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Stan Store vs Beacons: Pricing and Features
Stan Store is the more established storefront with a flat monthly fee and no cut of sales. Beacons is cheaper to start and has a free tier, but takes 9% of everything you sell until you reach its $30 plan. If you sell regularly, Stan usually costs less overall; if you are testing an idea, Beacons lets you start at zero.
Both settle in USD, which is the gap worth knowing about if your audience is in India. Neither takes UPI, so an Indian buyer without an international card cannot complete checkout on either. Socioverse Planets runs Indian checkout through Razorpay for that reason, and starts at $18/mo with four other products attached. It is younger and smaller than both, and has no equivalent of Beacons' brand-deal marketplace.
Where Stan Store wins
- No platform fee on sales at any paid tier
- Larger creator community and more third-party tutorials
- More mature US payout experience
Where Beacons wins
- Genuine free tier, so you can launch with no card
- Cheaper entry plan at $10/mo versus $29/mo
- Media kit and brand-deal tooling Stan does not have
Feature-by-feature
- Entry paid plan: Stan Store - $29/mo. Beacons - $10/mo.
- Free plan: Stan Store - No, 14-day trial. Beacons - Yes.
- Seller fee on entry plan: Stan Store - 0%. Beacons - 9%.
- Seller fee on top plan: Stan Store - 0%. Beacons - 0% from $30/mo.
- Digital products: Stan Store - Yes. Beacons - Yes.
- Courses: Stan Store - Yes. Beacons - Yes.
- Paid bookings: Stan Store - Yes. Beacons - Yes.
- Media kit: Stan Store - No. Beacons - Yes.
- UPI / Indian payment rails: Stan Store - No. Beacons - No.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which is cheaper, Stan Store or Beacons?
- It depends on sales volume. Beacons starts cheaper at $10/mo against Stan's $29/mo, but charges 9% of every sale on that plan. At roughly $250 a month in sales the 9% fee cancels out the price difference, and above that Stan is cheaper. Beacons only reaches 0% fees on its $30/mo Creator Plus plan.
- Can either one take UPI payments?
- No. Both settle in USD through international card rails. Indian buyers need a card enabled for international transactions, which many do not have, so a share of Indian traffic will reach checkout and fail to pay. If your audience is primarily Indian this is the single biggest factor in the decision.
- Do they both support courses?
- Yes. Stan Store and Beacons both host course content with lessons and buyer access, and both handle digital downloads and paid one-to-one bookings. The practical differences are in fees, the free tier and the surrounding tooling rather than in the core selling features.