A creator with a link-in-bio page usually asks the wrong question first. They compare feature lists, Stan Store against Beacons against a plain link list, and try to decide which one sounds more capable. The number that actually matters is narrower: at their own sales volume, does a commerce-enabled tool cost more or less per month than what they are paying now. That is a math problem, not a feature comparison, and it can be worked out before paying for anything.
What a plain link-in-bio page actually charges for
Linktree’s own pricing page, fetched directly on 2026-09-09, lists four tiers: Free, Starter, Pro and Premium, plus a custom-quoted Agency and Enterprise tier. The page served pricing in Indian rupees for this fetch, server-side geolocation based on the requesting connection, so the figures below are the real numbers Linktree returned, not a converted estimate: Free at Rs. 0, Starter at Rs. 220 per month billed annually or Rs. 360 billed monthly, Pro at Rs. 440 or Rs. 650, and Premium at Rs. 1,250 or Rs. 1,450. A reader in a different country should expect a different currency on the same page; the tier structure and what each tier unlocks is what carries over.
This is the part a feature comparison usually skips: Linktree is not a pure flat-fee product once you go past Free. According to the same pricing page, Free already allows selling products, courses, and brand offers with no stated seller fee beyond whatever payment processor sits behind it. Starter adds “Sell digital products” at a stated 9% seller fee. Pro adds custom themes, advanced analytics and mailing list integrations at the same fee structure. Premium drops the seller fee to 0% and adds an affiliate shop, dynamic links, data export and social scheduling. So the honest baseline is not “subscription with no cut versus subscription plus a cut.” It is three fee structures on three subscription prices, from one vendor, before a second product enters the comparison.
What a commerce-enabled bio tool charges for instead
Stan Store and Beacons are usually framed as the upgrade from a link list because they add a built-in checkout, digital product delivery, or booking, rather than linking out to a separate storefront. In principle that capability gets priced the same way Linktree already prices its own commerce features: a subscription tier, a transaction percentage, or both.
In practice, neither vendor’s current rate could be verified in this session. Stan Store’s pricing route, both stan.store/pricing and www.stan.store/pricing, returned HTTP 200, but the page loaded was a client-side stub with the internal route name “/unavailable” and no pricing content: no tier names, no figures, nothing to read. Beacons returned an HTTP 403 Cloudflare bot-challenge page on every path tried, including its bare homepage, so nothing on that domain was readable at all. A 200 status is not proof of readable content, and neither attempt produced any. [EVIDENCE NEEDED: Stan Store’s current subscription price and transaction fee, fetched from a source that renders the vendor’s JavaScript pricing page.] [EVIDENCE NEEDED: Beacons’ current subscription price and transaction fee, fetched from a source that can pass the Cloudflare challenge.] Both gaps are listed under evidence_gaps below. Nothing here states a specific Stan Store or Beacons number, because none was confirmed.
The breakeven math, worked through with real numbers
The formula only needs your own current cost and a verified rate to drop in once you have one.
Call your current monthly link-list cost B. If you sell through Linktree’s Starter tier at Rs. 220 to Rs. 360 per month with its 9% seller fee, B is that subscription line, and the 9% (call it r0) is separate, since it only applies to money that actually moves through a sale. Define the commerce tool’s cost as a subscription S plus a transaction rate r applied to each sale. At n sales a month and average order value v, the commerce tool’s total is S + (r × n × v), against a baseline total of B + (r0 × n × v). Setting them equal and solving for n gives the breakeven sales count:
n = (S − B) / ((r0 − r) × v)
Worked example one: baseline is Linktree Starter at Rs. 360 monthly with its 9% fee, average order value Rs. 1,500. The commerce tool’s subscription and rate are [EVIDENCE NEEDED: verified S and r]. Once checked on the vendor’s own page, plug them into n = (S − 360) / ((0.09 − r) × 1500). If r is below 9%, the denominator is positive and n is a real, finite sales count.
Worked example two shows the breakeven point moves with ticket size, not just volume: keep the same S and r but raise average order value to Rs. 5,000. The denominator, (r0 − r) × v, grows because v grew, so n shrinks. A higher-ticket seller crosses into “the fee pays for itself” territory at a lower sales count than a seller moving the same subscription gap in Rs. 1,500 items. A feature list cannot answer this because the same tool is worth it for one creator at eight sales a month and not worth it for another at twenty, purely on what they sell.
What the storefront features are actually worth below the breakeven line
If your own numbers put you below the breakeven point, the pure transaction math says stay on the cheaper option. That is not the end of the decision for every reader, because some capabilities are not available on a plain link list at any subscription price. A basic link-in-bio page routes clicks; it does not run a checkout with its own delivery of a digital file, it does not manage a booking calendar with availability and confirmation, and it does not capture an email address into a list you can message later without linking out to a separate tool that does.
A creator who needs a buyer to receive a downloadable file automatically after payment, or who needs someone to book a fifteen-minute slot without a back-and-forth message, is paying for a capability the link list cannot produce, regardless of sales volume. That is a different decision than the breakeven one and should not be conflated with it: a creator below breakeven who genuinely needs automated delivery or booking may still choose the commerce tool, and that is a rational choice made on capability, not on the fee math. The two decisions can point in opposite directions and both still be correct for the same creator.
Try followed for wire-service coverage of the tools around your stack
followed covers pricing changes and fee structures across the tools that sit next to social media management, the kind of coverage a feature-list roundup usually skips. Read the rest of the blog at followedapp.com/blog for more posts that run the numbers instead of repeating the marketing page.
How to run this calculation with your own numbers
- Your own current monthly link-list cost, taken from your actual invoice or the tier you are on, not a remembered figure.
- The commerce tool’s current subscription price and its current transaction cut, both taken from the vendor’s own pricing page on the day you check, not from an older post or a friend’s recollection.
- Your own average monthly sales count and your own average order value, taken from your actual sales history over a real stretch of months, not a hoped-for number.
- Drop all three into the formula above and solve for the sales count where the two options cost the same. If your real monthly sales are above that number, the commerce tool is currently cheaper for you. If they are below it, the link list is currently cheaper.
- Vendor pricing changes without notice, on both sides of this comparison. Check the current rate on the vendor’s own page before deciding anything, rather than relying on any figure printed in this post or any other.
FAQ
Is a commerce-enabled bio link always more expensive than a plain one?
No. Total cost depends on sales volume and order value, not on which tool has more features. Below a certain volume, worked out with the formula above using your own numbers and the vendor’s current rates, the cheaper subscription wins in pure dollar terms even though it does less.
Do Stan Store and Beacons charge the same way?
That could not be verified in this session. Stan Store’s pricing page did not resolve to any readable pricing content, and Beacons blocked every automated request with a Cloudflare challenge. Check each vendor’s own current pricing page directly rather than relying on a repeated figure from another source.
What does a plain link-in-bio page not do that a commerce one does?
Automated digital product delivery after payment, a booking calendar with availability and confirmation, and built-in email capture into a list are the concrete gaps. A plain link list routes a click; it does not run a checkout or manage a calendar on its own.
Does the transaction fee apply to every sale or just some?
On Linktree’s own pricing page, the seller fee is tied to the tier: Starter and Pro carry a stated 9% fee on digital product sales, and Premium states 0%. Whether Stan Store or Beacons cap, tier, or waive a fee above a certain volume was not confirmed here; check the vendor’s own current terms rather than assuming a cap exists.
Sources
- Linktree pricing page, linktr.ee/s/pricing, fetched 2026-09-09.