E-commerce has come a long way since Amazon marched in, shook things up and changed the status quo. In today’s landscape, it’s not just about creating excellent products (although it’s still pretty important!); you need to have the whole package. Fulfilling orders on time, handling any queries, helping disgruntled customers and working on your digital marketing are all part and parcel of a successful shop. To achieve the last item on the list, you need the right e-commerce platform. And that brings us to our main question: Which is best, Shopify or Etsy?
With hundreds of platforms jostling for attention in the battle for customers, it’s tricky to work out where to make your digital home. So, in this guide, we’ll be demystifying Shopify and Etsy, their differences and how they can work in tandem. Spoilers: they can be pretty powerful together…
- Shopify vs Etsy: How do they compare?
- Shopify vs Etsy: Which is right for my business?
- How to sell on both Shopify and Etsy
- Conclusion
Shopify vs Etsy: How do they compare?
For those unacquainted with these digital giants, Shopify and Etsy are both popular e-commerce platforms totalling 4.5 million and then 6.6 million active shopfronts respectively. Their difference lies in the type of platform – the former a website builder or CMS, the latter an online marketplace.
Each has its own merits, pitfalls and audiences, so make sure to do your research and heed our suggestions below, before making any commitments. Disclaimer: the best option for your circumstances will depend on what you sell, the country you operate in, along with where you are in your indie business journey. Now, let’s dig deeper.
Platform overview
The format of the two channels we’re dissecting will make all the difference to your sales strategy as they’re deeply connected to the way people search for and, thus, find your goods.
Whether you’re considering a move away from the online marketplace to your own website domain or thinking about starting up a Shopify store alongside an existing Etsy shop, a thorough understanding of what makes each platform tic is invaluable.
Shopify
Many small business owners ask themselves whether Shopify is worth it at some point in their journey. After all, it’s difficult to sidestep people praising and promoting it when you browse the internet. But is it true – is Shopify a good platform?
As I mentioned, Shopify is a CMS, which stands for content management system. In layperson’s terms, this means that Shopify forms the building blocks of your own website – blog, homepage, product listings and all. It’s a software that helps you manage and produce all your digital content, and one of its major advantages is that it is incredibly intuitive.
With a wide catalogue of template designs and simple click-and-drag mechanisms, you can build a decent site in days, even using the freemium version. What’s more, due to its popularity, there are thousands of apps you can integrate for a smoother experience – including you, the seller, and your customers – from SEO to social media plugins. For this reason, Shopify has the added benefit that it functions as the foundation of your content marketing strategy, allowing you to appear in search engine results if you optimise your site correctly.
Etsy
Where Shopify is infinitely customisable, Etsy is niche. Of course, you can sell stacks of things on there and personalise your virtual shopfront, but you have to do this within the platform’s more rigid parameters. You have a banner and logo and then content to entice and inform those who click into your shop. This information includes a short welcome message, about section, description of shop members (people on your team), shop policy, delivery profiles and, of course, the listings themselves.
It’s also worth noting that, because Etsy is known as “the go-to destination for personalised gifts, practical everyday items, and unique wares that can’t be found on a shop floor”, users expect a certain degree of personalisation when it comes to products, packaging and customer service. In fact, it’s part of the site’s Ts&Cs that all items embody a certain sense of originality and tick off the following criteria:
- Made by a seller: items that are handcrafted or made personally using digital tools.
- Designed by a seller: original designs, either offered as a digital download or produced/printed by a third party.
- Handpicked by a seller: personally curated items, whether vintage finds, things from nature or specific collections.
- Sourced by a seller: listings that enable buyer creativity, from craft supplies to those personalised with custom designs.
Etsy fees vs Shopify pricing
Now we come to the part that you were probably most interested in, right? We don’t blame you! Each platform’s pricing model will have a tangible impact on what you can achieve with your business. Time to break it down.
Shopify
So, with Shopify, it’s a subscription-based model. Broadly speaking, you can pick from three different tiers designed to fulfil the needs of most business types.
| Plan | Audience | Yearly price | Transaction fees |
| Basic | For solopreneurs, this plan allows for one user only. | £210 in year one, rising to £238 in year two | 2% + 25p GBP online1.7% + 0p GBP in-person2% 3rd-party payment providers |
| Shopify | For small teams, this mid-level plan is accessible to six users. | £540 in year one, rising to £588 in year two | 1.7% + 25p GBP online1.6% + 0p GBP in-person1% 3rd-party payment providers |
| Advanced | For medium to large businesses, this plan provides access to sixteen users and includes additional internationalisation features. | £2849 in year one, rising to £3107 in year two | 1.5% + 25p GBP online1.5% + 0p GBP in-person0.6% 3rd-party payment providers |
If you’re seriously thinking about investing in the software, you may also want to factor in the cost of essential plugins and apps that will help your site perform to its full potential. Interested in how you can enhance your Shopify website? We suggest checking out your options at the dedicated app store.
Etsy
As you’ve seen, Shopify is a great choice for people willing to make a longer-term investment. Etsy, on the other hand, is a solid marketplace for those who are just starting out. For one, the start-up costs are relatively low; you don’t need to shell out money for a web developer or monthly hosting fees. Neither do you have to pay for ads to get people onto the website as Etsy is already very well known. However, as we move on to the thorny topic of transaction fees, you’ll see why there’s so much debate between Shopify, Etsy and other platforms.
When you come to set up billing on Etsy, know that the e-commerce website will slap you with fees in 3 key areas: listing fees at 16p per item, transaction fees at 6.5% of the total order amount and payment processing fees at 4% + 16p per transaction. On top of this, there’s VAT (if your business turns over £85K annually) and then delivery charges to factor in.
For growing businesses, the above can really add up and eat into profits. So it’s unsurprising that back in 2023, when these prices were hiked, many sellers boycotted the craft marketplace in protest. If you take to online forums like Reddit you’ll see, amongst oodles of advice posts, experienced users complaining about inflated Etsy fees that are likely to increase, resulting in lower profit margins. Thus, savvy sellers will calculate their budget carefully and weigh up the convenience of a preexisting audience before locking in.
SEO compatibility
If you’ve been paying attention, you might have asked yourself, “If I set up an Etsy or Shopify store, how will people find me?” That’s where SEO comes in.
SEO – otherwise known as search engine optimisation – is a series of techniques you can employ to get your content seen by the right people. A lot of this involves user-friendly formatting, using the right keywords for your pages and writing enticing copy that satisfies the needs of the reader. And if you have a Shopify or Etsy, you can absolutely use this to your advantage.
Shopify
Shopify is among the best CMS for SEO. With its advanced e-commerce features and responsive, sustainable web design themes, you can easily optimise your site to appear higher up in search results. In fact, in our experience, with the right dedication and knowledge you can get it to the number one spot on Google..
Thanks to its clean coding, scalability and customisation, there are plenty of SEO fixes you can implement at an on-page, off-page and technical level. This includes the optimisation of meta titles, descriptions and URLs of the pages that constitute your store. Pretty neat for businesses who are actively looking to ramp up their operations to reach more customers
Etsy
When it comes to SEO, Etsy is a different kettle of fish. This is because you need to think about optimising your Etsy shop in a couple of distinct ways. Put it like this: Etsy gives merchants not one but two SEO opportunities.
Firstly, you can optimise for search engines due to the creative marketplace’s strong domain authority, which allows your products and shopfront to appear in searches beyond the platform. Then there is SEO on Etsy and using targeted keywords throughout your shop pages and listings to match the queries that your intended audience is using via Etsy’s on-site search. This means that you could potentially double the number of eyeballs on your products.
Audience
Audience is another key factor that might motivate your decision-making, and when it comes to the Shopify vs Etsy debate it really should.
Shopify
Because Shopify is a CMS through which you build your own site, it’s up to you to bring your audience to the party. If you’re already established as a brand this might entail social media advertising, breaking the news of your new website to your mailing list or looking to inbound marketing techniques that will attract new customers. For new businesses on the block, SEO or Google Ads are a great way to get a leg up, funnelling people onto your site.
Etsy
As a well-established online marketplace, you don’t have to worry so much about finding an audience – as they’re already there, with 500 million monthly visitors! In the realm of demographics, there’s only a slight lean towards female users and almost 30% of users are between 25 and 34 years old.
So, what’s the catch? Well, in recent years, Etsy users have become fed up with the trajectory the marketplace is on. Thanks to drop shipping platforms like AliExpress and Temu, it’s difficult to browse Etsy without encountering hoards of drop shippers and resellers.
Perhaps, it’s the inevitable platform decay that author and journalist Cory Doctorow coins “enshittification”. Perhaps it speaks to a wider shift in how we consume. Either way, it’s true, customers are leaving the platform, dissatisfied that Etsy is straying from its USP, bespoke, handmade goods made by independent creators.
User-friendliness
Next, let’s discuss user-friendliness and its two-way effects on sellers and customers.
Shopify
Compared to many other website builders Shopify is easy to navigate behind the scenes. You don’t need any coding experience to create a website that is as functional as it is visually appealing. But, if you so desire, you can customise the template themes using the programming language Liquid, or alternatively seek out the expertise of a web developer.
On the flip side, thanks to these simple yet effective templates, it’s easy to create a site that users can navigate smoothly. And, because they are responsive, they will automatically adjust the layout for mobile devices.
Etsy
Setting up and using Etsy as a customer is easy as pie. This is partly why the platform is so cherished by newbie sellers. Again, you don’t need any technical knowledge – just a good grasp of small business branding, writing copy for each page and implementing keyword research.
Shopify vs Etsy: Which is right for my business?
Whether your priority is implementing SEO for a boutique or simply finding the easiest and cheapest way to set up an online shop for your side hustle, the decision will likely come down to margins and audience reach.
Etsy is best for those who are earlier on in their small business growth journey and who can afford the various fees attached to the platform. Whereas Shopify is more suited to businesses that are well-established or ready to scale. After all, people are more likely to flock to a platform they have confidence in than a new business with no social proof to its name.
The main drawback of Shopify is its reliance on third-party apps for many functionalities, which can escalate expenses, so you need to be in a financial position to handle these substantial start-off costs to reap the long-term rewards.
This said, many will find comfort in the fact that they are not subject to the whims of platform change – think back to our discussion of Etsy fees and the loss of unique products. This way, it could be more advantageous to keep your Etsy open when moving your primary operations to Shopify. As I saw one sage Redditor put it: don’t put all your eggs in the Etsy basket
How to sell on both Shopify and Etsy
There are many reasons why you might want to combine both platforms into your strategy. You cover more ground, can experiment before honing in on the best platform and you can use an Etsy store to funnel customers into your own website once they have made a purchase. Here are a trio of the most important aspects of such a combination.
Testing the waters with a marketplace
Even though the big international companies aren’t allowed to infiltrate Etsy, there’s no lack of competition. Some categories are especially oversaturated, so you’ll need to put in a bit of elbow grease and think outside of the box to stand out from the crowd.
On other platforms, this obstacle might be insurmountable, but on Etsy not so. Thanks to elements like its buyer protection program and straightforward set-up, it’s easier than ever to experiment with your products and iron out any issues in the early days. For this reason, you can find out what works on Etsy and make mistakes there, where customers are probably more likely to give their loyalty to the platform overall, rather than individual brands.
Platform integration
Many consider Etsy the go-to for side hustles – it seems like we all know someone selling their crafts on there. But when the side gig pops off and becomes a viable business what do you do?
Breaking up with Etsy might be difficult when you have a loyal following on the site, so you might choose to keep it alongside your new Shopify store. Or maybe you’re ditching it to make the transition to a CMS. Whatever the case, rest assured that Shopify does indeed integrate with Etsy.
Popular integrations include ones built by CedCommerce and Digital Product Labs (DPL), and the best offer product, order and inventory syncing to eliminate any unnecessary admin. Everything can be managed in one central location, which is a gamechanger for small business owners with little time on their hands.
Multichannel retailing
If you want to increase online sales, going down the multichannel retailing route is tried and tested. We talk about this sales strategy more in our dedicated blog, but here’s a few important takeaways.
By selling on multiple platforms, you get to expand your coverage by selling to audiences that don’t overlap and at different stages in the buyer’s journey. Thus, you gain a unique website that reflects your brand while also capturing new customers, along with an easy-to-use marketplace for reaching existing ones.
As much as 81% of Etsy purchases are made by repeat customers, so we understand why you might not want to leave them behind. After all, successful businesses are all about empowering their customer bases with more and more choices. Plus, they mean more opportunities to market to them with Google and Etsy Ads.
So is Shopify better than Etsy, or vice versa?
Now you know how much it costs to run an e-commerce website on Shopify or Etsy, what makes each tic and some of their drawbacks, you should be in a better place to make an informed decision.
The bottom line is that both platforms are effective at getting your products in the hands of customers and can be used in conjunction with a mix of marketing efforts to increase your profits.
Shopify is a much bigger investment, with longer-term benefits such as its SEO potential and customisation. Etsy, on the other hand, is a brilliant playground for testing out the market when your business is still young. And, together, Shopify and Etsy can be a powerful duo as you reach a variety of audience segments interested in what you have to offer.
