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Tech stack for selling a digital product

Selling files, licences or subscriptions to people in many countries means sales tax and VAT. A merchant of record takes care of that, so what is left is a good sales page and a list of people to tell about the next thing.

For example: an ebook or course, templates, a plugin or app licence, a paid community, a software subscription.

Cost $0 a month to start, about $11 a year for a domain, and 4 to 5% plus a small fixed fee on each sale.

  1. 1

    Checkout and tax

    Takes the payment, charges the right tax for the buyer’s country, sends the receipt and pays you out.

    Polar

    Usage-based

    Merchant of record with file downloads, license keys and subscriptions built in; 5% + 50¢ per sale, no monthly fee.

    Also worth a look: Gumroad, Paddle, Creem · compare all payments →

  2. 2

    A sales page

    The page that explains the product and sends people to checkout. Fast and simple beats clever.

    Astro

    Free, open source

    Fast static pages from Markdown, with checkout links or embeds from your payment provider.

    Also worth a look: Next.js, Hugo · compare all frameworks →

  3. 3

    Somewhere to host it

    A sales page is static files; hosting it is free.

    Cloudflare Workers (incl. Pages)

    Free tier, then from $5/mo

    Stops at the limit

    Serves static files free with no bandwidth charge.

    Also worth a look: Netlify, Vercel · compare all paaS →

  4. 4

    Delivering large files

    Optional

    Only if your files are too big for your payment provider’s own downloads, such as video courses.

    Cloudflare R2

    Free tier, then usage-based

    Not stated

    No egress fees, so popular downloads cost nothing extra; 10 GB a month free.

    Also worth a look: Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage · compare all storage →

  5. 5

    An email list

    Buyers and interested visitors are the people most likely to buy the next thing.

    Kit

    Free tier, then from $33/mo

    Not stated Their branding

    Free up to 10,000 subscribers, built for creators who sell.

    Also worth a look: beehiiv, MailerLite · compare all email marketing →

  6. 6

    A domain name

    The address people type (yourname.com). Your host gives you a free subdomain to start with, so this can wait until you have something to show. Compare renewal prices, not the first-year offer.

    Porkbun

    From $11.08/yr

    The same price for a .com in year one and at renewal, with free WHOIS privacy.

    At $0

    No free option

    No registrar is free. A .com costs about $11 a year at a registrar that renews at the first-year price; free subdomains from your host work until then.

    Also worth a look: Cloudflare Registrar, Namecheap · compare all registrars →

What do I need to build selling a digital product?

Checkout and tax, A sales page, Somewhere to host it, An email list, A domain name. $0 a month to start, about $11 a year for a domain, and 4 to 5% plus a small fixed fee on each sale.

Do I need to collect VAT when selling digital products?

Usually yes, in the buyer’s country, even for small sellers in many places. A merchant of record (Polar, Paddle, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy) collects and pays it for you.