is plainer than the bio-link crowd. Best for: ebooks, templates and file-based products where checkout mechanics matter more than page aesthetics.
5. Gumroad — the veteran marketplace. Simple to start, but the fee is the story: 10% + $0.50 per direct sale, and a hefty 30% when buyers find you through Gumroad's Discover marketplace — processor fees on top. You're paying for simplicity and an audience. Best for: creators who want discovery from Gumroad's marketplace and accept the cut that comes with it.
6. Linktree — the odd one out, included because it's usually where people are coming from. Linktree is a link organiser with commerce bolted on, not a storefront: most buttons still send followers somewhere else to pay. If that leak is why you're shopping for a Stan Store alternative, a list of links won't fix it — we've compared that category separately in our Linktree alternatives guide. Best for: pointing to many destinations; wrong tool for selling in one flow.
The real question: subscription, or commission?
Strip away the branding and this category has two pricing philosophies.
Subscription-first (Stan Store): you pay a fixed monthly fee, the platform takes 0% per sale. This wins once your volume is high — at $2,000/month in sales, $29 is nothing. It loses hard at the start, when the subscription is your biggest "cost of goods sold."
Commission-first (Beacons free, Payhip free, Ko-fi shop, Gumroad): free to open, the platform takes a cut of each sale. This wins at the start and gets expensive at scale — 9% of $2,000 is $180/month, quietly.
The trap is being on the wrong model for your stage. The comfortable path is a platform that's free with 0% commission to start — which is QRYZEN's model: no subscription bet before your first sale, and no percentage skimmed off as you grow. The page itself does what we describe in link in bio with payments: catches the moment of interest and finishes the sale on the same screen.
Switching in about fifteen minutes
Storefronts migrate more easily than they look:
- Create your new page and add your products — for file-based products, our guide to creating and selling a digital product walks through pricing and delivery.
- Connect payments (Stripe, PayPal — plus regional options if your buyers need them). No website required; here's how accepting payments without a website works.
- Test-buy from your own phone. Check the receipt email and the download link.
- Swap the link in every bio — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X — and your email signature.
- Print the QR code somewhere physical: event stand, packaging, studio wall. It's the channel bio-link tools forget exists.
Your old Stan Store page keeps working until you cancel, so run both for a week if you want the safety net.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Stan Store? Yes. QRYZEN's link in bio storefront is free to start with 0% commission — you pay only standard payment-processor fees. Beacons, Ko-fi and Payhip also have free tiers, with platform fees of 5–9% per sale.
How much does Stan Store actually cost? $29/month (Creator) or $99/month (Creator Pro), with a 14-day free trial and no free plan. Stan takes no cut of sales; you pay standard processor fees (~2.9% + 30¢). Annual billing brings Creator to $25/month.
Which alternative has the lowest fees? Depends on volume. At low volume, a free plan with 0% commission (QRYZEN) or low commission (Ko-fi's 5% shop fee) beats any subscription. At high volume, any 0%-commission model wins — the question is whether you pay a monthly fee for it or not.
Can my followers pay without leaving the page? On QRYZEN, yes — products, bookings and checkout happen on the storefront itself, with cards, PayPal, Stripe and regional options like UPI. That single-flow checkout is the whole point of moving off a links-only page.
Do these storefronts work outside Instagram? A storefront is just a page with a link — it works anywhere the link goes. QRYZEN adds a permanent QR code, so the same store works from print, packaging and in-person events, which matters if your audience isn't only online.
Your followers already tap your bio at the exact moment they're most interested. The only question is whether that tap ends in a list of links or a finished sale. Create your free storefront on QRYZEN — products, bookings and payments in one page, zero commission, with a QR code that works everywhere your audience does.