Dropbox Shop is launched in beta, and I was curious to try it out and compare it with Gumroad, which I usually use for selling my digital content.
Since the time of this blog post's writing, Dropbox Shop has been discontinued as of July 7, 2023:
Dropbox Shop
Your passion. Your creations. Your business.
Dropbox Shop makes selling your digital content—like online courses, music, and art—as easy as copying and pasting a link.
From https://www.dropbox.com/shop:
Here's a quick overview of the features we'll look at in detail:
Table of contents
1. Pro and cons overview
2. Feature comparison
3. Storefront UI
4. Storefront customization
5. Product overview UI
6. Payment and payout integrations
7. Discount codes
8. Add a tip (Dropbox Shop) / pay what you want (Gumroad)
9. Customer payment methods
10. Charging fees
11. Widget / embed products
12. Gumroad advanced features
13. Dropbox Shop specific features
14. Summary
1. Pro and cons overview
Dropbox Shop
pros ✅ Clean UI ✅ Simple to set up ✅ Stripe integration ✅ Paypal integration ✅ No charging fees (except for mandatory 2.9% + $0.30)
cons ❌ No API ❌ No advanced features (like email sequences)
Gumroad
pros ✅ Customizable checkout (custom fields) ✅ Paypal integration ✅ Advanced features (like email sequences) ✅ API ✅ Discount codes
cons ❌ Distinct UI ❌ Charging fees (2.9% to 9% + $0.30)
2. Feature comparison
Here are some of the features compared side by side:
| Features | Dropbox Shop | Gumroad |
|---|---|---|
| Clean storefront UI | ✅ | ❌ |
| Customizable storefront | ✅ | ❌ |
| Stripe payout integration | ✅ | ❌ |
| Paypal payout integration | ✅ | ✅ |
| API | ❌ | ✅ |
| Advanced features | ❌ | ✅ |
| Track sales data | ✅ | ✅ |
| Charging fee | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% to 9% + $0.30 |
| File size limit | 2GB/50GB | 250MB/16GB |
| Buyers can tip | ✅ | ❌ |
| Buyers can pay what they want | ❌ | ✅ |
| Discount codes | ❌ | ✅ |
| Payment methods | 3 | 2 |
| Payment methods: major credit cards | ✅ | ✅ |
| Payment methods: PayPal | ✅ | ✅ |
| Payment methods: Google Pay | ✅ | ✅ |
Let's go over each feature and compare it between Dropbox Shop and Gumroad.
3. Storefront UI
Sure, calling a UI clean is a subjective opinion. Distinct might be a better word for what I mean.
When it comes to Dropbox Shop, the UI for your storefront is minimalistic/clean:
While the Gumroad interface is clearly distinctive with its styled buttons and colors:
4. Storefront customization
Dropbox Shop has a very minimalistic storefront but still gives you the possibility to customize the colors and background:
In Gumroad you can customize the highlight color:
5. Product overview UI
Continuing with the product overview, Dropbox Shop continues with a minimalistic product overview:
The Gumroad product overview follows its distinct UI with the choice of multiple pricing alternatives:
6. Payment and payout integrations
Dropbox Shop offers both Stripe and Paypal integration:
You'll get Paypal as a payment method when you connect Dropbox Shop with your Paypal account and Google Play when you connect your Stripe account.
While Gumroad only offers Paypal integration:
Gumroad also offers the ability to choose payouts directly to your debit card or bank account - without using Paypal:
7. Discount codes
You can't create discount codes in Dropbox Shop. While Gumroad offers both fixed price discounts and percentage discounts:
8. Add a tip (Dropbox Shop) / pay what you want (Gumroad)
With Dropbox Shop, you can offer your buyers to leave a tip for when they're buying or getting your free products:
Clicking on Add tip reveals this additional menu:
Gumroad has a similar feature, but it is called Allow customers to pay what they want.
It works similarly; you pick a minimum amount (starting with $0+) and a suggested amount. This will show up as Name a fair price on your product overview:
9. Customer payment methods
Dropbox Shop has 3 payment methods: all major credit/debit cards, Paypal and Google Pay:
You'll get Paypal as a payment method when you connect Dropbox Shop with your Paypal account, and you'll get Google Play when you connect your Stripe account.
Gumroad allows 4 payment methods: all major credit/debit cards, Paypal, Google Pay and Apple Pay:
You'll get Paypal as a payment method when you connect Gumroad with your Paypal account.
10. Charging fees
An essential difference between Dropbox Shop and Gumroad is that Dropbox Shop does not have charging fees, except for the mandatory transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30, which is the same you'd pay Stripe if you'd implemented it on your own:
Source: https://help.dropbox.com/buy-sell/shop-seller-faqs
Gumroad has a fee depending on your revenue earnings and is determined by your lifetime earnings, starting with 9%.
When you reach $1,000,000+ in lifetime earnings, you'll drop down to 2.9% + $0.30, which is the same as you'd pay if you implemented Stripe on your own:
11. Widget / embed products
Both Dropbox Shop and Gumroad offer customizable embeds.
With Dropbox Shop, you can customize the headlines and the button. You can also choose whether to show the product overview or go straight to checkout:
You can also choose between a large or small configuration:
Gumroad provides you both the option to embed your products or use a modal overlay:
While Dropbox Shop allows design customization of their Buy button - Gumroad doesn't allow design customizations but enables you to change the button text itself:
12. Gumroad advanced features
If you're looking for advanced features, Gumroad has numerous advanced features compared to Dropbox Shop:
Workflow automation
I've written a separate post about how you can set up a customized multi-step email automation flow, all for free, in Gumroad: How to create a welcome email sequence on Gumroad
Subscription form
API
Webhooks
Affiliate program
Send posts to customers
13. Dropbox Shop-specific features
A pretty neat Dropbox Shop-specific feature is that you can sell files you already have stored on Dropbox:
Dropbox Shop also enables you to sell files that are view only and won't be downloadable after purchase:
The view-only files are the only ones that requires your customers to have a Dropbox account and log in to be able to view after purchase:
Source: https://help.dropbox.com/buy-sell/buy-on-dropbox-shop
14. Summary
Dropbox Shop
✅ Stripe integration ✅ Paypal integration ✅ Major credit/debit cards ✅ Basic features ✅ No charging fees (except for mandatory 2.9% + $0.30) ❌ Advanced features
If you're looking for basic features with some UI customization but want to get away from charging fees, Dropbox Shop is a great new alternative to Gumroad.
Gumroad
✅ API ✅ Advanced features ✅ Discount codes ✅ Paypal integration ✅ Major credit/debit cards ❌ Charging fees (2.9% to 9% + $0.30)
If you're looking for advanced features, including sending automated emails to your customers, then Gumroad will fit your needs.
Let me know if you decide to set up a Dropbox Shop store, would love to see it 🚀