Short answer: at a $40 item with $8 shipping in the US, Etsy costs about $5.01 per order and eBay about $6.93 per order. At 50 orders a month that is $95.90 a month less on Etsy — on fees alone, before any difference in traffic or buyers.
| Platform | Fee per order | Fees at 50 orders/month |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy | $5.01 | $250.50 |
| eBay | $6.93 | $346.40 |
Neither marketplace charges a monthly subscription in this comparison.
Transaction fee 6.5% of $48 = $3.12, listing fee $0.20, payment processing 3% of $48 + $0.25 = $1.69. Total $5.01 per order.
Final value fee 13.6% of $48 = $6.53, plus the per-order fee of $0.40 for orders over $10. Total $6.93 per order. Category tiers are not modelled.
Fees are only one side. Etsy buyers look for handmade, vintage, and craft goods; eBay buyers look for almost anything, including used and refurbished items. The cheaper fee means nothing if your buyers are on the other marketplace. If you sell on both, compare each against your own store too: Etsy vs Shopify (US) and eBay vs Shopify (US).
Fee-only comparison: it does not include discovery, traffic, refunds, apps, fulfilment, packaging, or taxes. Subscription is spread over the month's orders in the monthly figure. Confirm with your seller dashboard before pricing decisions.
Sources (official pages, checked 4 Nov 2026): Etsy fees, Etsy Payments, eBay US fees, Shopify US pricing.
On fees alone at a $48 order total, yes — $5.01 versus $6.93 per order. The gap comes from eBay's 13.6% final value fee versus Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee plus payment processing.
No. Both marketplaces in this comparison charge per-order fees only. That is different from a Shopify store, which adds a monthly subscription.
Discovery and traffic, refunds, apps, fulfilment, packaging, and taxes. This is a fee-only comparison, not a profit forecast.
Amazon referral fees vary by category and its Seller Central schedule is login-gated, so no Amazon figure could be verified from an official page. No Amazon numbers are shown rather than guessed ones.
These pages use one fixed scenario so the comparison is fair. Your prices and order volume change the answer — run them through the free tools: Breakeven Planner, Platform Crossover, Product Pricing & Profit. Every figure and its official source is on the Fee Index, and the method is on the Methodology page.