Ecommerce profit calculator: Etsy vs Shopify vs Amazon Handmade
Etsy takes ~10% per sale: 6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 processing + $0.20 listing. Calculate net profit per item, with Offsite Ads modeled. 2026 fee structure.
$23.27
Per-sale net (pre-tax)$419
Monthly pre-tax58.2%
Margin %10.5%
Platform fee %- Take-home (after tax)
- SE + income tax
- COGS
- Shipping cost
- Etsy fees
At 18 orders/mo, Shopify Basic would net $13 more per month after tax than Etsy.
SE tax (14.13% on net SE earnings) is unavoidable for sole proprietors: $59/mo at this volume. The income-tax slider models federal + state on top.
58.2% pre-tax margin clears the healthy Etsy seller threshold (25%). Volume × margin is what determines whether the shop is a side gig or a business.
At a glance
- 01
Etsy fees are ~10% on any sale: $0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 processing, all on price plus shipping
- 02
The fixed $0.45 portion punishes low-price items: $5 item loses 18.6% to fees, $40 item loses 10.6%, $200 item 9.7%
- 03
Offsite Ads add 12-15% on top if sale came from Etsy's external ad. Opt out under $10K annual sales; mandatory above
- 04
65% of Etsy shops earn under $100/year (Capital One Shopping 2025). Fees are bounded; visibility is the real bottleneck
2026 Ecommerce profit calculator: Etsy vs Shopify vs Amazon Handmade Benchmarks
Source: Etsy Fees Policy + Etsy SEC 8-K 2025 + Capital One Shopping research 2025§Etsy fees are a red herring. Platform choice and tax drag are the real economics.
The dominant Etsy seller question online is "what are the fees." It is the wrong lead question. Etsy fees compress to roughly 10 percent of order value above the $25 price point and the rate is the same for everyone. There is no variable to optimize.
The questions that actually move per-month take-home in 2026:
- Which platform fits your volume (Etsy, Shopify, or Amazon Handmade), because the fixed-cost vs variable-cost split flips around 100 orders per month.
- What your real take-home is after SE tax (14.13 percent of net earnings, unavoidable for sole proprietors) plus federal and state income tax. The headline "net profit per sale" number that every other Etsy calculator shows ignores this and overstates take-home by 20-30 percent.
- How many sales the shop produces, given that the median Etsy seller does roughly 18 orders per month (Capital One Shopping 2025 research on the $574/month median revenue figure across the 5.6 million active sellers).
The calculator above models all three. Pick a platform, set your volume and tax rate, and see the cross-platform comparison plus the after-tax monthly take-home, not just per-sale net.
§What the three platforms actually cost (verified May 2026)
Etsy. $0.20 listing fee + 6.5 percent transaction fee on (price + shipping) + 3 percent + $0.25 payment processing. Effective rate compresses to roughly 10 percent above $25 price. Plus 12-15 percent Offsite Ads conditional fee for ad-sourced sales. No monthly subscription. Source: Etsy Fees & Payments Policy.
Shopify Basic. $39/month subscription + 2.9 percent + $0.30 Shopify Payments per transaction. No marketplace fee, no listing fee. Shopify Grow at $105/mo gets 2.7 percent processing. Advanced at $399/mo gets 2.5 percent. The subscription is the dominant cost line at low volume and disappears as a per-sale fraction as volume grows. Source: Shopify pricing.
Amazon Handmade. 15 percent referral fee on (price + shipping), no $0.30 minimum, no listing fee. Professional plan ($39.99/month) is waived after the first month for approved Handmade artisans, so ongoing subscription is effectively zero. Higher percentage than Etsy but no fixed costs to amortize. Source: Amazon Handmade program, Seller Central referral fees G201814220.
The math implication: at 20 orders per month (median Etsy volume) on a $40 product, Etsy nets roughly $24 per sale, Shopify Basic nets roughly $20 (the $39 subscription is $1.95 per sale), and Amazon Handmade nets roughly $23. Etsy wins at this volume. At 200 orders per month on the same product, Shopify Basic nets $25 per sale (subscription is now $0.20 per sale) and Amazon Handmade still nets $23. Shopify wins. The crossover happens around 80-120 orders per month for typical hand-made price points.
The calculator runs this comparison live for your specific price, COGS, and volume. The cross-platform bar chart shows monthly after-tax for all four options (Etsy, Shopify Basic, Shopify Grow, Amazon Handmade) so the rank order is visible immediately.
§The tax layer no commodity ecommerce calculator includes
The "net profit per sale" headline number on every other Etsy / Shopify / Amazon Handmade calculator is a pre-tax number. For a US sole proprietor selling on any of these platforms, real take-home is materially lower because of two unavoidable tax layers that apply identically regardless of platform.
Self-employment tax: 14.13 percent effective on net SE earnings. This is the 15.3 percent FICA total (Social Security 12.4 percent + Medicare 2.9 percent) applied to 92.35 percent of net SE income (the standard SE tax base adjustment). For 2026, the Social Security portion caps at $184,500 in earnings (SSA October 2025 announcement). Above that, only the 2.68 percent effective Medicare portion continues. SE tax is unavoidable for any sole proprietor selling on any of these platforms.
Federal + state income tax. Federal income tax is progressive: at $30,000 net profit, the effective federal rate on Schedule C income (after the SE tax half-deduction and the $15,000 standard deduction) is roughly 5 percent. State income tax adds anywhere from 0 percent (TX, FL, WA, NV, SD, WY, TN, NH, AK) to roughly 6-9 percent in CA, NY, NJ, HI for middle-bracket sellers. The calculator's income tax slider defaults to 12 percent as a sensible national-average combined rate for the typical ecommerce seller bracket.
Total effective tax rate at $30,000 profit:
- No-income-tax state: roughly 18 percent (mostly SE tax)
- Average state: roughly 22 percent
- High-tax state (CA, NY, NJ, HI): roughly 25-28 percent
At $75,000+ profit, the effective rate climbs to 28-35 percent as more income enters the 22 percent federal bracket and Additional Medicare tax kicks in above $200K.
This is why the "net profit per sale" number is misleading regardless of platform. A $14 per-sale net at 20 orders per month is $280/month gross, which after SE + income tax becomes roughly $230/month real take-home. The pre-tax headline overstates spendable income by 20-30 percent at typical volumes. The platform decision is the same whether you pay 18 percent or 28 percent effective tax: the tax floor is shared. Platform fee structure is what creates the spread the calculator surfaces.
The hero number on this calculator is post-tax monthly take-home, not pre-tax per-sale net, because that's the number that matches what hits your bank account regardless of which platform you choose.
§Volume determines which platform wins, and traffic mechanics differ
Each platform has a fee structure that flips around different volume thresholds for the same product.
Below ~80 orders per month: Etsy wins structurally. No subscription to amortize. The 6.5 percent transaction fee + 3 percent + $0.25 processing comes out under 11 percent of revenue, beating Amazon Handmade's flat 15 percent and beating Shopify Basic where the $39/month subscription is still a meaningful share of per-sale net.
80 to 150 orders per month: crossover band. Shopify Basic's $39 subscription starts amortizing under Etsy's 6.5 percent transaction fee. The exact crossover depends on price (higher price = Shopify wins earlier because the absolute fee delta grows).
150+ orders per month: Shopify wins decisively. At 200 orders/mo on a $40 product, Shopify Basic's effective fee rate is roughly 3.4 percent versus Etsy's ~10.5 percent. Above 500 orders/mo, Shopify Grow's 2.7 percent processing pulls ahead of Basic's 2.9 percent and the subscription delta amortizes.
Amazon Handmade: never the cheapest by fee math alone, but flat 15 percent with no subscription and no listing fees means the cost structure is predictable across any volume. Amazon Handmade wins when discovery matters more than fee optimization.
Volume anchors come from the only published seller distribution data: Etsy's SEC 8-K for 2025 ($11.916 billion gross merchandise sales across 5.6 million active sellers, Etsy 8-K Q4 2025) plus Capital One Shopping's 2025 research on Etsy seller earnings:
- Median: $574/month revenue. Roughly 18 orders at $35 average order value. 50th percentile.
- Top quartile (top 17 percent): $2,000+/month. Roughly 60+ orders per month.
- Top decile: $10,000+/month. Roughly 280+ orders per month.
- Bottom 65 percent of shops: under $100 per year. Effectively dormant.
Shopify does not publish per-seller revenue distribution. Amazon Handmade does not either. The Etsy distribution is the best available proxy for understanding where a handmade ecommerce seller realistically sits in the volume distribution across any platform.
§How each platform handles traffic and discovery
Fee math is one input to the platform choice. The other input is how each platform handles getting a buyer to your listing in the first place. Mechanics are structurally different and often matter more than fees.
Etsy. Marketplace search dominates: roughly 88 percent of traffic arrives via search (Etsy internal or Google). The marketplace gives you traffic without paid acquisition cost if you rank, but ranking is competitive with 5.6 million active sellers and Etsy's algorithm prioritizes listing volume, tag relevance, and recency. Most struggling shops have under 20 listings or do not fill the 13-tag system with phrases buyers actually type. The CAC is effectively zero for organic Etsy traffic; the work is SEO craft inside Etsy's index.
Shopify. You bring your own traffic: SEO, ads, email, social, referrals. No built-in marketplace search. The fee structure is cheaper at scale but the CAC structure is harsher. Sellers on Shopify typically spend 10-25 percent of revenue on customer acquisition. Net of CAC, Shopify often matches or underperforms Etsy until you have a brand, a list, or a paid acquisition machine.
Amazon Handmade. Amazon's marketplace traffic plus high buyer intent: customers arrive ready to buy, with Prime trust and one-click checkout reducing friction. Discovery happens through Amazon search where competition is dense but Amazon prioritizes conversion-optimized listings (good photos, clear titles, fast fulfillment). The 15 percent referral fee buys you that traffic + trust premium. Amazon Handmade wins for sellers who can produce at volume and benefit from Prime fulfillment infrastructure.
The decision the calculator helps with is "given my volume, price, and margin, which platform maximizes after-tax take-home." The decision the calculator does not help with is "which platform fits my traffic-generation capacity." That is upstream of any fee math, and often the larger lever.
§How to read the calculator
The calculator runs three selectors, three numeric inputs, and two sliders, then produces a monthly take-home plus cross-platform comparison.
Selectors:
- Platform. Etsy, Shopify Basic ($39/mo), Shopify Grow ($105/mo), Shopify Advanced ($399/mo), Amazon Handmade. Each has its own fee model.
- From Offsite Ad (Etsy only). Whether this specific sale was driven by an Etsy-paid offsite ad, which triggers the 12-15 percent surcharge.
- Annual sales >$10K (Etsy only). Above $10K, Offsite Ads is mandatory at 12 percent; below, it's optional at 15 percent.
Numeric inputs:
- Price per unit ($). What the buyer sees on the listing.
- COGS per unit ($). Your direct cost: materials, labor, packaging.
- Shipping ($). What buyer pays as shipping and what you pay the carrier (assumed equal, no markup).
Sliders:
- Orders per month. Anchored to Etsy seller distribution. Default is median (18). Moving up to top quartile (60+) or top decile (280+) shifts which platform wins.
- Combined federal + state income tax (%). 0-35 range. Default 12 percent matches typical Etsy seller bracket (no-income-tax state ~0-3 percent, average ~12 percent, high-tax state ~18 percent). SE tax (14.13 percent) is always applied separately and unavoidable.
Result blocks:
- Hero. Monthly take-home after all taxes at your selected platform + volume + tax rate.
- Stats. Per-sale net (pre-tax), monthly pre-tax gross, profit margin per sale, effective platform fee rate.
- Cross-platform bar. Monthly after-tax for all 5 platform options at your volume. The highest bar is the platform that maximizes take-home for your specific product + volume.
- Pie. Per-sale revenue allocation after tax: take-home / SE+income tax / COGS / shipping / platform fees.
- Fee composition bar. Each fee line for the selected platform.
Compare two scenarios (button above the calculator). Side-by-side comparison: Etsy at 20 orders/mo vs Shopify Basic at 200 orders/mo, for example. The cross-platform bar in each panel still benchmarks against all 5 options at that panel's volume so context is preserved.
About this data
Platform fees verified May 2026 against official sources: Etsy Fees Policy (etsy.com/legal/fees), Shopify pricing page (shopify.com/pricing), Amazon Handmade program (sell.amazon.com/programs/handmade) and Seller Central referral fee reference G201814220. Self-employment tax calculation uses the 15.3% FICA × 0.9235 SE-base adjustment = 14.13% effective. 2026 Social Security wage base is $184,500 per SSA October 2025 announcement. Federal + state income tax slider models combined effective rate at the typical Etsy seller bracket; default of 12% reflects national average (no-tax states ~0-3%, high-tax states ~18%). Volume anchors derived from Capital One Shopping 2025 research on Etsy seller distribution and Etsy SEC 8-K Q4 2025.
Common questions
§Is selling on Etsy worth it in 2026?
Depends entirely on volume. At median Etsy volume (18 orders/month), Etsy outperforms Shopify Basic by roughly $50-80/month in after-tax take-home for typical price points, because Shopify's $39/month subscription doesn't amortize. Above 100-120 orders per month, Shopify Basic wins because the per-sale subscription cost drops below Etsy's 6.5 percent transaction fee. Amazon Handmade sits in between (15 percent flat is higher than Etsy's effective 10 percent but no subscription).
The harder question is whether you'll reach the volume that makes any of this matter. Half of Etsy shops do under $574/month in revenue. About 65 percent earn less than $100 per year.
§What's the real platform fee rate at $40 sale price?
Quoting a fee rate without volume is meaningless. The same Shopify Basic store has an effective fee rate that ranges from 14 percent to 3.4 percent depending on how many orders it does per month, because the $39/mo subscription amortizes by orders. The Etsy rate is volume-independent (no subscription); Shopify rates are heavily volume-dependent; Amazon Handmade is volume-independent (no subscription). A side-by-side at the same volume on a $40 product:
- Etsy: roughly 10.5 percent at any volume (transaction + processing + listing on $45 order).
- Shopify Basic at 20 orders/mo: roughly 14 percent. Subscription is $1.95 per sale plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing on $45.
- Shopify Basic at 200 orders/mo: roughly 3.4 percent. Subscription drops to $0.20 per sale.
- Amazon Handmade: 15 percent flat at any volume.
The implication for "which platform is cheapest" is that the fee comparison only makes sense at a specific volume. Most ecommerce comparison content quotes the rates at unrealistic best-case volumes for Shopify (10,000+ orders/mo where Advanced wins) which misleads sellers at typical 20-200 orders/mo levels. The calculator above runs the comparison at your actual volume.
§Should I move from Etsy to Shopify?
Run the comparison at your actual volume and product price. The crossover where Shopify Basic beats Etsy on a $40 product is around 80-100 orders per month. Below that, Etsy's lower fixed costs win. Above that, Shopify's lower variable rate wins.
Also factor in visibility. Etsy gives you marketplace search traffic essentially free; Shopify gives you a storefront and expects you to drive your own traffic via SEO, ads, and email. The platform fee difference matters less than the cost-per-acquisition difference for sellers who don't already have an audience.
§Why is the tax rate so high?
The 14.13 percent SE tax feels punitive but it is mechanically the cost of being a non-W2 worker. As an employee, your W2 paycheck shows 7.65 percent FICA withheld and your employer pays a matching 7.65 percent invisibly. As a sole proprietor selling on Etsy/Shopify/Handmade, you pay both halves (15.3 percent total, 14.13 percent effective after the SE base adjustment) because you are both the employer and the employee.
The trade is that you build Social Security credits the same way a W2 employee does. Skip the SE tax and you skip those credits at retirement. The federal income tax (5-10 percent effective at typical seller income) plus state income tax (0-9 percent) is the same progressive system every American faces; it is not platform-specific.
The reason every commodity profit calculator omits this layer is the same reason they omit Shopify subscription amortization: it makes the headline take-home number smaller, which makes the platform harder to sell. Honest take-home requires including the tax, and the calculator's hero number does.
You can reduce the effective rate via Schedule C deductions (home office, materials beyond COGS, mileage, supplies, business use of phone/internet). The tax slider assumes the typical scenario of basic deductions only. Active tax optimization typically pulls the effective rate 3-5 points lower at the same revenue.
§Which platform is cheapest by fee math alone?
It depends on volume, not category. On a $40 product:
- Below 80 orders/month: Etsy at roughly 10.5 percent effective fee rate wins. No subscription to amortize.
- 80 to 150 orders/month: crossover band. Shopify Basic starts beating Etsy as the $39/month subscription drops below Etsy's 6.5 percent transaction fee in absolute terms.
- 150 to 500 orders/month: Shopify Basic wins at roughly 3.4 percent effective rate.
- 500+ orders/month: Shopify Grow ($105/month, 2.7 percent) overtakes Basic.
- Amazon Handmade: flat 15 percent at any volume. Never the cheapest by fees alone, but predictable.
The calculator runs this comparison live at your specific price and volume. The cross-platform bar shows monthly after-tax across all five options simultaneously.
§Should I sell on multiple platforms at once?
Common strategy among 60+ orders/month sellers: Etsy for marketplace-search discovery + Shopify for repeat customers and brand. Etsy brings the new buyer (low CAC), Shopify holds the recurring buyer (no per-transaction marketplace fee on returning customers).
Operationally this adds complexity: inventory sync, two product catalogs to maintain, two sets of customer service infrastructure. Most sellers benefit from focusing on one platform until they hit top-quartile volume on it. Splitting too early dilutes the SEO investment Etsy rewards.
Amazon Handmade is rarely combined with the other two in the same operational stack, primarily because Amazon's fulfillment expectations (FBA or fast FBM) are different from Etsy/Shopify norms.
§What about other handmade marketplaces (Goimagine, Big Cartel, Indiemade)?
The smaller marketplaces are not free fee arbitrage. They are trading platform fee for marketplace traffic, and the math usually nets out worse for sellers who do not already have a traffic source.
Goimagine charges 5 percent + processing (substantially cheaper than Etsy's 6.5 percent + processing). On paper it looks like an obvious win. In practice, Goimagine's marketplace traffic is roughly an order of magnitude below Etsy's. The 1.5 percent fee saved per sale is dwarfed by the 3-5x sales volume Etsy delivers at the same listing investment. Net take-home on Goimagine is usually lower for the same product unless you bring your own traffic via email list, social, or paid acquisition.
Big Cartel ($0-$30/mo) is essentially a lightweight Shopify with no marketplace search. Functionally it sits in the same category as Shopify Basic but with fewer features. Worth considering only if your traffic does not come from a marketplace at all.
Indiemade is closer to a small-Shopify hybrid with light social-discovery features. Traffic is a fraction of Etsy.
The calculator on this page covers the three platforms where 95+ percent of US handmade ecommerce revenue lives. The smaller marketplaces are alternatives for sellers with specific positioning (typically: existing audience, premium pricing where lower fees compound, or anti-Etsy political/curatorial reasons). For the typical seller deciding where to start, those alternatives are not first-line options.