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IndieMade vs Etsy
The comparison nobody else can make honestly: we don't want you to leave Etsy. Keep your shop there for discovery, and run your own store, in sync, for everything Etsy can't give you.
First, the honest part: this is apples and oranges.
Etsy is a marketplace, a busy mall where you rent a booth inside their building, their brand, and their search results. IndieMade is not a marketplace: it's your own store, your building, your domain, your customers. People compare the two because they're deciding where to sell, so here's the fee math side by side, but the real answer isn't either/or. It's a booth in the mall for discovery, plus a store of your own that syncs with it.
| Etsy | IndieMade | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay monthly | $0, but every sale pays the fee stack below | $15/mo flat ($12 annual). That's the whole bill. |
| Listing fee | $0.20 per item, charged again on renewal and per quantity sold | None |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of the order, including what the buyer pays for shipping | None |
| Offsite Ads | 12-15% on ad-attributed orders; mandatory for life once you pass $10K/yr | None |
| Your own domain & site | No, a listing grid inside etsy.com (Pattern costs another $15/mo) | Included, your domain, your pages, galleries and blog |
| Your customers | Etsy's customers, you can't email them or see them again | Yours, favorites, reviews, order history and the relationship |
| Design control | Banner and thumbnail order | Your whole site: themes, sections, galleries, blog |
Etsy's published US rates, 2026. IndieMade charges no payment fee; your processor (Stripe, PayPal or Square) charges its standard rate, about 2.9% + 30¢, on Etsy you pay their processing fee too.
Where IndieMade wins for a handmade seller
You don't have to choose
The two-way sync keeps listings, inventory, variations and photos matched across both shops, with stock re-verified at the moment of sale so you never sell the same piece twice.
The fees stop compounding
On a $50 Etsy sale you give up about $5.20 before ads ever fire. On your IndieMade store, the same sale costs you only card processing.
Google can find you
Your Etsy shop can't rank for your name. Your own domain can, real SEO, structured data, a sitemap, and pages that are actually about you.
A brand, not a booth
Your domain on the craft-fair banner, your story on your pages, your process on your blog. "Find me on Etsy" builds Etsy's brand; this builds yours.
The math, at maker scale
A $50 sale on Etsy: $0.20 listing + $3.25 transaction + $1.75 processing = $5.20 gone, before Offsite Ads. At $15/month, an IndieMade store pays for itself in avoided fees after about three of those sales, and past $10K/yr, when Etsy's 12% ads fee becomes mandatory for life, the flat plan wins at any volume.
See it with your own products.
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