You make ceramic mugs. You've been selling them on Etsy for a year and doing pretty well -- around $2,000 a month in sales. But every time you look at your deposit, you notice Etsy took a bigger cut than you expected. You start wondering whether it would be cheaper to sell on your own website instead.
The answer isn't as simple as "Etsy is expensive, so leave." Both options have real costs, and the right choice depends on where you are in your business. Here's an honest breakdown.
What Etsy Actually Costs You
Etsy's fee structure has gotten more complicated over the years. Here's what you're paying as of 2026:
- Listing fee: $0.20 per item, renewed every four months or when the item sells
- Transaction fee: 6.5% of the sale price (including shipping)
- Payment processing fee: 3% + $0.25 per transaction
- Offsite ads fee: 15% on any sale driven by Etsy's offsite ads (12% if you make over $10,000/year). You can opt out only if you made under $10,000 in the past 12 months.
Add those up on a $35 mug with $6 shipping:
- Listing fee: $0.20
- Transaction fee: 6.5% of $41 = $2.67
- Payment processing: 3% of $41 + $0.25 = $1.48
- Total fees: $4.35 per sale (10.6% of the total)
If Etsy's offsite ads drove that sale, add another $6.15 (15% of $41), bringing your total fees to $10.50 -- more than 25% of the sale price. On a product where your materials and labor already eat up 50-60%, that's brutal.
Over a year at $2,000/month in sales, you're handing Etsy roughly $2,500 to $3,000 in fees. More if offsite ads are generating a chunk of your traffic.
What Your Own Website Costs
Running your own site means you're paying for hosting, a domain, and payment processing. Here's a realistic breakdown:
- Domain name: $10-$15/year
- Website platform: Shopify starts at $39/month ($468/year). Squarespace is $33/month ($396/year). If you use WooCommerce on WordPress, hosting runs $5-$30/month depending on the provider.
- Payment processing: Stripe or Square charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Shopify Payments is similar (2.9% + $0.30 on their basic plan).
On that same $41 sale through Shopify:
- Payment processing: 2.9% of $41 + $0.30 = $1.49
- Monthly platform cost spread across sales: if you sell 60 mugs/month, Shopify's $39 adds about $0.65 per sale
- Total: roughly $2.14 per sale (5.2% of the total)
That's half what Etsy charges. Over a year at the same $2,000/month in sales, you'd spend about $1,250 on payment processing plus $468 on Shopify -- around $1,700 total. That's $800 to $1,300 less than Etsy.
But Etsy Gives You Something Expensive to Buy: Traffic
Here's the part that makes this decision harder than a fee comparison. Etsy has roughly 90 million active buyers. When someone searches "handmade ceramic mug" on Etsy, your product can show up without you spending a dime on advertising.
Your own website has zero traffic on day one. Nobody knows it exists. You need to drive every single visitor yourself through Instagram, Pinterest, Google SEO, email marketing, paid ads, or word of mouth. That takes time, money, or both.
Running Instagram ads to your own site might cost $5-$15 per sale. Google Shopping ads run $0.50-$2.00 per click, and with a typical 2% conversion rate, you need 50 clicks for one sale. At $1 per click, that's $50 in ad spend for a $35 mug. Suddenly Etsy's 10% cut looks reasonable.
Brand Control and Customer Relationships
On Etsy, your shop exists inside Etsy's ecosystem. Your customer lands on an Etsy page, sees Etsy's branding, and gets shown competing products from other sellers. After they buy from you, Etsy sends them emails promoting similar products -- from your competitors.
On your own site, you control everything. Your branding, your layout, your messaging. When someone buys, you get their email address. You can follow up, announce new products, offer discounts. Acquiring a new customer costs 5 to 7 times more than retaining an existing one. A list of 500 past customers you can email when you launch a new product? That's free marketing. On Etsy, those customers belong to Etsy, not you.
Customer Data Ownership
When someone buys on Etsy, you get their shipping address and name. You do not get their email address in a usable way -- Etsy masks buyer emails, and their terms prohibit using purchase data for external marketing.
On your own site, you own the customer list. You can build an email list, segment by purchase history, send targeted promotions, and create a loyalty program. That data becomes one of your most valuable business assets over time. If Etsy changes their algorithm tomorrow and your shop drops from page one to page five, you lose most of your traffic overnight. A mailing list of 1,000 customers on your own site? Algorithm changes do not touch it.
The Hybrid Approach (What Most Smart Sellers Do)
You don't have to pick one. A lot of successful small product businesses sell on Etsy and their own site, using each channel for what it does best.
Use Etsy for discovery. New customers find you through Etsy search. You fulfill their orders, include a card with your website URL, and encourage them to follow you on social media or sign up for your mailing list.
Use your own site for repeat customers. Once someone knows your brand, they don't need Etsy to find you. Direct them to your website where you keep more of the sale and own the relationship.
A candle maker I follow does this well. She sells her core line on Etsy but offers exclusive scents and bundles only on her Shopify site. Her Etsy shop is the front door. Her website is the living room.
How to Transition Gradually
If you're currently Etsy-only, here's a practical path:
- Month 1-2: Set up a basic Shopify or Squarespace site with your best sellers. Don't overthink the design.
- Month 3-4: Include a business card or postcard in every Etsy order with your website URL and a 10% discount code for their next purchase on your site.
- Month 5-6: Start collecting emails on your website (a simple popup offering 10% off their first order works). Begin posting on Instagram or Pinterest linking to your own site, not Etsy.
- Month 7+: Evaluate. If 20-30% of your revenue is coming through your own site, you're building real independence from Etsy.
You probably won't close your Etsy shop entirely, and you don't need to. But shifting even a third of your sales to your own site saves you hundreds or thousands in fees per year and gives you a customer base that no platform change can take away.
The Honest Answer
If you're just starting out with no audience, Etsy is the easier place to begin. The fees are the price of admission to 90 million buyers.
If you're doing $1,000+/month on Etsy and have any social media following or repeat customers, add your own site. Not to replace Etsy, but to give your best customers a place to buy directly from you.
If you're doing $3,000+/month and most sales come from repeat buyers or social media rather than Etsy search, your own site should be your primary channel, with Etsy as a secondary source of new customers.
The goal isn't to pick a side. It's to build a business that doesn't depend entirely on any single platform.