Should Freelancers Use MadeThis to Sell Digital Products? (My Honest Take)

I'm going to be direct about something upfront: I use MadeThis for all my digital products, and I'm an affiliate. That means if you sign up through my link, I earn a small commission.

I want to say that now because this post is an honest assessment, and honest assessments require that kind of transparency. I'll tell you what I genuinely like, where I've had friction, and who I think it's not right for.

If you want the full comparison with other platforms, I have a detailed breakdown at /reviews/madethis. This post is specifically for freelancers and consultants deciding whether to use MadeThis as their first product platform.

Who I Was When I Started Using MadeThis

About 18 months ago I was a freelance copywriter who had decided to start selling digital products alongside client work. I wasn't a full-time creator or course-builder. I had a 40-subscriber email list, a few past clients I could announce to, and a PDF guide I'd written in two days.

I needed a platform that could:

1. Take payment and deliver a file automatically
2. Not require me to build or maintain anything
3. Look credible enough that buyers wouldn't wonder if it was a scam
4. Not eat my margins with transaction fees

I had tried Gumroad before landing on MadeThis, and I'll compare those two in a minute.

What MadeThis Does Really Well for Freelancers

Instant setup. The fastest path from "product is ready" to "payment link is live" I've found. I uploaded my first product, wrote the sales page, and had a live checkout link in about 45 minutes. That matters when you're launching alongside a full client workload.

Clean, professional checkout. This is underrated. When you're a freelancer selling your expertise, credibility is everything. A checkout page that looks like a real business — with your branding, clean layout, and clear what-you-get messaging — matters. MadeThis delivers that out of the box.

No transaction fees. Gumroad takes 10% (on the free plan) — and that adds up fast. If you're making $2,000/month in product sales, that's $200/month disappearing before you see it. MadeThis charges a flat monthly fee and no cut of your revenue. Once you're doing consistent volume, the math strongly favors flat-fee pricing.

Memberships built in. I run a $49/month membership for ongoing clients who want continued access to my templates and monthly Q&A calls. Setting that up in MadeThis took about 20 minutes. No extra integration, no Zapier, no separate platform.

Decent enough analytics. I track revenue by product and traffic source. MadeThis shows me what I need without overwhelming me with data I don't act on.

Where I've Had Friction

SEO / discovery is limited. MadeThis isn't going to surface your product in organic search the way Etsy or Gumroad's marketplace might surface a new seller. If you don't already have a way to drive traffic — email list, social following, SEO blog — you'll need to build that. That's not a MadeThis problem per se, but it's worth saying explicitly.

No native affiliate program. I'd like to let buyers refer other buyers with a commission. MadeThis doesn't have this built in yet as of mid-2028. It's on my wishlist.

Limited course-builder features. If you want to build a heavily structured course with progress tracking, quizzes, certificates, and community — platforms like Kajabi or Teachable are more purpose-built for that. MadeThis is better for products you upload and sell, less so for complex interactive courses. You can see the full difference in my Kajabi comparison.

How It Compares to Gumroad (For Freelancers Specifically)

This is the most common comparison for freelancers just getting started. My take:

Start with MadeThis if: You're planning to do any real volume (even $500/month makes the flat fee worth it vs. Gumroad's cut), you want a cleaner checkout, or you think you'll add a membership in the next 6 months.

Start with Gumroad if: You want to test literally one product with zero upfront cost and you're not sure this will work. The free plan on Gumroad lets you find out if anyone will pay before you commit to a monthly fee.

Personally, I switched from Gumroad to MadeThis at month 2 when I was confident enough in my product market fit to pay a flat monthly fee. I haven't looked back.

My Honest Recommendation for Freelancers

If you're a freelancer who:

• Has existing clients you can announce to
• Is building more than one product
• Wants a platform that grows with you into memberships and courses
• Doesn't want to share a percentage of revenue as you scale

Then MadeThis is a solid choice. It's where I run my whole product business and it's handled every stage of growth so far.

If you're still completely unsure whether you'll sell anything at all, I'd suggest starting with Gumroad for free, getting one sale to validate the model, and then switching to MadeThis for the build-out.

The Bigger Picture

No platform is a magic solution. The platform is just infrastructure. What sells your product is whether you've identified a real problem your clients have, built a product that solves it, and communicated that clearly to people who trust you.

MadeThis handles the infrastructure well. The rest is on you — which is true of every platform.

For the full feature comparison, /madethis-pricing has the tier breakdown, and /madethis-alternatives covers all the main competitors in one place.

Ready to launch your first product? MadeThis handles checkout, delivery, and memberships — so you can sell your expertise without building infrastructure. It's where I run everything, and it's been worth it.