What are the alternatives to BeatStars?
·Founder, Stakk
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22 October 2026
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7 min read
The main alternatives to BeatStars are Airbit, another beat marketplace with a free plan, and Bandcamp, a music store that also sells beat licenses. If you send buyers to your own link instead, Gumroad, Payhip, Whop, Systeme.io and Stakk all let you start with no monthly fee. They charge in different ways: a plan price, a share of each sale, or a fee per sale. Checked 18 October 2026.
BeatStars itself is $4.99 to $19.99 a month with 0% commission, and its Marketplace adds a 12% service fee to the buyer's price. Our breakdown of what BeatStars costs covers each plan. This post is about where else to sell.
Is there another beat marketplace like BeatStars?
Yes. Airbit is the closest match: a store built for beats, where artists browse and buy licenses. Airbit's pricing lists two plans. Basic is free and lets you upload 20 beats, sold on its Marketplace only. Platinum is $19.99 a month, or $7.99 a month paid yearly. It adds unlimited beats and sound packs, your own beat stores, custom licenses with e-signed contracts, co-producer splits and eligibility for YouTube Content ID.
Both Airbit plans list 0% seller commission on the Marketplace and no buyer fees. That is the clearest difference from BeatStars, where the Marketplace adds 12% to what the artist pays, and where you need a paid plan before you can sell at all. Airbit takes PayPal and cards, with cards through Stripe. Its pricing does not say what card processing costs you.
Bandcamp is the other store with buyers already on it. It is built for records more than beats, but Bandcamp's fees page names beat licenses among the high-priced items sold there. If you sell albums and beat tapes too, our list of Bandcamp alternatives covers the other side of that choice.
Which BeatStars alternatives have no monthly fee?
Bandcamp, Gumroad, Whop and Stakk have no plan to pay at all. Airbit, Payhip and Systeme.io each have a free plan with paid plans above it. BeatStars is the one on this list with no free plan you can sell on.
| Platform | Monthly fee | Cut per sale | Card processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbit | $0 on Basic (20 beats), $19.99 on Platinum | 0% on its Marketplace, no buyer fees | Not stated on its pricing |
| Bandcamp | $0 | 15% on digital, 10% above a $5,000 sales threshold | Extra, typically 4 to 6% |
| BeatStars | $4.99, $8.99 or $19.99 | 0%, plus a 12% Marketplace fee the buyer pays | Through your PayPal, at PayPal's rates |
| Gumroad | $0 | 10% + $0.50, or 30% on its Discover marketplace | Extra on direct sales, 2.9% + $0.30. Included in the 30% |
| Payhip | $0, $29 or $99 | 5%, 2% or 0% | Extra, PayPal or Stripe fees |
| Stakk | $0 | 10% + $0.50 | Included |
| Systeme.io | $0 on the free plan | 0% | Extra, Stripe or PayPal fees |
| Whop | $0 | 2.7% + $0.30 on a domestic card | Included |
Free plans have limits. Airbit's Basic holds 20 beats and sells on its Marketplace only. Systeme.io's free plan stops at 2,000 contacts. Payhip works differently: Payhip's pricing page says every plan has the same features, so paying $29 or $99 a month only buys a lower cut. Bandcamp's share also applies to the first $100 of an item only, which matters for a beat license.
How much does each alternative take from a $30 lease and a $300 exclusive?
On a $30 lease, the 0% options and Whop cost the least. On a $300 exclusive, Bandcamp's $100 cap keeps its share at $15, and a percentage fee like ours costs more than most.
| Platform | $30 lease | $300 exclusive | Not counted here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbit Marketplace | $0 | $0 | The plan price. Card processing is not stated |
| Bandcamp, 15% rate | $4.50 | $15.00 | Processor fees, typically 4 to 6% |
| BeatStars Marketplace | $0, the buyer pays $3.60 more | $0, the buyer pays $36.00 more | The plan price and PayPal's fees |
| Gumroad, direct sale | $4.67 | $39.50 | Nothing, card processing is counted |
| Payhip, free plan | $1.50 | $15.00 | PayPal or Stripe fees |
| Stakk | $3.50 | $30.50 | Nothing, card processing is included |
| Systeme.io, free plan | $0 | $0 | Stripe or PayPal fees |
| Whop, domestic card | $1.11 | $8.40 | Nothing. International cards add 1.5% |
This is our arithmetic on each vendor's published rates, so read the last column before you compare rows. Gumroad's figure adds its 10% + $0.50 to card processing of 2.9% + $0.30. Whop's 2.7% + $0.30 and our 10% + $0.50 already include processing. The rows that show $0 still have processing or a plan to pay for.
The $300 column is where a percentage fee hurts. Our 10% + $0.50 comes to $30.50 on an exclusive, which is more than Whop, Bandcamp or Payhip's free plan take. If most of your money comes from exclusives, that matters more than anything else on this page.
What do you give up when you sell beats outside BeatStars?
Mostly the tools built around beat licenses, and the buyers who browse. On BeatStars, you attach license agreements to each beat, and the artist reads the terms on the cart page before paying. When an exclusive sells there, BeatStars takes the beat off its Marketplace and your Pro Page by itself. It also has stem uploads on Growth and up, publishing royalty collection, and Beat ID, which looks for your beats on social platforms.
Airbit covers much of this too, with custom licenses, e-signed contracts and co-producer splits on Platinum. Bandcamp, Gumroad, Payhip, Whop, Systeme.io and Stakk are general stores and checkouts, not beat marketplaces. On Stakk, and on any checkout that does not handle licenses for you, the license is a PDF you write and send with the files. When a beat sells exclusively, you take it down everywhere yourself, and you keep your own list of who leased it before. How to sell beats online walks through license tiers, files and that list.
Which alternatives pay into your own account?
Stakk and Payhip put the money with you at the sale. Bandcamp and Whop take the payment first and pay you out after. BeatStars sends beat sales to your own PayPal.
- Stakk. The charge is made on your own Stripe account. We never hold it, and Stripe pays your bank on the schedule you set.
- Payhip. Its pricing page says it deposits your sales to you immediately after a transaction is completed.
- Bandcamp. Its help center says Bandcamp processes the sale, then pays your PayPal 24 to 48 hours later. Higher-value purchases, such as a $500 track, are checked by hand and can take up to 14 days.
- Whop. You withdraw your balance and pay per payout, such as $2.50 for a next-day ACH transfer to a US bank.
- BeatStars. Beat sales go to the PayPal account you connect. Sales that land in your BeatStars Wallet instead can be held for up to 180 days.
If paying into your own account matters to you, which platforms let you use your own Stripe account goes through the rest.
Which BeatStars alternative fits which producer?
It comes down to where your buyers are now. If they are not anywhere yet, a marketplace does the finding for you. If they already follow you, a checkout link does the selling.
- No audience yet: a marketplace. Airbit lets you start free with 20 beats. BeatStars needs a plan from $4.99 a month.
- You also sell albums or beat tapes to fans: Bandcamp, where the share stops at the first $100 of an item.
- Lowest cost on your own link: Systeme.io's free plan at 0%, or Whop at 2.7% + $0.30.
- A flat monthly price instead of a cut: Payhip's $99 plan, which takes 0%.
- Artists already ask about your beats in your messages: any checkout link works, Stakk included.
When is Stakk the wrong BeatStars alternative?
If you have no audience yet and need buyers to find you, Stakk is the wrong choice. Nobody browses Stakk for beats. Airbit, BeatStars and Bandcamp put your catalog in front of people already shopping. Stakk also has no license contracts, no stems tools, no publishing and no file hosting: you paste a link to where your files live, and we email it to the buyer once they pay. And if the lowest fee is the whole point, use Systeme.io or Whop instead. Both take less per sale than our 10% + $0.50.
Where Stakk fits is the producer who gets asked about a beat under a video and answers with one link. The money goes into your own Stripe account. The WAV and stems can sit on the lease as an order bump, which joins the same charge, so it carries one fee. After the lease is paid, you can offer the exclusive with one tap on the same card. That upsell is a second charge, so our fee applies again. Both are on every account, and the layout came out of funnels that ran for agency clients before Stakk existed.
An example with made-up prices, not a real listing. The exclusive is offered after the lease is paid, and the artist accepts it without typing their card again. It is a second charge, so our fee applies to it too.
Want to sell beats from your own link?
Stakk is free to start, with no monthly fee. We take 10% + $0.50 a sale with card processing included. Connect your own Stripe account, list a lease, add the stems as a bump and the exclusive as an upsell, and share the link where artists already find you.