Link-in-Bio Stores 2026: Stan vs Ko-fi vs Beacons Fees
Most comparisons of link-in-bio stores start with features. For a creator selling a few digital products, the question that decides the choice comes earlier: what does each tool cost before the first sale, and what does it keep from every sale after that? The three names that come up most often are Stan, Ko-fi and Beacons. They look similar on a phone screen, but their pricing logic is very different. One charges a monthly subscription and no sales cut. One is free to start and takes a small cut. One mixes both, and the cut shrinks only when you pay for a higher plan. After comparing the official pricing and help pages of all three in October 2026, what stands out is that the right answer depends on how many sales you make in a month, not on which tool has the nicest templates. This guide lays out the numbers each company publishes and the gaps that remain.
If you're short on time, here's the key takeaway: Ko-fi is the cheapest way to start, with no monthly fee and a 5% fee on shop sales. Stan has no free plan, starts at $29 a month and advertises 0% transaction fees. Beacons has a free plan with a 9% fee on sales, and reaches 0% only on its $30 a month Creator Plus plan. Payment processor fees come on top of all of them. None of this predicts your income.
Why Link-in-Bio Stores Matter for Digital Product Sellers
A link-in-bio store puts a product, a payment button and a short page behind the single link your social profile allows. For a solo creator with an Instagram, TikTok or YouTube audience, that can replace a full website at the start. It also means the platform sits between you and every sale, so its fee structure becomes part of your price.
This guide is for creators who already have, or are about to make, a digital product such as a template, a printable or a mini course, and want to know which of the three tools fits a small operation. It uses only what the companies publish on their own pages. It makes no claim about how much you will earn, because none of these pages can tell you that. If you are still deciding what to sell, the guide to digital products with AI is the place to start.
How Much Does Stan Store Cost?
Stan has two paid plans: Creator at $29 a month or $300 a year, and Creator Pro at $99 a month or $948 a year. Stan's help center says there is no free plan. The homepage advertises 0% transaction fees and a 14-day free trial.
The Creator plan covers a storefront, booking tools, an unlimited course builder, recurring subscriptions, lead magnets and an Instagram auto-reply feature. The Creator Pro plan adds the sales tools that many product sellers want: discount codes, upsells and order bumps, funnels, email broadcasts and flows, affiliate management and tracking pixels. That split matters. If you plan to bundle a template with an order bump, the cheaper Stan plan does not list it. Stan's pages do not say what payment processors charge on top, so check that before you compare it with a rival that does state it.
How Much Does Ko-fi Charge for Selling Digital Products?
Ko-fi has no monthly cost. On its free option it takes 0% of one-time tips and a flat 5% service fee on shop items, memberships and commissions. The Standard option applies the 5% fee to tips as well, and unlocks extras such as more shop storage.
Ko-fi's help page also points out two details that are easy to miss. Payments go straight to your own PayPal or Stripe account, and the processor's usual fees apply on top, which Ko-fi says is typically around 3% plus $0.30. That second figure is Ko-fi's own estimate and it varies by account, country and currency. The page also mentions a paid Gold plan, but the article I read does not give its price, so I left it out of the comparison. For a creator with a handful of products and an uncertain sales volume, Ko-fi is the lowest-risk way to test whether anyone buys. The trade-off is that it is built around tips and support, so it may feel less like a sales page than Stan does.
What Does Beacons Cost, and When Does the Fee Drop to 0%?
Beacons has four plans: Free, Creator at $10 a month, Creator Plus at $30 a month and Creator Max at $90 a month. Annual prices are $100, $300 and $900. The Free and Creator plans carry a 9% fee on sales, and 0% applies from Creator Plus.
The Beacons help page lists a 9% transaction fee on the Free plan, which also includes 50 email sends a month. The Creator plan adds a custom domain and 500 email sends but keeps the 9% fee on sales, with invoices at 0%. Creator Plus is where the 0% fee starts, along with unlimited marketing emails, memberships and courses, order bumps, buy now pay later and logo removal. One caution: the page shows an edit date of about 11 months ago, so confirm the current plan table on the Beacons pricing page before you subscribe. The same applies to every number in this guide, since all three companies can change their prices.
Which One Is Cheaper at Your Sales Volume?
It depends on monthly sales. Using only the published fees, a flat monthly plan beats a percentage cut once the cut would exceed the plan price. Against Ko-fi's 5%, Stan Creator's $29 breaks even at about $580 in monthly sales. Against Beacons' 9%, Creator Plus at $30 breaks even at about $333.
Here is the arithmetic. Divide the monthly price by the fee rate: $29 divided by 0.05 is $580, and $30 divided by 0.09 is about $333. Below those points, the free or cheaper plan costs less in platform fees. Above them, the subscription costs less, if you actually need what it includes. This ignores processor fees, taxes and the time it takes to set up a store, and it says nothing about whether you will reach those sales. It simply shows where each pricing model flips. A creator selling a $15 template a few times a month will usually be on the cheap side of every line. A creator with steady sales from a large audience will be on the other side, and for that person the extra features, not the fee, may decide.
Can You Sell Digital Products Without a Link-in-Bio Store?
Yes. A product platform such as Gumroad, Payhip or Lemon Squeezy gives you a store page and checkout without the link-in-bio layer. You can still put that page behind your bio link. The better question is whether you need a bio-link tool at all.
If you sell only one or two products, a dedicated product platform can be simpler and sometimes cheaper. A link-in-bio store makes more sense when your social profile is your main storefront and you want one place for products, bookings, email capture and a media kit. For the fee structures of the dedicated platforms, see the comparison of Gumroad, Payhip and Lemon Squeezy. If the product is a printable, the notes on selling AI printables on Etsy cover the other main marketplace route.
What I Like / What I Don't Like
What I like: All three publish their fees in plain language. Ko-fi's free option removes the cost of testing an idea. Stan's flat price with no sales cut is easy to model. Beacons lets you start free and pay more only when the numbers justify it.
What I don't like: Each tool hides a gap. Stan does not state processor fees on the pages I read, and its cheaper plan leaves out order bumps. Ko-fi's 5% plus processor fees adds up on a larger shop. Beacons' 9% on its first two plans is the highest published fee here, and its help page may be out of date. Marketing pages also lean on creator success stories, which prove nothing about your own results.
Bottom Line
Choose Ko-fi if you want to test a first digital product with no monthly cost. Choose Stan if you expect steady sales and want a flat price with no percentage cut, and are prepared to pay $99 a month for the sales tools. Choose Beacons if you want to start free and move to Creator Plus only when your sales volume makes the 9% fee more expensive than the plan. Check processor fees and current prices on each official page before you commit.
Who this helps: creators with an audience on social platforms and one or more digital products who want one link for everything. Who should skip it: anyone who sells only on a marketplace such as Etsy, or who already has a website with a checkout. To plan what to sell first, the guide to the fastest AI digital products to build and sell is a good next step.
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