Creators are building real businesses inside chat. Not on blogs or storefronts, but inside the channel where the community already lives. Discord and Telegram have become the core workflow for paid groups built around trading calls, market education, dev tools, marketing strategy, or coaching. The conversation is the product. The message is the product. The subscription is the product.
When the chat is the product, the payment setup has to do more than deliver a file. It has to control access.
That is where most standard storefront tools begin to struggle. They were built mainly for selling one-time products, hosting assets, and delivering a download link. They were not built to manage a live Discord server or a private Telegram channel where hundreds of people expect real-time access tied to their renewal status. Your security, your group quality, and your recurring sales depend on syncing payment and access cleanly.
This guide looks at Gumroad and Suby through that lens. We will break down how each tool handles subscription management for Discord and Telegram communities. We will talk through integration, triggers, reminders, automation, renewal actions, and how each system handles member roles, community security, and workflow. You will also see where payment options and setup can either drive growth or quietly create daily manual work.
The goal is simple. Help you choose the tool that keeps your group running without you babysitting it.
TL;DR (for operators who need the punchline)
Gumroad works for selling products, not memberships. It’s great for files and content drops but breaks when running paid Discord or Telegram communities that rely on instant role updates, renewals, and crypto payments.
Suby is built for chat-native monetization. It automates payments, renewals, and access across Discord and Telegram, supporting both card and crypto, so creators can scale communities without manual work or role confusion.
What Gumroad Was Built For, and Where It Stops
Gumroad’s original design: one-time products, files, and content drops
Gumroad makes it easy to sell a product and deliver that product. You list a file or a bundle. A buyer pays with their card. Gumroad hosts the file, unlocks it, and sends it to them. If you are selling a template, a course, or a digital guide, the workflow is clean.
This flow works best when:
- The product stands alone after purchase.
- The product does not depend on live chat access.
- You do not need a bot to monitor ongoing membership.
For example, if you sell a PDF playbook or a set of tutorial videos, Gumroad does the job. The buyer gets what they paid for. If they cancel later, you are not forced to remove their access to a Discord role or lock them out of a Telegram channel. The transaction happened, and it is complete.
That is Gumroad’s core strength.
Where Gumroad starts to struggle for live communities
Paid Discord and Telegram communities are different. Access is the value. Access is ongoing, and it changes the moment a renewal succeeds or fails.
Here is what creators run into when they try to manage that with Gumroad:
- Discord integration exists, but it is limited. It can assign a Discord role in your Discord server after payment, but ongoing subscription management is not fully automated. If a renewal fails, you often still have to manually remove that user from the paid role. That hurts your group security because inactive members can remain inside.
- There is no native Telegram integration. To control access in a Telegram group, you need a separate app or custom bot, and now you are managing two disconnected systems.
- Role cleanup depends on you. Refunds, cancellations, payment failures, upgrades, and plan changes will send people into your DMs asking why they still have access or why they suddenly do not. Each one becomes a ticket.
- You are forced to glue together separate bots, spreadsheets, and exported CSVs just to answer the basic question: who should still be inside right now.
Gumroad is not a bad tool. It just was not built to run your Discord server or Telegram channel as a subscription product with live access enforcement.
The Real Challenge of Managing Paid Communities
Payments are the first leak in the system
Once your group starts charging for access, payment management becomes an operational problem. You start getting questions in every channel:
- Where do I pay
- Can I pay in crypto instead of card
- I renewed, why am I not in the private channel yet
- My card failed, why did I get kicked from the Discord server
- Why is someone still posting in the alpha channel if they canceled last week
Your subscription setup becomes support. Your support becomes overhead. Overhead eats into growth.
If there is friction in the payment options, you lose sales. If there is friction in renewal logic, you lose retention. If the timing between payment and role unlock is slow, your members feel it.
Role bots help with access, not with money
A typical workaround is to add a Discord bot that assigns roles. That solves one layer of the problem, but only one.
You still need:
- A payment process that can accept card and crypto.
- A way to connect that payment to a member ID.
- A system that can remove access the moment the subscription actually lapses.
Without one system driving all of that, your workflow ends up like this:
- The buyer pays in one app.
- You are sent a screenshot.
- You check if that transaction is real.
- You manually assign the Discord role or drop them into your Telegram group.
- You set a reminder somewhere to check again in 30 days.
That gap between payment and access is where leaks start. That leak hurts security in the channel and makes other paying members wonder if everyone else is following the same rules.
The admin time trap
This usually becomes the moment when founders say they feel stuck in operations instead of content.
Typical pain:
- Exporting members into a sheet just to see who is overdue.
- Re-adding paid roles after a user updates their card.
- Removing roles after a missed renewal.
- Sending message after message reminding someone to pay before they get removed from the channel.
If you are doing role management by hand, every new subscriber increases workload and risks your premium channel filling with inactive users who are not paying.
Suby - A Modern Alternative for Discord and Telegram Communities
What Suby is and how it works
Suby is built for subscription-based communities that live in Discord and Telegram. It runs a payment and access workflow right inside those platforms.
Here is what that means in practice:
- A member pays using card or crypto.
- Suby maps that payment to the correct role or private group.
- Access is granted immediately to the correct channel.
- When the subscription expires or is not renewed, Suby can remove that access.
There is no need to swap screenshots, no manual approval steps, and no separate database to maintain. The entire integration process is wired around the server or channel you are already running.
Creators connect Suby to their Discord server or Telegram group, set up plans, assign roles, choose which channel will handle reminders, and then Suby keeps subscription and access in sync. This is especially useful if you are running multiple plans or tiers, because Suby can map different plans to different roles.
Why it is built for communities, not just products
Suby focuses on the workflow that makes a paid group run smoothly.
Core functions:
- Instant role assignment after payment, without waiting.
- Automatic renewal reminders in a dedicated reminder channel so members know when to pay and do not get surprised by removal.
- Auto-kick of expired members to protect your premium audience and keep your group secure.
- Owner notifications when someone subscribes, renews, or cancels, which gives you a quick read on sales, churn triggers, and behavior inside the channel.
- Multi-plan support that lets you run multiple subscription options in parallel without handholding.
This is about protecting community quality and keeping revenue predictable without constant moderator intervention.
Gumroad vs Suby: Deep Feature Comparison
The summary is simple. Gumroad helps you sell a product. Suby helps you run a paid community.
How Suby Works Across the Full Lifecycle
Step 1: Attract new members
Suby helps you get more people in the door by making it easy to subscribe and join.
You can:
- Create plans that renew daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, depending on how fast your channel moves.
- Share a direct paylink anywhere. You can post it in your channel description, send it to leads over message, or pin it in your Discord subscription channel. The paylink flow is simple. The user clicks, chooses a plan, and pays.
- Offer free trials or discounts. This helps you test onboarding offers and track which plans convert best.
- Let people pay in the way that works for them. They can connect a wallet directly using Wallet Connect, or they can use a Deposit style flow from an exchange or an existing wallet. This is important, because not everyone in your community is already comfortable with signing a transaction.
If payment is easy, onboarding is easy. If onboarding is easy, sales go up.
Step 2: Retain current members
Renewals are where most communities leak. Suby actively handles that part.
Here is how retention works:
- Suby posts smart reminders in a public or semi-public reminder channel you choose. These alerts tell people when they are close to renewal, and they keep timing expectations clear.
- Members get expiry notices instead of silent removal. That lowers drama in the group because people feel like they were warned.
- You can run discount codes for renewals, which is key if you want to save a subscriber who is about to leave.
- Each renewal or cancellation can trigger notifications for you. You can immediately see behavior and react.
You are not chasing people in DMs to tell them their access will be revoked. Suby does that inside the server, on time, every cycle.
Step 3: Monetize with flexible payment options
Most communities today are not local. They attract members across time zones, and they serve people who prefer different payment options. Some want card. Some want USDC. Some want to move funds from their exchange account.
Suby is built for that reality:
- You can accept card payments for people who are not crypto-native.
- You can accept crypto payments using Wallet Connect, which works with 100+ wallets.
- You can also accept Deposit style payments, where a user sends crypto from an exchange or an existing wallet. This is the most popular method in practice because it fits how people actually hold funds.
- Supported assets include USDC, USDT, ETH, SOL, and BNB.
- Supported networks include Ethereum, Solana, Base (our core network, driving ~50% of volume), Arbitrum, and Binance Smart Chain.
This reach matters. If someone wants to join now, you do not want to lose that sale because the only payment option is a single card processor.
Why Community Owners Are Moving from Gumroad to Suby
Better control of Discord and Telegram security
When people stop paying, they should stop seeing paid content. That is understood by your audience and it protects the value of your channel.
With Suby:
- The bot can assign and remove Discord roles based on real subscription status.
- The bot can remove users from Telegram when their time is up.
- Auto-kick is not personal. It is just part of the system. The rules are known. The process is visible. The result is that your private channel stays premium and everyone understands why.
With Gumroad, this step is often manual. That creates lag. That lag is noticed.
Less operational noise
When automation is missing, your team becomes the integration layer. You become the integration layer.
Creators switching to Suby report that most of their previous workload was not content, not sales, not community building. It was back-and-forth message handling:
- Checking proof-of-payment screenshots.
- Resetting a Discord role after someone updated their card.
- Manually adding a Telegram user at 2 AM for a payment that happened 40 minutes ago.
Suby turns those actions into system-level triggers. A renewal is confirmed, a role is updated, and a message is posted in your reminder channel. Nothing sits in your inbox waiting for you to act.
One setup for multiple plans
This is where Suby’s workflow becomes powerful.
Inside Discord:
- You connect Suby to your Discord server.
- You run /setuprole and map each plan ID to the paid role you want that plan to unlock.
- You run /setupsubscriptions to create or update the public subscription channel. Suby drops a button in that channel that lets new members subscribe.
- You run /setupreminders to create a public reminders channel where Suby will post renewal alerts, success notifications, and cancellation notices.
Each of those steps supports a clean and secure subscription channel and a clean reminder channel.
Inside Telegram:
- You link Suby to your Telegram account.
- You add Suby as an admin in your private group so it can manage access and send reminders.
- You create what Suby calls the Portal channel. That Portal is what you can share with interested buyers. The Portal lets them subscribe, and as soon as they pay, they receive an invite link to the private group.
This is the difference between maintaining your own app stack and letting one app run the whole integration process end to end.
Setting Up Suby in Minutes
Step 1 - Connect your server or group
In Discord, you link your server and grant Suby permission to manage roles and send reminders.
In Telegram, you add Suby as an admin of the private group so that it can invite paying members and remove expired ones.
This is what creates trusted automation. The bot needs the ability to assign and remove roles or channel access. Without that, nothing can be automated.
Step 2 - Create your plan
Inside Suby you set:
- Group name and logo.
- Plan name and description.
- Recurrence. You can choose daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannual, or yearly.
- Price. You can price in USD or you can price in a specific token.
- Payment options. You choose which chain and which token you want to accept. For example, you might choose USDC on Base or SOL on Solana.
- Your wallet address, so funds land where you expect.
This builds the product layer of your subscription inside Suby.
Step 3 - Map the plan to access
For Discord:
- Use /setuprole and map the plan ID to the correct paid role.
- Use /setupsubscriptions so members see a clear Subscribe button inside a dedicated subscription channel.
- Use /setupreminders so the bot can post all subscription, renewal, and expiry messages in one visible place.
For Telegram:
- Run the Suby bot setup flow. After payment, members receive a link into the private group automatically. You do not have to invite them yourself.
This is where Suby connects payment, plan, and role.
Step 4 - Share your paylink
Once a plan is live, Suby gives you a paylink. You can use that link anywhere. Drop it in a message. Put it in your group bio. Pin it in your public intro channel. Anyone who clicks can choose a plan, select card or crypto, and activate access.
Step 5 - Watch renewals and actions
You can see which members are new, who renewed, who canceled, and who is close to expiry. You also get notifications posted into your server, which triggers immediate actions from you. When someone renews and your channel sees it, that reinforces the value of staying in.
This is how you keep your paid channel running without refreshing a spreadsheet.
What About Security, Custody, and Access Control
Payment handling
Suby uses two main payment entry points.
- Wallet Connect. This works with 100+ wallets across chains like Solana, Base, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Binance Smart Chain. A subscriber can connect and pay directly from their wallet using assets like USDC, USDT, ETH, SOL, or BNB.
- Deposit. This is the most popular method in practice because it fits how most buyers already hold funds. The subscriber can move funds in from an exchange account or an existing wallet without needing to sign a transaction in a browser wallet.
This covers both experienced crypto users and less crypto-native members who just want a path that feels like a normal payment flow.
Account control
Suby is not built around holding your funds for long stretches or freezing payouts. When a member pays, that transaction is tied to your wallet address, and the system can grant or remove the Discord role or Telegram access based on that status.
Creators who are used to delayed payouts or blocked access to funds in other platforms appreciate this, because it means they are not held up by a middle layer when they try to withdraw earnings.
Community security
Suby protects the integrity of your community by enforcing membership rules against your live audience.
Key points:
- Auto-kick removes inactive or expired members from your private community so your premium channel stays premium.
- Reminder channels keep everyone informed so there are fewer arguments.
- Owner notifications help you catch potential churn before it happens.
This keeps your server or Telegram channel clean, focused, and aligned with the promise you made to paying members.
Real-World Example: Moving From Gumroad to Suby
A trading and education community with more than 1,500 members started on Gumroad.
Their process looked like this:
- New members paid through Gumroad’s checkout.
- After checkout, members messaged screenshots in Discord.
- A moderator manually assigned the correct paid role.
- At renewal time, if the Gumroad payment failed, the moderator had to remember to remove that role from the Discord server. That step was not always done on time.
- There was no reliable Telegram workflow at all, so Telegram was basically invite-only and chaotic.
Two things happened:
- Members who should not have access were still inside. That weakened trust.
- Admins were spending hours every week on manual clean up instead of running content.
After switching to Suby:
- New members clicked Subscribe in a dedicated Discord subscription channel or via a Telegram Portal.
- They paid by card or crypto using Wallet Connect or Deposit.
- Suby assigned roles instantly. There was no need for screenshot proof.
- Suby posted reminders to a public reminders channel when renewals were due.
- If someone did not renew, Suby removed access.
The result was less friction around who is allowed inside. The channel felt cleaner because only active subscribers were in the private group. The team also reported lower churn in the first two cycles because members were seeing renewal reminders and paying on time instead of being surprised by a kick.
How Suby Thinks About Cost
Gumroad: 10% platform fee on every sale, plus card processing. Works best for one-time digital products paid in USD.
Suby: 1.5% Suby fee on successful payments. Supports card and crypto. Funds land in your wallet, and access is synced in Discord and Telegram.
Price is not the only cost. With communities, time is a real expense. If you are fixing roles, chasing access in Telegram, and checking screenshots, your margin drops. Suby keeps that overhead low with instant unlocks, renewal reminders, and auto-removal when a subscription lapses.
Quick view
- Gumroad: 10% platform fee, card only, limited Discord role cleanup, no native Telegram.
- Suby: 1.5% fee, card and crypto, instant role assignment, reminders, auto-kick, owner notifications.
Final word
If you run a premium Discord server or a private Telegram group, you are not just selling content. You are selling controlled access to a live community. That means your setup needs payment options that work globally, membership reminders that fire on schedule, automated actions that apply and remove roles, and a reliable integration process that does not require you to police entry every day.
Gumroad helps you sell a product. Suby helps you operate a subscription community at scale with security, automation, and predictable renewal workflows.
If your revenue depends on recurring access and your community expects clean onboarding, clear renewal triggers, transparent reminders, and fair enforcement, then Suby is built for the way you already run your group.