Ablefy: Everything you need to know to get started!
Are you already selling digital products or thinking about starting?
Could be a pretty good idea! 😀 Because interest in online courses and other digital products is currently higher than ever before.
And for this you will need a suitable store solution sooner rather than later.
Ablefy (until October 2024: "Elopage") is exactly that: a sales platform and content platform for online courses, services, e-tickets or downloads such as e-books.
We use Ablefy not only for our online courses on victoriaweber.de and for tickets for our online conferences. We also use it for billing support hours, for example. We also help customers set up and optimize their Ablefy accounts. Accordingly, we have been Ablefy users for quite some time and have gained a lot of experience with the platform.
In this article, you'll learn all about the basics, the possibilities and the costs of Ablefy. And there are also some hints and tips on how you can best work with Ablefy! 💪
If you want to delve deeper into the topic and learn more about Ablefy, you can also read our article series Selling with Ablefy to find out more.
Table of contents:
This is what Ablefy looks like: Screenshots of the Ablefy seller interface
Why is Elopage now called Ablefy?
Elopage was renamed Ablefy in October 2024.
Why? We don't know. And for you as a user, the name of the platform is actually of secondary importance.
But it is of course always interesting when well-known companies rename themselves - and thus not only give up their Google rank, but of course also the existing awareness and thus the value of the brand. There are many reasons for this (such as a name dispute, personal preference of the owners, internationalization strategy and so on). And, of course, the community's mockery of the new name was not long in coming.
Elopage, i.e. Ablefy, itself justifies the name change by saying that it has outgrown its old name. The name itself comes from "able" for "capable" and "to enable". The final syllable "fy" stands for "to enable".
Accordingly, the pronunciation of the new name is also: [eɪbəl] (as in "enable") + [faɪ] (as in "simplify" or "Spotify").
Ablefy domains and MyAblefy: ablefy.io, myablefy.com and my-ablefy.com
Ablefy apparently could not or did not want to take over the .com domain in the course of the name change. Instead, the domain ablefy.io was chosen.
".io" is actually the country domain of the British Indian Ocean Territory. However, "IO" is also the IT abbreviation for input/output and has established itself as a domain extension for start-ups and tech companies in recent years.
If you create an Ablefy account, your seller pages such as product pages, payment pages and course content will run as "myablefy" under the domain myablefy.com (note, not ".io" but ".com"). The link to your store page is accordingly https://myablefy.com/s/DEIN-KONTONAME.
Ablefy offers you the option of replacing "myablefy.com" on your pages with your own domain or subdomain. However, you are then responsible for the SSL certificate, which must be renewed annually. You should therefore think carefully about whether the extra effort is worth it for you. And, of course, you should be sufficiently familiar with DNS settings and SSL certificates.
Ablefy also offers you the option of offering your pages under the subdomain your-shopname.my-ablefy.com. This has the advantage that you can verify tracking tools such as Meta Pixel or Google Analytics via DNS entries. You don't have to worry about the SSL certificate with this option.
For most Ablefy customers, the "normal" Ablefy URL myablefy.com/s/your-account-name should be completely sufficient. So you shouldn 't worry too much about this (especially at the beginning).
Who is behind Ablefy?
The platform and the "Ablefy" brand are owned by Elopage GmbH. The founder and Managing Director is the Berlin entrepreneur Özkan Akkilic, who founded Elopage in 2015 together with Tolga Önal as co-founders. Tolga Önal left the company in 2024 and Özkan Akkilic is now the sole Managing Director.
For the first five years, Elopage grew without external funding (i.e. it was bootstrapped) to become a profitable company with around 60 employees, according to the company itself. In September 2021, external investors then bought into the company as part of a 38 million dollar financing.
And don't get confused: In the so-called reseller model (more on this in a moment), you do not necessarily receive the payment of your sales revenue from Elopage GmbH. We have two accounts, and the payouts come from namotto Universal Brands GmbH & Co KG for one and from namotto academies & friends GmbH & Co. KG. Both are sister companies of Elopage GmbH and Özkan Akkilic is also Managing Director.
Ablefy is an all-in-one sales platform if you want to sell digital products.
What exactly does Ablefy do?
Ablefy is a sales platform and content platform with which you can
sell your digital (and physical) products,
process payments and
content to your customers.
Ablefy provides you as a provider with the complete infrastructure to sell online on a large or small scale - without you having to manually write invoices, check payments yourself or manage access rights, for example.
The three most important functions of Ablefy are therefore:
1. offer your products
Ablefy offers you the option of setting up any number of products on the platform. You can decide for yourself whether and which products should be displayed in your Ablefy store - a landing page with a selection of your products.
For each product, there is also a product page with the product information you have stored. There is also a payment page where your customers can buy the product. Of course, you decide whether you want to send your customers from your website to the store page, product page or directly to the payment page, for example.
We do not use the store page or the product pages, but always market our products on our own websites. From there, we send the buyers directly to the payment page for the purchase and payment. However, this is purely a matter of taste, and you can of course do it however you like.
2. process the payments
For payment processing, Ablefy offers allrelevant payment options in German-speaking countries, including Sofortüberweisung, Klarna, Paypal, prepayment, credit card and Apple Pay. This means that your customers have a free choice here.
As a provider, you have two models to choose from for processing: Sale in your own name and sale in the reseller model.
If you sell in your own name, you are officially the contractual partner of your customer. You are responsible for the terms and conditions, legal notice and privacy policy on your Ablefy pages. Cancellations and withdrawals are also handled directly by you. For payments with PayPall, you will receive the money directly into your PayPal business account. All other incoming payments to Ablefy can be paid out after 7 days.
In the reseller model (must be confirmed by Ablefy), Ablefy takes over the entire processing and acts as your customers' contractual partner. This means that Ablefy issues the invoices and takes care of the correct VAT billing. This has great advantages if you operate your business from abroad. But even if you are based in Germany, the reseller model makes the entire accounting process much easier for you, as you only have Ablefy as a customer and all sales are billed here collectively.
Good to know: Depending on the processing model, different transaction costs are incurred (see below for details). These are significantly lower for sales in your own name than for the reseller model. And with the reseller model, you receive the payouts with a time delay. So you should be careful here, especially if you have a cash flow-critical business.
3. manage the content of online courses and other digital products
In contrast to pure payment providers, Ablefy is a real platform. This means that your customers can not only process the payment, but also log in to Ablefy themselves. Depending on the product, they can then view or download the content directly online.
If you sell online courses, you can make the course content available to your customers in Ablefy. This has the great advantage that access is directly linked to the purchase and your customers therefore automatically receive the correct access rights for the period of time you specify. So you don't have to share users on an external content platform or work with any integrations.
Specifically, online courses work in such a way that you create your course within the product under "Content". You can set up any number of modules per course and any number of chapters for each module. And a chapter is ultimately nothing more than a website on which you can arrange headings, texts, images, videos and so on.
Ablefy uses a rather outdated "page builder" here - i.e. an editor with which you can assemble the page directly in the browser. However, it works quite well in practice and gives you a lot of design options. You can even upload your own fonts (hidden under "Settings" in the main menu) and then use them.
With Ablefy you can sell many different digital products online.
What products can you sell with Ablefy?
In fact, you can offer anything that can be sold online via Ablefy.
On the one hand, these are of course all forms of digital products, such as online courses, webinars, e-books, e-tickets, member areas, vouchers, software, and so on.
However, you can also sell physical products or services, such as support hours or coaching sessions, via the platform. In this case, Ablefy is primarily the payment service provider and you are responsible for distribution. However, you can freely design the email with the purchase confirmation and then add a Calendly link to book a coaching session, for example. For physical products, you must of course take care of delivery yourself. If you have digital and physical products, this has the great advantage that you can sell all your products with the same process and you don't need another payment service provider.
If you offer high-priced service products (such as website projects), it may well be that the transaction costs at Ablefy are so high that manual invoicing is worthwhile again for these sales.
For each product, you can specify whether you want to pay via a one-off payment, installments or a subscription. You can also set the price for certain periods and configure a whole host of other settings.
Ablefy itself divides the products into the following product categories:
Online courses
If you would like to offer an online course, Ablefy offers the option of managing the content directly on the platform. "Online courses" includes, for example:
Mixed online courses (video, images, text, downloads, etc.)
Video courses,
Audio courses.
You create a course divided into modules and chapters, with each chapter having its own page. The form in which you would like to do this is completely up to you. With a "page builder" you can design the chapter pages directly in the browser (without code!) very freely and arrange the content. Your course participants can also test their knowledge with quiz modules that you create.
Digital products
Under "Digital products" you create product and payment pages for services such as:
Support hours,
Coaching,
Webinars,
E-mail courses.
You handle the actual service via an external tool (e.g. Zoom/Meet/Teams for online meetings and ConvertKit/Beehiiv for e-mail courses) or a physical meeting (e.g. appointment booking with Calendly).
Download files
As the name suggests, you place a file on Ablefy and sell the download link. Examples of this are
e-books,
Checklists,
Templates (e.g. PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.)
Graphics,
ZIP folder,
Software.
You can use any file format. The only restriction is that a file must not be larger than 3.5 GB.
Member areas
The product category "Member area" covers over:
Member areas
Product bundles.
Even if it's counterintuitive at first, member areas and product bundles are actually the same thing in practice.
You can offer your customers various products with a single purchase via a "member area". And as with all other products, you can decide for yourself whether this should be billed with a one-off payment or as a subscription.
E-tickets
The "E-tickets" category includes:
Tickets for online events,
Tickets for offline events,
Vouchers.
Your customers are sent a PDF ticket. You choose whether the ticket should contain a QR code or not. Tickets with a QR code can be scanned by you and your team via the Ablefy Business app when entering or redeeming and registered as redeemed accordingly.
Certificates
With the "Certificate" product category, you can design documents such as:
Certificates,
Vouchers.
Codes or licenses
For example, you can sell via the product category "Code or license":
Codes for activating software,
Discount codes.
As a provider, you can set the payment terms individually for each product.
How much does Ablefy cost per month? And what percentage does Ablefy take?
The Ablefy account is free of charge for your customers who do not offer products themselves.
As a provider, you pay a monthly fee for your account as well as transaction costs per sale. All prices below are exclusive of VAT.
Your monthly (fixed) costs
Ablefy only has paid packages. There is no free starter package. However, you have the option of testing the platform free of charge for 14 days.
You can currently book the following packages:
Essential 3.0: 39 euros per month (33 euros with annual billing)
Advanced 3.0: 69 euros per month (59 euros with annual billing)
Professional 3.0: 129 euros per month (103 euros with annual billing)
Premium 3.0: 549 euros per month (439 euros with annual billing)
The most relevant difference between the packages for you is probably the number of products and videos included.
With the Essential package, there are only 3 products and 10 videos. Some other functions and payment options are also not available with this starter package. It is therefore best to take a quick look at the Ablefy overview if you are unsure.
👉 Here you can see the prices and included functions in detail
Your variable costs per transaction
The transaction costs depend on your package and your sales model (sales in your own name or in the reseller model).
Ablefy takes a fixed percentage for the Essential package:
Normal Seller: 0.50 Euro + 3.9% per transaction
Reseller: 1.00 Euro + 7.5% per transaction.
If you have an Advanced, Professional or Premium package, Ablefy works with a price matrix (you can find the price matrix here: Ablefy price matrix). The transaction costs depend on two factors: Your gross turnover with Ablefy in the last 365 days (Ablefy calls this "Company Status") and the transaction amount. The following applies here: The higher your turnover with Ablefy and the larger the transaction, the lower the transaction fee.
With an Advanced, Professional or Premium package, it looks like this:
Normal Seller: 0.50 Euro + between 1.0% and 3.9% per transaction (price matrix)
Reseller: 1.00 Euro + between 1.5% and 7.5% per transaction (price matrix)
The "50 cents" or "one euro" sounds harmless at first. But it can make a big difference, especially if you sell a lot of small products.
Even if Ablefy does not explicitly state this in the price overview (and this may change): In practice, 0-euro sales are exempt from transaction costs. This means that the 0.50 / 1.00 euros do not apply here either. 0-euro sales can be, for example, test purchases (with a 100% discount), freebies or free webinars (with registration via Ablefy).
Imprint, terms and conditions and data protection at Ablefy
First of all: We do not offer legal advice, make no claim to completeness and cannot accept any liability for the content. You should therefore consult a lawyer if necessary, especially for legal issues such as the legal notice, the terms and conditions and the privacy policy.
In fact, Ablefy supports you with the mandatory content. In the footer of your store and your product pages, as well as above the "Buy" button on your payment pages, links to your legal notice, your terms and conditions and your privacy policy are displayed.
You can either insert your own texts for all three elements under Settings in your Ablefy seller account. Or you can have Ablefy generate the legal notice, general terms and conditions and privacy policy for you with just one click.
If you have chosen the reseller model, Ablefy will appear on the payment page as the contractual partner of your customers. Therefore, the imprint, the terms and conditions and the privacy policy of namotto Universal Brands GmbH & Co KG , which belongs to Ablefy, are linked in the footer of the payment page.
How do affiliate histories work with Ablefy?
What works really well at Ablefy are sales via affiliates. People or companies you work with (so-called affiliates) advertise your products and receive a commission if the sale is successful. Each affiliate needs an Ablefy account.
The cool thing is that you can determine exactly whether, who, for how long and how much commission your cooperation partners receive. And Ablefy takes care of the billing and distribution of affiliate income directly.
You can also advertise Ablefy as a platform or products from your partners and earn money if a purchase is successfully completed.
What are my alternatives to Ablefy?
There are several alternatives to Ablefy. These include:
ThriveCart
Shopify
Digistore24
Teachable
Copecart
Coachy
Gumroad
Udemy
Kajabi
Thinkific
Spreadmind
If your customers are mainly in German-speaking countries, you should pay attention to the payment methods available. In Germany, payment by credit card is still very unpopular. You should definitely have PayPall, as well as SEPA / direct debit and prepayment for German customers.
For you as a provider, correct and simple VAT handling is also a great advantage.
How to get started with Ablefy!
The great thing is that you can test Ablefy for 14 days free of charge and without obligation. This gives you the opportunity to take a look at the platform for yourself and try out the various functions before you book a package.
As with many other platforms, when you log in to Ablefy for the very first time, it can seem quite overwhelming at first. Ablefy has a lot of functions and a correspondingly large number of menu items.
Our tip: Start by setting up a (test) product. Everything else, such as the payment plan, product/payment page, emails and content, will then take care of itself.
As a partner of Ablefy, we can offer you a €99 discount voucher here. All you have to do is set up a new Ablefy account via the Ablefy 14-day free trial + €99 discount affiliate link. And if you want to keep the account after the free trial period, you can enter the code Victoria99Weber under "My plan" and receive the discount.
Our conclusion
Yes, the fees at Ablefy are really steep. You pay €39 ("Essential 3.0") to €129 ("Pro 3.0") per month for the subscription alone. And then there's the fee and percentages per sale. After a quick Google search, you'll probably end up with some articles and YouTube videos that recommend ThriveCart, for example (ThriveCart is currently running some influencer campaigns and has really good lifetime offers).
BUT: Ablefy is probably the better choice for you, especially if you are still at the beginning of your business with digital products.
After all, the most important thing when selling digital products is to get started and try out what resonates and is bought. Unfortunately, we see time and again that many people spend a lot of time on their product (eBook, online course, templates, etc.) at the beginning without even having tested whether their audience is interested in the product (or without having a corresponding audience). Many successful providers do it the other way around: first offer and sell - and then create and provide the content (if sales are made).
You should spend as little time as possible on other things during the initial phase. In the end, this is pure procrastination and only distracts you from the actual goal - selling digital products. And this is where Ablefy's reseller model is simply really good. Ablefy acts as a contractual partner to the end customer. Ablefy becomes a reseller who sells your products and then pays out the revenue minus the fees to you.
In the reseller model, you don't need your own PayPal account for your business or a Stripe account for other payment options. You also don't have to think about how to integrate invoices to customers into your own accounting so that you don't have to do this manually. And you don't have to worry about VAT regulations (keyword "reverse charge" for B2B sales to other EU countries).
In the end, of course, these are all things that are not that difficult and can be solved as a matter of course. And advanced online entrepreneurs should definitely take a look at the various platform alternatives and consider whether a switch is worthwhile for them. Because yes, you can probably save a lot of fees here - if you have the time and inclination to take care of the details. Not everyone has that - which is why there are of course also large providers at Ablefy.
Therefore, our recommendation in most cases is: Get started with Ablefy's reseller model and focus on selling your products. And - once you have built up a functioning business - take a look at the alternatives. A possible later move is always tedious - but since the content already exists, it's not that much work in the end.
ADVERTISING
Ablefy discount: How to get a €99 voucher code
If you click on the link below, you can test Ablefy free of charge for 14 days.
And if you then enter the code Victoria99Weber within the first month, you'll get a €99 discount!
If you would like to find out more about Ablefy, you can take a look at the following articles:
Selling with Ablefy #2: What is the Ablefy Shop and how do I customize it?
Selling with Ablefy #4: How can I create and design appealing online course content?
Selling with Ablefy #5: How can I set up and use affiliate programs as an Ablefy seller?
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