Etsy or Squarespace: Prices & costs explained
12 minute read
Start out on Etsy or switch to my own website?
I’m already established on Etsy, should I leave it altogether for my own website?
What are the pros and cons and how do I know what is best for me?
In this post, I am taking a deep dive into…
Explaining Etsy’s fees compared to Squarespace
In my posts ‘Etsy or Squarespace’, I will walk you through all the details, considering where you are with your biz and what choice is the very best one you can make, with one eye on future success. I’ll be looking at how their charging structure and ads work and comparing this to Squarespace.
Taking it back to basics
What is Etsy?
Etsy has long been the leader in connecting brilliant small makers, artists and designers with those eager to support independent businesses. Makers set up ‘shops’ and sell their handmade wares. It is easy to set up a shop and Etsy’s powerful algorithms can channel a lot of traffic your way who are already interested in what you are offering.
You know the ‘If you like this then you might like…’ - that’s what I am referring to here. The amount of traffic is a huge plus for small sellers to join this platform. It’s hard out there to raise the profile of what you create.
As I go through the details below, I’ll quote prices in $, good old fashioned US dollars. This is because Etsy bases a lot of its thresholds on set USD amounts, and uses live currency conversions to translate these into other currencies for sellers outside of the states.
Etsy’s latest transaction fee changes explained
Recently Etsy changed its pricing structure, increasing the default percentage that they take from every sale aka cash taken away from the small businesses it has built its whole marketplace on… Etsy’s transaction fee was at 5% but they now charge 6.5% of the price of the items small shops sell. This is taken from the final price of the item, including any customisation or gift wrapping fee.
For example
A shopper pays £35 for a necklace with £5 for engraving and gift wrap.
Of this £40, £2.6 goes to Etsy via transaction fees.
Etsy’s listing fees explained
Etsy charges $0.20 USD (about 16 pence) to list an item for four months. After these four months, if the listing is set to auto-renew you will be charged another $0.20 and so on.
Etsy’s advertising fees
If advertising was something you wanted to promote your shop, forget Google Ads.
Etsy has control here and they give you just two options…
Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads
Etsy Ads, how do they work?
Set up adverts for your items which appear only on and around the Etsy website. As a shop owner, you state how much you want to pay for these ads and Etsy does the rest - showing up your items around the Etsy website for people who the algorithm predicts to have a high chance of liking what you sell based on their previous behaviour on the website.
Set your budget, and get promoted on Etsy.
So far so simple right?
But what if you want to be seen across the web, like most normal web advertising?
Here’s the second option…
Etsy Offsite Ads, what are they and what do they cost?
Opt for adverts on other websites, called Offsite Ads, and you are only charged if someone clicks purchases from your shop within 30 days of first clicking on the advert they saw for your item/shop. Shops are charged a % of the final purchase price of the item/s.
These are charged in the following way;
If your shop has sold less than $10k of sales in the last 365 days then you pay a 15% fee on the order.
And if your red-hot shop has been selling like crazy and you have made over $10k in the last year then it is a 12% fee.
And if you are one of these bigger shops, there is another catch…
Opting in or out of Offsite Ads on Etsy
If you are in the small-fry category (less than $10K of sales in the last year) you can opt-out of Offsite Ads completely and not have to concern yourself with dishing out %15 of your sale back to Etsy.
Being smaller here means you have more autonomy than the bigger stores…
What if you have a red-hot shop that is shifting items, bringing in a lot of cash for all your hard work and your total sales are over the $10K threshold in a year and you don’t need the Offsite advertising?
You actually CAN’T opt-out of these ads.
Remember what I was saying about autonomy? For the bigger stores, there is no choice. If Etsy wants to, they can advertise your items a lot, and generate a lot of sales for you but at the same time be swooping in to claim their non-evadable 12% ad fee. Sneaky…
The nitty-gritty details of Etsy's Offsite Ads
For all those Brits, at the time of writing this (May 2022), $10,000 = about £7,960.
Since we’re here in the details;
The $10k Offsite Ads threshold is a total of the item price times the number of items you sell, all added up. It excludes Etsy fees or additional gift wrap services and taxes etc.
But, their 12% or 15% fee when it comes to taking your sales cash, is charged on the order total.
This is everything; The gift wrap, personalisation and maybe even taxes that are added up to make the final amount the shopper is paying. This is what Etsy’s Offsite Ads Fee % comes out of.
They also state, ‘There is no limit to the number of Offsite Ads fees you may be charged on Attributed Orders, but the total Offsite Ads fee you’ll pay on a single Attributed Order will not exceed $100 USD. ‘
So, if you are making over $10K in basic sales a year then Etsy will be charging you a non-evadable 12% on all orders made involving an ad AND that 12% will come from the highest possible total for your sales as they then include all the extras (gift wrap, taxes etc).
AND you’d have no control over how much your shop was being advertised, there’s no opt-out.
Phew - still with me?
Subscription fees & Etsy Plus explained
Etsy sellers “in good standing” (interpret that as you wish… I am pretty good at standing, does that count?) can opt into Etsy Plus. For $10 a month (about eight quid) you get, per month;
15 listing credits (remember them from earlier, one listing for four months = $0.20. So, 15 of those takes you to a value of $3 already.
$5 a month of Etsy Ads credits
These refresh every month and don’t accumulate if you don’t use them up in your month. I know, $3 + $5 = $8 per month of benefits for a service that cost $10 a month. What’s the big whoop, why not just pay your way as a regular user?
As an Etsy Plus member, you get a free “.store” domain and 50% off “select domain extensions like “.com”, “.net”, and “.ca” through our third-party provider partner, Hover.”.
Etsy Pattern - what is it?
Etsy Pattern is Etsy’s answer to those shops that want to connect with their customers and have a more unique online store experience. Shops can set up a Pattern website, using their stock all managed through Etsy. It costs $15.00 USD/month and all the same Etsy sales fees etc. stay the same.
Since we have taken such a deep dive into the costs and financial details, in this post I am going to focus solely on comparing the hard cash, transaction fees and charges options of having an Etsy store and your own website on Squarespace.
Squarespace pricing for shops
Squarespace is not a marketplace like Etsy, it is a website host with a great offering of beautiful, sleek and simple to use website and eCommerce options.
Their fees are a lot simpler
With Squarespace, you pay one subscription and there are four choices of plans depending on what you need from your site.
For example, some may just need basic eCommerce functionality whereas others will need all the bells and whistles (think advanced discount options, selling subscriptions and customer accounts). The three plans that Squarespace offer with selling functionality range from £15 to £30 per month ($23 to $49).
Transaction fees on Squarespace
Their most basic plan will charge you a 3% transaction fee, whereas the top two have no transaction fees.
You do however have to connect a payment processor to your website. Sounds complex but Squarespace works with a great one called Stripe. As they work together often, the process for connecting the two has been well thought through and is easy to follow on Squarespace. Stripe charges 1.4% on all transactions plus a 20 pence (30 cents) charge on each transaction.
Examples of Squarespace stores
Designed by yours truly, click through to texplore.
What do you actually get when you sell with Squarespace?
For this, you get up to 10,000 listings (aka a LOT, no $0.20 charge per listing here) on a great online store of your very own and a beautiful website with as many pages, blogs and portfolio pages as you wish.
In this post, I am only talking about the cold hard cash, but in the next, I will be sharing more about the pros and cons of Squarespace (or your own site in general) Vs an Etsy shop.
So, let’s compare the two, Etsy and Squarespace, in terms of fees…
Etsy or Squarespace, a comparison summary
Let’s take a look at just the cash perspective:
Etsy shop
Listings:
For 4 months, $0.20 eachTransaction fees:
6.5% on total order pricesSet up fee:
FreeAds:
Transaction costs, low autonomy & controll
Squarespace shop
Listings:
Up to 10,000Transaction fees:
1.4% to 4.4%, plus £0.20 / $0.30 per transactionSet up fee:
From £15 per month and you get a whole website!Ads:
Full autonomy & control
So, when looking at just the cash…
A Squarespace website with a Stripe payment processor would charge transaction fees of between 1.4% and 4.4% - a lot lower than Etsy’s set 6.5% transaction fee.
Granted, Etsy doesn’t charge a monthly fee for using their services as Squarespace does. But this fee includes a beautiful website, total control of your biz and the opportunity to really connect with your people.
More on that in my next post!
With Etsy, you have a greater potential for traffic being diverted to your shop with less work (esp. In the beginning) as compared to a website as Etsy has so many shoppers. However, when it comes to marketing and advertising, you do not have control, or can fully profit from, the sales generated from this ad traffic.
This time, maybe it seems inconclusive, or perhaps, you know your biz and you can see what is good for you.
However, before acting do wait for my next post where I consider aaaaaaall the other positive impacts having your own website can bring.
Especially if you have an eye on the future and growth of your business…
More info on Etsy Fees here
Ready to fulfill your online potential?
If you are looking for full control and a website as unique as your business - I might have something for you…