Etsy vs Shopify Fees: Which One Keeps More of Your Money

Etsy is cheaper at low volume and Shopify is cheaper at high volume. Etsy charges no monthly fee but takes roughly 11% of a typical $30 order once you add the $0.20 listing fee, the 6.5% transaction fee and about 3% + $0.25 in payment processing. Shopify charges a fixed monthly plan fee ($39/mo on Basic, or $29/mo billed annually) plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing and takes no commission on the sale itself. At a $30 average order value, the crossover lands at about 19 orders per month: below that Etsy costs less, above that Shopify Basic costs less.

The catch the fee math hides: Etsy's cut buys you buyers. Shopify's plan fee buys you a store with no shoppers in it. Below, the numbers line by line. All figures are as published in 2026 for US sellers and can change.

Etsy vs Shopify fees, side by side

That last row is the whole argument. Every other line favors Shopify on cost.

The crossover math: where Shopify gets cheaper than Etsy

Take a $30 order (product plus shipping, the way Etsy counts it) and run both platforms.

Etsy, per $30 order:

• Listing fee (the renewal the sale triggers): $0.20
• Transaction fee, 6.5% of $30: $1.95
• Processing, about 3% + $0.25: $1.15
• Total: $3.30, or 11.0% of the order

Shopify Basic, per $30 order: no commission, and Shopify Payments at 2.9% + $0.30 costs $1.17. That is 3.9% of the order, plus $39 a month no matter what.

So Shopify saves $2.13 in variable cost on every $30 order. Divide the $39 plan fee by $2.13 and you get 18.3. Round up: at 19 orders a month, Shopify Basic starts costing less than Etsy. That is about $570 a month in sales. On the annual plan at $29/mo, the crossover drops to 14 orders.

Read the percentage columns, not just the dollars. Etsy's rate is flat at 11% whether you sell 10 items or 10,000. Shopify's falls as you grow, because the $39 spreads across more orders. At 200 orders a month it is 4.6%, less than half of Etsy's: about $4,600 a year on the same revenue.

Two honest adjustments. First, the crossover moves with average order value. At a $12 AOV you need roughly 62 orders a month to break even; at an $80 AOV it falls to about 9. Higher prices push you toward Shopify sooner; cheap small items keep Etsy competitive for longer. Run your own AOV through a platform fee breakdown calculator first.

Second, the Etsy column is the optimistic version: it assumes no Offsite Ads. Past $10,000 in sales over 12 months, Offsite Ads becomes mandatory, and any order attributed to one carries an extra 12% (capped at $100 per order), pushing Etsy's real take past 20% on those orders. The successful Etsy shop pays the highest effective rate, which is exactly when Shopify's fixed fee looks best. Our full breakdown of Etsy's fees shows how the 6.5% and Offsite Ads stack on a real order.

Is Shopify cheaper than Etsy?

Yes, above about 19 orders a month at a $30 average order value. Shopify takes no commission, so your only variable cost is 2.9% + $0.30 in processing on Basic, versus roughly 11% all-in on Etsy. Below the crossover, Shopify's $39 monthly fee makes it more expensive. Below 10 orders a month it is much more expensive.

But "cheaper" only holds if you can replace Etsy's traffic. Etsy's 11% is partly a marketing fee: shoppers arrive already looking to buy, and Etsy search puts you in front of them. An empty Shopify store gets zero visits. If closing that gap costs $300 a month in ads, the $67 you saved on fees at 50 orders was not a saving. Shopify is cheaper on fees; it is only cheaper overall if you already own an audience, rank in Google, or have repeat customers. See how that lands in practice on our Shopify seller income page.

How much does Etsy take per sale?

About 10 to 11% of a typical order. On a $30 sale: $0.20 listing renewal, $1.95 transaction fee (6.5% of the order total, shipping included), and about $1.15 in payment processing (roughly 3% + $0.25). That is $3.30 total, leaving you $26.70. With Offsite Ads attributed to the order, add another 12 to 15%.

The detail most new sellers miss: the 6.5% applies to shipping too. Charge $8 for shipping and Etsy takes $0.52 of it before you have paid the carrier. There is also the quiet $0.20 every 4 months on listings that have not sold: a shop with 300 listings pays $60 a cycle just to keep the shelves stocked.

Does Shopify charge a transaction fee?

Not if you use Shopify Payments. Shopify takes no commission on your sales; you pay the payment processing rate (2.9% + $0.30 online on Basic, 2.6% + $0.10 in person) and nothing else. If you use an outside gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a surcharge: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced.

That surcharge is the fee to watch. On Basic, an outside gateway costs 2% on top of whatever that gateway charges, which can quietly wipe out the margin advantage you moved to Shopify for. Unless you have a hard reason (an unsupported country, a specific processor requirement), use Shopify Payments. Processing rates also step down on Grow and Advanced, part of why the higher tiers pay for themselves at volume. The Shopify fee guide covers the tiers in detail.

Which is better for a beginner, Etsy or Shopify?

Etsy, in almost every case. You can list a product today for $0.20 with no monthly commitment, and Etsy's search will show it to people who are already shopping. A beginner on Shopify pays $39 a month to learn that traffic does not appear on its own. Start on Etsy, validate that people want the product, then reassess at 20 to 50 orders a month.

The exceptions are real. If you already have an audience, you would be paying Etsy 11% for traffic you brought yourself, so skip straight to Shopify. Same if your product does not fit Etsy's categories, or if you sell high-ticket items where 11% stings. Shopify's $5/mo Starter plan is a cheap way to test a checkout link first.

Can I sell on both Etsy and Shopify?

Yes, and a lot of established sellers do. The common pattern: Etsy for discovery (new buyers who found you through Etsy search) and Shopify for repeat purchases, launches, bundles and anything where you want the customer relationship and the better margin. Both stores can run from the same inventory.

The logic is straightforward. You pay Etsy roughly 11% as a customer acquisition cost, cheap next to paid ads. Then you keep that customer: package inserts, a follow-up email if they opt in, a reason to buy directly next time. The second sale costs 3.9% on Shopify instead of 11% on Etsy. On a buyer who orders four times a year at $30, that is about $21 in Etsy fees versus roughly $4.70 in Shopify processing. Etsy's policy limits how hard you can push buyers off-platform, so play it straight. Our Etsy seller income breakdown shows how the two streams look side by side after a year.

Where each platform actually wins

Etsy wins on

• Buyers you did not have to find. That is the entire product: a marketplace with purchase intent in it.
• Zero fixed cost. A bad month costs nothing but listing fees. Real downside protection for a side business.
• Speed. Live in an afternoon. No theme, no domain, no apps.
• Trust. Buyers hand card details to Etsy without thinking. A new independent store has to earn that.

Shopify wins on

• Margin at volume. 4.6% all-in at 200 orders a month versus Etsy's flat 11%.
• Owning the customer. The email list, the purchase history, the ability to email a launch. On Etsy, that relationship is not yours.
• Brand and control. Your domain, your design, no competitor listings under your product.
• No marketplace risk. No search algorithm change, no suspended-shop panic, no policy shift you did not vote on.

Neither platform will remind you that fees are only half of margin. The other half is what you spend to fulfill the order: materials, boxes, mailers, labels, the postage you undercharged for. A seller who tracks fees and shrugs at costs is doing half the accounting, so it pays to keep receipts and costs categorized automatically alongside the revenue side. A 30% gross margin can be a 4% net margin, and the difference is usually in the boxes.

Running both means two fee structures and one real number

Sell on both at once and your income picture fragments. Etsy has its own dashboard, its own fee lines, its own payout schedule. Shopify has a different one on a different rhythm. Two gross figures, two fee stacks, and no single view of what hit your bank.

That is the gap Earnly fills. Every payout lands on one board with gross, fees and take-home per source, so an Etsy month at 11% and a Shopify month at 3.9% plus $39 sit side by side in the same units. The payout calendar shows expected pay dates from both, and the next-month view gives a forecast band always labeled an estimate. Gumroad, Stripe, PayPal, Amazon and Ko-fi land on the same board. Plans: Solo $12/mo (yearly), Creator $32/mo, Studio $79/mo.

Pick your platform on the crossover number. Under 20 orders a month at a typical price point, Etsy's 11% is the cheaper deal and the traffic is free money. Past that, Shopify's fixed fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 leaves meaningfully more in your pocket. Most sellers who get serious end up on both, and then the only number that matters is combined take-home. A multi-platform income tracker turns two dashboards into one honest figure.

This article is informational only. Fees come from Etsy's and Shopify's published US schedules as of 2026 and can change; the worked examples are estimates. Earnly is an analytics tool and does not provide financial, accounting or tax advice. Always confirm against your own statements.