Why one number per platform is not enough
Most fee calculators cover a single marketplace, so comparing means opening three tabs and hoping each one counts the same things. They often don't: some leave out payment processing, some apply percentages to the item price instead of the order total, and none of them can tell you whether a subscription platform beats a commission one at your volume.
This page runs one sale through all three fee structures at once, using the same figures the dedicated calculators use, and ranks them by what actually reaches you.
The two business models
The comparison only makes sense once you see that these platforms charge in fundamentally different ways.
- Marketplaces (Etsy, eBay) take a commission. You pay a percentage of every sale, so the cost rises exactly in step with revenue. The rate you pay at 10 orders is the rate you pay at 10,000. In exchange, they bring you the buyer.
- Shopify charges rent. A fixed subscription from $25.00 a month plus a card rate. The card rate is small, so the subscription dominates at low volume and becomes trivial at high volume. You get no buyers — you have to bring your own.
That difference means there is no single answer to "which is cheapest". There is only a crossover point, and finding yours is what the order-volume input is for.
Worked example: a $40 item costing $12
You sell a $40.00 item with free postage. It costs you $12.00 to make, and you ship 100 orders a month.
- Shopify — fees $1.71 (4.3% of the sale), leaving you $38.29 and a profit of $26.29.
- Etsy — fees $4.25 (10.6% of the sale), leaving you $35.75 and a profit of $23.75.
- eBay — fees $5.84 (14.6% of the sale), leaving you $34.16 and a profit of $22.16.
At this volume the cheapest is Shopify, by $4.13 an order — which is$413.00 a month across those 100 orders. That monthly figure is the one worth acting on; a few cents an order sounds like nothing until you multiply it.
Where the crossover sits
The same $40.00 order, priced at each volume. Only Shopify's number moves, because only Shopify has a fixed cost to spread.
| Orders a month | Etsy | eBay | Shopify | Cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $4.25 | $5.84 | $6.46 | Etsy |
| 25 | $4.25 | $5.84 | $2.46 | Shopify |
| 100 | $4.25 | $5.84 | $1.71 | Shopify |
| 250 | $4.25 | $5.84 | $1.56 | Shopify |
| 500 | $4.25 | $5.84 | $1.51 | Shopify |
At 5 orders a month Shopify costs $6.46 an order, because $25.00 of subscription is divided between very few sales. At 500 orders the same subscription is a rounding error and it falls to $1.51. The marketplaces do not move at all.
What each platform actually charges
| Platform | Per sale | Fixed | Charged on shipping? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Etsy | 6.5% + processing (3% + $0.25 in the US) | $0.20 per listing | Yes |
| eBay | 13.6% + $0.40 per order | 250 free listings, then $0.35 | Yes — and on sales tax |
| Shopify | Card rate, from 2.9% + $0.30 | From $25.00 a month | Yes |
What the platforms charge on, not just how much
Two platforms can quote similar percentages and still cost very different amounts, because they apply those percentages to different things. All three here charge on shipping, which rules out the common trick of shifting price into postage. Beyond that they diverge.
eBay includes sales tax in its fee base — tax it collects and remits itself, so you are charged a percentage of money that never reaches you. Etsy keeps payment processing as a separate line with a fixed component, which makes small orders disproportionately expensive: on a$10.00 sale, Etsy's $0.20 listing fee and$0.25 fixed processing charge are already 4.5% before any percentage applies. Shopify charges a fixed amount per transaction too, with the same effect at the low end.
The practical upshot is that cheap items are expensive to sell everywhere, and the platform rankings you see at $40.00 may not hold at $8.00. Enter your own typical order value rather than trusting a general answer.
Fees are not the whole comparison
It is worth being explicit about the limits of a page like this, because fee calculators invite a conclusion they cannot really support.
A marketplace commission buys distribution. Etsy and eBay put your listing in front of people who are already searching, and the percentage you pay is the price of that traffic. Shopify charges rent on a shop that nobody will visit unless you bring them. So a comparison that shows Shopify cheaper at your volume is telling you something narrow and true — it costs less in fees — while saying nothing about what it costs to replace the buyers.
Price matters more than fee rate too. If Etsy's audience will pay $45.00 for what eBay buyers value at $35.00, a few percentage points of fee difference is noise against a29% price difference. Use this page to rule out the genuinely expensive option, not to pick the winner outright.
What this comparison does not include
- Traffic. Etsy and eBay bring buyers; Shopify does not. If you would spend the saving on ads, the cheaper platform is not the cheaper business.
- Etsy Offsite Ads. Only on orders from an advert — toggle it on above to see the effect.
- eBay Store subscriptions, which cut the final value fee at volume.
- Amazon, whose FBA fulfilment fees we cannot verify from a public page.
- Sales tax, except on eBay, where it demonstrably raises the fee.
For a single platform in more detail, use the Etsy fee calculator(which also prices backwards from a target profit), the eBay fee calculatoror the Shopify fee calculator. For the handmade case in particular, read Etsy vs eBay for handmade items.
Frequently asked questions
Which marketplace has the lowest fees?
It depends on your volume, not just the rate. Marketplaces charge a commission per sale, so their cost scales with revenue. Shopify charges a fixed subscription plus a card rate, so its effective rate falls as you sell more. At a handful of orders a month a marketplace is cheaper; past a few hundred, Shopify usually wins. Enter your own order count to see where you sit.
Is eBay cheaper than Etsy?
On fee rate alone, usually not. eBay's final value fee is 13.6% of the sale plus a per-order fee, against Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee plus processing of around 3% + $0.25. On a typical order Etsy lands lower. But eBay has no listing fee within your free allowance, where Etsy charges $0.20 per listing whether it sells or not — which matters if you list a lot and sell a little.
Do all these platforms charge fees on shipping?
Yes. Etsy applies its 6.5% to the item plus shipping and gift wrap; eBay calculates the final value fee on the item, shipping and sales tax; Shopify’s card rate applies to whatever the customer is charged. Moving money from the item price into the postage charge does not reduce fees on any of them.
Why is Amazon not in this comparison?
Because we could not verify half of it. Amazon’s referral fees are published, but FBA fulfilment fees — the size and weight matrix that actually drives the cost — sit behind a Seller Central login. Rather than guess at them or copy another site’s numbers, we have left Amazon out until we can source the figures properly.
Does this include payment processing?
Yes for all three. Etsy’s processing fee follows your bank account country and is included; eBay’s final value fee already covers payment processing; Shopify’s card rate is counted alongside the subscription. That makes the three numbers genuinely comparable, which is the point of the page.
Sources & last checked
Last checked .
- Etsy transaction fee
- Etsy listing fee, per listing
- eBay final value fee, most categories
- eBay per-order fee, orders over $10.00
- Shopify Basic, billed monthly
- Shopify Payments online card rate, Basic (US)
- Etsy — Fee Basics
- eBay — Seller fees
- Shopify — Pricing