What Types of Templates Sell Best Online in 2026?

Not all templates sell equally. Across 146,271 Gumroad products tracked by InsightRaider, template revenue concentrates in five distinct categories. The gap between top and bottom is enormous — software templates average $60,814 per product while gaming-adjacent templates average just $971.

• Business and productivity templates (Notion dashboards, project trackers, financial spreadsheets): $10,267 average revenue per product across 1,500 competing products.
• Software and code templates (website themes, SaaS boilerplates, UI component libraries): $60,814 average per product — the highest of any category by a wide margin.
• Writing and content templates (proposal scripts, email sequences, copywriting frameworks): $15,750 per product with only 226 competing products — the least saturated niche in the entire dataset.
• Design templates (Canva decks, social media kits, brand identity packs): $7,365 per product across 1,195 competing products.
• Education templates (lesson plan builders, curriculum frameworks, student worksheets): $8,664 per product across 750 active products.

The single biggest insight: Writing and Publishing delivers $15,750 average per product while being the lowest-competition category in the entire dataset. Most template creators ignore it because it lacks visual appeal on trend lists. That invisibility is the opportunity.

Business and Money is the third-largest Gumroad category at $15.4M total tracked revenue, and templates drive a significant share of it. Buyers here have budget and urgency — they need a working Notion CRM today, not a six-week course.

The top-performing business template subcategories are:

• Notion and Airtable systems — project management dashboards, client portals, content calendars
• Spreadsheet templates — budget trackers, P&L models, pricing calculators
• SOP and hiring kits — onboarding docs, job description frameworks, HR bundles
• Marketing operations templates — launch plans, content strategy boards, SEO trackers

Pricing in this category sits at a natural conversion sweet spot. The $30-49 price band converts 28% better than products priced under $10, and business buyers rationalize the spend easily when a template saves several hours of setup. Bundling 3-5 related templates into a system kit is the dominant strategy among top earners — and sellers with 11+ products average 5,201 total sales, versus 269 for single-product sellers.

The risk: the category is competitive at 1,500 products. To stand out, position the template around a specific job title or workflow — 'The Freelance Designer Client Portal in Notion' — rather than a generic label like 'Notion Dashboard.' Specificity commands premium prices and reduces comparison shopping.

Related: Sell Templates Online 2026 and Best Digital Products to Sell 2026.

For a deeper look, see How much can you make selling Notion templates on Gumroad.

Software Development is not just the top Gumroad category at $65.8M total — it operates in a different revenue tier entirely. The per-product average of $60,814 is more than 4x the next-highest category. Templates here include website themes, SaaS boilerplates, UI component libraries, and no-code app starters.

Three factors explain the revenue gap:

• Buyer willingness to pay is highest in any category. Software Development products average $39.95 per sale — the highest price point across all major categories. Developers value time savings at market rates, not consumer rates.
• The product is reusable infrastructure. A buyer who purchases a Next.js SaaS starter kit avoids weeks of setup. The ROI calculus is immediate and obvious.
• Competition is lower than it appears. Only 1,083 products compete across the entire Software Development category — many are documentation, courses, or one-off tools, not templates.

For non-developers: Webflow templates, Framer site themes, and Figma UI kits straddle the Design and Software categories and follow the same high-willingness-to-pay dynamic. A polished Framer portfolio template at $49 outperforms a generic Canva social pack at $9 by a decisive margin in absolute revenue — because the buyer perceives direct business value, not aesthetic convenience.

We break this down further in Profitable Niches 2026.

The Writing and Publishing category is the most underrated opportunity in the InsightRaider dataset. It averages $15,750 per product — second only to Software Development — yet only 226 products compete in it. That is 8x fewer competitors than Design and 6x fewer than Business and Money.

Writing templates that consistently generate revenue include:

• Email sequence templates — welcome series, sales sequences, re-engagement scripts
• Sales page and landing page copy frameworks — fill-in-the-blank copywriting structures
• Proposal and contract templates — for freelancers, agencies, and consultants
• Content repurposing kits — blog-to-newsletter-to-thread conversion systems
• Book outline and manuscript templates — for nonfiction writers and course creators

The pricing ceiling is high because the buyer is typically a professional — a freelancer, marketer, or coach — who attaches real dollar value to their writing output. A copywriter who charges $3,000 for a sales page will readily pay $79 for a framework that cuts production time in half. The value proposition is arithmetic, not aspirational.

This category also benefits from low marketing overhead. Writing template buyers search for solutions — organic search and email lists outperform viral social in this niche, which means sustainable traffic without a large following.

Design templates generate $8.8M in tracked Gumroad revenue across 1,195 products, averaging $7,365 per product. This is the most visible template category — Canva kits, Instagram carousel packs, brand identity suites — but also the most crowded relative to its revenue ceiling.

The Design category splits into two clear tiers:

The differentiation strategy that works: niche by industry, not by format. A 'Real Estate Agent Instagram Pack' commands 2-3x the price of a 'Social Media Kit' with significantly less competition — because buyer search intent is specific. They want something that looks like their industry.

One execution rule applies regardless of subcategory: products with 2-3 cover images earn 15x more revenue than products with zero covers. In the Design category, visual proof is non-negotiable — buyers evaluate aesthetics before reading a single word of the description.

Template selection is a positioning decision, not a product decision. The same Notion template sold as 'Productivity Dashboard' earns a fraction of what it earns positioned as 'Content Creator Business Hub.' The category data points to a clear decision framework:

• Lowest competition, high revenue: Writing and Publishing — 226 products, $15,750 average. Best opportunity if you have writing or marketing expertise.
• Highest absolute revenue: Software and code templates — $60,814 per product. Requires technical execution but commands premium prices with no ceiling.
• Largest addressable market: Business and Money — $15.4M total. Most crowded but deepest buyer pool with consistent purchase intent.
• Fastest path to first sale: Design — visible, shareable, impulse-buy friendly. Lowest barrier, lower ceiling per product.

Three execution rules apply regardless of which niche you choose:

1. Price in the $30-49 band. It converts 28% better than sub-$10 pricing and signals professional value without requiring heavy trust-building. Products priced under $10 capture just 0.8% of total platform revenue despite representing 35% of all products.
2. Write a description over 5,000 characters. Products with 5,000-plus character descriptions earn 20x more than those under 500 characters. The longest, most detailed listing in your category wins.
3. Add 2-3 cover images showing the template in context. Visual proof drives 15x more revenue than a plain text listing.

Next step: Use InsightRaider to filter by category, sort by revenue per product, and identify the top 5-10 templates in your target niche. That is your product brief — reverse-engineer what is already proven before building anything new.