Most teachers who sell resources start on Tes, move some sales to Payhip, and at some point wonder whether their own website would be better. The honest answer is that it depends on where your buyers come from. But the fees themselves are easy to compare once they're laid side by side, and they add up to more than most people expect.
All figures below are taken from each platform's own pages as of October 2026. Fees change, so it's worth checking the latest before you make a big decision.
1. How Tes, Payhip and your own site charge
Tes: a royalty on each sale
Tes is the seller of record. It charges the buyer, collects and pays the VAT, and pays you a royalty on the VAT-exclusive price. According to the Tes author FAQ, that royalty depends on how much you've sold over the previous 12 complete months:
- Bronze (under £1,000 of sales): 60%
- Silver (£1,000 to £5,999.99): 70%
- Gold (£6,000 and above): 80%
Resources priced under £3 also carry a 20p transaction fee, including resources you've discounted below £3. There's no monthly charge. We go into the tiers in more detail in Tes royalties explained.
Payhip: a percentage, or a monthly plan
Payhip lets you run your own shop page and takes a cut that depends on your plan. As of October 2026, its pricing help page lists:
- Free Forever: $0 a month, 5% transaction fee
- Plus: $29 a month, 2% transaction fee
- Pro: $99 a month, no Payhip transaction fee
On every plan, Stripe or PayPal still charge their own processing fees on top.
Your own website: payment processing only
On your own site, payments go straight to your own Stripe account. Nobody takes a percentage of the sale apart from Stripe itself, which charges from 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards (more for premium, European and international cards) as of October 2026. Subscriptions billed through Stripe Billing carry an extra 0.7%. What you pay instead is the cost of building and running the site.
2. One £5 resource, three ways
Here's what you'd keep from a single £5 sale to a UK buyer paying with a standard UK card. We've assumed you're not VAT-registered and that the £5 on Tes includes 20% VAT, which Tes removes before working out your royalty.
| Where you sell | Platform's cut | Card fees | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tes, Bronze (60%) | £1.67 + 83p VAT | Included | £2.50 |
| Tes, Silver (70%) | £1.25 + 83p VAT | Included | £2.92 |
| Tes, Gold (80%) | 83p + 83p VAT | Included | £3.33 |
| Payhip Free (5%) | 25p | 28p | £4.47 |
| Payhip Plus (2%) | 10p, plus $29 a month | 28p | £4.62 |
| Payhip Pro (0%) | Nothing, plus $99 a month | 28p | £4.72 |
| Your own site | Nothing per sale | 28p | £4.72 |
One thing to be fair about: part of the Tes gap is VAT, not Tes. If you're VAT-registered, you'd owe that VAT wherever you sell. The rest, between 20% and 40% of the VAT-exclusive price, is the cost of selling on Tes's marketplace.
3. What fees cost over a year of sales
Single sales make the numbers look small. Over a year they don't. Say you sell £1,000 a month, or £12,000 a year, through one platform:
- Payhip Free takes 5%, which is £600 a year before card fees.
- Payhip Plus takes 2% (£240) plus $348 in plan fees.
- Payhip Pro takes nothing per sale but costs $1,188 a year.
- Tes, at Gold, keeps 20% of the VAT-exclusive price. On £12,000 of VAT-inclusive sales, that's around £2,000 a year, and twice that at Bronze.
Payhip's plans are simple to break even on: Plus beats Free once you sell about $1,000 a month, and Pro beats Plus at about $3,500 a month. If you're on the free plan and selling more than that, it's worth a look today.
4. The costs that aren't on the fee page
Percentages are only part of it. A few costs never show up as a line on your statement but matter just as much once you have a few hundred members.
Who owns the customer
On Tes, the buyer is Tes's customer. Your sales area shows what sold and where, but you can't email those buyers about your next resource. On Payhip and your own site, you can. For an established seller, that list is often worth more than any fee saving.
Your time
Running a shop on a platform means doing the fiddly parts yourself: uploads, discount codes, member questions, chasing broken download links. If an hour of your time is worth more than the fee you're saving, the cheapest platform on paper may not be the cheapest in practice.
How your shop looks
Marketplaces and shop builders make every seller look similar. That's fine when you're starting out. Once people know your name, a site that looks like you, with a proper member area, can lift what each visitor spends. That's harder to put a number on, so we won't.
5. Tes, Payhip or your own site: which is right for you?
There isn't one answer, and plenty of sellers use more than one.
- Stay on Tes if most of your buyers find you through Tes search and you don't yet have your own audience. The royalty is the price of being found.
- Use Payhip when you've got a following on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest and want to keep more of each sale without building anything.
- Move to your own site when you have hundreds of members, a growing catalogue, and the platform's limits (or its cut) are holding you back. Our pricing page shows what that costs with us, and features shows what you get.
If you're weighing up other options, our guide to Payhip alternatives for teachers compares Etsy, Gumroad, TPT and the rest. And if you've already decided to go, Moving off Payhip without losing a single member covers the move itself.
6. Quick answers
Is Tes or Payhip cheaper for selling teaching resources?
On fees alone, Payhip keeps far less of each sale. Its free plan takes 5% plus card fees, while Tes pays you 60% to 80% of the VAT-exclusive price. But Tes brings buyers to you, and Payhip doesn't.
Does Tes charge a fee on cheap resources?
Yes. As of October 2026, resources priced under £3 carry a 20p transaction fee, including resources you've discounted below £3.
When is Payhip Plus or Pro worth paying for?
Plus ($29 a month, 2% fee) pays for itself at roughly $1,000 of sales a month. Pro ($99 a month, 0% fee) beats Plus at roughly $3,500 a month.
The cheapest platform is the one that fits where your buyers already are.
