Choose Etsy if you need shoppers to discover you through a marketplace; consider Big Cartel if you can bring customers to an independent storefront. That is the central difference for a small shop. Etsy charges listing and transaction fees alongside payment processing, while Big Cartel offers free and paid plans without its own transaction fee—but Stripe or PayPal still charges for handling payments.
A lower fee bill is useful. A lower fee bill attached to a shop nobody visits is less useful. Your decision needs both sides of that equation: what each order costs and where the next order will come from.
Etsy and Big Cartel at a glance
| Dimension | Etsy | Big Cartel |
| Selling model | Listings inside a marketplace | Independent storefront |
| Customer discovery | Shoppers may find listings through marketplace search | The seller attracts visitors through their own channels |
| Platform transaction fee | 6.5%, separate from payment processing | No platform transaction fee; processor charges remain |
| Listing fee | $0.20 per listing | No listing fee |
| Payment processing | Etsy Payments: 3% plus $0.25 per order for a US seller bank account | Stripe or PayPal: fees vary by account location and payment method |
Two routes to customers
Etsy is a marketplace: your listings sit inside a shopping destination with its own search. Someone who has never heard of your business may find a product while browsing Etsy. That opportunity can matter when you are starting out without an established audience, although a listing does not guarantee visibility or orders.
Big Cartel is an independent storefront. It provides a place to sell, while you supply the visitors through your own channels. Its comparison with Etsy describes these as complementary selling models and encourages sellers to use both.
For a maker with an existing social following or repeat customers, a standalone store offers somewhere to direct that interest. For a new seller, building the audience becomes another job alongside making products, photographing them, and fulfilling orders.
The practical question is therefore quite specific: are customers finding your products through Etsy, or are you already sending customers to your products? If marketplace search generates much of your business, replacing the storefront also means replacing that route to buyers. If people already arrive because they know your work, an independent shop may fit the way you sell.
There is a useful distinction between an audience and actual purchasing behavior, too. Followers give you a potential route to visitors; repeat orders tell you whether that route is working. When considering a move, track purchases through your own channels rather than treating follower count as a substitute for sales.
What the platforms and processors charge
The charges fall into separate buckets: publishing a listing, completing a sale, processing the payment, and subscribing to store tools. Keeping those buckets separate makes the comparison much easier.
Etsy: listing fees, transaction fees, and processing
Etsy’s Fees & Payments Policy states a $0.20 fee per listing and a 6.5% transaction fee. Payment processing is an additional charge.
For sellers with a US bank account, Etsy Payments processing costs 3% plus $0.25 per order. Etsy calculates that processing charge on the total sale price, including shipping and applicable sales taxes. The bank-account location determines the processing rate, so this US figure belongs to US seller accounts.
The fixed $0.25 component matters particularly for low-value orders: it takes a larger share of a small purchase than a large one. Meanwhile, the percentage-based charges grow with the amount subject to the fee. Shipping and applicable tax amounts in the processing base can therefore change the payment-processing bill even when the product price stays the same.
Listing charges and advertising charges also belong in your shop’s budget. The worked example here isolates transaction and processing costs so you can see the arithmetic clearly; it does not assign those other charges to each sale.
Big Cartel: a plan plus an external processor
On October 9, 2026, Big Cartel’s pricing page displayed a free, limited-feature Gold plan, Platinum at $15 per month, and Diamond at $30 per month. Big Cartel’s plan documentation states that subscriptions are billed in US dollars and lists annual billing at $144 for Platinum and $288 for Diamond.
Those annual totals are 20% below twelve payments at the advertised monthly prices: $180 for Platinum or $360 for Diamond. Annual billing lowers the subscription cost, while monthly billing spreads it across the year.
Big Cartel says it charges neither a listing fee nor its own transaction fee. Its payment guide identifies Stripe and PayPal as the external processors; Big Cartel does not process payments directly.
That distinction is important. “No platform transaction fee” leaves the processor’s bill intact. Big Cartel publishes a Stripe card-and-wallet starting rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful card charge, with rates varying by location and payment method. It is a starting rate, not a guaranteed quote for every seller or checkout option.
For your own budget, use the processor rate that applies to your account and the methods customers actually use. A monthly subscription is predictable; the payment-processing total continues to change with orders.
A worked example for ten $40 orders
Assume a US seller receives ten orders in one month. Each order has an exact $40 fee base, with no additional shipping or tax amounts. Use Etsy’s US processing rate and Big Cartel’s published Stripe starting card rate, plus the advertised $15 monthly Platinum subscription.
Etsy: $40.50 in transaction and processing charges
For each order:
- Transaction fee: $40 × 6.5% = $2.60.
- Payment processing: $40 × 3% + $0.25 = $1.45.
- Combined transaction and processing charges: $4.05.
Across ten orders, $4.05 × 10 = $40.50.
Big Cartel Platinum: $29.60 at the Stripe starting rate
For each payment:
- Stripe processing: $40 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $1.46.
- Processing for ten payments: $1.46 × 10 = $14.60.
- Add the advertised monthly Platinum subscription: $14.60 + $15 = $29.60.
The difference between these two subtotals is $10.90. The calculation excludes Etsy listing fees, advertising, refunds, optional apps, and other costs. It also excludes the cost and effort of attracting customers to either shop, and the Big Cartel subtotal uses Stripe’s starting rate.
This is where sales volume changes the subscription calculation. In this example, the $15 plan contributes $1.50 per order because it is spread across ten orders. With fewer orders, that fixed subscription takes a larger share of each sale; with more orders, it takes a smaller share. Processor charges remain tied to payments.
Customer acquisition can outweigh that difference. If you need additional marketing to replace sales that previously came through Etsy search, that spending belongs beside the fee comparison. If your own channels already generate purchases, the independent storefront’s cost structure becomes more relevant.
Features and imported listings
Big Cartel’s paid plans provide store-management tools as well as a place to display products. For an existing Etsy seller, the most consequential setup detail is that transferring listings and making them available to shoppers are separate stages.
What Platinum and Diamond include
Big Cartel’s paid-plan comparison lists custom-domain support, Etsy product importing, inventory tracking, shipment tracking, discount promotions, and shipping-label printing on Platinum and Diamond. Both plans also support physical and digital products.
A custom domain gives you a branded web address to use when directing customers to the store. Inventory tracking and bulk product editing help with catalog administration; discount tools provide a way to run promotions. These are operating tools, while attracting visitors remains the seller’s responsibility.
Diamond includes Platinum’s features and adds abandoned-cart recovery, automatic discounts, advanced discount logic, and prioritized technical support. Big Cartel also lists scheduled product releases and password-protected products among its Diamond features.
The useful upgrade question is whether those particular tools solve a problem in your shop. Paying for cart recovery or more advanced promotions makes sense when you intend to use them; a more expensive plan does not supply a marketplace audience.
Importing Etsy products starts with hidden listings
Big Cartel includes Etsy importing on Platinum and Diamond. Its product-import guide describes uploading an Etsy CSV—a spreadsheet-style file containing product data—through the import tool in the web administration area.
Imported products initially remain hidden, so they do not automatically appear in the public storefront. Big Cartel then sends an email report identifying successful imports, products needing review, and products that could not be imported.
Keep the Etsy shop open during the import: Big Cartel says it needs access to the existing listings to retrieve product images. Closing the source shop before that retrieval can interfere with the transfer.
The report is worth reading product by product. Big Cartel documents warnings for issues including long or duplicate product names, long descriptions, unavailable or unsupported images, variant handling, and products exceeding the plan’s capacity. Some warnings mean a listing was imported with changes; other errors prevent the product from being imported.
That creates a concrete review job. Check titles, descriptions, images, variants, and quantities before relying on the new catalog. Big Cartel also warns that rerunning an import can create duplicates unless already-imported products are removed from the file.
Payments need their own setup
Big Cartel directs sellers to the payments section of the administration area to connect Stripe, PayPal, or both. The processors handle payment authorization and payouts, separately from the product importer.
If payment acceptance causes problems, Big Cartel’s guide recommends checking the Stripe or PayPal dashboard for account notifications, payout holds, or verification requirements. Payment methods and their charges can also vary by region, so the options offered to buyers depend on the processor and the applicable conditions.
Which model fits your shop?
Choose Etsy if marketplace discovery is central to your business
Etsy is the stronger fit when reaching shoppers inside the marketplace is a priority and you do not yet have a dependable way to attract visitors independently. Its listing and sales-related charges become part of the cost of operating within that marketplace.
For an existing shop, look at where orders originate. If many customers discover your products through Etsy, removing that channel changes more than your fee structure. A new storefront can display the same products without reproducing the same customer journey.
Choose Big Cartel if you can bring buyers yourself
Big Cartel is worth considering when you already have channels that generate purchases and want an independent storefront with a predictable subscription component. Compare Gold’s limited feature set with the paid tools you actually need, then include your processor charges and marketing effort in the budget.
For a broad physical-product catalog, the import review deserves particular attention. Product variety brings more titles, images, options, and quantities to inspect. The feature list is only part of the decision; the work of managing your actual catalog matters as well.
Keep both channels if they serve different customers
You do not have to treat the choice as an immediate replacement. Etsy can remain a route for marketplace discovery while Big Cartel gives your own audience an independent destination. Big Cartel explicitly encourages selling through both, and its paid plans include the Etsy import tool for transferring product listings.
