TL;DR
Beacons is free to start: a link in bio with a store, email, a media kit and Beam, an AI assistant that sets them up on every plan. The Beacons fee is 9% on Free and Creator ($10 a month) and 0% on Creator Plus ($30 a month). Payhip is strongest on tax: it handles VAT on digital sales to EU and UK buyers and, since July 2026, collects and pays US sales tax and most Canadian sales tax for you. Its plans differ only by fee: Free (5%), Plus ($29 a month, 2%) and Pro ($99 a month, 0%).
Plan snapshot
| Beacons | Payhip | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: link in bio, store, media kit, 50 email sends/mo, Beam; 9% fee | Yes: every feature, unlimited products; 5% fee |
| Paid plans (monthly) | Creator $10 (9%) / Creator Plus $30 (0%) / Creator Max $100 (0%) | Plus $29 (2%) / Pro $99 (0%) |
| Billed annually | $8.33 / $25 / $83.33 per month | No annual option shown |
| Courses & memberships | One course (no video hosting) on Free and Creator; unlimited courses with video plus memberships on Creator Plus | Courses, coaching and memberships on every plan |
| Email marketing | 50 sends/mo Free, 500 Creator, no monthly limit on Creator Plus | Customer updates; integrations with Mailchimp, Kit and others |
| Media kit / brand deals | Media kit and affiliate marketplace with 12,000+ brands | None |
| Custom domain | From Creator, free for the first year | Free on every plan |
| Tax handling | You handle VAT and sales tax | VAT on EU/UK digital sales; US sales tax; Canadian GST/HST and PST (not Quebec QST) |
Prices in USD, checked Nov 2, 2026; tax pages checked Nov 6, 2026. Sources: Beacons pricing; Payhip pricing; Payhip VAT & taxes; Payhip US sales tax; Payhip Canada sales tax; Payhip: How do I get paid?.
What you keep after plan price and fees
On Beacons alone, Creator Plus pays for itself over Free at about $333 a month in sales.
Beacons' paid plans also add features: Creator adds a custom domain and 500 email sends; Creator Plus adds 0% fees, buy now, pay later, no monthly send limit, hosted-video courses, memberships and installment plans.
| Plan | Plan price | Platform fee | You keep on $200/mo in sales | You keep on $1,000/mo in sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beacons Free | $0 | 9% | $173 | $866 |
| Beacons Creator Plus | $30/mo | 0% | $161 | $926 |
| Payhip Free | $0 | 5% | $181 | $906 |
| Payhip Plus | $29/mo | 2% | $158 | $907 |
| Payhip Pro | $99/mo | 0% | $92 | $857 |
You keep = sales minus plan price, platform fee and Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30 per order), with monthly billing and $20 orders.
Payhip has the better free plan, and Beacons the better paid one: Creator Plus beats Payhip Free once you sell about $600 a month, and Payhip Plus at almost any level where a plan makes sense.
Get 0% seller fees for $30 a month, not $99.
How we compared
We used official pricing pages and help centers (Nov 2 and Nov 6, 2026). We make Beacons, so where Payhip fits better, we say so. I spent the most time on tax, the one part of this comparison I had to learn rather than one I already knew.
Storefront or link-in-bio page
Payhip builds a multi-page store with a catalog, custom pages, a blog and a free custom domain, plus buy buttons for an existing site. It has no bio-page format, so you put the store URL in your bio.
Beacons starts from the bio page: links, videos, email signup and store blocks on one mobile page, so a follower buys without leaving it. Beam can build that page and draft your product listings.
What you can sell, and who handles tax
Payhip sells downloads, courses, coaching, memberships and physical products on every plan, with license keys, PDF stamping, bundles, upsells and a seller-run affiliate program. Payments land in your own PayPal or Stripe account. Beacons sells unlimited digital products, appointments, courses and memberships, with discount codes, order bumps and limited-quantity offers on every plan, but doesn't handle shipping.
Tax is the biggest practical difference. Payhip handles VAT on digital sales to EU and UK buyers. Since July 1, 2026, it also collects and pays US sales tax as a marketplace facilitator, though a seller with a physical presence in a state may still need to file a zero-dollar return there. In Canada it covers GST/HST and PST; Quebec's QST stays with you. Beacons doesn't collect VAT or sales tax. If many buyers are in the EU or UK, this can outweigh the fee.
Courses, email and DMs
Payhip includes courses and memberships on Free, so a first course costs only the 5% fee.
Payhip's email covers customer updates and passes subscribers to tools like Mailchimp or Kit. Beacons includes broadcasts and a welcome automation on every plan, plus Instagram auto-DMs on Free, and Beam can write and schedule the emails.
Brand deals and analytics
Payhip has no media kit or brand-deal features. Beacons includes a media kit that refreshes daily, with a "Work with me" form brands can use to contact you, and Beam can find brands and draft pitches that go out only after you approve them. There's also an affiliate marketplace with 12,000+ brands, and store pixels (GA4, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest) on every plan.
Would you still need a second tool?
If VAT or shipping is why you chose Payhip, keep selling those products there and link to them from your Beacons page. Otherwise, Beacons covers the page, store, email and brand deals.
Switching from Payhip to Beacons
Beacons' URL Import creates a product from a Payhip product URL, one at a time; you upload the file yourself. Export your buyers from Payhip as a CSV and import them in Audience; each contact gets an opt-in email first. Active Payhip memberships don't transfer, so members re-subscribe, and keep Payhip open so past buyers can reach their files.
When to choose Payhip vs Beacons
If most of your buyers are in the EU or UK, I would stay on Payhip for the VAT alone, whatever the fee math says.
Choose Payhip if:
- Many buyers are in the EU or UK and you want VAT handled for you.
- You sell physical products alongside digital ones.
- You sell under about $600 a month and want no subscription.
Choose Beacons if:
- You want your bio page, store, email, auto-DMs and media kit together, free.
- You sell more than about $600 a month and want 0% for $30, not $99.
- Brand deals and affiliate commissions are part of your income.
Run your bio page, store, email and media kit together, free.
Our data: how many Beacons buyers pay in euros or pounds
- About one in six paid Beacons orders were in euros or pounds. If your buyers look like that, Payhip's VAT handling is worth weighing before the fee.
Source: Beacons sales data (PostHog), Sep 28 to Oct 27, 2026: paid orders by checkout currency. Currency stands in for where buyers are; it doesn't measure it.