Migration guide
Migrate from Gumroad to Lemon Squeezy
Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad both operate as Merchant of Record (MoR) for digital products. Founders migrate primarily for Lemon Squeezy's more modern API, better European VAT handling, and stronger affiliate management. The migration is one of the simplest indie SaaS migrations — both products have similar customer-data shapes.
Time: 1-3 days of focused work for a single-product seller.
Migration cost: 5-20 founder hours; no parallel-subscription cost during overlap.
Annualized cost change: Net cost is roughly comparable — both charge 5% + processing on the front end. The advantage is operational, not financial.
Verified · editorial policy
Why founders make this migration
- Lemon Squeezy's API is more modern and easier to integrate with custom checkouts and member portals.
- VAT and global tax handling is cleaner on Lemon Squeezy, especially for non-US sellers.
- Affiliate program tooling is more flexible and the affiliate payouts are simpler to manage at scale.
When NOT to migrate
- If your Gumroad revenue is primarily impulse-buy traffic (Twitter shares, product launches), the brand recognition Gumroad has with creators may outweigh the technical benefits.
- If you are at very low volume (under $500/month), the migration cost rarely pays back inside a year.
The 5-step migration
Step 1
Export Gumroad customer list and sales history
Gumroad's CSV export includes customer email, license keys, and purchase history. Lemon Squeezy can import this directly via its admin tools.
Pitfall: Not exporting license keys. Active license keys must be preserved if your product relies on them for access control.
Step 2
Set up the same product in Lemon Squeezy
Recreate every Gumroad product as a Lemon Squeezy product. Match prices, descriptions, and product files. Lemon Squeezy supports the same digital-download pattern.
Pitfall: Recreating the products manually when the import tool is available. Use the import.
Step 3
Switch your buy links to Lemon Squeezy
Update every external buy link (Twitter bio, blog posts, newsletter) to point at the Lemon Squeezy checkout. Use a custom subdomain for cleanliness.
Pitfall: Missing buy links in newsletters or old blog posts. Set up Gumroad-to-Lemon-Squeezy redirects on a custom domain if you control the link layer.
Step 4
Notify existing customers about license-key continuity
Send one email to existing customers explaining the migration. If license keys remain valid, the email is reassurance only. If they need re-issuing, the email is the re-issue notification.
Pitfall: Skipping the email and dealing with confused support tickets later.
Step 5
Keep Gumroad active for new sales for 30 days, then archive
Active Gumroad products keep historical purchase links working. Archive (do not delete) after 30 days so customers can still access their downloads.
Pitfall: Deleting Gumroad products before customer download windows close.
Destination tool teardowns
Pre-decision comparisons
Related Brunson terms
Frequently asked
- What about Gumroad's affiliate program — do existing affiliates need to re-enroll?
- Yes, affiliate programs are not transferable between platforms. Communicate the migration to active affiliates, give them a clear re-enrollment path on Lemon Squeezy, and offer a small bonus for the transition.
Other migrations
After the migration, audit the funnel
Migrations preserve traffic, not conversion. The free 90-second Launch Diagnostic looks at your live page and labels what is actually broken on the new stack.