This question usually arrives after a good month. You look at what Etsy took out of it, do some quick arithmetic, and think there has to be a better way. There often is, but the math is less obvious than it looks, because the fee you are paying is partly rent and partly advertising.
Here is what each side actually costs, and the point where switching starts to pay.
What Etsy Actually Takes
Etsy's published seller fees for a US seller, as of September 2026:
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Listing | $0.20 | Per item, every four months, renews on each sale |
| Transaction | 6.5% | Charged on the item price plus what you charge for shipping |
| Payment processing | 3% + $0.25 | US rate, varies by country |
| Offsite Ads | 12% or 15% | Only on sales from those ads, capped at $100 per order |
On a $40 item with $8 shipping, a normal sale costs you about $4.57 in fees, roughly 9.5% of the order. If that same sale came through Offsite Ads, add $5.76 at 12%, and you are at about 21.5%. That is the range most sellers live in.
Etsy's own reported take rate, which counts everything it collects across the platform, was 25.7% in the first quarter of 2026. That number includes ads and shipping labels, so it is higher than any single seller's bill, but it tells you the direction the platform has been moving.
Under $10,000 in sales over the past twelve months, Offsite Ads is optional and costs 15% when it produces a sale. Once you cross $10,000 in a rolling year, participation becomes mandatory and the rate drops to 12%. You cannot turn it off after that. This is the single most common reason a seller's effective fee percentage jumps without their prices changing.
What Your Own Store Costs
The structure is completely different: mostly fixed, with a small slice per order.
- Shopify Basic: $29 a month on annual billing, $39 monthly.
- Card processing: 2.9% plus 30 cents online with Shopify Payments.
- Domain: around $16 a year.
- Apps: $0 to $65 a month depending on what you add.
I broke the full picture down in how much a Shopify store costs. The short version is $364 in year one if you do everything yourself, or roughly $1,500 to $4,500 with a designed store.
The Crossover Math
Take a seller doing $3,000 a month in orders averaging $48 including shipping, so about 62 orders.
| Etsy | Own Shopify store | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fees | ~$285 (9.5%) | $29 subscription |
| Processing | included above | ~$106 |
| Monthly total | ~$285 | ~$135 |
So on paper you save about $150 a month, $1,800 a year, which pays for a designed store in year one. But that comparison assumes the same 62 orders arrive either way, and they will not. Etsy is sending you shoppers. Your own site sends you nobody until you give it a reason to.
That is the real trade. You are not comparing fees against fees. You are comparing Etsy's fee against your marketing cost, and marketing is the harder line item to control.
When Etsy Is Still the Right Call
- You are under roughly $1,000 a month. The fees are small in absolute dollars and the traffic is worth more than the percentage.
- Your product is something people search for on Etsy specifically: handmade, vintage, personalised, wedding, craft supplies.
- You have no audience of your own yet, no email list, no engaged social following.
- You do not want to think about traffic at all. That is a legitimate choice.
When Your Own Site Starts to Win
- You have repeat customers. This is the big one. Paying Etsy a cut of a sale to someone who already knows your name is pure loss.
- You are over $10,000 in the past year and Offsite Ads is now mandatory at 12%.
- You have an audience. An email list or an active Instagram means you can drive traffic yourself, so you are paying for something you no longer need.
- You want the customer data. On Etsy the buyer is Etsy's. On your site they are yours, including the email address you need to sell to them again.
- You want a brand. Every Etsy listing sits next to a competitor's. Your own store does not.
Do not close the shop. Open your own store alongside it, then move deliberately: put your site on your packaging inserts, your business cards and your social bios, collect emails from every buyer you are allowed to, and give people a reason to come direct next time. Let Etsy keep doing what it is good at, which is finding you strangers. Over a year or two the mix shifts on its own and you never have a month where sales fall off a cliff.
A Note on Platform Risk
Etsy's growth has flattened. Gross merchandise sales rose 1.0% in the second quarter of 2026 and the company cut around 220 roles that year. None of that is a reason to panic, but it is a reason not to have your entire business living on someone else's platform, with a fee structure and a search algorithm you do not control and were not consulted about.
The same logic applies to selling only through social. I wrote about that in do I need a website if I have Instagram.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage does Etsy take in 2026?
Etsy's own take rate, which is everything it collects divided by the value of goods sold, was 25.7% in the first quarter of 2026. For an individual seller the stack is a 20 cent listing fee per item every four months, a 6.5% transaction fee calculated on the item price plus shipping, payment processing of 3% plus 25 cents in the US, and Offsite Ads of 12% or 15% when a sale comes through one of those ads.
Is it cheaper to sell on Etsy or my own website?
Per sale, your own website is almost always cheaper once you clear a few thousand dollars a month. A Shopify store costs a fixed subscription plus roughly 2.9% and 30 cents per order, while Etsy takes a percentage of everything with no ceiling. The catch is that Etsy brings you traffic and your own site does not, so the real comparison is fees against marketing cost.
Should I leave Etsy for my own website?
Usually not leave, add. Etsy is a discovery channel and your own site is where repeat customers should land. Sellers who close their shop the day their site launches generally lose more in traffic than they save in fees. Run both, and move your repeat buyers deliberately.
What are Etsy Offsite Ads and are they optional?
Etsy advertises your listings on Google, Meta and other networks and charges you only when a sale results. Under $10,000 in the past year you can switch it off and the fee is 15%. Once you pass $10,000 in a rolling twelve months, participation becomes mandatory and the rate drops to 12%. Either way the fee is capped at $100 per order.
Can I sell on Etsy and my own website at the same time?
Yes, and most established sellers do. You keep separate inventory counts or sync them with a tool, and you use different channels for different jobs: Etsy for people who have never heard of you, your own site for the ones who already bought once.
Do I lose my Etsy reviews if I move?
Yes, they stay on Etsy. That is a real cost of switching and a good argument for keeping the shop open. What you can do is build reviews on your own site from day one, so you are not starting from zero social proof two years later.
If you are weighing this up, tell me what you sell and what you are doing a month. I will tell you honestly whether it is worth building yet, and if it is not, I will tell you that too. When it is time, the shop designs are here. Fees quoted are Etsy's published rates as of September 2026 and they do change, so check Etsy's own fee page before making a decision on the numbers.