Short answer: at a $40 item with $8 shipping, Etsy costs about $5.01 per order in the US, while a Shopify store costs about $1.69 per order plus $39/month. Above 12 orders a month, the Shopify store is cheaper on fees alone.
| Platform | Fee per order | Fees at 50 orders/month |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy | $5.01 | $250.50 |
| Shopify (Basic, monthly) | $1.69 + $39/mo | $123.60 |
Monthly Shopify figure = 50 × $1.69 + $39 subscription.
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. There is no Canadian-style regulatory fee on US Etsy orders in this comparison.
Online card rate 2.9% of $48 + 30¢ = $1.69 per order, plus the Basic plan at $39/month on monthly billing. At 50 orders that is $123.60 a month, or $2.47 per order including the subscription.
Below 12 orders a month, Etsy is cheaper on fees alone because there is no subscription to spread. Above 12 orders, the Shopify store wins on fees alone — but Etsy brings its own buyers, while a Shopify store needs its own marketing. Run your own prices in the Breakeven Planner.
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.
No. Only above the fee-only crossover — 12 orders a month at a $48 order total. At lower volumes Etsy can be cheaper on fees alone, and it brings marketplace traffic a new store does not have.
No. Etsy charges per-order fees only: transaction, listing, and payment processing.
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.