Etsy vs Shopify: which keeps more?
Pay per sale or pay per month? Etsy's percentage against Shopify's subscription — and the volume line where the subscription starts winning.
Who wins at each price?
| Price | Etsy keeps | Shopify keeps | Winner |
|---|
Canonical profile: product cost 35% of price, inbound $1.20, packaging $0.30, self-shipping $4.80 where relevant, ads 10% of price, returns 5%, 300 units/month, TikTok affiliate 10%. Change the real inputs on each platform's own calculator page.
The $39 line
Shopify Basic costs $39 a month, which is $0.13 per sale at the canonical 300 units a month — plus 2.9% + $0.30 card fees and about $30 of apps. Below roughly $15 a sale, Etsy still wins (its $0.20 listing fee is smaller than Shopify's fixed slice); from $25 up, Shopify pulls ahead and the gap widens with price, reaching about $15 more kept per sale at $250. Volume is the whole argument: at 30 units a month the same subscription costs $1.30 a sale and Etsy wins everywhere.
Traffic is the fee you don't see
Etsy's percentage buys something Shopify's subscription does not: buyers who are already there, searching. A Shopify store keeps more per sale and starts at zero visitors — every one of them must be bought with ads, content or an existing audience. If you have traffic, Shopify's math wins. If you don't, Etsy's percentage is rent on demand that already exists.