Shopify vs. Etsy Fees: Try Our Fee Calculator

POSTED May 28, 2015 / by Sam Hirst
Updated July 11, 2018

The first month I paid $3400 in Etsy fees was the real moment I was like ‘WTF.’ —Amy, Little Hip Squeaks

The calculator tool was updated October July 11, 2018 with the latest Etsy and Shopify fees. The post graphics may not reflect the current fees. Please download the calculator spreadsheet file to get correct information.

How do Shopify vs. Etsy fees stack up? Often, shop owners come to us ready to set up their own ecommerce website because they’ve watched their Etsy fees steadily increase. We shared Amy’s story – once you are paying such high monthly fees, it’s an easy decision to make the move to setting up your own ecommerce shop.

When you are first getting started with ecommerce as a product-based business, it can make sense to set up shop on Etsy to test the waters, or test your proof of concept. Will your products sell? Are there adjustments you can make to your photography to make your products more appealing online? How can you bundle your products together for more sales? The list of things you can test out as you are beginning your business is long, and Etsy is an easy platform to use for that testing period.

Once your business has grown, and you are ready to make the leap into setting up a shop on your own domain (www.yourshop.com, not www.etsy.com), where should you go? We’ve talked before about why we recommend Shopify. When new clients write to us, one of their concerns is the fee structure on Shopify. When does it make sense to set up your own shop? Will your monthly expenses, the fees that you pay to run your shop, increase? How do Etsy and Shopify fees compare?

Well, I did the math!

Shopify vs. Etsy fees for a low volume business

only $10 more per month to set up your own shop!

The spreadsheet above represents a fairly new business, selling an average of 20 items per month at an average price of $50 per item. You can see that for this shop owner, Etsy is the least expensive way to run their shop, but not by too much!

Sometimes business owners will write to us wanting to set up an informational site that simply links to their Etsy shop because they are concerned about monthly fees. On the surface, this makes sense, but the amount that you will pay to host your informational site on WordPress, for example, can be $10 and up per month. Think about that!

If you are selling on Etsy and paying for hosting, you could be running your own ecommerce site on Shopify, for not much more (if any) AND you would be building your business on your own website. That is a game-changer!

Moving away from Etsy will position you as a legitimate business, and make it easier for you to form long-term relationships with your customers, as well as giving you greater ability to work with wholesale clients. Having your own shop gives increased flexibility as far as design and features go, and your site will be able to change with you as your business grows.

Shopify vs. Etsy fees for a higher volume and lower item price

$871 saved with Shopify’s Unlimited plan!

As your business grows, and you begin making more sales, it can be more cost effective to run your own ecommerce site, rather than paying Etsy’s monthly fees. The example above shows a relatively low average item price with a fairly high number of monthly sales, and all three of Shopify’s plans are now less expensive than Etsy. Keep in mind that this only includes one Etsy item fee of 20 cents per sold item. Often, shop owners are listing and relisting items multiple times before making a sale, which means those Etsy fees could climb quite a bit higher!

Shopify vs. Etsy fees for a higher volume and higher item price

Wow – $3571 saved with Shopify’s Unlimited plan!!

I found after running the numbers that shop owners who sell goods with a fairly high average price are even more likely to save money by selling on their own ecommerce site. With an average item price of $75 or higher, it doesn’t take many sales per month to recoup the monthly fee of running your own website on Shopify. In the example above, a shop owner would save over $3500 with Shopify’s most expensive monthly plan.

A quick note about variables:

The fee calculator we are sharing here is a great tool – there are a few variables to mention that can affect the overall monthly fees:

Credit card processing fees may vary, depending on which payment processor you use for your shop.
Shopify waives the transaction fee for transactions using Shopify payments.
The ‘fee per order’ is calculated as a fee per item sold in the fee calculator to simplify things. Actual fees would be charged per order, not per item sold.
Etsy began charging a percentage fee on shipping costs in 2018.

Are you ready to do the math?

If you’re not quite at the point with your business when setting up on Shopify could save you thousands of dollars, why make the move? What are the benefits that you get on Shopify that you don’t get on Etsy?

You build your business on your own domain. You OWN your own future!
On your own website, you control the design, the overall look and feel of the site. This allows you to extend your brand identity to your website for a memorable customer experience.
Rather than visiting Etsy (and potentially clicking to visit another shop) customers will return to visit YOU!
By setting up a professional website you are in a better position to reach out to potential customers, press and wholesale clients.
You don’t need to rely on Etsy to send your traffic, nor worry that if they adjust their algorithm, all your sales will dry up.

Learn more about Shopify here:
Shopify.com

If you’re thinking about making the leap into setting up your own ecommerce website, you should do the math! Would you like to try out my Fee Calculator? You can download this simple tool, and find other free resources by subscribing below: