Stan Store vs Beacons: Fees, Plans and a Sales Worksheet

Plans and prices side by side

Both companies quote US dollars before tax. The figures below were read from their pricing and help pages on 1 October 2026.

One coincidence is worth noticing: on yearly billing, Stan Creator and Beacons Creator Plus both cost $300 a year according to the Stan plan comparison and the Beacons pricing page, and neither takes a platform fee. At that level the choice is purely about features, which the third table covers. Stan's help article also notes that it has no free plan; affiliate-only accounts let people resell other creators' products but do not include a store.

Fee worksheet at your own monthly sales

Fill in four numbers from your own records and your payment processor's current price page: S, your expected monthly sales; N, the number of orders that makes up those sales; P, the processor's percentage; and F, its fixed fee per order. For a sense of scale, Stan's fees article lists Stripe's Australian standard rate as 1.75% plus A$0.30 per transaction, and Beacons' fees article quotes 2.9% plus $0.30 for Stripe. Use the rate for your own country and payment methods.

Two shortcuts fall out of the formulas. Because the processor lines are the same on every plan, you can ignore them when choosing between plans and compare only the subscription and the 9% Beacons fee. And to find the sales level where a flat plan beats a percentage plan, divide the difference in monthly subscriptions by 0.09, the decimal form of the 9% fee on the Beacons pricing page. Above that level, the flat plan costs less; below it, the percentage plan does. Run the sum for both monthly and yearly billing, and convert to your own currency at your bank's rate, because both vendors bill in US dollars.

Features that matter more than the fee gap

Stan's rows come from its Creator vs Creator Pro article and its custom domain answer; Beacons' come from its plan comparison. If brand deals are a bigger part of your income than product sales, Beacons' media kit may decide it; our influencer media kit template shows what a kit needs whichever tool builds it.

Payouts and payment processors

Stan's fees article says it does not handle your payments directly and has no control over the fees Stripe and PayPal charge, which vary by your location, your customer's currency and the payment method. Its Australian rows add a Stripe payout fee and extra charges when a customer pays from another country. Beacons says on its pricing page that you can cash out directly to your Stripe or PayPal account.

Because both rely on Stripe or PayPal, the processor's account, verification and refund rules apply to you as well as the storefront's. Keep your processor account in your own legal or business name, record which products sell through which account, and keep refunds and disputes documented. Questions about collecting GST or VAT on digital products, and whether a storefront acts as the seller for tax purposes, are covered in how to sell digital products as a creator.

Where each vendor's documents disagree

• Beacons' pricing page shows Creator Max at $900 billed annually alongside a monthly-equivalent figure and a $100 monthly price, while its plans help article lists $90 a month. Confirm the charge at checkout.
• Beacons' store overview FAQ calls the $10 plan “Creator Pro”, a name the pricing page does not use, while the fees article calls the same plan Creator.
• The pricing page promises a free custom domain on Creator, while the help article says the domain is free for your first year.
• Stan's help centre and terms are consistent with each other on the points above, but its terms were last revised in November 2025, so check the current version before signing up.

Content and account rules

The two diverge sharply here. Stan's terms of service prohibit material related to adult content and services and other mature-audience content. Beacons' community standards let you link out to adult content if you switch on the sensitive-content notice and keep your page suitable for all ages, but they forbid selling explicit photos, audio and video through Beacons and may not allow email marketing for adult-content businesses. If your main income is on a subscription platform, our guide to link-in-bio tools for OnlyFans creators covers which link pages accept that use.

Checks before you commit to either

1. Confirm that Stripe or PayPal supports payouts to a bank account in your country and currency, because both storefronts depend on them.
2. Look up your processor's current fees for your country, including international cards and pay-later options, and put them into the worksheet.
3. Buy one of your own low-priced products as a customer, on a phone, and note every screen, email and receipt the buyer sees.
4. Check what the receipt says about who the seller is, since that affects how you handle refunds, complaints and sales tax.
5. Count the marketing emails you send in a typical month and compare the total with each plan's sending allowance.
6. Read the content rules in full against everything you plan to sell or link to, not just the summary here.
7. Find the export option for customers and subscribers, and run it once before your list grows.
8. Diary the renewal date for whichever plan you choose and recheck the worksheet before each renewal.

Moving later is possible but fiddly, so it pays to choose with a year's plans in mind. Digital files and course videos have to be uploaded again, product pages rebuilt, and every bio, pinned post and email signature updated. Recurring memberships are the hardest part: subscribers sign up through a checkout attached to one storefront, so plan how you will invite them to rejoin before you move, and give them notice in writing. Keep your own copy of each customer list, and of each product file, so a change of tool never depends on the old provider's cooperation.

Which one fits, and the limitations of this comparison

• You have not sold anything yet: start on Beacons Free and pay the percentage only when sales arrive.
• You sell courses or memberships every month: Stan Creator includes unlimited courses and recurring subscriptions on its entry plan, while Beacons keeps hosted courses and memberships for Creator Plus.
• Brand deals matter as much as product sales: Beacons' free media kit and rate cards are a reason to try it first.
• You want email broadcasts and automations in the same tool: compare Stan Creator Pro with Beacons Creator Plus on the worksheet, since that is where both include them.
• You need your own domain on the storefront itself: Beacons supports it from Creator; Stan only lets you forward a domain.

The limitations are straightforward. Every figure is from the vendors' own pages on 1 October 2026, quoted in US dollars before tax, and both companies change plans and prices. This page compares documented features and fees, not checkout speed, support or sales results, and nothing here predicts what you will sell on either platform. For wider link-page options, including Linktree and Carrd, see our Linktree alternatives comparison, and for the rest of the stack, the guide to the best tools for content creators.