Shopify vs Etsy Fees for Sellers
Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee per item, a 6.5% transaction fee, and payment processing of 3% plus 25 cents, plus up to 12 to 15% for Offsite Ads on attributed sales. A $50 sale on Etsy costs about $5.20 in fees before ads. The same sale on Shopify Basic costs about $2.14 including the amortized subscription at moderate volume. Shopify wins on fees once monthly sales pass roughly $1,500 to $3,000, but Etsy brings built-in search traffic that Shopify does not.
Etsy charges per sale; Shopify charges per month. The crossover math, line by line.
Etsy's fee stack
Etsy charges four ways. The listing fee is $0.20 per item, renewed every four months or on each sale for quantity listings. The transaction fee is 6.5% of the total sale price including shipping. Payment processing is 3% plus 25 cents per order. And Offsite Ads take 12 to 15% of attributed sales, mandatory for shops doing over $10,000 per year, optional below that. On a $50 sale with $5 shipping: $0.20 listing + $3.58 transaction fee + $1.90 processing = $5.68, or 10.3% of the $55 total, before any Offsite Ads bite.
The Offsite Ads fee is the one that shocks sellers. Etsy advertises your products on Google and social media, and when a click from those ads converts within 30 days, Etsy takes 12% (over $10k/year shops) or 15% (under). You cannot control which products get advertised or opt out above the threshold. For ad-attributed sales, the all-in Etsy fee can exceed 25%.
Shopify's fee stack
Shopify charges the subscription plus card rates, as detailed across this site. On Basic at $39 per month, a $50 order through Shopify Payments costs $1.75 in card fees. At 100 orders per month ($5,000 sales), the amortized subscription adds $0.39 per order, for $2.14 total per order, or 4.3% of the sale. No listing fees, no per-sale commission, no ad attribution fee. The subscription is fixed, so the effective rate falls as volume rises, the opposite of Etsy's per-sale structure.
The crossover point
Set Etsy's per-order cost against Shopify's. At $50 average order value, Etsy costs about $5.68 per order all-in before ads. Shopify Basic costs $1.75 in card fees plus $39 per month fixed. Shopify wins when $39 < ($5.68 - $1.75) x orders, i.e., above about 10 orders per month, or $500 in sales. That seems absurdly low, and it is, because the comparison is incomplete: it ignores what Etsy gives you for the fee.
What Etsy gives you is demand. Etsy is a search engine with 90+ million buyers looking for handmade, vintage, and craft supplies. Shopify gives you software; the traffic is entirely your job, through ads, SEO, social, or email. A fair comparison adds customer acquisition cost to the Shopify side. If your blended acquisition cost is $8 per order, Shopify's true cost at 100 orders is $2.14 + $8.00 = $10.14 per order, and Etsy wins until your organic and repeat traffic brings acquisition down.
The fee gap also compounds with scale in Shopify's favor. At 1,000 orders per month, the $39 subscription amortizes to 4 cents per order, making Shopify's all-in cost per $50 order about $1.79 versus Etsy's $5.68. That $3.89 per-order gap is $3,890 per month, which funds a serious ad budget or a meaningful price cut. This is why high-volume sellers almost always migrate to their own storefront eventually, even if they keep Etsy running as a discovery channel.
When each platform wins
Etsy wins for new sellers with no audience, products that fit Etsy's handmade and vintage positioning, and sellers who want to test demand without building a store. The fees are high per sale, but the traffic is real and immediate. Shopify wins for established brands with their own traffic, products that do not fit Etsy's categories, sellers who want customer data and email lists (Etsy keeps both), and anyone doing real volume, where the fixed subscription beats per-sale commissions decisively.
Most successful sellers end up on both: Etsy for discovery and incremental sales, Shopify as the home base where repeat customers, email subscribers, and brand equity live. Price the same on both or slightly higher on Etsy to cover the fee gap, and funnel Etsy buyers to your store with package inserts, which Etsy's terms allow as long as you do not divert the transaction itself.
Prices current as of October 2026. Sources: Shopify pricing page (shopify.com), US rates; annual billing saves roughly 25%. New stores: 3-day free trial, then $1/month for 3 months on most plans.