Comparison of tools for selling downloads

This is a feature comparison study of the top 8 platforms available for selling downloadable products online. There are more than these 8 out there, but many are unprofessional amateur projects. I chose these ones for the study based on these criteria:

• They are popular; all have a substantial user base and many sellers using it already
• They were found within the first few pages of a Google search for "selling downloads" or "sell digital files", etc.
• They have been around long enough to be stable, tested and reliable
• They present themselves professionally, don't look amateur
• They are not generic e-commerce carts - they specialized in selling downloadable products
• They are generic platforms - you can sell anything digital, like e-books, music, video, software, etc.

By meeting all these criteria, these 8 platforms are good enough to be considered "the best of show" for selling downloads.

This information is accurate, as far as I can glean, in March 2011. If there are inaccuracies, it may be because the facts have changed since the research was done - most of these platforms are actively supported, and no doubt will improve over time.

Admission of bias

This comparison was prepared as a comparison essay highlighting Scubbly.com in comparison with other selling platforms. Facts are presented as facts; opinions are expressed impartially.

The Players:

Scubbly

http://www.scubbly.com/

Scubbly offers a tight, simple interface for selling digital products. Its finest qualities are:

• A refreshingly intuitive interface
• Uncomplicated features
• Streamlined buying experience
• Very good customer service

Scubbly's payout schedule is unique: funds accumulate in your account, and Scubbly pays it out all at once on the first day of each month when you have $50 or more accumulated. This saves on processing and transaction fees, and it's reminiscent of affiliate programs that also use a monthly payout schedule. Scubbly's service matches or betters its competitors in almost every category, and its per-sale fee is the lowest of them all. Scubbly is an upstart missing some features present in more mature platforms, but it has all the essentials - affiliate program, badges & widgets, and good store management & accounting tools.

Payloadz

http://www.payloadz.com/

Payloadz is unquestionably one of the pioneers in this niche, and their dazzingly complex pile of features characterizes the platform's maturity. Their documentation is the best out of all the competition. PayLoadz does have a public storefront, but its presence is disappointing - PayLoadz is primarily a webmaster's tool, providing e-commerce tools for other websites. The "Basic Account" - which is totally free to use with no fees at all - is really just a functional demo; it's limited to earnings of less than $50 per 30 days, so it can't be used seriously as a revenue generating sales tool and hasn't been included in this comparison study.

Bubdee

http://www.bubdee.com/

Bubdee is fairly new to the scene, but have come out with a nice product that covers all a seller's basic needs. The free (no monthly fee) tier has a high 9% per-sale fee which is almost a deterrent (only Tradebit's is higher); serious sellers will prefer the $9.99 per month Premium Member rates.

E-Junkie

http://www.e-junkie.com/

E-Junkie, like PayLoadz, offers a staggering feature set - it's one of those platforms that does everything you need, and a dozen things you don't. E-Junkie has been online for a long time (relatively) and has a good reputation for reliability. Like DPD, it's a pay-as-you-go monthly flat rate service. Its pricing is eerily similar to DPD, starting at $5.

Cerizmo

http://www.cerizmo.com/

Another platform offering tiered pay-as-you-go flat-rate service. Cerizmo, like DPD, has no public storefront. When you sell with cerizmo, you are using their payment gateway and product hosting, but you must have your own site to host their buttons and such. This is not a selling platform for a non-technical author or designer or musician with a product to sell; it's a webmaster's tool.

DPD

http://www.getdpd.com/

DPD almost didn't qualify for this list because their platform can also be used to sell tangible goods. But they focus on downloadable products, so they've been allowed into this comparison study. DPD's feature list is impressive, second only to PayLoadz and E-junkie for its breadth and comprehensiveness, covering the important "must-have" and many "nice-to-have" features, without being overwhelmingly feature-heavy. And for ease-of use, DPD outshines its fully-featured competition, with a breezy simplicity that rivals Scubbly. DPD does not collect fees per sale, but instead charges for monthly tiered plans with storage and product limitations. Pricing is optimal if you have very few products, and expect high sales volume enough to justify the recurring flat-rate fee.

Pulley

http://www.pulleyapp.com/

Pulley is a bare-bones pay-as-you-go, tiered monthly fee platform, with tiers starting at 50 products. The "no per-sale fee" is misleading, since you do have to cover the PayPal transaction fee per sale (in contrast, Scubbly's pay-per-sale fee includes Paypal transaction fees). They do not have a public storefront, so - like DPD and cerizmo - you are expected to integrate their e-commerce tools into your own website. Pulley's greatest quality is its ease of use - you're guided step by step through each part of the process, with interfaces that are beautifully designed. However you get no frills. No affiliate program, no advanced uploading or product management features... it's actually so plain that one wonders why the fees are on par or higher than others.

Tradebit

http://www.tradebit.com/

Tradebit has been online longer than most, and has accumulated a massive catalog of products and a very healthy userbase. Its platform is very stable, and offers a good set of core features. Using Tradebit is a challenge, since their interface is a tangle of oddly disconnected sections and forms which are sometimes confusing. The small signup fee is tolerable since you get unlimited storage and listings, but they really get you on the per sale fees - 30% of your sale price - which, if you make any significant quantity of sales, makes TradeBit the most expensive platform out of all the sites reviewed here.

Cost Summary

The two dominant pricing models for these platforms are: monthly flat-rate membership, and pay-per-sale. Two platforms - Bubdee and Payloadz - charge both at once in a hybrid fee scheme.

Flat-rate membership plans:

• E-Junkie: $5 to $265
• Cerizmo: $7.99 to $99.99
• DPD: $15 to $45
• Pulley: $6 to $299 *

Pay-per-sale:

• Scubbly: 5% + $0.30 *
• Tradebit: 30% *

Both:

• Bubdee: $0, $4.99, $9.99 (depending on membership tier), plus 9%, 6%, 4% (depending on membership tier) per sale
• Payloadz: $14.95, plus 5% + $0.49 per sale

* Scubbly's and Tradebit's per-sale fee includes the PayPal transaction fees. On other platforms (notably, Pulley) you may be paying PayPal transaction fees in addition to the fees described here

Comparison Chart

Conclusion

Which platform you choose depends on several factors:

• How many products are in your catalog
• What is your expected monthly sales revenue
• Are you plugging e-commerce into an existing website

If you have a large catalog of products, you're best to choose a platform with no product limit. If your products are very large, unlimited storage is ideal. Uploading very large or large quantities of files can be onerous, and each platform has their own way of dealing with this problem. Scubbly has easy uploading for products less than 60MB, but offers full-service uploading by a human who helps you - you send them the files any way you wish, and they process them quickly and directly into their storage cloud. Tradebit has FTP uploadability, and DPD has an "FTP DropBox". The method of getting your files into the store isn't a hindrance - it's possible no matter what platform you choose, but the limitations on file size or total storage is a long-term consideration.

For profitability: of all the platforms, Scubbly has the most generous pricing, for a no-risk venture. You can start using Scubbly for $0, and when you make sales you get to keep almost all of the profit. Interestingly, some of the tiered pay-as-you-go platforms with a monthly fee ALSO charged a per-sale fee which was nearly par with Scubbly's low rate. The only tiered flat-rate service with no per-sale fee was e-Junkie, but their monthly fee is appropriately higher. Tradebit was on the extreme expensive side of the scale, taking 30% of your revenue right off the top.

DPD has the best combination of features and usability of all the platforms. While e-Junkie and PayLoadz each have more features, they're presented with such complexity that they feel like bloat. DPD structures their features into a nice flow that's easy to consume. In the usability category, DPD, Pulley and Scubbly are winners; DPD and Pulley for webmasters who are incorporating sales into their existing website, and Scubbly for non-technical sellers who want to sell via a public marketplace. Of DPD and Pulley, DPD has the better feature set and more competitive pricing.

Cerizmo and Bubdee are in the middle of the pack. Neither have outrageous fees, but neither are they compellingly better in any way than other platforms, nor do they offer anything unique or outstanding to warrant better marks.

To get started the quickest, Scubbly outshines them all. You can be signed up with several products in your store ready to sell in less than 5 minutes. Pulley was just as fast, though after getting my products in, I still had to figure out how to get them into my website. DPD was also relatively quick; it was easy to sign up and I had their WordPress plugin working OK within a half-hour. DPD's documentation & knowledge base was very well done, one of the best in class.

High-powered large volume sellers with technical prowess might consider e-Junkie. Their flat rate doesn't include a per-sale fee, so for sellers with a very high volume of sales the higher flat rates are quickly justified. Implementing their platform is daunting for a less-experienced developer. If squeezing the most profit out of your sales isn't as high a priority, and you want a solution that's easier to integrate, try cerizmo or DPD instead.