You do not need a website, a store platform, or a merchant account to start taking money. You need a link. Here are the real options and what each one costs you.
PayPal.me — zero setup
paypal.me/yourname is a public URL that accepts money instantly. No website, no code, no credentials exposed on your end. Add an amount to the URL (paypal.me/yourname/25) to request a specific sum, or leave it open for pay-what-you-want. Catch: a per-transaction fee, and buyers need PayPal or a card.
Stripe Payment Links — cards, no site required
Stripe creates a hosted payment link from your dashboard in about a minute — a public buy.stripe.com URL that takes cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, with no website behind it. You can set “customer chooses the price” for pay-what-you-want, and redirect buyers to a delivery page after payment. Catch: a per-transaction fee; you verify your identity to enable payouts.
Gumroad — delivery built in
Selling a file? Gumroad hosts the product, takes the payment, and delivers the download — free to start, with a cut per sale. Good when you want delivery handled for you.
The pattern that works
A file → a public link → a payment link → delivery. Everything past that is decoration. You can be selling this afternoon and add a “real” store later — at sale eleven, not sale zero.
The one thing to get right
Make sure the link points at an account that actually exists. Shipping buy buttons aimed at a payment handle with nothing behind it is one of the most common silent failures there is. Test your own checkout from a device you're not logged into before you send anyone to it.
Free tools for every layer are in The One-Person Builder's Free Stack, and Build a Store That Runs Itself goes deeper on the whole loop — pay what you want, 70% to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.