Guide · fees verified 2026-07-23

Etsy vs Shopify for Print-on-Demand

Etsy and Shopify charge for completely different things. Etsy takes a cut of every sale but sends you built-in shoppers; Shopify takes almost nothing per sale but charges a monthly subscription and expects you to bring your own traffic. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your volume.

Per-sale fees

Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee, and payment processing of 3% + $0.25 — roughly 11–12% of each order, before any Offsite Ads fee. On a $25 sale that's about $2.80.

Shopify charges only payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 with Shopify Payments. On that same $25 sale that's about $1.03 — less than half of Etsy's cut.

Monthly & hidden costs

Shopify's catch is the subscription: the Basic plan is roughly $39/month (less annually). That's a fixed cost you pay whether you sell 1 item or 1,000. Etsy has no monthly fee, but its Offsite Ads can add 12–15% on ad-attributed orders, and you're competing against millions of similar listings.

The break-even on volume

Etsy costs ~$1.77 more per sale than Shopify in our $25 example. To justify Shopify's ~$39/month, you need roughly 22 sales a month ($39 ÷ $1.77) just to offset the subscription — after that, Shopify is cheaper per order. Below that, Etsy's pay-per-sale model wins.

Which should you pick?

• Starting out / low volume / discovery: Etsy. No fixed cost, and its search sends buyers you'd otherwise pay to acquire.
• Scaling / building a brand / driving your own traffic: Shopify. The per-sale savings compound, and you own the customer relationship and storefront.
• Many sellers do both: validate on Etsy, then add a Shopify store once volume justifies the subscription.

See the exact profit on each with your product and price: try the calculator and switch the sales channel between Etsy and Shopify, or read Etsy fees explained for the full fee breakdown.