Shopify vs Etsy: Which Platform Should You Choose?

If you are starting an online business, you will probably weigh Shopify vs Etsy early on. They solve different problems. Etsy is a marketplace: you rent a shop inside a site that already has shoppers. Shopify is store software: you build your own branded site and bring the traffic yourself.

This guide compares them on fees, branding, reach and growth, using plan prices and fee schedules read from Shopify's and Etsy's own pages in October 2026.

Shopify vs Etsy at a glance

What is Shopify?

Shopify is hosted eCommerce software. You pick a theme, connect a domain, add products and take payments through Shopify Payments or a third-party gateway. The store, the domain and the customer list are yours, which is why it suits a long-term branded online store.

Shopify's current plans are Basic ($39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly), Grow ($105 or $79) and Advanced ($399 or $299), plus Shopify Plus from $2,300 a month for larger businesses. Domains bought through Shopify typically start at $9 a year, and the Theme Store has free themes and paid themes that, at the time of writing, run from $100 to $420 as a one-off cost.

Where Shopify is strong

• Branding and control. Your own domain, layout, navigation and emails mean customers deal with your brand, not a marketplace.
• Room to grow. The same platform runs a ten-product shop and a large catalogue, with inventory, discounts and analytics built in.
• More channels. You can sell on your site, social platforms and other marketplaces from one back office.

Where it is harder

• No built-in traffic. Every visitor comes from SEO, ads, email or social, which takes time and budget.
• Costs beyond the plan. Paid themes and apps are extra, and using a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments adds a per-order Shopify fee (the schedule is in our WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison).
• More to set up. You are responsible for product pages, shipping rules, tax settings and site speed.

What is Etsy?

Etsy is a marketplace for handmade goods, vintage items and craft supplies. You open a shop, list products and shoppers find them through Etsy search and categories. Etsy's own About page lists 31.7 million active buyers and 1.9 million active sellers, so your listings share the page with a lot of competitors.

Where Etsy is strong

• Quick start. Etsy's set-up flow covers account, shop name, first listing, payment method and billing method, with no site to design or host.
• Shoppers already searching. Buyers come to Etsy looking for handmade, vintage and gift items, which helps a new shop get its first orders without ad spend.
• No monthly fee. Etsy's selling page states there are no additional monthly fees; you pay when you list and when you sell.

Where it is limited

• A fixed storefront. You can set a shop name, logo and banner, but the layout is Etsy's. Your brand sits inside Etsy's brand.
• Fees on every sale. The percentage fees stack up (see below), and Offsite Ads can add a further charge.
• Platform dependence. Etsy's search rules, fee changes and seller policies apply to you. That is a business risk if Etsy becomes most of your revenue.

Shopify vs Etsy: what you actually pay

Etsy's selling page lists these fees for a US seller:

• Listing fee: $0.20 per listing, active for four months or until it sells.
• Transaction fee: 6.5%.
• Payment processing: 3% + $0.25 (varies by bank country).
• Offsite Ads: 15% on a sale that comes from one of Etsy's off-site ads. Etsy says this is optional for most sellers but can be required depending on how much you sell in a 12-month period.

Shopify's cost is a plan fee plus card processing. On Basic with Shopify Payments the online card rate is 2.9% + 30¢; higher plans lower it.

A worked example. Take a $40 order, ignoring shipping, tax and the listing fee. These figures are calculated from the published rates above, not quoted from either company.

The $2.59 difference per order means Shopify's plan fee is covered at roughly 15 orders a month on monthly billing, or roughly 11 on yearly billing. If a sale arrives through an Etsy Offsite Ad, the 15% fee adds $6.00 to that order.

Treat that break-even as a floor, not a forecast. It leaves out the cost of getting visitors to a Shopify store, which is the thing Etsy's fees partly pay for. If you would spend more on ads and content to reach those 15 orders than you save in fees, Etsy is still the cheaper route at that volume.

Branding and customer relationship

On Shopify you choose the domain, theme, checkout look and follow-up emails, so the experience stays consistent from first visit to follow-up. You also hold the customer list for email and retargeting.

On Etsy a buyer is shopping on Etsy's site first, and your shop is one of many on that page. You can build a recognisable shop, but the relationship is shared with the platform, and you cannot restyle the page beyond what Etsy allows. This is an opinion about trade-offs, not a limit on what a good Etsy seller can achieve.

Reach, marketing and growth

Etsy's advantage is demand that already exists. The disadvantage is that a shopper comparing similar products is comparing prices, and Etsy decides how listings rank.

Shopify's advantage is that every visitor you win is yours to retarget and email. The disadvantage is that you start with zero traffic. If you do not have a plan for SEO, social, email or paid ads, a new Shopify store can stay quiet for a long time. Mindrops' SEO services cover that part.

For growth, a common path is to start on Etsy to validate products and reviews, then open a Shopify store for the brand and repeat customers. Shopify's help centre has a step-by-step guide for moving an Etsy shop to Shopify, and its blog says you do not need to close your Etsy shop to open a Shopify store.

Using Etsy and Shopify together

Running both is practical if your catalogue and stock levels are kept in step. The Shopify App Store has several Etsy-connector apps that sync listings, inventory and orders. Shopify's own guide points to its Marketplace Connect app for this, but that app's current listing names Amazon, Target Plus, Walmart and eBay, so confirm the Etsy connector you pick covers your needs and what it costs. If you are also weighing Amazon, our Shopify vs Amazon comparison covers it.

How to choose

• Choose Etsy first if you make handmade, vintage or craft products, have little or no marketing budget and want to see whether buyers want what you sell.
• Choose Shopify first if you already have an audience, plan paid marketing, or want one branded home that you control.
• Use both if you want Etsy's demand while building a store you own, and you can keep inventory in sync.

Not sure Shopify is the right store platform either? Compare it with WooCommerce, Squarespace or Odoo.

How Mindrops works on this

Mindrops builds and migrates Shopify stores, from theme and checkout work to integrations with inventory and accounting tools. If you are moving an Etsy catalogue to Shopify, we can prepare the product data, set up payments and shipping, and connect the store to the rest of your systems. We do not manage Etsy shops. See Shopify development or request a quote.

Conclusion

Etsy and Shopify are not direct substitutes. Etsy trades fees and a fixed storefront for access to shoppers already on the site. Shopify trades a monthly plan and the work of finding customers for ownership of the brand, the domain and the customer data. Work out your expected monthly orders and how you will get traffic, then pick the one whose costs you can carry, or start on Etsy and move the best-selling lines to Shopify as the business grows.