Etsy vs Shopify: Fees at $1k, $5k and $20k a Month

How the fees work

Etsy charges per sale: a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on the item and shipping, and payment processing of 3% + $0.25 in the US (Etsy Fees & Payments Policy, Etsy Payments Policy). Offsite Ads can add a fee on sales Etsy’s ads brought in. On a $30 order that’s about $3.30, 11%.

Shopify charges a monthly plan ($39 Basic, $105 Grow, $399 Advanced billed monthly; less billed yearly) plus card processing: 2.9% + $0.30 for online US personal cards on Basic with Shopify Payments, lower on bigger plans (Shopify pricing). On a $30 order that’s $1.17 in processing, plus your share of the plan.

Etsy vs Shopify at three monthly sales levels

We ran $30 orders through our Etsy and Shopify Basic calculators on October 24, 2026, spreading Shopify’s $39 plan across each month’s orders.

Monthly sales ($30 orders)	Etsy fees	Shopify Basic fees + plan	Difference
$1,000 (33 orders)	about $109	about $78	Shopify −$31
$5,000 (167 orders)	about $551	about $234	Shopify −$317
$20,000 (667 orders)	about $2,201	about $820	Shopify −$1,381

On fees alone, the break-even is low: about $550 a month, the point where Etsy’s extra ~7 percentage points cover Shopify’s $39 plan. Below it, the fixed plan fee makes Shopify the more expensive option per order: at 10 orders a month ($300 of sales) the plan alone adds $3.90 to every $30 sale, so each order costs about $5.07 against $3.30 on Etsy. Above it, every extra order widens Shopify’s lead, because its cost per order keeps falling as the plan is shared across more sales.

Shopify vs Etsy: When Your Own Store Becomes Cheaper

The fee table leaves out the most important cost: buyers. Etsy’s fees include a marketplace full of people searching for handmade and vintage goods. A Shopify store starts with zero visitors, so you pay for traffic with ads, social media time, email marketing or collaborations.

That turns the break-even into a simple test: if you can bring buyers to your own store for less than about 7% of sales, Shopify wins. At $5,000 a month that’s a marketing budget under roughly $317, the fee difference in the table. Spend more than that on ads to replace Etsy’s traffic and Etsy is still cheaper.

Costs that aren’t in the headline fees

On Etsy:

• Offsite Ads. When a sale comes from an Etsy ad on another site, Etsy charges 15% of the order (12% for sellers with $10,000 or more in sales over the past 12 months), capped at US$100 per order. On a $30 order that’s $4.50 on top of the usual fees.
• Currency conversion. If your listing currency differs from your payment account’s, Etsy charges 2.5% to convert.
• Share & Save credit. Sales through your own shared link earn a 6.5% credit, a small reward for bringing your own traffic.

On Shopify:

• Third-party payment providers. If you take payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2% on Basic (1% Grow, 0.6% Advanced, 0.2% Plus), on top of the provider’s own rate.
• Apps and themes. Many stores pay monthly for reviews, email, subscriptions or shipping apps. Add them to the plan cost when you compare.
• Marketing. The big one, covered above: every visitor has to come from somewhere.

A worked month at $5,000

At $5,000 a month from 167 orders of $30, Etsy’s fees come to about $551. On Shopify Basic you’d pay about $234, leaving $317 a month for marketing before Etsy becomes the better deal. If half your Shopify sales come from repeat customers who find you anyway, that budget only has to buy the other half. That’s why stores with loyal followings move to Shopify sooner than stores that depend on search.

What else differs

• Control. On Shopify you own the customer relationship: email addresses, branding, pricing rules. Etsy’s rules, search ranking and fee changes are out of your control.
• Products. Etsy is for handmade, vintage (20+ years) and craft supplies. Shopify lets you sell anything legal, including print-on-demand and resale.
• Repeat customers. Repeat buyers are where your own store shines: you’re not paying a marketplace fee to sell to someone who already knows you.
• Effort. Etsy is quicker to start. Shopify needs a store set-up, apps, policies and a marketing plan.
• Disputes and support. On Etsy, buyer problems go through Etsy’s case system, which follows Etsy’s policies. On your own store you handle returns, refunds and chargebacks yourself, through your payment provider. That’s more work but also more control over how you treat customers.
• Search visibility. Etsy listings can rank in Google for product searches through Etsy’s own pages; a new Shopify store has to earn that visibility from scratch.

Running both

Most makers who grow beyond hobby level end up on both. A common pattern:

1. List on Etsy to be found, collect reviews and learn which products sell.
2. Open a Shopify store for your best sellers, wholesale and repeat customers.
3. Use packaging inserts and email to move happy Etsy buyers to your store for their next order, within Etsy’s rules.
4. Keep prices consistent so neither channel undercuts the other; price from your target profit on each with the product pricing calculator.

Our recommendation

• Starting out, or under $550 a month: Etsy alone. The fees are higher, but you don’t have to find buyers.
• $1,000–$5,000 a month with a loyal following: add Shopify for repeat buyers; keep Etsy for discovery.
• Over $5,000 a month with your own traffic: Shopify becomes the main store, and Etsy a sales channel.

Whichever stage you’re at, check the numbers every quarter. Etsy changes its fees from time to time, and your marketing costs on Shopify move with the season; the cheaper channel can switch without you noticing.

Run your own numbers in the Etsy fee calculator and the Shopify fee calculator, and work out a fair price for handmade work with the craft pricing calculator.