Amazon KDP vs StreetLib Comparison 2026
Amazon KDP is free to publish and pays up to 70 percent royalty between $2.99 and $12.99 on its own store. StreetLib charges $99 a year or $299 once for distribution beyond Amazon, and states its cut up front: the author keeps 85 percent of net revenue on every sale, whichever store it comes from. The decision is whether a flat published share across many stores is worth more than KDP's free, band-restricted rate on just one.
Self-publish to Kindle and keep 70 percent
Ebook distribution that states its cut up front
At a glance
- Only Amazon KDP has a free tier.
- StreetLib bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
- StreetLib takes 15% of what you earn against Amazon KDP's 30%.
Side by side
Amazon KDP | StreetLib | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Usage-based | Annual only |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
Amazon KDP
Self-publish to Kindle and keep 70 percent
Kindle Direct Publishing is the shortest route from a finished manuscript to a book somebody can buy, and the audience on the other side of it is the reason most self-published authors start here. Publishing costs nothing. The royalty band is the thing to read before setting a price, because it changes what you earn by half.
Our note
The price band is the decision, not the cover. Pricing at $14.99 instead of $12.99 cuts the royalty rate in half, and a lot of first books are priced into the wrong side of it by accident.
StreetLib
Ebook distribution that states its cut up front
StreetLib distributes ebooks and audiobooks to the stores an author cannot easily reach one by one, and is unusual in charging for the service rather than only taking a share. It publishes what it keeps, which is more than most aggregators do. For an author already selling through Amazon alone, the question is whether the other stores add up to more than the fee.
Our note
Why people weigh these two
- StreetLib instead of Amazon KDP
- StreetLib is ebook distribution that states its cut up front, with paid plans from $99.
- Amazon KDP instead of StreetLib
- Amazon KDP publishes to Kindle alone and costs nothing upfront, keeping 70 percent per sale instead of paying StreetLib's annual fee for stores beyond it.
Which one should you pick
Stay on Amazon KDP if Kindle readers are the whole plan. Publishing is free, and 70 percent inside the $2.99 to $12.99 band is hard to beat with no fee attached at all.
Add StreetLib once reach past Amazon is worth paying for: $99 a year, or $299 once for a backlist that sells slowly and should not carry an annual renewal. Its 85 percent share is published rather than buried in a contract, and audiobooks distribute alongside ebooks from the same account. There is no monthly option, so it is a yearly or one-time decision, not a small trial.
Common questions
- Is StreetLib worth it if I am already on Amazon KDP?
- Only if there are stores past Amazon worth reaching and enough sales to clear the fee. StreetLib costs $99 a year or $299 once and pays 85 percent of net revenue on whatever it sells, separate from what Amazon pays out on a KDP sale.
- Does StreetLib have a monthly plan?
- No. It is $99 a year for the Pro plan or $299 paid once for a lifetime option, with no monthly tier in between. The lifetime option suits a backlist that sells slowly and should not carry a yearly renewal.
- What does StreetLib actually keep from a sale?
- 15 percent. The Pro and lifetime plans both state the author earns 85 percent of net revenue, published on the pricing page rather than left for a contract to explain.
- Which one should a first-time author with one book use?
- Amazon KDP. It costs nothing to publish, pays up to 70 percent inside its price band, and does not ask for a yearly or one-time fee before a single copy has sold. StreetLib's cost only makes sense once there are several titles or steady sales to justify it.
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