All four tools put links and a small store behind the one link in your Instagram or TikTok bio. They charge for that store in opposite ways — a percentage of every sale, a flat monthly subscription, or a mix — and every one of them advertises some version of "free" or "0% fees". This guide compares the full stack: subscription + platform fee + payment processing, so you can see what a sale actually leaves you.
Free plan sells from day one at a 9% platform fee. Paid plans: Creator $10/mo, Creator Plus $30/mo (0% fee).
No free plan — 14-day trial. Creator $29/mo, Creator Pro $99/mo. Stan takes 0% of sales on both.
Free plan for links. Paid selling starts on Pro ($17/mo, or $14/mo billed annually) at a 0% Linktree fee.
Free plan sells at a 12% platform fee. Paid plans from $2.99/mo; the fee falls to 9% (Pro) and 7% (Pro+) but never reaches 0%.
| Beacons | Stan Store | Linktree | Milkshake | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Creators who want to start selling free and grow into email and brand tools | Creators whose store is the main event — products, courses, bookings | Creators who mainly need a link page, with selling as a later add-on | Creators who build and update everything from their phone |
| Free plan | Yes — links, store, media kit, 50 email sends/month; 9% fee on sales | No free plan — 14-day free trial only | Yes — unlimited links and free products only; paid products are not sold on Free | Yes — unlimited links and cards, selling included; 12% fee on sales |
| Paid plans (monthly / annual per month) | Creator $10 / $8.33 · Creator Plus $30 / $25 · Creator Max $100 / $83.33 | Creator $29 / $25 · Creator Pro $99 / $79 | Starter $9 / $7 · Pro $17 / $14 · Premium $35 / $30 | Lite $2.99 · Pro $6.99 / $5.00 · Pro+ quarterly $29.99 or $99.99/year ($8.33) |
| Platform fee on your sales | 9% on Free and Creator · 0% on Creator Plus and Max | 0% on both plans | Paid products can only be sold on Pro and Premium — both 0%. Free and Starter are free products only | 12% on Free and Lite · 9% on Pro · 7% on Pro+ — never 0% |
| Payment processing (always extra) | Charged by Stripe or PayPal on top of every plan above. US card example published in vendor help pages: 2.9% + $0.30 per sale. Rates vary by country, card and payment method. Stan also charges a payout fee of 0.25% + $0.25 (minimum $1) each time you cash out. | |||
| Email: collection vs sending | Collection on all plans. Built-in sending: 50/month on Free, 500 on Creator, unlimited on Creator Plus; automation sequences capped per plan (5/month on Free and Creator, 20/month on Plus and Max per the pricing page) | Lead magnets and email collection on Creator. Broadcasts and automated email flows are Creator Pro only | Email and phone sign-up collection on all plans. No built-in sending — syncing to Mailchimp, Kit, Klaviyo or Google Sheets starts on Pro | No built-in email sending or automation. Contact form and mailing-list hookup (Google Sheets, Mailchimp) start on Pro |
| Selling tools beyond a basic product | Courses, memberships, order bumps, buy-now-pay-later and discount codes on higher tiers; invoicing for brand work | Courses, bookings, community and subscriptions on Creator; discount codes, upsells, order bumps, funnels, payment plans and affiliate management on Pro | Digital products, courses and bookings on Pro and Premium; tips and pay-to-unlock messages have separate fee terms | Sell Card for digital files, links or notes; one item priced $1–$100 while in beta; no courses or memberships |
| Page format / editing | Link page plus website builder, desktop and mobile editing | One mobile-first storefront page, desktop and mobile editing | Link page on linktr.ee only — no custom domain for the page itself | Swipeable "Cards" mini-site, edited only in the iOS / Android app — there is no desktop editor |
| Selling from Japan (per public docs) | Sales run through your connected Stripe or PayPal account and Beacons lists 20+ sales currencies. We found no Japan-specific confirmation in its public pricing or help pages — check the signup flow | Japan is explicitly listed in Stan's help center among the countries supported for its Stripe Custom accounts (a Stan-managed Stripe account, not your existing one). PayPal is the fallback | Japan is included in Linktree's published list of countries where selling is supported | Milkshake's own selling page says selling is available where Stripe's full functionality is supported; Stripe lists Japan as supported |
| Trade-off to know | The $10 Creator plan keeps the same 9% fee as Free — you pay for features, not for a better rate | No free tier to learn on, and the marketing tools most sellers eventually want sit on the $99 plan | Selling rules changed in late 2026 — many older guides still show the retired 12% / 9% fee ladder. Recheck the plan page before relying on any guide, including this one | The fee never reaches 0%, editing is phone-only, and the beta price cap ($100 per item) rules out higher-ticket offers |
Prices are USD, before tax, as published by the vendors in November 2026. Linktree restructured its selling plans in October–November 2026: paid products moved to Pro and Premium at a 0% Linktree fee, and Free / Starter were limited to free products. Beacons' top Creator Max tier was listed at $90/mo in some August 2026 sources and $100/mo in late-October 2026 sources; this page uses the newer figure. Plans and fees change — always confirm the current price, fee and what's included on the vendor's site before you buy.
Headline prices mislead in both directions: a "free" plan can be the most expensive way to sell, and a "0% fees" plan still loses money on every sale. So we ran the published numbers. Assume a $20 digital product and three sales volumes. "Platform cost" is subscription + platform fee; payment processing is shown separately using the US Stripe example the vendors themselves publish (2.9% + $0.30 per sale — $0.88 on a $20 sale). Your processing rate will differ outside the US.
| Plan (monthly billing) | Platform cost at $200 sales (10 × $20) | At $1,000 sales (50 × $20) | At $4,000 sales (200 × $20) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beacons Free ($0 + 9%) | $18 | $90 | $360 |
| Beacons Creator Plus ($30 + 0%) | $30 | $30 | $30 |
| Stan Store Creator ($29 + 0%) | $29 | $29 | $29 |
| Linktree Pro ($17 + 0%) | $17 | $17 | $17 |
| Milkshake Free ($0 + 12%) | $24 | $120 | $480 |
| Milkshake Pro+ ($8.33/mo billed annually + 7%) | $22.33 | $78.33 | $288.33 |
Processing on top: $8.80 at 10 sales, $44 at 50 sales, $176 at 200 sales (US Stripe example). Stan's per-payout fee (0.25% + $0.25, minimum $1) is not included above — cashing out $1,000 once costs $2.75. Full workings for every plan, including Beacons Creator and Milkshake Pro, are the kind of check you can redo in a minute from the vendors' pricing pages.
At $200/month in sales, the models are nearly tied. Linktree Pro keeps $174.20 of $200 after platform cost and US processing; Beacons Free keeps $173.20; Stan Creator keeps $162.20. At low volume you are choosing on features, not fees.
At $4,000/month, the fee model collapses. Beacons Free pays $360 in platform fees against $17–$30 for the 0% plans — a gap of over $330 a month, every month. Percentage fees are a tax on success; subscriptions are a fixed rent.
Milkshake never escapes its fee. Even Pro+, its best tier, still hands over 7% — $288.33 at $4,000 in sales. Low subscriptions plus a permanent percentage is the most expensive structure at volume.
Where a flat subscription becomes cheaper than a percentage fee (platform costs only): Beacons Creator Plus at $30/mo beats Beacons Free's 9% once you sell about $333 a month — roughly 17 sales of a $20 product (about $278/month, or 14 sales, on annual billing). Stan Creator at $29 crosses Beacons Free at about $322/month. Linktree Pro at $17 has the lowest break-even of the four: about $189/month against a 9% fee, $142/month against Milkshake's 12%. One trap: Beacons Creator ($10/mo) never beats Beacons Free on cost — it charges the same 9% fee, so the $10 buys features (custom domain, 500 email sends, automations), never savings.
Every "0%" claim in this category means 0% platform fee. The payment processor still takes its cut on every plan: on a $20 sale the US Stripe example is $0.88, an effective 4.4% — so a "0% fee" sale really costs about 4.4% before any payout fees. The fixed $0.30 hurts small tickets most: on a $5 product, processing alone is $0.445, an effective 8.9%. Add the platform fee back in and one $20 sale nets you $16.72 on Milkshake Free (16.4% total), $17.32 on Beacons Free (13.4%), and $19.12 on any of the 0%-platform-fee plans (4.4%, plus Stan's payout fee). Read every fee claim as a stack, not a single number.
Beacons grew from a link page into a creator business suite: link-in-bio, a store, an auto-updating media kit for brand deals, invoicing, and built-in email marketing. The free plan is unusually complete — unlimited links, a store with unlimited digital products, the media kit, and 50 email sends a month — but every sale carries a 9% platform fee, and payment processing comes on top. Creator ($10/mo, $100/year) adds a custom domain, 500 email sends a month and email automations, yet keeps the same 9% fee. Creator Plus ($30/mo, $300/year) is the tier where the platform fee drops to 0% and email sends become unlimited; Creator Max ($100/mo per the latest listings) adds heavier AI allowances and support. Email is the real ladder here: collection works everywhere, but serious sending is a paid feature.
Stan Store is a single mobile-first storefront at stan.store/yourname, built to turn followers into buyers: digital downloads, courses, coaching bookings, memberships and a community, plus lead magnets that collect email addresses and Instagram AutoDM. Creator ($29/mo, $300/year) and Creator Pro ($99/mo, $948/year) both charge a 0% platform fee — Stan's own line is that you keep 100% of every sale — but that is the platform layer only: Stripe or PayPal processing applies per sale, and Stan adds a payout fee of 0.25% + $0.25 (minimum $1) each time you cash out. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. The catch is where the line is drawn: on Creator you can collect emails but cannot send broadcasts or automated flows, and discount codes, upsells, order bumps, funnels, payment plans (Afterpay / Klarna), affiliate management for your own products and ad pixels are all Creator Pro only. For sellers based in Japan, Stan's help center explicitly lists Japan among the countries supported for its Stripe Custom accounts.
Linktree is the category's original product: unlimited links on a linktr.ee page, with the widest set of embeds and integrations. Its store arrived later and its rules changed in late 2026, which is why so many older guides disagree with each other. On the current published structure, the free plan and Starter ($9/mo, $7/mo billed annually) can list free products only. Paid selling starts on Pro ($17/mo, $14/mo billed annually), and both Pro and Premium ($35/mo, $30/mo annually) list a 0% Linktree fee on digital products, courses and bookings — Stripe processing still applies, as everywhere. Pro also removes Linktree branding and unlocks syncing your collected emails and phone sign-ups to tools like Mailchimp, Kit and Klaviyo; Linktree itself does not send email campaigns. Japan is included in its published list of supported selling countries. If you are mainly comparing Stan Store alternatives on price, note that Pro undercuts Stan Creator by $12/month at the same 0% platform fee — what you give up is Stan's store-first extras (courses and bookings exist on Linktree too, but funnels, upsells and built-in community do not).
Milkshake builds a swipeable, story-like mini-site out of "Cards" — links, about pages, videos, contact details and a Sell Card for digital products — and everything is edited inside its iOS / Android app. There is no desktop editor. The free plan includes unlimited cards and selling through Stripe at a 12% platform fee. Lite ($2.99/mo) only removes Milkshake branding; the fee stays 12%. Pro ($6.99/mo, $59.99/year) drops the fee to 9% and adds a contact form, mailing-list hookups (Google Sheets, Mailchimp), a Meta pixel, SEO controls and a year of analytics. Pro+ ($99.99/year, or $29.99 per quarter) drops the fee to 7% and is the only tier with a custom domain and Google Analytics. Two structural limits matter for sellers: the fee never reaches 0% on any tier, and while the Sell Card is in beta, each item must be priced between $1 and $100. Milkshake has no built-in email sending or automation at any price — pair it with an external email tool if a list matters to you. Selling runs through Stripe, and Milkshake's selling page ties availability to the countries where Stripe is fully supported, which includes Japan.
Multiply your realistic price by realistic units. Below roughly $150–$300 a month in sales, the free fee-based plans (Beacons, Milkshake) cost about the same as a subscription — choose on features. Above that, run the break-evens: Linktree Pro from ~$189/month, Stan Creator from ~$322, Beacons Creator Plus from ~$333.
Just collecting addresses? All four can, though Milkshake and Linktree only collect and sync. Sending from the same tool needs Beacons (from the free plan, capped) or Stan Creator Pro at $99/mo. If you already pay for an email platform, collection-only tools stop being a problem.
Products over $100 each rule Milkshake out while its beta cap lasts. Phone-only editing is either Milkshake's charm or its dealbreaker. Needing a media kit for brand deals points to Beacons; needing bookings, courses and a community in one page points to Stan.
Selling and payouts run through Stripe or PayPal, whose availability and rates are country-specific — Japan is explicitly supported by Stan and Linktree per their published docs, and covered via Stripe for Milkshake; Beacons asks you to check in its signup flow. Fees in this category changed repeatedly in 2026, so re-read the vendor's pricing page the week you commit.
On published pricing, the closest like-for-like alternative is Beacons: it also combines a link page, a store, courses and email, but lets you start free at a 9% fee instead of paying $29/month from day one. If you already sell steadily, compare totals rather than headlines: Stan Creator is $29/month flat, Beacons Creator Plus is $30/month flat, and Linktree Pro is $17/month flat — all at a 0% platform fee, all still paying payment processing. Which is cheapest depends on your sales volume and which extras (email sending, upsells, media kit) you would otherwise buy separately.
No. In this category "0%" always refers to the platform's own fee. The payment processor still charges per sale — the US Stripe example the vendors publish is 2.9% + $0.30, which is $0.88 (4.4%) on a $20 product and $0.445 (8.9%) on a $5 product. Stan also charges 0.25% + $0.25 (minimum $1) each time you cash out. Budget for the stack: subscription + platform fee + processing + payout fees.
You can list and sell without a subscription on Beacons (9% platform fee) and Milkshake (12%), and Linktree lets you give products away free on any plan. "Free" still means the platform takes its percentage and the processor takes its fee, so on a $20 sale you keep $17.32 on Beacons Free or $16.72 on Milkshake Free under US processing rates. It is a reasonable way to validate a first product; it is an expensive way to run a store that already sells.
It depends on whether you need sending, not just collecting. Beacons includes actual email marketing: 50 sends a month free, 500 on Creator, unlimited on Creator Plus, with automation sequences capped per plan. Stan collects addresses on its $29 Creator plan but reserves broadcasts and automated flows for Creator Pro at $99/mo. Linktree collects sign-ups on every plan and syncs them to external email tools from Pro, but sends nothing itself. Milkshake's mailing-list features (from Pro) are a hookup to Google Sheets or Mailchimp, not a sender.
Based on published documentation: Stan's help center lists Japan among the countries supported for its Stripe Custom accounts, and Linktree includes Japan in its published list of selling countries. Milkshake ties selling to Stripe's supported countries, which include Japan. For Beacons, sales run through a connected Stripe or PayPal account, but we found no Japan-specific confirmation in its public pages — verify in the signup flow. Processing and payout rates in Japan differ from the US examples used in this guide.
Because this guide is based on publicly available vendor information, not hands-on testing. We did not create accounts and sell products through these tools to write it. Every judgment on this page is arithmetic on published prices and fees, or a restatement of the vendors' published feature lists, so you can recheck any of it on the pricing pages yourself. No tool here guarantees sales or audience growth — a bio link converts the audience you already bring to it.