Beacons vs Stan Store: Plans, Fees and Who Each Suits

Beacons lets you start free and pay nothing until you sell, but takes a 9% seller fee on its Free and $10 Creator plans. Stan Store has no free plan, starts at $29 a month after a 14-day trial, and takes 0% of your sales. If you are just starting or sell occasionally, Beacons usually costs less. If you sell steadily and want booking, courses and checkout tools in one store, Stan is built around that. All prices below come from each company's own pages, read on October 17, 2026.

Plans and prices side by side

Two things on Beacons' side don't fully line up. Beacons' pricing page lists Creator Max at $100 a month, while its help center pricing and fees articles still say $90 a month. The $900 yearly price is the same in both places. The pricing block on the beacons.ai homepage also shows only Free and Creator Plus, while the full pricing page shows all four plans. The pricing page is the most current figure, so that is what the table uses.

Fees: the 9% question

The biggest difference is how each company charges. Beacons charges less up front and takes a cut of sales on its lower plans. Stan charges a fixed monthly price and takes no cut.

On Beacons Free or Creator, a 9% transaction fee applies to sales, and Stripe (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) or PayPal (3.49% plus a fixed fee by currency) charge their own processing on top. Upgrade to Creator Plus at $30 a month and the Beacons fee drops to 0%.

Stan says it charges 0% transaction fees on both plans. You still pay the standard Stripe or PayPal processing fee.

A rough way to compare: 9% of $322 is about $29. If you sell less than about $320 a month, Beacons Free costs you less than Stan Creator, even with the fee. Above that, the fee costs more than Stan's flat price. At that point Beacons Creator Plus ($30 a month, 0% fee) and Stan Creator ($29 a month, 0% fee) cost almost the same, and the choice comes down to features.

What you can sell

Stan is built mainly for digital products, and Beacons' plans are listed around digital products, courses and memberships.

Beacons lets you sell unlimited digital products and create affiliate links on the Free plan. Courses are limited to one course with no video hosting on Free and Creator; Creator Plus unlocks unlimited courses with video hosting, unlimited memberships and Buy Now Pay Later through Klarna or Affirm. The pricing page also lists a Shopify integration and a product importer.

Stan product types include coaching calls, digital downloads, e-courses, memberships, webinars, lead magnets, custom products, external links and community. The Creator plan already includes calendar and booking tools, an unlimited course builder and recurring subscriptions. Creator Pro adds discount codes, limited-quantity offers, upsells and order bumps, funnels, affiliate management, and Afterpay and Klarna. Stan doesn't calculate shipping or inventory, so physical products need a Custom Product with manual address fields.

You can start selling on Stan during the trial once you connect Stripe or PayPal. Cash-outs need at least $10 in your available balance.

For a wider look at formats and pricing your first product, see our guide to selling digital products.

Email, automation and brand deals

Email. Beacons includes email sends on every plan: 50 a month on Free, 500 on Creator and unlimited on Creator Plus and Max, with automation sequences capped at 5 a month on Free and Creator and 20 on the higher plans. Stan's Creator plan collects emails through lead magnets, but sending broadcasts and email flows needs Creator Pro at $99 a month. Stan says flows are Pro only because it pays a fee for every email sent.

Instagram DMs. Both automate Instagram replies: Beacons calls it Smart Reply and includes it on Free, and Stan includes Stan AutoDM on Creator.

Media kit. This is where Beacons stands apart for creators who do brand deals. Every Beacons plan includes a media kit that updates your audience and engagement numbers daily from linked accounts, and the pricing page lists rate cards, invoices and an AI outreach email writer alongside it. A media kit is not on Stan's plan list.

AI. Beacons includes an assistant called Beam, with 30 daily AI credits on Free, 300 on Creator and unlimited on the higher plans.

Your link and branding

A Stan store lives at stan.store/yourusername. Stan does not support connecting a custom domain, though you can forward a domain you own to your Stan link.

Beacons includes a free custom domain from the Creator plan up, used for your link in bio and store product URLs. Beacons' help center says the domain is free for your first year, which the pricing page doesn't mention. Removing the Beacons logo from your page and product pages comes with Creator Plus, according to the help center.

More on setting up the Beacons side is in our Beacons link in bio guide.

Who each one suits

Choose Beacons if you want to start free, you sell now and then, you do brand deals and want a media kit that keeps itself current, or you want email sending included without paying $99 a month. On the Free plan, move to Creator Plus once the 9% fee costs more than $30 a month.

Choose Stan Store if you sell coaching, courses or memberships as your main income, you want booking, courses and subscriptions included from the first plan, and you prefer a flat monthly price with no cut of sales. Budget for Creator Pro if you need discount codes, upsells, funnels or email broadcasts.

Consider something else if you mostly need a link page and sell physical goods through a shop you already have. Both center their plans on digital products, and our roundup of Linktree alternatives covers more options. If you are weighing Stan against the most common link page, see Stan Store vs Linktree.

Where Olaa fits

Olaa is a link in bio page, not a store, and it takes a different approach to selling. The free plan gives you one page at olaa.im/yourname with unlimited links. Olaa Pro, at $8 a month or $72 a year, shows products with photo and price from Stripe, Etsy, Shopify or Gumroad as a button or a buy card. Checkout happens in your own shop and Olaa takes no cut. Pro also sends email signups to Mailchimp and adds a contact form. It suits you if you already sell through one of those shops and want a page that points to them, not a new checkout. See Olaa's pricing for the full plan list.

FAQ

Is Beacons cheaper than Stan Store?

To start, yes: Beacons has a free plan and a $10 a month Creator plan, while Stan starts at $29 a month. The catch is Beacons' 9% seller fee on those plans. On Beacons Free, once you sell more than roughly $320 a month, the fee costs more than Stan's flat price, and Beacons Creator Plus at $30 a month removes it.

Does Stan Store have a free plan?

No. Stan offers a 14-day free trial, then Creator at $29 a month or Creator Pro at $99 a month. You can start selling during the trial once Stripe or PayPal is connected.

Does Stan Store take a percentage of sales?

Stan says it charges 0% transaction fees on both plans. Stripe or PayPal still charge their standard processing fee on each sale.

Can I use a custom domain on Stan or Beacons?

Beacons includes a free custom domain on the Creator plan and up, and its help center says it is free for the first year. Stan does not let you connect a custom domain, though you can forward one to your stan.store link.

Which is better for brand deals?

Beacons, because every plan includes a media kit that updates your audience and engagement numbers daily, plus rate cards and invoices on its pricing page. Stan's plan list does not include a media kit.

Can I sell physical products on either?

Stan is built for digital products. Stan says physical products need a Custom Product with manual address fields and that it doesn't calculate shipping or inventory. If physical goods are your main business, a shop platform linked from your page usually fits better.