The best Etsy alternatives for selling your crafts

Since its launch in 2005, Etsy has become well known as the place to go for handcrafted, one-of-a-kind items from a wide variety of creators. Unfortunately, over the last few years, that rosy reputation has darkened a bit. To begin with, buyers have been noticing an influx of mass-market goods that are noticeably not handmade. I’ve talked to more than one person who feels that Etsy is now less about selling handmade craft and more about dropshipping — enterprises that advertise and sell a product and then pass the order on to a third party, which ships it.

There has been a lot of discontent online from sellers as well, due both to the increased number of manufactured goods and to increased expenses such as mandatory market plans. The final straw may have come in early April of 2022 when Etsy announced it was raising seller transaction fees from 5 percent to 6.5 percent. As a result, a number of Etsy sellers went on strike between April 11th and 18th of that year.

Things haven’t changed much since then, and many of those same craftspeople are no doubt wondering if there is another way to sell their products outside of Etsy. Unfortunately, it’s not easy, especially if you’re a relatively small vendor who is trying to get your handmade product recognized in a very crowded market. 

As any retailer knows, it takes a lot of time and resources to sell products, either online or off — resources that you may not have, especially if you are not running a full-time business. You have to create a professional-looking website where you can show off your wares to their best advantage or showcase them in a venue where potential customers can find them. You have to track your inventory so you don’t accidentally accept a sale you can’t fulfill, especially if you sell at more than one site. You need to be able to accept sales from credit cards, PayPal, or other financial institutions, add tax and shipping fees, and offer approximate ship dates. You have to pack up your items (or arrange to have them packed) and send them out. If you accept returns, you have to deal with refunds and shipping fees.

In other words, even if you’re a very small shop, selling online can be really complicated, especially if you’re trying to do it completely by yourself.

Selling through Etsy solved that problem for a lot of creators. It is a single source that people looking for crafty items can go to; it supplies a sales page, a way to interface with your customers, and other retail services. And since all transactions take place through the Etsy platform and checkout system, it provides additional privacy between buyer and seller. But if Etsy has become a problem for its sellers, what do you do?

If you’re a buyer

If you’re a buyer and you want to support your favorite Etsy craftspeople, one way is to find out what alternate ways there are to contact them and / or buy from them. The best method is to just ask them. This is where your search engine is your friend. It’s possible that the vendor has a website with the same name as their Etsy shop; do a little online research.

If you’re having trouble, then you can contact them through Etsy. 

Buyers who want to make sure that the product that they’re purchasing is truly a handmade craft and not a dropshipped item may need to do a little extra research. If you have Google Lens, for example, you can use that on the photo of an Etsy product to see if there are identical products being sold on other, more commercial sites.

If you’re a seller

Unfortunately, Etsy — even in its current incarnation — seems to be unique. While there are a number of other outlets where craftspeople can get help for marketing their wares, few have the full-service plans and the outreach that Etsy boasts.

You can, of course, simply sell out of your own website. However, it takes time, knowledge, and skill to be able to build a retail site, not to mention to publicize it so that your customers can find you. If you’ve got those skills — or if you’ve got the wherewithal to hire somebody with those skills — then that could be a solution. However, there are alternatives. They may not be the all-in-one solution that Etsy has been, but if you really want to find other markets — even if you’re not ready to abandon Etsy altogether — they might work for you.

Note that these are only a few of the available options out there. There are many different e-commerce sites and services available, and there are others besides these that may work for a smaller retail shop. But this will, hopefully, give you a place to start.

If we’re going to compare several services to that of Etsy, it makes sense to first take a quick look at what Etsy offers its retailers.

Of course, to begin with, Etsy is well known for being the place to go for various crafts and handmade items. As mentioned before, this reputation is starting to fray a bit — I’ve spoken to a couple of friends whose purchases, they asserted, were obviously not handmade. However, Etsy does provide you with your own “shop,” a way to exhibit your items and get paid, and a variety of other services.

Etsy has a list of fees that includes:

Trial period: There is no trial period for an Etsy shop.

Retail giant Amazon has a special shop called Amazon Handmade, where customers can find crafts and other handmade goods. On the one hand, this is Amazon, so there are a lot of people going there to buy things. On the other, Amazon Handmade doesn’t seem to be as well known as Etsy (I didn’t know about it until I started researching this article). 

Amazon offers two general plans: Individual and Professional. 

Trial period: There is no trial period for Amazon Handmade.

Shopify is not a marketplace like Etsy or even Amazon — it’s an e-commerce platform for sellers who want to sell their products on their own sites. It offers a variety of services for a range of sellers, from individuals to large retailers. For example, the Basic plan includes an e-commerce website (including a variety of themes) and blog, access to various sales channels (depending on your country), and the ability to sell gift cards, among others. You also get shipping discounts and a point-of-sale app (for in-person sales). The Shopify plan adds several staff accounts and reporting services; the Advanced plan includes services for international sales.

If you’re thinking about selling out of your own website but want a way to more easily handle payments, sales tracking, shipping costs, etc., an e-commerce platform could be very useful, and Shopify seems to have relatively friendly small-shop services.

Finally, if you play to market your wares via social networks, you can try the Starter plan for $5 a month.

Trial period: 3-day free trial 

Big Cartel is geared specifically toward creatives and even has a limited but usable free plan. It doesn’t offer a central marketplace like Etsy does, but it does provide services to help crafters develop an online store on their own site. Note that it doesn’t include arrangements for credit card or other payments; that you will have to arrange yourself via Stripe, PayPal or Venmo (and remember, they will have separate fees for retail sales). But Big Cartel doesn’t add extra fees to charge through their service.

Trial period: The Gold plan is essentially a trial plan; there is no time limit.

Like Etsy, Bonanza offers a central hub where you can sell your stuff — but unlike Etsy, it doesn’t purport to concentrate on crafts and other handmade items. It is a much more general marketplace, including clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, furniture, etc. 

On the other hand, Bonanza is very upfront with their terms. According to the company’s FAQ, it does not cost anything to list your product(s) on the site or upload photos, and you do so on what Bonanza calls a “booth,” which is very similar to Etsy’s “shop.”  Vendors are charged against what Bonanza calls Final Offer Value (FOV): “the amount that the buyer paid to you for the item sold, plus any portion of the shipping fee that exceeds $10.” The company also says it will sync your products with any other marketplace you’re using. 

Trial period: Bonanza doesn’t charge until you make a sale, so there is no trial period.

IndieMade, like Shopify, is an e-commerce platform rather than a retail site — in other words, it helps you create a website where you can sell your items. Unlike Shopify, it is directed toward craftspeople and works on a much smaller scale. 

IndieMade offers four membership levels — and they all offer the same features, including a custom IndieMade-branded domain with SSL certification; the ability to sell directly from your site using PayPal, Stripe or Square (each of which will have its own fees); the ability to generate coupons; the ability to allow customers to choose product aspects (color, size, etc.); and a blog. The only differences between the levels are how many products you can sell and how many photos you can exhibit per product.

Trial period: IndieMade offers a free 30-day trial.

Goimagine, like Etsy, provides a marketplace for craftspeople and artists who want to sell their handmade goods. Unlike Etsy, anyone who wants to sell on Goimagine has to comply with a stringent list of guidelines to ensure that their wares are actually handmade. In addition, Goimagine’s site says that the company donates all profits to four different charities.

Goimagine offers three membership levels: Starter, Growth, and All Star. All levels include a shop on the site, a mobile app, and the ability to import from Etsy, along with several other features. The All Star level adds a branded e-commerce website and domain integration, among other things. The fees do not include charges from whatever payment processor the seller uses.

Trial period: None

Shop My Porch is a startup that provides an unusual online service: it concentrates on small, local businesses. If you create and/or sell handmade products or baked goods, you can make a page for each item with a photo, description, price, and the zip code where you’re located. The idea is that buyers find a product they like in their area and go pick it up; some products can be delivered locally or even shipped, depending on what the seller wants. Buyers can also request a custom order. Because of the nature of the site, selections could be limited (or unavailable) in your area, but it’s a nice idea.

Fees

According to Shop My Porch, there are no listing fees; the site charges a 6.5 percent transaction fee when the item sells.

Trial period: None

And then there’s eBay. While the number of products being sold on eBay can be overwhelming, if someone is looking for a specific type of product, it could be a place where a creator could find a customer. And while eBay was originally known mostly for reselling used items, it is now a marketplace for almost anything you can find. There are also some useful features; for example, if you have customers who like your wares, they can easily set email reminders to appear whenever you add something new.

eBay charges two types of fees: a listing fee (known as an insertion fee) and a final value fee.

If you want to become a serious eBay retailer, you can create your own shop via eBay’s Store subscriptions. Subscription fees depend on how much you will be selling per month and the type of sales and promotional tools you’ll need.

Besides a storefront, these subscriptions offer a large number of fixed-price and auction listings per month, customer support, and other features.

There are additional levels for larger retailers.

Trial period: eBay offers no free trials.

Other resources

There are at least a couple of hopeful startups focused on crafters and other creators that don’t necessarily offer the means to sell your wares (yet) but could be helpful nonetheless.

Making is a startup community for “makers, crafters, and artists” that uses apps for iOS and Android mobile devices to, in essence, create a social network for crafters. Besides showing off projects and chatting with other crafters, there are online classes (usually costing anywhere from $30 to $60, depending on the topic and length). If you teach a Making class, you’ll receive 70 percent of the class fees. Making is also apparently developing a marketplace (currently, it looks like most of what is sold are patterns); the site charges an 8 percent transaction fee, along with payment processing and payout fees (the transaction fee is waived for sales under $50).

The Artisans Cooperative is a direct outgrowth of the Etsy strike mentioned at the beginning of this article; according to the site, “We are trying to create a co-op alternative to Etsy: a better handmade shopping experience online.” Currently, it is still very much in the organizational phase; anyone interested in joining can either join the Discord discussion or register their email.

Update February 10th, 2023, 8:00AM ET: This article was originally published on April 7th, 2022. On April 8th, 2022, it was updated to clarify Etsy’s policies on offsite ads and its ability to provide privacy between buyer and seller. More recently, most of the entries have been updated, Zibbet has been removed, and a few have been added.