# Inkwharf vs BookFunnel Canonical page: https://www.inkwharf.com/vs/bookfunnel Figures verified against BookFunnel's published pricing on 2026-08-28. BookFunnel is ebook delivery for indie authors. ## Verdict 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. ## Cost - BookFunnel charges a flat fee — $200 a year on the middle tier, billed annually — and 0% of a sale. - Inkwharf charges $19 a month and 0% of any sale, with a free tier to $500 of sales a month. | Monthly sales | BookFunnel per year | Inkwharf per year | Difference | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | $500/mo | $200 | $0 | $200 | | $2,000/mo | $200 | $228 | — | | $5,000/mo | $200 | $228 | — | ## What BookFunnel sells on top of its cut - **First-Time Author** — $3/month: $30/yr — 1 pen name, 500 downloads a month - **Mid-List Author** — $17/month: $200/yr — 4 pen names, 5,000 downloads a month - **Bestseller** — $25/month: $300/yr — 6 pen names, unlimited downloads ## Where BookFunnel is the better choice - **ARCs, review teams and group promos** — A large share of what BookFunnel moves was never sold: advance copies, newsletter magnets, cross-author promo swaps. Their tooling for handing a file to a list of people who didn't pay is better than ours, and it's most of the reason authors keep them. - **The reader helpdesk is staffed** — BookFunnel will talk your least technical reader through getting a file onto their device, on the phone if it comes to that. That's a real operation with real people in it, and it's a genuine reason to pay them. - **It's cheap if delivery is all you need** — Their entry tier is around $30 a year. If you sell nowhere but Amazon and just need somewhere to park a newsletter magnet, nothing here is cheaper for that job. ## Where Inkwharf is - **One bill instead of two** — BookFunnel doesn't take money. Selling direct with it means a storefront tool for the checkout plus BookFunnel for the file — typically $20 to $50 a month between them, two dashboards, and neither one knowing what the other did. Here the sale and the delivery are the same event. - **A shop, not a landing page per book** — Your pen name, your bio, your accent colour and every title in one place, on your own domain. One link in your back matter instead of a different one per title. - **Limits counted in sales, not downloads** — BookFunnel gates on downloads per month, which is the wrong unit for a shop: a good week costs you money. Plans here are capped on sales, so nothing you haven't been paid for counts against you — and a delivery is never blocked for a reader who paid, on any plan, over the cap or not. - **Watermarking on every plan, including free** — Each copy carries the buyer's name and a licence code, so a file that turns up on a piracy site leads back to one purchase. It isn't DRM and it never restricts the reader. ## Side by side | | Inkwharf | BookFunnel | | --- | --- | --- | | Takes the payment | Yes — cards and bitcoin | No. Delivery only | | Cut of each sale | Nothing, on every plan including free | None, because it does not handle sales | | What you pay | $0 to $19 a month, everything included | $30, $200 or $300 a year — plus a store bought elsewhere | | Storefront | A shop on your own domain | A landing page per book | | Limits are counted in | Sales per month | Downloads per month | | ARCs and review copies | Not a dedicated feature | The thing it is best at | | Group promos | None | A large author network | | Reader support | Self-serve link recovery by email | A staffed helpdesk and an app | | Reading experience | In-browser reader and send-to-Kindle on every book | A reading app the reader installs | | Watermarking | DRM-free EPUB, watermarked to the buyer | Watermarked | | Buyers into your mailing list | Kit, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, beehiiv or Ghost, on every plan including free | It never handles a sale, so whatever storefront you pair it with does this | | Pen names | One shop for now | Up to 4 on the $200 tier, 6 on the $300 tier | ## Questions ### Can I use both? Plenty of authors should. Sell from a shop here and keep BookFunnel for ARCs, review teams and promo swaps — that's distribution to people who aren't buying, which is the job it was built for and this wasn't. ### Is this cheaper than BookFunnel? Only once you're selling. Their entry tier is around $30 a year and nothing here beats that for parking a newsletter magnet. The moment a checkout is involved you're paying for a store as well, and one $19 subscription replaces both halves. ### Do my readers lose the app? Your readers don't install anything here. A purchase opens a permanent download page with the EPUB, an in-browser reader and send-to-Kindle. That's better for most buyers and worse for the handful who already live in the BookFunnel app. ## Sources Every claim above about BookFunnel's pricing, checked 2026-08-28: - $30/$200/$300 a year; 500/5,000/unlimited downloads; 1/4/6 pen names —