Platform Fee Comparison

It depends on your sales volume and product type. For low monthly GMV (under ~$1,300/mo), Etsy is typically cheapest because there's no subscription — you only pay the $0.20 listing fee and 6.5% transaction fee per sale. Above that, Shopify Basic ($39/mo) tends to win because the per-transaction take rate is lower. Amazon FBA has the highest per-sale take rate (15% referral + FBA fulfillment) but offloads the logistics, so the comparison depends on whether you value time or margin.

Yes — Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee on the order total (including shipping) is more than double Shopify's 2.9% + $0.30 payment processing. But Etsy has no monthly subscription, so for very small shops the math can still favor Etsy. Once monthly GMV crosses roughly $600-1,200, Shopify's subscription becomes cheaper in total.

Amazon FBA has the highest combined fee structure (15% referral fee, FBA fulfillment $3-7 per unit, monthly storage fees) but it includes warehousing, pick-pack-ship, customer service, and access to Amazon's massive buyer base with built-in trust. For a single seller running their own Shopify store you pay less in fees but you also do the fulfillment yourself, run your own ads, and build your own trust. Most established sellers operate on both.

Because the supplier captures most of the wholesale spread you would normally make, leaving you primarily competing on marketing. Typical dropshipping economics: 25-35% gross margin before ads, 5-15% after ads. Platform fees are usually a smaller line item than ad spend (often 30-50% of revenue at scale).

Etsy and Shopify typically adjust fees annually, often in Q1. Amazon updates FBA fulfillment and storage fees more frequently — sometimes 2-3x per year, with major changes around Q4 (peak storage surcharges). We re-verify rates quarterly and immediately when a reader flags a discrepancy; every fee row in our calculators links to the official source and shows its verification date.