The Best Platforms for Selling Digital Products in Non-US Markets

Most platform reviews focus on US-centric use cases: USD pricing, American payment methods, domestic tax scenarios. That's fine if your buyers are mostly American. But if you're selling globally — or you want to — the platform you're on matters a lot for how smoothly that goes.

I've tested or closely evaluated the major digital product platforms with international buyers in mind. Here's what I've found.

What "Good for International Sales" Actually Means

Before diving into platforms, let me define what I'm actually evaluating. A platform that's good for international digital product sales should:

1. Handle VAT and GST automatically — specifically, act as merchant of record so that you don't have foreign tax obligations
2. Display prices in local currencies — or at least handle currency conversion transparently
3. Support international payment methods — not just Visa/Mastercard, but alternatives preferred in specific markets
4. Have reliable checkout in key non-US markets — some platforms have infrastructure issues or poor payment routing outside North America
5. Handle compliance at scale — as rules change across jurisdictions, you shouldn't have to manually track them

With those criteria in mind, here's how the platforms stack up.

MadeThis

MadeThis is what I use, so I'll start here.

It's built as a merchant of record platform, which means international VAT/GST obligations are handled by the platform rather than by sellers. If you're in the EU and buy a product from someone using MadeThis, MadeThis collects and remits the applicable VAT. The seller gets paid their product price minus platform fees. Clean, compliant, no seller burden.

Currency display, checkout optimization across markets, and support for non-US payment methods are all handled. I've had buyers from over 40 countries and have never needed to file a foreign tax form.

For most solo digital product sellers who are selling globally without wanting to become compliance experts, this is the right default choice. The platform fee is worth it purely for the compliance peace of mind, before you even factor in the product features.

Best for: Most digital product sellers, especially those selling in Europe, Australia, or markets with complex digital VAT rules.

Gumroad

Gumroad is genuinely global-friendly and relatively well-established for international sales. It acts as merchant of record in most jurisdictions, which gives it the same core advantage as MadeThis on the tax compliance side.

The tradeoff: Gumroad's platform fees are higher than MadeThis's (10% for free accounts, 2% for paid account holders depending on tier), and the product and storefront design tools are more limited. For pure tax/compliance purposes, it's solid. For overall platform quality and seller tools, I prefer MadeThis.

Best for: Sellers who want a simple setup and are primarily selling through direct links rather than a storefront.

Lemon Squeezy

Lemon Squeezy is specifically built for digital products and explicitly markets itself as a merchant of record. It has strong international support, good currency handling, and designed-for-digital product features.

My honest take: Lemon Squeezy is a solid option with good international compliance coverage. Its pricing has fluctuated a bit and its product suite is slightly more developer/SaaS focused than general digital content. For people selling ebooks, templates, and courses, the experience is functional but MadeThis feels more purpose-built for that content type.

Best for: Sellers with a more technical background or those selling software products alongside content.

Teachable / Thinkific

Both of these are primarily course-focused platforms with broader reach into digital products. Their international support is decent — they handle VAT in the major regions — but they're more complex to set up and more expensive at entry-level pricing than the purpose-built platforms above.

If your product is primarily a course, these are reasonable options. If you're selling a mix of formats (PDFs, templates, courses, guides), the more general-purpose platforms handle the variety better.

Best for: Sellers whose entire catalog is video courses.

Shopify + Digital Downloads App

Shopify is a powerful platform but it's not built primarily for digital products, and its international compliance story is more complex. Shopify doesn't act as merchant of record — you're responsible for your own VAT obligations. There are third-party apps that help (like TaxJar integration), but the compliance burden is still substantially on you.

For a seller who wants full control and has the resources to manage compliance (or can afford to automate it), Shopify works. For most solo sellers, the added complexity isn't worth it when platforms like MadeThis handle it automatically.

Best for: Established sellers with complex catalogs and dedicated support resources.

Self-Hosted (WooCommerce, etc.)

I've seen sellers go the self-hosted route — WooCommerce on WordPress, sometimes with a digital delivery plugin. The upside: maximum control and minimum platform fees.

The downside: you're entirely responsible for compliance. VAT registration, remittance, threshold tracking across jurisdictions — all on you. Plus payment processing, fraud management, and checkout optimization. For an experienced seller with the right team or resources, this can work. For solo creators, it's usually a distraction that costs more in time than the fees they're avoiding.

Best for: Technical sellers who want full control and have the infrastructure to support it.

My Recommendation

If you're a solo digital product seller and you want to sell globally without becoming a tax expert: use MadeThis. The merchant of record setup, the automatic VAT handling, and the good checkout experience across international markets make it the cleanest option for most people in this situation.

If you want a more detailed breakdown of how I chose my platform, check out my comparison of MadeThis vs. other platforms — the international sales angle is one of several dimensions I cover there.

The platform choice is foundational. Get it right early and international sales become a feature of your business, not a compliance headache you're always trying to manage.