The best Beacons alternative in 2026 — 9% is a lot to pay for free
Beacons is a genuinely wide creator toolkit with a shop attached. The shop is where it gets expensive: 9% on the free tier is the steepest cut in this whole category.
Beacons' free plan takes 9% of every sale — three times our entire monthly fee at $500 in sales. SitesPlaced takes 0% on every plan and charges $14.99/month for a custom domain and the extras. Beacons keeps a real advantage if brand deals are most of your income: their media-kit and pitch tooling has no equivalent here. But if selling is a meaningful part of what you do, 9% stops making sense quickly.
TL;DR
- • Beacons free: 9% per sale. SitesPlaced: 0%, always, on every plan.
- • At $500/month Beacons takes $45 — three times our whole monthly plan.
- • At $2,000/month it takes $180. That is $2,160 a year.
- • Beacons is better if your income is brand partnerships — their media kit tooling is real and we have nothing like it.
- • We give you a website with a blog, physical products and shipping labels.
What 9% costs
| Monthly sales | Beacons free (9%) | SitesPlaced | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200 | $18 | $14.99 | about $3 |
| $500 | $45 | $14.99 | about $30 |
| $1,000 | $90 | $14.99 | about $75 |
| $2,000 | $180 | $14.99 | about $165 |
| $5,000 | $450 | $14.99 | about $435 |
Beacons' paid tiers reduce the rate; check their current pricing. Competitor prices are from their own pricing pages, checked late August 2026. Plans change — confirm before you switch.
Even at a modest $500 a month, the free tier's cut is triple our entire fee. That is the trade for having no monthly cost, and it stops being a good trade almost immediately.
What Beacons does better
- • Media kits and brand-deal tooling. If sponsorships are most of your income, that is genuinely useful and we do not offer it.
- • A very wide free toolkit — link page, invoicing, email, analytics — all in one place.
- • Speed. You can be live in minutes with almost no decisions to make.
Stay on Beacons if: brand partnerships are your main income and product sales are occasional. 9% of very little is genuinely cheaper than any monthly fee.
What you get instead
- • 0% commission at any volume, on the free plan too.
- • A real store: product pages, categories, discounts, and a blog on your own domain.
- • Physical products with stock and variants, plus shipping labels from around 5c through Shippo.
- • Digital downloads with expiring per-buyer links, download limits and a kill switch for refunds.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Beacons' 9% actually cost me?
At $500 a month in sales it is $45 — three times our entire monthly plan, which takes nothing from your sales at all. At $2,000 a month it is $180, or $2,160 a year.
Does SitesPlaced do media kits?
No. If brand deals are most of your income, Beacons has tooling we do not, and that is a fair reason to stay.
Can I keep my link-in-bio page?
Yes. Many creators keep a link page and point the shop button at their own store. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Is your free plan really 0%?
Yes. 0% commission on every plan including free. The free plan shows a small SitesPlaced badge and allows one live digital download; paying removes the badge and lifts the limit.
Stop paying 9% to sell your own work
0% commission on every plan, including the free one. Build the store free and connect your own Stripe account.
