If you have an ebook ready to sell, Payhip and Amazon KDP solve the problem in very different ways. Payhip is built around selling directly through your own storefront and bringing the customer to you. KDP puts the book inside Amazon's retail ecosystem, where readers can discover, buy and read it through Amazon.
That difference matters more than simply asking which platform has the lower fee. Payhip is primarily a direct-commerce tool. KDP is a publishing and retail-distribution system. Once you factor in royalties, payment processing, marketplace discovery, Kindle Unlimited and the control you want over the sales journey, the comparison becomes much more useful.
At a glance
| Feature | Payhip | Amazon KDP |
|---|---|---|
| Basic model | Direct digital-product sales through your own store | Publishing and selling ebooks through Amazon |
| Monthly platform fee | $0, $29 or $99 depending on plan | No monthly KDP publishing subscription for ebooks |
| Platform economics | 5%, 2% or 0% Payhip transaction fee | 35% or 70% ebook royalty option, subject to eligibility |
| Payment processing | Stripe or PayPal charges apply separately | Sales are processed through Amazon's retail checkout |
| Own storefront | Yes | No separate author checkout/storefront |
| Marketplace discovery | Payhip marketplace, subject to eligibility and product approval | Amazon Store and Kindle Store |
| Kindle Unlimited | No | Yes, through KDP Select |
Payhip pricing
Payhip currently has three plans. All three provide access to Payhip's features, unlimited products and unlimited revenue. The main difference between them is how much Payhip itself takes from each transaction.
- Free: $0 per month plus a 5% Payhip transaction fee.
- Plus: $29 per month plus a 2% Payhip transaction fee.
- Pro: $99 per month with no Payhip transaction fee.
Payhip says Stripe and PayPal still charge their standard payment-processing fees on every plan. Those charges are separate from Payhip's own 5%, 2% or 0% transaction fee.
For a UK seller using Stripe, Stripe currently lists a standard rate of 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards. Other card types and payment situations can have different rates. Stripe currently lists 2.8% + 20p for premium UK cards and 3.15% + 20p for international cards. A further currency-conversion charge can apply where currency conversion is required.
So the useful way to model Payhip is not simply "Payhip takes 5%." It is the Payhip plan cost plus the applicable Payhip transaction fee plus the separate payment-processing cost.
Amazon KDP pricing and royalty structure
KDP uses a completely different pricing structure. There is no monthly publishing subscription for ebooks. Instead, Amazon pays the author a royalty based on the royalty option selected and the sale's eligibility.
There are two ebook royalty options:
- 35% royalty: 35% of the ebook list price after applicable VAT.
- 70% royalty: 70% of the ebook list price after applicable VAT and after Amazon deducts the applicable delivery cost.
The 70% option is subject to Amazon's eligibility requirements and applies to sales in specified territories. The United Kingdom and United States are both included in Amazon's current list of available 70% sales territories. Sales to customers outside the eligible territories receive the 35% royalty rate.
For Amazon.com, Amazon's current 70% royalty price band is $2.99 to $12.99. This change took effect on 7 July 2026, when Amazon increased the previous $9.99 maximum to $12.99.
The 35% option has a much wider maximum price. On Amazon.com, the maximum is currently $200, while the minimum depends on the ebook's file size.
The delivery deduction applies only to the 70% royalty option. Amazon currently lists delivery costs of US$0.15 per MB for Amazon.com sales and £0.10 per MB for Amazon.co.uk sales. Amazon determines the file size used for the calculation and rounds the file size up to the nearest kilobyte. A minimum delivery cost also applies.
The 70% calculation is therefore:
70% × (list price − applicable VAT − delivery cost)
The 35% calculation is:
35% × (list price − applicable VAT)
There can also be exceptions involving Amazon price matching. If Amazon sells the ebook at a lower price to match another edition or sales channel, the royalty calculation can be based on the lower Amazon selling price. This means the headline royalty percentage should not be treated as a guaranteed amount from every sale.
What happens to a $20 ebook sale?
A $20 ebook makes the difference between the two models easy to see. The Payhip figures below show Payhip's own platform fee before payment processing. The KDP figures show the royalty calculation assuming no applicable VAT.
The KDP 70% row is deliberately shown as ineligible at $20 on Amazon.com because the current Amazon.com 70% price ceiling is $12.99.
| Platform / tier | Sale price | Calculation | Amount before other costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payhip Free | $20.00 | 5% × $20 = $1.00 | $19.00 |
| Payhip Plus | $20.00 | 2% × $20 = $0.40 | $19.60 |
| Payhip Pro | $20.00 | 0% Payhip transaction fee | $20.00 |
| KDP 35% | $20.00 | 35% × $20 = $7.00 | $7.00 royalty |
| KDP 70% option | $20.00 | 70% × ($20 − VAT − delivery cost) | Not eligible at $20 on Amazon.com |
The Payhip figures are not your final net proceeds because Stripe or PayPal can still charge a processing fee. The KDP figure is a royalty rather than a separate transaction fee, and the actual royalty can differ when VAT, delivery costs, price matching or other Amazon pricing rules affect the calculation.
For a valid Amazon.com 70% example, suppose the ebook is priced at $12.99, the file size is 1 MB and there is no applicable VAT. Amazon's current US delivery cost is $0.15 per MB.
70% × ($12.99 − $0.15) = $8.988
After Amazon's royalty rounding, that works out to approximately $8.99. This is an illustration rather than a guarantee of the royalty from every $12.99 sale.
Platform economics at three sales levels
There is one important limitation to this comparison: KDP does not have a single percentage that applies to every ebook sale. The author's royalty depends on the chosen royalty option, eligibility, price, territory, VAT and, for the 70% option, file size and delivery cost.
To make the scale understandable, here is the simple percentage maths before monthly Payhip subscriptions, payment processing, VAT and KDP delivery costs:
- $500 in sales: Payhip Free's 5% platform fee is $25; Payhip Plus's 2% fee is $10; Payhip Pro's fee is $0. KDP's 35% royalty model would produce $175 in royalties; a qualifying 70% model would produce $350 before delivery costs.
- $2,000 in sales: Payhip Free = $100; Plus = $40; Pro = $0. KDP 35% = $700 in royalties; qualifying KDP 70% = $1,400 before delivery costs.
- $5,000 in sales: Payhip Free = $250; Plus = $100; Pro = $0. KDP 35% = $1,750 in royalties; qualifying KDP 70% = $3,500 before delivery costs.
Those KDP figures should not be read as what an author will necessarily receive at those sales levels. They are deliberately simple illustrations of the royalty percentages. A real KDP account can have a mixture of royalty tiers and territories, and the 70% figures would also have delivery costs deducted.
When does Payhip Plus make sense?
The Free plan charges 5% and Plus charges 2%, so moving from Free to Plus saves three percentage points on Payhip's transaction fee.
Break-even calculation:
$29 ÷ 0.03 = $966.67
So, based purely on Payhip's own subscription and transaction fees, Plus offsets its $29 monthly subscription at approximately $966.67 of monthly sales. At that sales level, the three-percentage-point saving is $29.
The equivalent calculation between Plus and Pro is:
$99 ÷ 0.02 = $4,950
So the platform-fee-only break-even point between Plus and Pro is $4,950 in monthly sales. Payment-processing costs are separate and are not included in either calculation.
Payhip's marketplace and discovery features
Payhip is not exclusively dependent on traffic you generate yourself. It has a marketplace designed to recommend products to prospective customers outside an individual seller's existing following.
There are eligibility requirements. Payhip currently says a store needs to have made at least $10 in total sales and have its account reviewed by Payhip's accounts team before it is eligible to be listed on the marketplace. Individual products then need to be approved. Self-purchases do not count toward the $10 requirement.
Payhip says there is no additional marketplace fee. The normal Payhip transaction fee for the seller's plan still applies to marketplace sales.
That gives Payhip an additional discovery route, but it is important not to treat it as identical to Amazon's Kindle retail marketplace. The two platforms are built around different sales models.
Amazon KDP's marketplace and discovery equivalent
KDP gives an ebook a product page inside Amazon. Readers can discover it through Kindle Store search, categories, recommendations and other parts of Amazon's shopping environment.
That is a different proposition from Payhip. With Payhip, you can build the traffic path yourself and send someone directly to your product page. With KDP, the ebook is available inside Amazon's retail environment.
KDP Select adds another earning route. An enrolled ebook is automatically included in Kindle Unlimited, and the author can earn a share of the KDP Select Global Fund based on qualifying pages read.
KDP Select also provides promotional tools, including Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Book Promotions, subject to the programme's terms.
But KDP Select has a significant trade-off: digital exclusivity. During the Select enrollment period, the digital edition must be available exclusively through KDP. Amazon says you cannot distribute that digital edition digitally anywhere else, including through your own website or blog, during the exclusivity period.
That means an author choosing KDP Select cannot simultaneously sell that same digital edition through Payhip during the Select period.
Tax and VAT handling
Payhip says it automatically collects and remits EU VAT and UK VAT on the seller's behalf for applicable transactions. Payhip also allows sellers to configure other taxes and provides the relevant tax information to them.
Amazon handles customer-facing tax within its marketplace, while the KDP royalty calculation uses the list price exclusive of applicable VAT. The exact treatment depends on the customer's location and marketplace.
Neither arrangement removes the seller's own tax obligations. Platform collection of customer VAT or sales tax is separate from your own income-tax or business-tax position.
Cheaper for your own traffic
If you already have a source of buyers, Payhip's model becomes particularly interesting. Imagine that the customer arrives because they clicked a Pinterest pin, followed a link from your blog, came from an email or found your product through social content.
In that situation, you are not asking Payhip to find the customer. You are using it as the storefront, checkout and digital-delivery system through which your existing traffic becomes a sale.
KDP can still be useful when you have your own traffic, but it adds something different: Amazon's retail environment. The question is therefore not simply which platform charges the smaller percentage. It is whether you want the sales journey to happen through a store you control or through Amazon's marketplace.
For Pinterest Sellers Specifically
Pinterest is one of my own long-standing go-to ways of sending traffic to Payhip sales pages. I like the path because it is straightforward: someone discovers a useful piece of content on Pinterest, clicks because the subject is relevant, and can land directly on the page for the product rather than having to search for it inside another marketplace.
That does not mean every Pinterest click becomes a buyer. It simply gives the traffic somewhere purposeful to go. If you are already creating Pinterest content around the subject of your ebook, a Payhip product page can sit quite naturally at the end of that journey.
For that particular model, the direct product URL and your own storefront can matter more than trying to squeeze every last fraction out of the platform fee.
Disclosure: this page may contain a referral link. If you sign up to Payhip through that link, I may earn a commission. Payhip's Free plan currently costs nothing to join, although its transaction fee and any separate payment-processing charges apply when you make sales.
The Practical Difference
- Payhip is primarily a direct-commerce platform. You create the store and product page, then bring people there from your own traffic sources.
- KDP is a publishing and retail platform. Your ebook becomes a product inside Amazon's Kindle Store.
- Payhip Free costs $0 per month but charges 5% per transaction.
- Payhip Plus costs $29 per month and charges 2% per transaction.
- Payhip Pro costs $99 per month and charges no Payhip transaction fee.
- Stripe and PayPal charges are separate from Payhip's own transaction fee.
- KDP does not use a monthly subscription model. Eligible ebook sales use either its 35% or 70% royalty option.
- The 70% KDP calculation deducts delivery cost. The 35% calculation does not.
- The current Amazon.com 70% price band is $2.99 to $12.99.
- KDP Select can add Kindle Unlimited income. The trade-off is digital exclusivity during the Select enrollment period.
- Payhip's marketplace provides additional discovery, but it is not the same proposition as Amazon's Kindle retail marketplace.
- If you already have your own traffic, Payhip gives you a direct route from that traffic to your own product page and checkout.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is Payhip or KDP better for selling ebooks?
It depends on where you expect the buyer to come from. Payhip is designed around direct sales through your own storefront and traffic sources. KDP puts the ebook inside Amazon's retail ecosystem and can also provide access to Kindle Unlimited through KDP Select.
2. Does Payhip have a free plan?
Yes. Payhip's current Free plan costs $0 per month and charges a 5% Payhip transaction fee. Stripe or PayPal processing fees still apply separately.
3. What are Payhip's paid plans?
Payhip Plus is currently $29 per month with a 2% transaction fee. Pro is $99 per month with no Payhip transaction fee. Payhip says all three plans include all features, unlimited products and unlimited revenue.
4. Does Amazon KDP charge a monthly fee?
KDP does not charge a monthly publishing subscription for ebooks. Amazon instead pays royalties according to its applicable 35% or 70% royalty option and the associated eligibility, VAT and delivery-cost rules.
5. Can I sell the same ebook on Payhip and KDP?
Generally, an ebook can be distributed through multiple channels unless you enrol its digital edition in KDP Select. KDP Select requires digital exclusivity during the enrollment period, so a Select-enrolled digital edition cannot simultaneously be sold through your Payhip store.
6. Does KDP have an advantage for Kindle Unlimited readers?
Yes. Kindle Unlimited is connected to KDP Select. Eligible enrolled ebooks can earn a share of the KDP Select Global Fund based on qualifying pages read. Payhip does not have an equivalent subscription-reading programme.
7. Which makes more sense if my traffic comes from Pinterest?
Payhip can fit naturally when Pinterest is already sending people to your content because a pin can lead directly to your own product page and checkout. KDP may still be useful if you also want the ebook available inside Amazon's Kindle marketplace. The important difference is whether your sales journey starts with traffic you generate yourself or with readers shopping within Amazon.
Final thoughts
Payhip and KDP are not really two versions of the same service. They solve different parts of the ebook-selling problem.
KDP gives you the Amazon retail environment. Your ebook gets an Amazon product page and access to Kindle Store discovery, and KDP Select can add Kindle Unlimited and promotional opportunities if you are willing to accept the digital exclusivity requirement.
Payhip gives you the direct-sales infrastructure. You have your own storefront and product links, and you can bring customers from Pinterest, a blog, email, social media or other channels. Its pricing is straightforward to model: $0 per month with a 5% Payhip transaction fee on Free, $29 with 2% on Plus, or $99 with no Payhip transaction fee on Pro, with payment processing separate.
For an author who wants Amazon to be part of the discovery and retail process, KDP has features Payhip is not designed to replace. For someone deliberately building their own traffic and wanting that traffic to land on their own sales page, Payhip offers a different route.
So rather than asking which one is universally better, start with the more useful question: where do you expect the buyer to come from? If the answer is Amazon, KDP is built for that journey. If the answer is Pinterest, your blog, your email list or another audience you are building yourself, Payhip gives you the direct-sales infrastructure to complete that journey.