Hi there! Have you always wanted to sell your art and handmade products online?
You’ve most likely heard of Etsy. And if you’ve seriously considered selling there, you might have heard a lot about the platform, both good and bad.
Or, maybe you have a shop on Etsy right now, but it just isn’t the right fit for your business. I could be here all day listing the pros and cons of Etsy itself, but instead I’ll just talk about these 10 alternatives to Etsy and let you decide where to set up shop!
*Prefer spreadsheets? Check out this sheet with even more alternatives to Etsy to quickly compare.
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Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: 15%
Monthly fee: Waived
CC processing fee: Unclear whether there’s an extra processing fee, or it’s included in the transaction fee
Perhaps Etsy’s biggest competition in this category, we have Amazon Handmade. It is a marketplace, so you don’t have to worry about generating your own traffic like you would if you had a stand-alone website.
There is usually a monthly fee to sell on Amazon, but it is waived for handmade sellers!
In order to be on this platform, everything you sell must be made by hand.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: None
Monthly fee: Free or $9.99 - 29.99
CC processing fee: Varies
BigCartel is a platform for you to host your storefront! That means you need to bring your own customers to get sales.
There is a perk, and that is you can have a store with 5 products for free! If your business focuses on only a few items, this is a great option to try since you don’t have any upfront costs. And if you have more than 5 things to list? There are affordable monthly plans available.
There is a payment processing fee for credit cards and PayPal.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: none
Monthly fee: $0 - 82.50
CC processing fee: Varies
Perhaps better than Big Cartel’s offer, you can have a store with up to 10 products for free!
They also have monthly plans which are a bit cheaper if you pay annually. This is also a website builder, so bring your customers over to have a look!
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: 8.5% plus .30 cents / 3.5% +.30 cents
Monthly fee: $0 - $10
CC processing fee: Included with transaction fee
Gumroad as a platform has a focus on selling digital goods and services but you can also sell your physical products no problem!
You can sell items as a one time sale, a pre-order or even subscriptions.
It’s free to set-up a store, and they’ll take an 8.5%+.30 cent cut of your sales. If you opt for the option to pay $10 a month, that goes down to only 3.5%+.30 cents. The credit card processing fees are included in the transaction fee, and is immediately taken out of the sale. Plus they cover VAT taxes!
There is also a marketplace, Gumroad Discover, where your products can be found by people searching the site. If you make a sale from this marketplace, it’s an extra 10% fee but no worries, you can opt out of being included here.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: None
Monthly fee: $4.95-19.95
CC processing fee: Varies
Another website builder, but it is affordable and has a focus on handmade and artisan sellers along with a 30-day trial.
The higher you pay per month the more features you can get for your storefront! The Standard plan also lets you sell digital products and connect your custom domain.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: 2%
Monthly fee: Plans available
CC processing fee: Varies
What better option for those on a budget than a free storefront? As the name implies, Free Webstore is well… free! You can have up to 30 products on your own website completely free aside from the small transaction and payment processing fees. There are also some nifty features such as restock alert and age verification for those who sell more adult content.
Free Webstore makes money on the paid apps you can integrate to your site.
If you have more than 30 products there are paid plans, but you’ll have to reach out to customer service and ask about it.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: None
Monthly fee: $9-79
CC processing fee: Depends on plan and payment method
Shopify is a platform where you build your own e-commerce store. There is no marketplace, so drive your own traffic! Shopify is one of the most easy to use platforms you can set up on! There’s support from Shopify if you use one of their free templates, and lots of huge brands have their stores here.
Most artists will likely be fine with the basic $29 plan, and most apps you’ll need you can get for free. If you need to sell digital downloads there’s an app for that as well.
If you already have a website or facebook page or something else set-up, you can get Shopify lite shopping cart for $9.
The payment fee is 2.9%+.30 cents if you use Shopify payments on the basic plan, and 2.6%+.30 cents on the $79 plan. Shopify payments isn’t available in every country, and if 3rd party processors are used the rate will vary.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: Depends on plan
Monthly fee: $18-46
CC processing fee: Varies
Squarespace is another website builder with varying plans. If you need a storefront, you can get the Business plan which is $26 plus a 3% transaction fee. Upgrading to the Commerce plan at $30 a month brings that transaction fee to 0% and there is an annual price discount.
Like Shopify, you can use templates to setup your store and have multiple pages. You get unlimited products and can sell digital downloads!
You can also get point of sale hardware to sell your items at conventions and sync up inventory with your store.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: 15% through marketplace
Monthly fee: None
CC processing fee: Varies
With Storenvy, you can have your own custom store front and be found in their marketplace. If you drive your own traffic to your store, there are no fees at all except for payment processing fees.
However, if you get a sale through Storenvy’s marketplace, you are charged a 15% commission. This fee is charged even if the customer finds you in the marketplace and then goes over to your custom store to purchase.
Keep in mind Storenvy also charges a handling fee between $0.99 - $4.99 to all customers checking out either through the marketplace or your custom store.
Like some other site builders, Storenvy also uses apps or “plug-ins” to enhance your shop.
Listing fee: None
Transaction fee: None
Monthly fee: Depends
CC processing fee: Varies
If you’re a DIY kind of person, you can set up a Wordpress site with the Woocommerce plug-in to sell your items. Then you can add different apps depending on your needs.
This will take time to build, and will have to be maintained but the cost can be as low as around $5 per month to keep your site running!
You’ll need your own domain name too which is around $10 per year. Overall one of the cheaper and highly customizable options if you’re tech savvy.
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So, what do you think of this list? I hope it was helpful to you even if you just picked up a couple of names to research further!
Are you interested in sewing and selling your creations? Check out my top tools for making your own plushie!
https://dollphinwing.com/blogs/news/top-tools-for-making-your-own-plushie