Etsy is a marketplace. Buyers already go there to search, and a seller pays Etsy per listing and per order for a place in those results. Shopify is software for running a store of your own. It is not a marketplace, so the merchant has to bring the shoppers. It charges a monthly plan and leaves the domain, the brand and the customer list with the merchant. That split explains most of the cost difference below: Etsy’s fees grow with every order, while Shopify’s main cost is fixed and the traffic is yours to find.
The figures here are for a seller whose bank account is in the US, and they were read on 8 November 2026 from Etsy’s Fees & Payments Policy (last updated 5 October 2026), its Etsy Payments Policy (last updated 31 July 2026), its Seller Policy and Creativity Standards, Shopify’s US pricing table, Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy and the Shopify Help Center. Amounts are in US dollars. Etsy charges other card rates to sellers banking in other countries, and Shopify quotes other plan prices outside the US.
Key takeaways
- Etsy charges $0.20 for each listing, which lasts four months, plus a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price, shipping and gift wrap, plus 3% + $0.25 for card processing on a US bank account.
- When a sale is credited to Etsy’s Offsite Ads, Etsy also takes 15% of that order, or 12% once the shop has passed $10,000 in sales over the prior 365 days. The charge stops at $100 per order, and shops past $10,000 cannot opt out.
- Shopify Basic is $29 a month on yearly billing or $39 paid monthly. Paid through Shopify Payments, orders carry no Shopify fee beyond the card rate, which starts at 2.9% + 30¢ online in the US.
- Etsy accepts only items that the seller made, designed, handpicked or sourced, and it bans reselling and dropshipping outside a few listed cases. Shopify’s use policy has no test of that kind.
- Etsy lets a seller use a buyer’s email address only for Etsy-related messages. Adding Etsy buyers to a mailing list needs each buyer’s consent.
Shopify vs Etsy: comparison table (2026)
| Item | Shopify | Etsy |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Your own store on your own domain | A shop inside a marketplace with its own buyers |
| Monthly plan, US | Basic $29, Grow $79, Advanced $299 on yearly billing ($39, $105, $399 monthly); Plus from $2,300 | None required; Etsy Plus is optional at $10 a month |
| Cost to list a product | Nothing per product | $0.20 per listing, renewed every four months |
| Platform fee per order | None with Shopify Payments; 2%, 1%, 0.6% or 0.2% with an outside payment provider (Basic, Grow, Advanced, Plus) | 6.5% of the item price plus shipping and gift wrap |
| US card processing, online | Basic 2.9%, Grow 2.7%, Advanced 2.5%, Plus 2.25%, each plus 30¢ | 3% + $0.25 on every order |
| Premium cards | 3.5% + 30¢ on Basic, down to 2.95% + 30¢ on Plus | No separate rate listed |
| Ad fee taken from sales | None charged by Shopify | Offsite Ads: 15% or 12% of a credited order, $100 cap |
| Standalone website | The store is the website | Pattern: $15 a month after a 30-day free trial |
| Products allowed | Legal products, within Shopify’s terms, payment rules and any channel rules | Made, designed, handpicked (including vintage of 20+ years) or sourced by the seller |
| Gift cards for your shop | Selling gift cards is listed among the plan features | Not allowed; only Etsy’s own gift cards |
| Starting out | Free for 3 days; most plans then cost $1 a month for the first three months | No plan to try; a one-time set-up fee may be charged when the shop opens |
The fees on one $58 order
Take an item priced at $50 with $8 shipping, sold by a US seller to a US buyer. Sales tax is left out because Etsy collects and remits it in most states and does not charge its transaction fee on it.
| Cost | Etsy | Shopify Basic (Shopify Payments) |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 | $0 |
| Transaction fee | $3.77 (6.5% of $58) | $0 |
| Card processing | $1.99 (3% + $0.25) | $1.98 (2.9% + 30¢) |
| Total fees | $5.96, about 10.3% of the order | $1.98, about 3.4% |
| Seller receives | $52.04 | $56.02 |
| If Etsy credits the sale to an Offsite Ad at 15% | Another $8.70, so $14.66 in fees and $43.34 received | Not applicable |
Card processing costs almost the same on both. The gap is Etsy’s 6.5% fee and the listing fee, and on the Shopify side the monthly plan. Shopify Basic on yearly billing costs $348 a year. Etsy’s 6.5% fee adds up to the same $348 once a shop’s items and shipping reach about $5,350 a year ($348 divided by 0.065). Past that point the transaction fee alone costs more than a year of Shopify Basic, before listing fees or Offsite Ads are counted. For Shopify Grow at $948 a year, the same point is roughly $14,600.
The comparison leaves out what Etsy’s fees pay for. Etsy puts listings in front of people who are already searching Etsy, and a new Shopify store starts with no visitors at all. The plan saving only holds if the seller can bring buyers in some other way, such as Google search, social media, paid ads or an email list. Apps and a paid theme, if you choose them, also add to Shopify’s monthly cost.
Other Etsy fees to know
- Offsite Ads. Etsy buys ads on social networks and search engines. If a buyer clicks one and orders from your shop within 30 days, the order is charged 15%, or 12% for shops that have reached $10,000 in sales over the prior 365 days. Shops under $10,000 can opt out. Once a shop reaches $10,000, the 12% rate and the program apply for the life of the shop, even if sales later fall.
- Etsy Ads. Optional ads inside Etsy, billed against a daily budget the seller sets.
- Multiple quantities. A listing with more than one unit renews for another $0.20 each time a unit sells, so ten units sold from one listing cost $2.00 in listing fees in total.
- Etsy Plus. $10 a month for extra tools, with 15 listing credits and $5 of Etsy Ads credit each cycle. Unused credits expire.
- Pattern. Etsy’s own website builder, free for 30 days and then $15 a month. Items listed only on Pattern carry no listing fee.
- Currency. Listing in a currency other than your payment account’s adds a 2.5% conversion fee on the sale.
- Country fees. Sellers in some countries pay an extra regulatory operating fee on each order.
What each one lets you sell
Etsy’s Creativity Standards sort every allowed item into four groups:
- Made by the seller: crafted, altered or assembled by hand, or produced at home or in the seller’s own workshop with tools such as a 3D printer, laser cutter or Cricut machine, from the seller’s own design.
- Designed by the seller: the seller’s original designs sold as downloads or produced by a production partner, which must be disclosed in the listing. Items made with AI tools from the seller’s own prompts are allowed if the listing says so.
- Handpicked by the seller: vintage items at least 20 years old, items from nature, and themed gift baskets the seller put together from different kinds of items.
- Sourced by the seller: craft supplies, party decorations, and items printed with the buyer’s own text or image by a production partner.
Etsy’s Seller Policy adds that dropshipping and reselling are not allowed apart from listed cases such as craft supplies. A commercially made item less than 20 years old cannot be resold, even if it looks vintage, and nor can blank goods that are ready to use as they are. Etsy can remove listings that break these rules, and the listing fees are not refunded.
Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy works from principles rather than categories. A merchant must stay within the law where they sell, must not sell products that facilitate intentional self-harm, and must follow the terms of Shopify Payments and of any sales channel they use. There is no handmade, vintage or craft test, so a brand whose range has grown past what Etsy accepts can sell all of it from one Shopify store.
Who owns the customer
Etsy’s Seller Policy treats buyer details as something the seller may use only for the Etsy order. A buyer’s email address can be used for Etsy-related messages or Etsy transactions. Without the buyer’s consent, a seller may not put that buyer on an email or postal mailing list or use their identity for marketing. Etsy also bans steps that move a sale off Etsy, does not let shops sell their own gift cards, and does not allow Etsy Messages to be used for unsolicited promotions.
On Shopify, buyers check out on the merchant’s own site, and their orders and customer profiles are stored in the merchant’s Shopify admin. That list is what email, SMS and loyalty programs are built on. If you are building one, our Shopify store development team sets up the store, the checkout and the data flows around it.
Selling on Etsy and Shopify together
Shopify’s Etsy migration guide notes that you can keep selling on Etsy after opening a Shopify store, and that a third-party app is needed to keep listings, orders and stock in sync between the two, and it names Shuttle and ShopList’s Etsy Integration. It also says Shopify’s own Marketplace Connect app cannot make new connections to Etsy at present; sellers already linked through it can keep using it.
Another option is CedCommerce Etsy Integration. On 8 November 2026 its App Store listing showed a 4.5 rating from 1,248 reviews and a 7-day free trial. Its plans were $9 a month for up to 10 products on one Etsy account, and $59 a month for up to 1,000 products, 500 synced orders a month and two accounts. Whichever app you use, Etsy’s listing, transaction and processing fees still apply to every order placed on Etsy.
Moving from Etsy to Shopify
Shopify’s Help Center has a step-by-step guide for an Etsy shop. In short:
- When signing up for Shopify, choose Existing business and then Etsy. The Shopify admin home page then offers a preview of your Etsy shop with themes styled to match it.
- In Etsy’s Shop Manager, open Settings, then Options, then Download Data, and download the CSV of listings currently for sale. It holds titles, descriptions, prices, quantities, tags, materials, image links and SKUs. Sold-out or expired listings are left out. Renewing them first costs $0.20 each, and Etsy resets each variation’s quantity to 1 on renewal.
- Upload that file, unedited, to Shopify’s free Store Migration app, which also imports stores from eBay, Amazon, Clover, Lightspeed R/X, Square, Wix and WooCommerce. Products arrive as drafts with stock at your default location. A listing with 101 or more variation combinations is imported without its variants, which then have to be added by hand or with another app.
- The other route is to edit the CSV for Shopify’s own product import. Etsy puts every variation value in one cell, while Shopify needs one row per variant sharing a URL handle, with up to three options per product.
- Customers and past orders need a third-party app; the guide names the same Shuttle and ShopList apps. Etsy reviews can be brought over with a review-import app, and Etsy lets you download a copy of your reviews.
- Then set up the theme, shipping, taxes and payments, place test orders, and connect your domain.
Moving the data is the smaller part of the work. The larger part is bringing in the traffic that Etsy search used to supply, and keeping the Etsy shop open during that time is an option Shopify’s own guide points to. For a larger catalog, or a move that also covers customer history and reviews, our Shopify migration services handle the import and the checks after it.
When Etsy fits better
- You make, design or curate items that sit squarely inside Etsy’s categories, and you want buyers before you have any audience of your own.
- Sales are small or seasonal. With no monthly plan, a month without orders costs only the listing and renewal fees.
- You do not want to spend time on search, ads or email to bring people to a website.
When Shopify fits better
- Items and shipping come to more than about $5,350 a year, the point where Etsy’s 6.5% fee passes the yearly cost of Shopify Basic.
- You want to email past buyers or run a loyalty program, which needs a customer list you control.
- Your range includes wholesale, resold or dropshipped products that Etsy does not accept.
- You want your own domain, your own design and gift cards for your own shop.
The same marketplace-or-own-store question comes up with Amazon, which we cover in Shopify vs Amazon. If the alternative you are weighing is another website builder instead, see Shopify vs Squarespace.
FAQ
Is Shopify better than Etsy?
It depends on where your buyers come from. Etsy suits makers, designers and vintage sellers who need Etsy’s own shoppers and have no audience yet; on a $58 US order its fees come to about 10%, before any Offsite Ads charge. Shopify suits sellers who want their own brand and customer list, sell items Etsy does not allow, or have enough sales that a fixed monthly plan costs less than Etsy’s fees.
Is Etsy cheaper than Shopify?
At low sales, yes, because Etsy has no monthly plan. On a $58 US order, Etsy’s listing, transaction and card fees come to $5.96, while Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments charges $1.98 in card fees. Etsy’s 6.5% transaction fee matches the $348 yearly cost of Shopify Basic at about $5,350 a year in items and shipping.
Can you sell on Etsy and Shopify at the same time?
Yes. A third-party app keeps listings, inventory and orders in sync, such as Shuttle, ShopList’s Etsy Integration or CedCommerce Etsy Integration, which starts at $9 a month for up to 10 products. Shopify’s Marketplace Connect cannot make new Etsy connections at present. Orders placed on Etsy still carry Etsy’s fees.
How do I move my Etsy shop to Shopify?
Download the listings CSV from Etsy’s Shop Manager and upload it without changes to Shopify’s free Store Migration app, which imports the products as drafts. Listings with 101 or more variation combinations arrive without variants. Customers, past orders and reviews need third-party apps.
Can I email my Etsy customers from my Shopify store?
Only those who have agreed to it. Etsy’s Seller Policy allows buyer email addresses to be used for Etsy-related messages and transactions, and says a seller may not add an Etsy buyer to a mailing list without consent. Buyers who order from your Shopify store are part of your own customer list.
Sources: Etsy’s Fees & Payments Policy, Etsy Payments Policy, Seller Policy, Creativity Standards and the Etsy Help article on fees for multiple quantities; Shopify’s US pricing page, Acceptable Use Policy and Help Center guide to migrating from Etsy; and the Shopify App Store listings for Store Migration and CedCommerce Etsy Integration. All were read on 8 November 2026. Etsy and Shopify both revise these fees and vary them by country, so confirm the live pages before you choose.
