The internet has opened up immense opportunities for individuals and businesses to sell digital products and assets online. As technology continues to evolve, more people are creating and selling digital goods like ebooks, online courses, software, graphics, music, and more.
Selling digital products comes with many advantages over physical goods, such as:
- No shipping, storage, or packaging costs
- Ability to instantly deliver products worldwide
- Inventory that never runs out
- Passive income potential
- Lower overhead expenses
However, one question creators often struggle with is – where do I sell my digital products? Trying to drive traffic to your own website takes time. Instead, leveraging an existing platform or marketplace site can help you tap into a built-in audience of motivated buyers.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the 13 best platforms for selling your digital assets in 2023.
Benefits of Using a Digital Marketplace
Here are some of the biggest reasons you should consider selling through an established marketplace:
Streamlined infrastructure – The platform handles all the hosting, delivery, payment processing, security, and more. This allows you to focus entirely on your products.
Exposure to more buyers – Marketplaces already attract hordes of buyers actively looking for digital goods to purchase. This amplifies your chances of sales.
Credibility – Displaying your items on a well-known platform next to other legitimate sellers helps establish authority and trust.
Marketing tools – Many sites provide promotional features to help sellers advertise their products to interested buyers.
Insights – In-depth statistics offer visibility into important metrics like views, conversions, affiliate sales, and more to inform your strategy.
Next, let‘s explore some of the top digital selling platforms available today.
1. Sellfy
Sellfy is one of the quickest and easiest platforms for selling digital downloads like ebooks, photos, music, graphic templates, 3D models, and more.
The setup takes only minutes. Simply create an account, upload your files, and customize the checkout pages with your brand logo and colors. Stripe and PayPal handle payments securely.
Useful features include seamless social media integration, coupons, bundle deals, subscription access, and more.
The basic Shop plan starts at $24 per month and is suited for up-and-coming creators. Power sellers can upgrade for perks like unlimited products and reports.
Overall, Sellfy is a user-friendly solution if you want a fast, no-frills marketplace to sell digital goods with minimal hassle.
2. Gumroad
Popular with digital creators of all types, Gumroad aims to simplify selling online courses, memberships, files, tangible goods, and more by "letting you get paid for what you make."
It offers an easy-to-use interface and a host of features for managing orders, promotions, subscribers, and payouts from one dashboard.
Gumroad is a secure platform suitable for selling ebooks, photos, music, comics, software, and even physical products with digital downloads.
The ability to embed custom purchase buttons on websites with Zapier integration further promotes sales. Creators also gain access to insightful metrics around sales, traffic sources, and audience engagement.
While some transaction fees apply, Gumroad remains dedicated to empowering creators first and is still one of the best selling platforms in its space.
3. Podia
Podia focuses specifically on selling online courses and digital learning products. It comes packed with all the essential ecommerce features required for managing and selling downloads at scale.
Standout capabilities include email marketing tools to engage subscribers, affiliate programs to incentivize promotions, unlimited video uploads, membership site functionality, webinar hosting, and more.
Pricing starts free and scales up based on the number of active students. Transaction fees are nonexistent outside of standard Stripe/PayPal charges. Instant payouts help creators access earnings faster.
For anyone serious about monetizing online education, Podia remains a top-tier platform that can significantly boost digital sales with the right product-market fit.
4. E-junkie
E-junkie is a digital marketplace used by over 200k sellers to distribute ebooks, audio files, images, software, and other downloadable media.
The platform is popular among entrepreneurs selling business, marketing, and SEO assets given its focus on delivering instant, automated access to digital goods after purchase.
E-junkie sets itself apart by not charging sales commissions. Instead, reasonably priced plans starting at $5 per month provide everything needed to manage promotions and payouts. There are also analytics tools to gauge product performance.
Overall, E-junkie offers a cost-effective foundation for kicking off digital deliverables like online course content, graphics, templates, extensions, themes, and more.
5. Sellwire
Sellwire positions itself as an "Ecommerce Platform for Selling Digital Downloads." The interface centralizes file delivery, analytics, order history, dynamic coupon codes, and promotions.
Buying downloads is simple for customers via Stripe and PayPal integration. Meanwhile, smart reports provide sellers with actionable insights to identify top converting products.
If you don‘t want the overhead of a full website for selling downloads, Sellwire makes it easy to set up a professional, reliable storefront that can scale.
While still expanding its third-party app ecosystem, the platform itself focuses reliably on digital products like photos, videos, ebooks, PDFs, audio, and design assets.
6. Amazon
It almost goes without saying that Amazon is the retail juggernaut for selling any product online, digital included.
The Amazon marketplace empowers millions of third-party sellers. Signing up for a seller account enables listing your digital assets directly alongside Amazon‘s catalog with massive exposure to buyers.
You can create a complete storefront presence and leverage Amazon‘s tools for advertising, SEO, promotions, analytics, improvement tips, and more to boost sales.
Top selling digital products include Kindle ebooks, software, mobile apps, fonts, clipart, photography, templates, themes, plugins, and additional digital IP that can be delivered electronically at checkout.
The trust customers already have in Amazon makes it easier to command higher price points as a third party. While fees and commissions apply, the breadth of Amazon‘s reach is hard to overstate for digital and physical goods.
7. Simple Goods
Growing in popularity every year, Simple Goods minimizes the steps to selling downloads. There are no upfront costs or monthly fees.
Offerings like photos, music, books, art, software, 3D printing files, sewing patterns, SVG cut files, textures, lyrics, articles, and plugins can all be sold via Simple Goods‘ simplified checkout system.
You don‘t need a website or storefront built out. The platform makes it easy to generate links for promoting on blogs, videos, email lists, and social channels. Analytics provide transparent sales data.
The flat, affordable rates and percentage model give creators another solid option for monetizing digital work with very little financial risk or technical skills required.
8. Ko-fi
Ko-fi stands out with its dedication to empowering creators with zero platform or sales commissions. Everything earned goes straight to the artist, author, musician, podcaster, designer, instructor, and more.
In addition to selling digital goods, Ko-fi facilitates fan "tips," monthly subscriptions, crowdfunding campaigns, and physical goods.
The site focuses on building community engagement between creators and supporters. It‘s also free to create an account and set up a digital shop. Listings can be shared anywhere fans are online.
For independent creators who want complete ownership over earnings from digital products or voluntary payments, Ko-fi delivers the tools without the transaction fees.
9. SendOwl
Aptly named, SendOwl aims to handle delivering digital products from point A to point B. Software, themes, addons, memberships, online lessons, videos, ebooks, audio, photos, and any other downloads can be securely sent out.
Flexible payment options, drip content unlock schedules, bundle deals, upsells, and more ecommerce components streamline monetization. Extensive analytics also provide actionable data to improve conversions.
SendOwl further assists creators by making digital goods shoppable on social channels and embedded into websites without added development lift. Everything remains mobile-friendly as well.
While a platform fee applies per sale, SendOwl ticks off all the critical boxes for a selling digital files at scale without needing advanced technical proficiency.
10. Payhip
Catering to selling online courses, ebooks, memberships, videos, and software, Payhip empowers creators to "sell your digital downloads globally."
It interfaces directly with Stripe and PayPal to facilitate payments. You can embed Payhip purchase modules across your website, blog, social channels, and anywhere else audiences exist online.
There are no monthly fees, and setting up an account is quick. Payhip also supports marketing components like discount codes and email collectors to nurture leads. Sellers gain access to in-depth analytics on transactions and affiliates driving conversions.
The ability to watermark purchased PDFs is also clever for dissuading unauthorized distribution. Ultimately, Payhip succeeds in eliminating hassle around orchestrating digital fulfillment.
11. Envato
Envato operates a thriving online ecosystem serving millions of customers across its Maker, Studio, Elements, and Audio digital marketplaces for creators.
Sellers have the choice of listing website themes, code scripts, graphics templates, fonts, add-ons, photography, music tracks, and more.
The sites offer unmatched exposure, built-in trust with buyers, and supportive growth tools to help creators monetize quality digital work successfully.
Third parties keep 70% commission on sales. Overall, Envato empowers digital artists, developers, and media producers to tap into steady income streams in fields spanning design, web building, audio production, photography, and beyond.
12. Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a WordPress plugin designed specifically for creators and companies to sell digital products directly on their websites.
Offering a turnkey ecommerce foundation within WordPress unlocks more customization, branding control, organic traffic potential, email collection, and sales analytics compared to third-party marketplaces.
discount codes, reviews, affiliate promotions, and other selling components ensure you can build an entire business selling downloads like software, photos, documents, videos, graphics, and online learning programs.
Pricing starts free. Additional extensions are available, and Stripe/PayPal handle payments securely. For creators desiring more ownership and less platform reliance, EDD brings ecommerce directly into your web presence.
13. Etsy
While known mostly for handmade and vintage physical products initially, Etsy also nurtures a bustling digital marketplace attracting millions of buyers.
Digital listings for graphics, printable wall art, SVG files, icons, invitation templates, sewing patterns, 3D models, photo filters, lighting presets, brushes, tutorials, fonts, music files, and more are right at home on Etsy.
The platform streamlines opening a shop, promotion capabilities, mobile selling, shipping automation, accounting, analytics, and customer support so creators can stay focused on crafting quality products.
Etsy provides an instant springboard for makers to transform passion projects into profits and potentially even full-time businesses. Low listing fees make it affordable to test the waters selling digital creations.
Key Takeaways
When exploring your options for digital asset marketplaces, first identify what types of products you plan to offer customers.
Certain platforms like Ko-fi or Payhip focus specifically on monthly memberships and online courses compared to general file sharing sites like E-junkie.
Factors like upfront costs, transaction fees, toolset, target customer demographics, credibility, scaling capabilities, and more also play pivotal roles in determining the best sales channels for your needs.
It helps tremendously to research platforms thoroughly and experiment across one or more marketplaces, especially early on. This allows you to gather data on what resonates before committing fully.
Selling online requires patience and perseverance regardless. However, leveraging the expanding digital landscape prepared to reward creators for quality work can prove incredibly fulfilling both financially and in terms of positive impact.
The platforms outlined above hope to make accessing those opportunities simpler than ever before across nearly any digital asset category imaginable.
