What everyone else takes

Leanpub is a writing toolchain with a bookstore attached. Inkwharf is a bookstore you own, with no toolchain. If you write in Markdown and want the book built for you, stay on Leanpub. If you already have an EPUB and an audience, there's no reason to hand over a fifth of every sale, plus a membership if you want the toolchain unthrottled.

Or: every Leanpub alternative

BookFunnel is delivery without a checkout, so selling direct with it means pairing it with a store and paying two bills. Inkwharf is both halves in one subscription. BookFunnel still wins outright on ARCs and group promos, which aren't selling at all.

Or: every BookFunnel alternative

The closest thing to this product that exists, and the honest split is by format: they print, we don't. Ebooks sit behind their $299 tier while their $99 one is print-only — but they take the payment and pay you out, which is the one thing here that's arranged differently on purpose.

Or: every Books.by alternative

The same sentence as this product — sell direct, keep 100% — arranged the opposite way. Their fee is real and is charged to your reader at checkout, at 1–10% of the price plus the card fee; ours is charged to you, at $0 or $19 a month. Then the split widens: they're a marketplace with an app, an account and an NFT receipt, and this is a shop on your own domain handing over a file.

Or: every Curios alternative

Payhip sells anything digital and charges a percentage until you pay enough to stop it — 5% free, 2% at $29 a month, 0% at $99. Inkwharf sells ebooks only, takes nothing at any tier, and knows what an EPUB is. Below roughly $380 a month in sales their free plan is genuinely the cheaper deal, and we say so.

Or: every Payhip alternative

Gumroad is the fastest way to put a file behind a payment link and the most expensive way to leave it there. The headline is 10%, but it's 10% + 50¢ — 15% of a $9.99 book — and 30% if the buyer arrived through their marketplace. The crossover against $19 a month arrives at about $127 in monthly sales.

Or: every Gumroad alternative

Shopify is a store for physical goods that can be made to deliver a file. It bills $19 a month before the first sale, adds 2% to every sale taken through a provider that isn't Shopify Payments, and knows nothing about EPUB — no spec check, no chapter sample, no reader, no send-to-Kindle, no watermark. Inkwharf is free until you're selling $500 a month and is built around the file. The moment you sell anything physical, Shopify wins outright and this doesn't compete.

Or: every Shopify alternative

WooCommerce is free software attached to a real bill: no licence fee and no cut, then hosting, updates, backups and your own hours. It sells downloadable products natively, so it will deliver an EPUB — as a file in a folder, with no spec check, no chapter sample, no reader, no send-to-Kindle and no watermark. Inkwharf is $0 to $19 a month with nothing to maintain. If you already run WordPress and like running it, Woo is cheaper and you should stay.

Or: every WooCommerce alternative