Is Selling Memberships On Payhip Profitable
Last updated: April 2026 ·affiliate disclosure
Most membership sellers on Payhip see net margins between 75% and 85% after all fees are deducted. This assumes you're charging $10-50/month and have moderate churn. Your actual profitability depends heavily on three factors: your subscription price point, customer lifetime value, and how aggressively you acquire members. At lower price points ($5-15/month), you're fighting against fixed costs and churn making profitability harder. At higher price points ($50+/month), Payhip becomes genuinely profitable even with 30-40% monthly churn.
Payhip Fees for memberships Sellers
Payhip charges a flat 5% + $0.50 per transaction on memberships, regardless of billing frequency. On a $20/month membership, you lose $1.50 per transaction (7.5% effective rate). If your member stays 6 months, that's $9 in fees on $120 revenue—a 7.5% lifetime fee hit. Payment processor fees add another 2.2% + $0.50 per transaction on top of Payhip's cut. This means a $20 monthly charge actually costs you about 9.7% of revenue in combined fees.
Profit Margin Benchmarks
Good margins on Payhip memberships start at 80% net (after fees, payment processing, and accounting for a 40% annual churn rate). Most sellers reporting profitability run $25-99/month memberships with 3+ month average lifetime value. Average performers see 70-75% net margins with higher churn (50%+) or lower price points ($10-20/month). Poor margins happen below $10/month or with churn exceeding 60% in the first 90 days—you're fighting the fixed $0.50 fee structure.
Calculate your actual numbers
The margins above are averages. Your real profit depends on your specific price, costs, and volume.
Run Your Payhip Profit Calculation →Verdict: Is It Worth It?
Selling memberships on Payhip is profitable, but only if your price point is $15+/month and you keep churn below 50% annually. The 5% + $0.50 fee structure hurts low-price offerings. You're better off here than Stripe's default rates, but worse than Memberful or Substack if you're building serious recurring revenue at scale. Start here to test. Scale elsewhere once you hit $5k+ monthly recurring revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Payhip's membership fees exactly?
Payhip charges 5% + $0.50 per transaction on memberships. For a $20/month membership, you pay $1.50 per billing cycle (7.5% effective rate). Payment processor fees add another 2.2% + $0.50 on top, bringing total fees to roughly 9.7% of revenue per transaction.
What membership margins should I expect on Payhip?
Expect 75-85% net margins on $25-99/month memberships with 40% or lower annual churn. Margins drop to 65-70% on $10-20/month offerings. Below $10/month, you're unlikely to be profitable after accounting for customer acquisition and payment fees.
Is Payhip good for selling memberships compared to other platforms?
Payhip works well for testing memberships under $5k/month revenue. Its 5% + $0.50 fee is reasonable but not competitive once you scale—Memberful (3%) and custom Stripe setups (2.2% + $0.30) are cheaper at volume. Use Payhip to validate demand, then migrate if it works.
How much revenue do I need to make memberships profitable on Payhip?
At $20/month per member with 6-month average lifetime, you need roughly 25-30 active members to cover basic business costs. At $50/month, you need 10-12 members. Below that, you're operating at a loss unless memberships are truly passive or you have zero customer acquisition costs.
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