Looking for a Stan Store alternative?
Stan has the best headline rate in this whole category — 0% platform fee at $29/mo — and it converts social traffic beautifully. If you are selling digital products off Instagram, it is an excellent tool and nothing here changes that. It is also, deliberately, a storefront: there is no feed, no member directory, no way for the people who buy from you to find or hire each other, no learning paths with progress, no credentials and no events ticketing. Email automation and upsells are locked to the $99 tier. The question is not which is cheaper, it is whether you want customers or citizens.
Stan Store pricing read from their own pricing page on 2026-10-02. If they have changed it since and we have not caught up, tell us and we will fix it.
What each one charges
Every plan on both sides — no picking their most expensive tier against our cheapest. Platform fee is the cut taken off each sale, separate from card processing.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual / mo | Platform fee on sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ziion | |||
| Ziion Starter | $59 | $49 | 10% network due |
| Ziion Growth | $99 | $82 | 0% — keep 100% |
| Stan Store | |||
| Stan Store Creator | $29 | $25 | 0% — you keep 100% of what you earnYour own Stripe or PayPal (~2.9% + $0.30) |
| Stan Store Creator Pro | $99 | $79 | 0% — you keep 100% of what you earnYour own Stripe or PayPal (~2.9% + $0.30) |
Ziion's member-to-member services marketplace takes a flat 10% on both plans, and Ziion absorbs the card processing on those sales — the seller keeps a clean 90%.
What it actually costs you
Platform fee and card processing together, because some of these bundle processing and some don't. Comparing headline rates alone would hide the ~2.9% you pay Stripe either way. Ziion figures use the Growth plan.
| Your sales / month | Ziion Growth | Stan Store Creator | Stan Store Creator Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $128 | $58 | $128 |
| $2,000 | $157 | $87 | $157 |
| $8,000 | $331 | $261 | $331 |
Stan Store is cheaper than Ziion at these volumes, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If price is the only thing deciding it, they are the better buy. The rest of this page is about what the money is buying.
What Stan Store does well
- 0% platform fee at $29/mo is the best headline rate in this set
- Excellent at converting social traffic
- Very fast setup
Link-in-bio storefront for creators selling from social traffic.
Where it stops
- A storefront, not a community — there is no feed, no member directory and no member-to-member interaction.
- No learning paths with progress, no credentials, no events ticketing.
- Email automation, upsells and discount codes are locked behind the $99/mo tier.
- Nothing multi-tenant: you cannot run several communities or delegate staff roles.
What Ziion adds
Four things that none of the platforms in this comparison offer — not cheaper versions of them, none at all.
Members who sell to each other
A services marketplace inside your community: citizens list what they do, other citizens hire them, and the nation takes a cut of a transaction that would not otherwise exist. Not one platform in this comparison has an equivalent — every one of them is built for a single creator selling to an audience.
Real multi-tenancy
Nations with their own staff roles, permissions and passports. No cap on administrators, no metered spaces. Structure is a billable resource almost everywhere else.
A credential layer
Learning paths that issue verifiable certificates and a passport ladder members carry with them. None of these platforms can certify anyone — a membership ends when the subscription does.
A native mobile app, included
A branded app is $199/mo at Kajabi, a $199/mo add-on at Thinkific, and custom-priced at Circle. Ziion ships one as part of the product.
Build the institution instead of renting the audience
Nations are by application — we are selective about who gets one. Fourteen-day trial once you're in.