Comparison
StitchPattern vs Ravelry
Ravelry is where knitters find patterns and each other, and StitchPattern is where the designer runs the tester round and the errata that follow the sale.
Comparison
StitchPattern vs Payhip: a digital storefront against a release desk
Payhip is a general storefront for any downloadable file, and StitchPattern is the release desk behind a graded pattern with testers, corrections and errata.
The short answer
Payhip suits a designer who needs a clean way to take money for a PDF and does not want to build a store. It handles the transaction shape that every digital seller shares, from ebooks to printables. StitchPattern assumes the transaction is already solved and works on the part that is specific to this trade: running a tester cohort across a graded size range, logging every correction against a page and a size, stamping the file with a version, and getting that version to buyers who paid three months ago. Most designers need both, and they do not overlap much.
StitchPattern and Payhip side by side
| What you are deciding | StitchPattern | Payhip |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of the product | Narrow on purpose: pattern releases for sewing and knitting designers who grade across a size range. | Broad by design: a storefront for digital goods of any kind, from printables to courses. |
| Taking the money | Not a checkout. It runs alongside whatever store or marketplace already processes your sales. | Checkout and file delivery are the core of what it is built to do. |
| How sizes are treated | Size ranges are first class, so cohorts, corrections and errata are all scoped by size. | A PDF is a file like any other file, so anything about graded sizes lives in your own product copy. |
| Tester round | Applications, cohort selection, dated make windows, structured reports and a coverage view by size. | Not a workflow a general storefront is shaped around, so designers usually run it in a spreadsheet. |
| Correction log | Every note carries page, chart or piece, size range, decision and the version that fixed it. | Kept outside the store in whatever notes or documents the designer already uses. |
| Errata after the sale | A versioned errata note goes to prior buyers with a record of who received which version. | Customer email is available to the seller, and drafting, scoping and versioning the notice is your work. |
| Selling in several places | Buyer records can come from your own store, a marketplace listing and in person sales together. | Naturally focused on the buyers who came through its own checkout. |
| Pricing shape | Flat monthly tiers at $19, $45 and $95, unrelated to how many copies you sell. | Set by the platform, so check the current terms there before you compare running costs. |
The right hand side describes where Payhip sits as a category and whose workflow it assumes. Products change, so check the current details with them before you decide. StitchPattern is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose StitchPattern when
- When a pattern has already sold and a grading error in the top three sizes has to be corrected without guesswork.
- When you run more than one tester round a year and the application spreadsheet has stopped being readable.
- When you support A4, US letter, A0 copy shop and projector files and each one has to be reissued together.
- When a customer emails about a stitch count and you need to know which version they downloaded before you answer.
Choose Payhip when
- If you have no storefront yet, taking payment for the PDF is the first problem to solve and this is the kind of tool that solves it.
- If you sell one or two patterns and a coupon code is the most complicated thing you need, a release system is overhead.
- If your catalog is a mix of patterns, printables and classes, a general storefront covers all of it in one place.
The checkout is not the hard part of a pattern release
Taking eleven dollars for a PDF is a solved problem, and it has been for years. The part that eats a designer week is everything either side of it: the tester round that proves the grading, the corrections that come back out of order, the rebuild of four page size variants, and the notice that has to go to buyers of the previous version.
That is why StitchPattern does not try to be your store. It assumes the money already moves and works on the record around it, so the storefront you like can keep doing the job it is good at while the release stops living in browser tabs.
Why size ranges change the shape of the tool
A general digital storefront treats your pattern as a single object. In practice it is one document holding twelve or twenty graded versions of the same garment, and almost every correction applies to some of them and not others. A dart intake fix might touch sizes 18 and up. A yardage correction might touch only the two largest. If the tool cannot hold that distinction, you write it out longhand every time.
Scoping by size range also changes the errata. Buyers get told what actually applies to the size they cut, which cuts the follow up email in half and stops smaller size buyers reprinting a pattern that never had a problem.
Running both without duplicating work
The usual arrangement is straightforward. Sales keep running through the store you already use, and buyer records flow into StitchPattern so the release side knows who holds what. Tester applications, the correction log and the version stamps live in the release tool, and the store just delivers the current file.
When the corrected PDF is ready you replace it in the store as you always would, then send the errata from the release side to every buyer of the earlier version. One rebuild, one notice, one record of who received it, whichever channel they bought from.
Questions people ask before they choose
Do I have to move my pattern sales to use StitchPattern?
No. It is deliberately not a checkout, so your existing store keeps taking the money and delivering the file. StitchPattern holds the tester rounds, the correction log and the buyer record used for errata.
What happens to buyers I already have?
You import them with the pattern and version they bought, and from then on they are inside the errata record. That is usually the first thing designers do, because the oldest buyers are the ones holding the oldest files.
Can it handle several file formats for the same pattern?
Yes. A release can carry US letter, A4, A0 copy shop and projector files under one version stamp. When you rebuild after a correction, the errata refers to the version rather than to any single file, so buyers know which download to replace.
Other comparisons on stitchpatternapp.com
Comparison
StitchPattern vs Airtable
Airtable is a blank database you shape yourself, and StitchPattern arrives already shaped like a pattern release with cohorts, corrections and errata.
See the head to head against your own pattern
A comparison reads differently once the release in it is yours. In a demo we take a pattern you have already shipped, load the sizes it really graded to, and walk the correction log and the errata push end to end. You will know by the end of it which side of this page your studio sits on.