clearly there is likely a bias because if people didn’t like itch, they likely wouldn’t be on this message board.

I’m just curious if anyone here has trued and compared itch with Gumroad and what their experience was like. What did or didn’t you like? What features were important to you and why dud you choose one platform over the other?

Thank you both. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. I asked because a youtuber I follow uses it, but I felt the same way you guys did. It seems to be focused on sales but not much else. It makes selling physical items easier, but if I’m being honest with myself a) I’m not just doing this for money and b) I don’t really have time to worry about physical merch any time soon. Not enough to shift platforms anyway.  I much prefer having this kind of interaction with other users and moderators than what Gumroad appears to have. Just curious about any multi-platform users that might be on here. When I was younger I had my work on EVERY platform, but I have no desire to spend that much time maintaining online shops anymore instead of focusing on what i actually do, which is make art and games.

Weirdly, I feel like it's hard to get organic traffic / supporters/ followrs from Gumroad itself, whereas Itch's community spirit and interactive nature fosters more engagement and, if nothing else, lots of organic traffic on your page. Maybe there's another dimension to GR that I'm not privy to, but it seems more like a "Here you go, you're on your own!" type of experience and Itch is way more warm and inviting in comparison.

I also found this thread on a Google search, I like that it's not even that old yet. Great minds think alike!

I use both, plus also Artstation, Payhip (which is similar to Gumroad) and GameJolt (something look-alike to itch)... honestly, I've found not such great difference in finding quality interactions, but every other shop has far more tools to manage your project's contents and distribute them in packages than itch...