Whop vs LaunchPass: The Short Answer
Whop is cheaper and has a discovery marketplace. LaunchPass has a cleaner pure-Discord experience and simpler setup. Neither is the best long-term option if you're past $1,500 MRR — a custom Stripe + n8n setup beats both on cost. Here's the full breakdown.
At a Glance
| Feature | LaunchPass | Whop | Custom n8n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $29 | $0 | ~$8 |
| Revenue cut | 3.5% | 3% | 0% |
| Setup time | 30 min | 30 min | 3–6 hours |
| Marketplace discovery | No | Yes | No |
| Pure Discord experience | Yes | No (Whop app layer) | Yes |
| Multi-product selling | No | Yes | Custom |
| Custom failed payment logic | No | No | Yes |
What LaunchPass Does
LaunchPass is a dedicated Discord (and Slack/Telegram) membership tool. You connect your Stripe account, set a price, generate a payment link, and LaunchPass handles role assignment on payment and removal on cancellation. It's purpose-built for this specific use case and does it cleanly.
The focus is narrow: take money, grant Discord role, remove Discord role when subscription ends. If that's all you need, it works well. The limitation is that simplicity comes with a $29/month platform fee on top of 3.5% of revenue.
What Whop Does
Whop is a broader digital products marketplace. Discord access is one of many things you can sell on Whop — alongside courses, digital downloads, software tools, and spreadsheets. Whop has its own marketplace where buyers browse products, which is a significant differentiator: LaunchPass has no discovery mechanism whatsoever.
Whop also has a consumer-facing app where members access their purchases. This adds a layer between your community and your members compared to the pure-Discord experience of LaunchPass. For some operators that layer is useful. For others it's unnecessary friction.
Pricing at Every MRR Level
| MRR | LaunchPass cost | Whop cost | Custom n8n cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $46.50/mo | $15/mo | $8/mo |
| $1,000 | $64/mo | $30/mo | $8/mo |
| $2,000 | $99/mo | $60/mo | $8/mo |
| $5,000 | $204/mo | $150/mo | $8/mo |
| $10,000 | $379/mo | $300/mo | $8/mo |
Whop is cheaper than LaunchPass at every revenue level. At $5k MRR, Whop saves you $54/month vs LaunchPass — that's $648/year for the same Discord role management. The custom n8n approach saves you $142/month over Whop at that level.
The Discovery Question
Whop has a marketplace. Real people browse Whop looking for communities, tools, and courses to buy. Your listing can get organic traffic from Whop's platform — something LaunchPass completely lacks.
How much traffic? It depends on your niche. Whop's marketplace is most active in trading/crypto, fitness, and online business. If you're in one of those niches, it can drive meaningful organic members. If your niche is underrepresented on Whop, the marketplace effect is minimal.
Discord Experience: Pure vs. Layered
LaunchPass creates a clean Discord-native experience. Members pay, get a role, live in Discord. No app to download, no separate profile, no Whop account to create.
Whop adds a layer. Members have a Whop account, they access their purchases via the Whop app or website, and Discord is one of the platforms they get access through. For multi-product operators, this centralised hub is useful. For Discord-only communities, it's friction your members didn't ask for.
Multi-Product Operators: Whop Wins
If you sell more than just Discord access — courses, templates, group coaching, digital downloads — Whop handles all of it in one place. LaunchPass cannot. A creator selling a $99 course alongside Discord access has to patch together LaunchPass with another tool. On Whop, that's one product listing with one checkout.
Pure Discord Community: LaunchPass or Custom
If Discord access is your entire product and you want the simplest, most native experience: LaunchPass for the first 100 members, then migrate to a custom Stripe + n8n setup once the revenue cut starts hurting. For more options in this space, see our full LaunchPass alternatives guide which covers Memberful and migration steps in detail.
The custom n8n setup is covered fully in our Stripe Discord Integration guide.
The Third Option That Beats Both
Both Whop and LaunchPass extract a percentage of your revenue in exchange for webhook infrastructure that takes under a day to build properly. At meaningful MRR, this is an expensive trade. The custom Stripe + n8n approach costs ~$8/month and handles everything both platforms do — plus custom dunning sequences, multi-tier access logic, admin dashboards, and anything else you need — with no platform dependency.
ShipWorkflow builds and maintains this infrastructure for paid Discord community operators. One-time setup, no ongoing platform fees, full control over your stack. Talk to us when you're ready to own your infrastructure.