Shopify vs Etsy: Fees, Traffic and When to Switch (2026)

Shopify vs Etsy comes down to one question: do you need buyers, or do you have them? Etsy is a marketplace that brings shoppers but takes about 10-12% of every sale. Shopify is your own store for a monthly fee, with lower fees per sale, but you bring the traffic yourself. Below we compare costs on real sales and show the exact point where Shopify becomes cheaper.

Photo: rupixen on Unsplash

We checked both platforms' pricing and fee pages on 30 October 2026 and did the sums ourselves. Whether you search "Shopify vs Etsy", "Etsy vs Shopify" or "is Shopify better than Etsy", the answer below is the same.

Shopify vs Etsy: the quick answer

• Choose Etsy if you are starting out, sell handmade, vintage or craft items, and have no audience yet. You pay per sale, not per month.
• Choose Shopify if you sell more than about 27 items a month, have your own traffic (social media, email, ads) and want your own brand and customer list.
• Use both if you can: many sellers find first buyers on Etsy and build repeat sales on their own store.

Shopify vs Etsy fees

When Shopify becomes cheaper than Etsy

On a $20 sale Etsy takes $2.35 in fees and Shopify Basic takes $0.88 in card fees, so each sale costs $1.47 less on Shopify. Shopify's plan is $39 a month, so it pays for itself at 27 sales a month ($39 ÷ $1.47). On yearly billing ($29 a month) the break-even drops to 20 sales a month.

That sum leaves out two things that usually make Etsy more expensive: Offsite Ads fees on ad-driven orders (up to 15%) and listing renewals. It also leaves out what makes Shopify more expensive: paid themes and apps. Check both against your own shop before you switch.

Traffic: who brings the buyers?

This matters more than fees. Etsy is a search engine for handmade and unique goods: buyers come to Etsy and find you. On Shopify nobody arrives unless you send them, from social media, email, search or ads. If you have no audience, a cheaper fee on zero sales is still zero.

The trade-off is ownership. On Etsy the buyer is Etsy's customer: Etsy shows them other sellers, and your shop follows Etsy's rules. On Shopify the customer list, the brand and the store are yours.

Selling digital products on Shopify vs Etsy

Both work for digital downloads such as printables, templates and patterns. Etsy has the bigger built-in audience for printables. On Shopify you add a free digital downloads app to deliver files, then sell them like any other product. For digital products the per-sale fee gap matters more, because there is no shipping to hide it.

Which one should you choose?

• You are new and have no audience: Etsy. Learn what sells before paying a monthly fee.
• You sell under 20 items a month: Etsy is usually cheaper.
• You sell 30+ items a month and have followers: Shopify, or your own store, saves money every month.
• You want a brand people remember: Shopify. On Etsy buyers often remember "I bought it on Etsy", not your name.
• You sell digital products, courses or coaching: consider a creator store built for that; see below.

Where Sellwares fits

If you mainly sell digital products, courses or coaching rather than physical goods, a creator store can cost less than both. Sellwares has a free plan with 0% transaction fee, delivers files instantly and lets you sell from your link in bio. Read our Etsy fees breakdown for the full Etsy picture, or see how to sell digital products from your own store.

What we found in the top results

We reviewed the pages Google ranks first for "shopify vs etsy" on 30 October 2026: a Reddit thread, a print-on-demand blog, a bank's blog and Shopify's own forum. Most compare features in general terms. None we saw works out the number of sales where Shopify becomes cheaper, which is the question most sellers are really asking, so we did.

Start a free store for the buyers who already know you.