Shopify vs Etsy in 2026: Fees, Reach, and Which One to Choose
This is the most important decision a growing handmade or product seller makes, and it’s not really about fees — it’s about who brings the traffic. Etsy is a marketplace that hands you buyers and takes a commission. Shopify is your own store with no commission, but an empty room until you fill it. Here’s the honest trade-off for 2026.
The fee difference
Etsy takes a cut of every sale:
- 6.5% transaction fee (on item + shipping)
- 3% + $0.25 payment processing
- $0.20 listing fee
- Roughly 10–12% all-in.
Shopify takes no marketplace commission. You pay:
- Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 (Basic plan, Shopify Payments)
- A monthly subscription (the Basic plan)
- That’s it per sale — roughly 3–4% plus your fixed monthly cost.
On pure per-sale fees, Shopify is dramatically cheaper. On a $30 sale you’d keep about $1.17 in fees on Shopify vs ~$3.30 on Etsy.
So why does anyone use Etsy?
Because Etsy’s fee buys you demand. Etsy has tens of millions of active buyers actively searching for exactly the kinds of products it hosts. Your listing can be found on day one.
Shopify gives you a beautiful store and 96% of the margin — but zero visitors. Every sale depends on traffic you generate through ads, social media, SEO, or an existing audience. The “saved” commission often gets spent (and then some) on customer acquisition.
A simple way to decide
- Choose Etsy if you’re starting out, you make the kind of product Etsy shoppers search for, and you don’t yet have an audience or ad budget. The commission is the cost of discovery.
- Choose Shopify if you already have traffic — an audience, a following, repeat customers, or a working ad funnel — and the commission you’d pay Etsy now exceeds what a store + payment fees would cost.
- Many sellers do both: Etsy for discovery, Shopify for repeat buyers and brand control. New customers find you on Etsy; loyal ones buy direct where your margin is highest.
Run your real numbers both ways
The break-even depends on your price, volume, and what you’d spend to drive traffic. See exactly what you keep on each:
And if you’re weighing several products at once, SellerProfit Pro shows the margin on your whole catalog so you can see which items are worth selling direct.
Rates reflect US sellers as of May 2026. Confirm exact rates in your seller account.