Etsy vs Shopify: which keeps more of your money?
Shopify's fees are lower per sale. Etsy brings you buyers. Here's the same order on both, and the point where Shopify starts to win.
The same order on both platforms
A $28 item with $5.95 shipping, $6.50 in materials, $1.20 packaging, a $4.85 label and 30 minutes of work at $20 an hour.
On this order Shopify leaves you $2.00 more. But that assumes you make 100 sales a month to spread the $39 plan across. At 20 orders a month, the plan costs $1.95 per order and your profit on Shopify drops to $8.17.
When Shopify comes out ahead
On orders like this one, Shopify's lower card fees save enough to cover the $39 Basic plan once you pass about 16 orders a month. Below that, Etsy is cheaper even before counting traffic.
The real difference: who brings the buyers
Etsy's fees pay for millions of shoppers who are already searching for handmade goods. A new Shopify store starts with no visitors, so you pay for traffic another way: ads, social media or time spent on content.
Many sellers run both. They use Etsy to find customers and Shopify for repeat buyers, who come back directly and cost much less per sale.
