Stan Store vs Beacons: The $278 Annual-Plan Crossover

At $278 in monthly storefront sales, Beacons Free’s 9% seller fee is $25.02, just above the $25 monthly equivalent of a $300 annual zero-fee plan; Framekit’s crossover calculation places the switch at roughly this sales level. Beacons’ plan terms price Creator Plus at $300 annually with no seller fee, while Stan’s plan comparison prices Creator at $300 annually and includes courses and recurring subscriptions.

For straightforward digital-product sales below that threshold, Beacons Free has the lowest platform cost. Above it, the annual zero-fee plans cost less in subscription and seller fees. The choice between those paid plans then turns on the offer: Beacons Creator Plus includes email sending and memberships, while Stan Creator includes a course builder and recurring billing but reserves email campaigns, funnels and payment plans for Creator Pro.

What the crossover measures

The comparison divides an annual subscription across twelve months, then sets that $25 monthly equivalent against 9% of monthly sales. The exact equality point is about $277.78; at $278, the percentage charge has moved two cents higher. Annual billing still requires a yearly commitment, so the monthly equivalent describes cost over a year rather than the amount charged each month.

Beacons Creator has a different calculation. It costs $10 monthly or $100 annually and keeps the 9% seller fee on ordinary store sales; invoices are an exception under its published terms. At annual rates, its subscription adds about $8.33 a month to the percentage charge. Creator Plus therefore becomes cheaper than Creator at roughly $185.19 in monthly fee-bearing sales, even though Free does not cross its own $25 threshold until about $277.78. Creator can still be useful below that point if its custom domain or email automation is needed.

Platform cost from $0 to $10,000 in monthly sales

The figures below assume all sales incur Beacons’ storefront seller fee. Each line follows the same order: Beacons Free | Beacons Creator | Beacons Creator Plus | Stan Creator | Stan Creator Pro. Paid subscriptions use their annual prices divided by twelve; Creator’s $100 annual price produces a displayed monthly equivalent of $8.33. These are subscription and platform seller-fee costs, before payment processing.

$0 in sales: $0 | $8.33 | $25 | $25 | $79.
$100 in sales: $9 | $17.33 | $25 | $25 | $79.
$278 in sales: $25.02 | $33.35 | $25 | $25 | $79.
$500 in sales: $45 | $53.33 | $25 | $25 | $79.
$1,000 in sales: $90 | $98.33 | $25 | $25 | $79.
$3,000 in sales: $270 | $278.33 | $25 | $25 | $79.
$10,000 in sales: $900 | $908.33 | $25 | $25 | $79.

These are hypothetical monthly sales levels, not reported creator results. At $1,000 in sales, for example, Beacons Free would charge $90 in seller fees, compared with a $25 monthly equivalent for either annual zero-fee entry plan. Beacons Creator would cost still more because its subscription sits on top of the same percentage fee. Revenue does not separate Stan Creator from Beacons Creator Plus in this table: both have the same annual subscription cost.

Month-to-month billing moves the thresholds. Beacons Free’s fee reaches Stan Creator’s $29 monthly price at about $322.22 in sales and Beacons Creator Plus’s $30 monthly price at about $333.33. At $278 in sales, the Free fee remains below both monthly subscriptions. Those comparisons establish the platform-cost difference only; they do not make the plans interchangeable.

Course and membership gates

Beacons Free can sell products, but the plan places memberships and multi-module courses in Creator Plus. That paid tier also includes order bumps and unlimited marketing emails. A creator preparing either a course or a membership may therefore need Creator Plus before sales reach the fee crossover. Its zero seller fee is then one benefit of an upgrade already required by the offer.

Stan Creator includes an online course builder, recurring subscription setup and community creation features. A seller using those tools does not need Stan Creator Pro merely to charge members on a recurring basis. The distinction matters because recurring membership billing and installment payment plans are different features: Stan puts the former in Creator and the latter in Pro.

At the same annual subscription price, both paid entry plans can support a course or recurring offer, but their surrounding tools differ. Stan Creator also includes lead-magnet and email collection tools and Stan AutoDM for automated Instagram responses. Collecting an address is separate from sending marketing broadcasts or automated email flows, which Stan assigns to Creator Pro.

Email, funnels and ways to split a payment

Beacons Free allows 50 marketing email sends per month. Creator raises the allowance to 500 and adds email automations while retaining the seller fee. Creator Plus removes that fee and lists unlimited marketing emails. For a seller who needs automated sequences but has low sales, Creator offers a less expensive subscription than Plus; the percentage charge changes that comparison as revenue rises.

Stan Creator Pro costs $99 monthly or $948 annually, equivalent to $79 a month under annual billing. It adds email broadcasts and flows, funnels, upsells, order bumps, dynamic pricing and payment plans. Compared with Stan Creator, that is an extra $70 a month on monthly billing or $648 a year on annual billing. A creator whose sales process depends on those tools should compare the Pro price with Beacons Creator Plus, rather than use Stan Creator’s lower price for a setup it cannot provide.

Beacons Creator Plus lists buy-now-pay-later options, while Stan Creator Pro lists payment plans as a seller feature and also names Afterpay and Klarna. These are distinct checkout arrangements. A course seller who needs to set an installment schedule should assess Stan’s payment-plan feature separately from the availability of a third-party pay-later method.

Costs outside the plan comparison

A zero platform seller fee does not remove payment processing charges. Beacons’ transaction-fee guidance separates its platform charge from Stripe and PayPal fees. Stan’s processor-fee guidance likewise says its zero platform fee leaves payment fees that vary with location, currency and payment method. The sales table excludes those charges because they depend on the transactions behind each revenue total.

For a creator choosing between these storefronts, the useful sequence is to price the required selling tools first and then compare the eligible plans at expected sales. Free is inexpensive for a simple offer with modest revenue; a course, membership, email sequence or installment offer can change the eligible tier before the percentage fee alone forces an upgrade.