The Answer in Brief
Payhip gives you your own branded shop for ebooks and other digital products, with a free plan that takes 5% per sale and paid plans that lower or remove that fee. BooksOasis is an independent bookstore where readers browse many authors' books, and you pay a flat plan, keep the full ebook price and can sell print editions too. Pick Payhip if you want a storefront that is entirely yours, built around your author brand. Pick BooksOasis if you want to be found in a bookstore and sell print alongside ebooks. Plenty of authors run both.
Your Own Shop vs a Shared Bookstore
Payhip is a platform for creators who want to sell directly. You build a storefront with your own branding, add ebooks, courses, memberships or coaching, and share it with your audience. Payhip handles checkout and file delivery, and it includes marketing tools such as coupons, upsells, affiliate programs and email capture. Because the shop is yours, buyers see only your products.
BooksOasis is a shared bookstore for independent authors and small presses. Your books sit alongside other authors' books in genre shelves, series pages, new releases and sale banners, so readers who come for one book may discover yours. You list ebook, paperback and hardcover editions under a flat listing plan, with no commission on sales.
The question is really about where your readers come from. If they come from you, your own shop makes sense. If you want them to come from browsing, a bookstore helps.
Comparison Table
| Payhip | BooksOasis | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Your own branded digital storefront | Independent bookstore shared by many authors |
| Plans | Free (5% fee), Plus $29 a month (2%), Pro $99 a month (0%) | Starter $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month for 10 books; plans for 100 and 500 books |
| Payment processing | Charged separately by the payment provider | Not charged to you per sale |
| Ebook earnings | Price minus plan fee and processing | 100% of the price |
| Print books | No print-on-demand | Paperback and hardcover |
| Other products | Courses, memberships, coaching, digital downloads | Books only |
| Reader discovery | Mostly from your own marketing | Genre shelves, series pages, new releases, sales |
| Exclusivity | None | None |
Plans and Fees
Payhip's free plan has no monthly charge and takes 5% of each sale. The Plus plan costs $29 a month and lowers the fee to 2%. The Pro plan costs $99 a month and removes Payhip's transaction fee entirely. On every plan, the payment provider you connect, such as Stripe or PayPal, charges its own processing fee on each sale.
BooksOasis charges only for the listing plan. Starter covers up to 10 books for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, Growth covers 100 books for $179 a year, and Publisher covers 500 books for $599 a year. A pay-as-you-go option adds a single title at $6.99 a year or $2.49 a month. Ebook sales pay you the full price. Print editions pay the price minus the printing cost and a handling fee of 30% of that printing cost, and readers pay shipping.
Which Costs Less at Your Sales Level
Here is a rough comparison for an author selling $4.99 ebooks, before Payhip's payment processing fees:
| Sales per year | Payhip Free (5%) | BooksOasis Starter ($29.99/yr) |
|---|---|---|
| 50 copies ($249.50) | About $12.48 in fees | $29.99 plan |
| 200 copies ($998) | About $49.90 in fees | $29.99 plan |
| 1,000 copies ($4,990) | About $249.50 in fees | $29.99 plan |
At low volumes, Payhip's free plan costs less. Once you sell around 120 copies a year at $4.99, the 5% fee passes the cost of the Starter plan, and the gap widens from there. Payment processing on Payhip adds to its cost at every level.
Payhip's paid plans change the picture for high-volume sellers of many products, but at $29 or $99 a month, they make most sense for authors with substantial direct sales or a wider range of products than books.
Branding and Customer Relationships
Payhip's main advantage is ownership of the experience. Your shop carries your branding, can be embedded in your author website and shows only your products. You can collect buyer emails, offer free books as lead magnets to grow your newsletter, run an affiliate program so readers earn by recommending you, and add upsells at checkout. For authors building a direct business around their name, those tools are valuable.
BooksOasis gives you a presence inside a store rather than a store of your own. Readers see your public author name or imprint on book and series pages, and one account can run unlimited author names and imprints. You set prices and promotions for each format, and scheduled sale prices show the regular price crossed out. It is less about building your brand's storefront and more about putting your books where book buyers browse.
Discovery
Payhip is not a marketplace in the way a bookstore is. Almost all of your sales will come from traffic you create through your newsletter, social media, ads or website. That suits authors with an established audience and leaves newer authors with the job of finding every buyer themselves.
BooksOasis gives your books a chance to be found by readers who are browsing for something new. Genre shelves, new release lists, series pages and sale banners all surface independent books, and the store's search looks at titles, series, keywords and genres. Its audience is still growing, so treat it as an extra source of readers rather than your only one.
Neither platform replaces the large retailers for reaching strangers at scale. Most authors who sell direct keep their books on Amazon and other major stores as well, and use direct channels for the readers who already know them. The direct stores then raise the average earnings per reader, while the big retailers keep bringing in new ones. Think of Payhip and BooksOasis as two ways to capture more value from readers you have, with BooksOasis adding some browsing traffic of its own.
Formats and Delivery
Payhip delivers digital files: the EPUB or PDF you upload, plus any bonus materials. It can stamp PDFs with the buyer's details to discourage sharing. Payhip does not print physical books, so print sales need another service.
On BooksOasis, one book page can carry ebook, paperback and hardcover editions in five common trim sizes, with an optional ISBN for each. Ebook buyers read in the store's app, which works offline and syncs their place, highlights and notes. Print files are checked automatically before submission, and the dashboard shows the exact cover size and spine width for your book.
I write author websites, book descriptions and sales pages, and format your books for every store.
Running Both
- Set up a Payhip shop on your author website for ebooks, bundles, courses and a free reader magnet.
- List your books on BooksOasis with ebook, paperback and hardcover editions, so readers browsing a bookstore can find you.
- Use Payhip's free book option to build your newsletter, then announce new releases and sales to that list.
- Point print buyers to BooksOasis, since it sells paperbacks and hardcovers and Payhip does not.
- Keep ebook prices consistent across your shop, BooksOasis and the big retailers.
A Payhip shop works best on a strong author website. Our guide to building an author website that sells covers the pages and copy that turn visitors into readers.
Choosing
| If you... | Lean toward |
|---|---|
| Want a branded shop on your own website | Payhip |
| Sell courses, memberships or coaching too | Payhip |
| Want affiliates, upsells and free lead magnets | Payhip |
| Want readers to discover you while browsing | BooksOasis |
| Want to sell print and ebook editions together | BooksOasis |
| Sell more than about 120 ebooks a year and want a flat cost | BooksOasis |
Frequently Asked Questions
The free plan takes 5% per sale, Plus costs $29 a month with a 2% fee, and Pro costs $99 a month with no transaction fee. Payment processing is charged separately on every plan.
No. It charges a flat listing plan. Ebooks pay 100% of the price, and print pays the price minus printing and a 30% handling fee on the printing cost.
Yes. Neither requires exclusivity, so the same book can be sold in both places.
Payhip sells digital products and does not offer print-on-demand. BooksOasis sells paperback and hardcover editions.
Yes. You can list a product at $0, which many authors use as a reader magnet to grow their newsletter.
Not really. Payhip gives you your own shop, so most buyers arrive through your own marketing, such as a newsletter or website, rather than by browsing.