Etsy vs Shopify fees: what each takes from a $40 sale

What does Etsy charge to sell one item?

In the US, Etsy charges $0.20 to list an item, 6.5% of the order when it sells, and 3% plus 25¢ to process the payment.

Etsy's fees for a US shop, from Etsy's Help Center, read November 4, 2026.

The listing fee falls due when you list, not when you sell. On Etsy's fee page, both percentages count any shipping you charge, and the processing fee counts sales tax too.

Offsite Ads are ads Etsy runs for your listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bing and partner sites. If a shopper clicks one and buys from you within 30 days, the ad fee lands on that order, up to $100. You set no budget for them, and you can't choose which listings appear.

Some costs depend on what you choose. Etsy Ads run on a daily budget you set. Etsy Plus, an optional set of extra shop tools, costs $10 a month. A listing priced in a currency other than your payment account's costs 2.5% to convert.

What does Shopify charge to sell one item?

Shopify Basic costs $39 a month, and a card payment through Shopify Payments costs 2.9% plus 30¢, with no listing fee and no commission.

Paid yearly, Basic comes to $29 a month. New stores start with three free days, then pay $1 a month for three months. Shopify lists no setup fee on any plan, and every plan sells unlimited products.

With Shopify Payments, you pay no separate fee to Visa or Mastercard. Premium cards cost 3.5% plus 30¢ on Basic, and a card from abroad adds 1%. Take payments through another provider instead, and Shopify adds 2% of the sale on Basic, while the provider charges its own rate too. Wix adds no fee of its own when another provider takes the payment, as our Shopify vs Wix comparison shows.

These are the US prices on Shopify's pricing page, read November 4, 2026. Every plan and rate is in our Shopify review.

What does a $40 sale cost on Etsy and on Shopify?

Say you sell a $40 item with free shipping to a buyer in the US, and leave sales tax aside. The Shopify store is on Basic, and the buyer pays with a standard US card through Shopify Payments.

A hypothetical sale, worked out from both companies' fee pages, read November 4, 2026.

Per sale, Etsy takes almost three times what Shopify does: $4.25 against $1.46.

If you charge for shipping, Etsy's 6.5% counts it too. On Shopify, a premium card would raise the fee to $1.70, and a card from abroad to $1.86. A bigger average order spreads the fixed 25¢ and 30¢ over more dollars, so each fee sits closer to its percentage.

How many sales a month before Shopify costs less than Etsy?

At $40 a sale, Shopify Basic costs about the same as Etsy at 14 sales a month, and less from there.

Etsy without Offsite Ads; Shopify Basic billed monthly, standard US cards through Shopify Payments. Our arithmetic from both fee pages, November 4, 2026.

In revenue, the two meet between about $530 and $590 a month for any order size from $20 to $200: about 27 sales at $20, 14 at $40 or 6 at $100. Paid yearly, at $29 a month, Basic breaks even at 11 sales of $40. During the three $1 months, Shopify costs less from the first sale.

Each sale that comes through an Offsite Ad adds $6 to Etsy's side and pulls the break-even lower. If every sale came that way, Basic would break even at 5 sales a month.

Two costs sit outside the table. Each Etsy listing costs $0.20 again every time it renews, every four months, so keeping 100 listings live costs $60 a year. On Shopify, apps, a paid theme and the ads you buy to bring shoppers come on top.

Which Etsy and Shopify fees are easy to miss?

On Etsy, Offsite Ads stop being optional once your shop makes $10,000 in sales within 365 days. On Shopify, you pay the card fee even on a sale you refund. Past Etsy's $10,000 mark, you stay in Offsite Ads for the life of the shop, at 12% instead of 15%. At $40 an item, that mark is 250 sales in a year. Etsy counts item prices toward it, not shipping or tax, and checks on the first day of each month.

One ad click can be charged more than once. A buyer who clicks an Offsite Ad and places three orders in the next 30 days may bring three ad fees.

A refund costs you less on Etsy. Refund a buyer in Shop Manager, Etsy's back office for your shop, and Etsy returns your transaction and processing fees to your payment account. Shopify keeps the $1.46 card fee when you refund the $40 sale. Say who pays return shipping in your refund policy before the first return arrives.

What do Etsy's fees pay for?

Etsy's fees buy a place in a marketplace of about 88 million active buyers, by Etsy's count for the year to September 30, 2026.

If your Etsy shop sells every week while your own store gets a few orders a month, the difference is who comes looking. Etsy's buyers search Etsy, and nobody searches for a store they have never heard of. On Shopify, the shoppers are yours to bring, by email, social posts or ads.

Shopify's nearest match to Offsite Ads is Shop Campaigns. You set what a new customer is worth to you, and Shopify charges you when one buys. That figure is an average, so a single charge can land above or below it. Shopify Payments and a business address in a supported country, such as the US or the UK, are two of its requirements.

Etsy pays part of its fee back when you bring the buyer yourself. With Share & Save, a shopper who buys within 30 days of clicking a link you shared outside Etsy earns you a 4% refund on that order, or 6.5% until January 4. Links in Etsy Messages or in your listing descriptions don't count.

Can you sell on Etsy and Shopify at the same time?

Yes, and each one charges its own fees on its own sales.

Shopify's Marketplace Connect app can't make new Etsy connections at the moment, though shops already linked keep working. Other sync apps on the Shopify App Store can keep one stock count across both, each at its own price.

Moving for good? Migrating to Shopify covers the move without losing search traffic. To bring your Etsy reviews along, some Shopify review apps import them.