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Etsy charges $0.20 to list an item, 6.5% of the sale, payment processing on top, and 15% of any order that came through Offsite Ads.
Stack those and a £30 sale can lose a fifth of its value. That, plus AI-generated listings crowding handmade sellers, is why people are looking.
Fees were checked against each platform’s own published policy on 14 September 2026.
The best Etsy alternatives at a glance
One marketplace with existing buyers, one shop you own outright, and one built for digital downloads.
Big Cartel
Your own shop, flat fee
Free tier, then flat monthlyAmazon Handmade
Biggest audience for craft
Referral fee per salePayhip
Best for digital products
Free with a cut, or flat monthlyBig Cartel
A shop you actually own
Built for artists and makers who want their own storefront rather than a stall in someone else market. The important difference is that Big Cartel does not take a percentage of your sales: you pay a flat monthly fee, or nothing on the free plan, and keep the rest beyond payment processing. The trade is real: nobody browses Big Cartel, so all your traffic has to come from you.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, covering a handful of products with no commission on sales.
Amazon Handmade
Buyers already there
An application-only section of Amazon for genuinely handmade goods, which keeps out the drop-shippers and, notably, the AI-generated print-on-demand flood. No listing fees, and the audience is the largest in retail. The referral percentage is higher than Etsy transaction fee, and you are competing inside Amazon, so expect price pressure and very little brand loyalty.
Free tier: Free tier: no monthly fee for approved handmade sellers, and no per-listing charge; Amazon takes a referral fee on each sale.
Payhip
Digital products, done simply
If you sell printables, patterns, presets or courses, this is the cleanest answer. Storefront, checkout, VAT handling for EU and UK digital sales, coupons, affiliates and memberships. It handles digital VAT properly, which is the thing most makers get wrong when they leave a marketplace. Not for physical goods with shipping.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, with unlimited products and a percentage of each sale; paid plans reduce or remove that cut.
Folksy
UK handmade only
A British marketplace restricted to work made by the seller in the UK, which is exactly its value: no factory imports, no AI-generated designs, and buyers who arrive expecting to pay handmade prices. The audience is a fraction of Etsy, so treat it as a complementary channel rather than a replacement unless your margins are high.
Free tier: Free tier: no. Choose per-listing fees or an annual plan, plus commission on sales.
eBay
Underrated for makers
Dismissed by craft sellers and worth a second look: enormous buyer traffic, a monthly allowance of free listings, auction and fixed-price formats, and strong international shipping tooling. Its final value fee is comparable to Etsy total take once you count everything. The buyer expectation is a bargain rather than a craft piece, which suits some products and not others.
Free tier: Free tier: yes, a monthly allowance of zero-insertion-fee listings for private sellers, then final value fees on each sale.
Faire
Sell to shops, not shoppers
A wholesale marketplace where independent retailers buy from makers, so one order is fifty units rather than one. Completely different business from a craft stall, and the right move for anyone whose production can scale. Commission falls on repeat orders from the same shop, which rewards building relationships. It requires wholesale pricing and consistent stock.
Free tier: Free tier: free to list; Faire takes commission on orders, lower on repeat orders from the same retailer.
| # | Tool | Best for | Free tier | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Big Cartel | A shop you actually own | Yes, a small number of products | Free tier, then a flat monthly fee |
| 02 | Amazon Handmade | Buyers already there | No listing fees | Referral fee per sale, no listing fee |
| 03 | Payhip | Digital products, done simply | Yes, unlimited products | Free with a revenue share, or flat monthly plans |
| 04 | Folksy | UK handmade only | No free tier | Commission plus listing or annual plan |
| 05 | eBay | Underrated for makers | Yes, a monthly allowance of free listings | Free listings monthly, then per-sale fees |
| 06 | Faire | Sell to shops, not shoppers | Free to open a brand page | Commission on orders, free to list |
What Etsy actually takes
Read from Etsy’s own published fees policy on 14 September 2026. There is no single percentage, which is precisely why sellers underestimate it.
A listing fee of $0.20 per item, renewed when it sells or expires. A transaction fee of 6.5% of the total including shipping. Payment processing on top, varying by country. Currency conversion at 2.5% if you sell in a currency other than your shop currency. And Offsite Ads at 15%, or 12% for higher-volume shops, on any order that arrived through one of those ads.
On a $30 sale that came through Offsite Ads, the fees can reach a fifth of the order. On the same sale from a direct search, it is much less. The unpredictability is the problem: you cannot price reliably when the fee depends on how the buyer found you.
Above a threshold, Offsite Ads participation is mandatory. That detail causes more anger in seller communities than the percentage itself.
Etsy alternatives compared
Cheapest paid tier and what the free tier really allows, checked against each platform’s own published policy on 14 September 2026.
The AI problem is a real reason people leave
“Etsy alternatives no AI” is a genuine search term, and it is not about Etsy using AI. It is about what other sellers are listing.
Print-on-demand shops generating designs in bulk can list hundreds of items at $0.20 each, which crowds search results that handmade sellers used to rank in. For a maker producing one item a day, competing on listing volume is arithmetically impossible.
Two of the platforms above address this structurally rather than by policing. Amazon Handmade is application-only and restricted to genuinely handmade goods. Folksy requires the work to be made by the seller in the UK. In both cases the barrier to entry is the feature.
The other route is to stop competing in a search results page at all: your own shop, on Big Cartel or Payhip, where the only listings are yours and the only competition is for attention you bring yourself.
Marketplace or your own shop?
This is the decision, and it is a trade between traffic and margin.
A marketplace brings buyers. People search Etsy and Amazon with their cards out. You pay for that in commission, in competing on price beside near-identical listings, and in never owning the customer relationship, because the platform keeps the email address.
Your own shop keeps almost all the money and all the customer data, and sends you exactly the traffic you generate, which on day one is none.
The honest answer for most sellers is both, sequentially. Stay on the marketplace while it is your main source of orders, open your own shop alongside it, and put a card in every parcel pointing at it. Over a year, shift repeat buyers across. That way you never have a month with no orders, which is what happens to people who close an Etsy shop on principle.
Can you make $10,000 a month on Etsy?
People search this, so briefly and honestly: some sellers do, and they are a very small fraction. The ones who get there generally have products that can be made in batches, a niche with real search demand, and a dozen or more listings working rather than one hit.
What matters more for this page is the fee arithmetic at that level. Ten thousand a month through Etsy with typical Offsite Ads exposure costs a meaningful four-figure sum in fees annually. At that volume, your own shop plus wholesale through Faire usually nets more, which is why established sellers diversify rather than scale a single marketplace.
This page is comparison, not business or financial advice.
How we test and price these tools
Every fee here was read from the platform’s own published policy in a browser on 14 September 2026, not copied from another round-up. Where a platform charges several separate fees, we list them rather than quoting one headline percentage.
For marketplaces we look at total take on a realistic order, whether advertising participation is optional, and whether you get the customer email address, because that last point decides whether you are building a business or renting one. For own-shop platforms we note whether they take a percentage of sales or a flat fee.
We read current Reddit threads for each platform, so the complaints here are from this year. No platform pays for a place on this list.
Etsy alternatives FAQs
Taken from Google’s results and current threads on Reddit.
How we test01 What is Etsy biggest competitor?
Amazon Handmade for handmade goods at scale, and eBay for overall buyer traffic. For sellers leaving rather than switching marketplaces, the real competitor is an own-brand shop on Big Cartel, Payhip or Shopify, where there is no commission on sales.
02 What is a free alternative to Etsy?
Big Cartel has a free plan for a small number of products with no commission on sales. Payhip is free with a revenue share and unlimited products. eBay gives private sellers a monthly allowance of free listings. None of them bring you buyers the way Etsy does.
03 How much does Etsy actually take?
A $0.20 listing fee, 6.5% transaction fee on the total including shipping, payment processing on top, 2.5% currency conversion where it applies, and 15% on any order that came via Offsite Ads. On an ad-driven order that can approach a fifth of the sale.
04 Which alternative avoids AI-generated competition?
Amazon Handmade, which is application-only and restricted to genuinely handmade items, and Folksy, which requires work made by the seller in the UK. Both use entry barriers rather than moderation. Your own shop avoids the problem entirely, since the only listings are yours.
05 Where should I sell digital products instead?
Payhip. Unlimited products, a free tier with a revenue share, and correct VAT handling for EU and UK digital sales, which is the part most sellers get wrong after leaving a marketplace. It also supports memberships, coupons and affiliates.
06 Is there an EU or UK alternative to Etsy?
Folksy in the UK, restricted to work made by the seller in Britain. Across Europe, smaller national handmade marketplaces exist alongside your own shop hosted in the EU. Either way, check that whatever you choose handles digital VAT and distance-selling rules for your market.
07 Should I close my Etsy shop when I open my own?
No, not at first. Run both, put a card in every parcel pointing to your own shop, and move repeat buyers across over a year. Sellers who close on principle usually have a month with no orders, and that is a much bigger cost than the fees.
Browse every alternatives guide, or start with the website builders category.