{"id":20389,"date":"2026-05-23T07:57:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/?p=20389"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:16:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:16:58","slug":"selling-your-creations-on-etsy-vs-personal-website-the-real-calculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/selling-your-creations-on-etsy-vs-personal-website-the-real-calculation\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling your creations on Etsy vs. your own website: the real calculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

You make candles, jewellery and illustrations. Now it's time to sell them. And then a question keeps you awake: should you open an Etsy shop, or create your own site? Most of the advice you read stops at costs. But costs are only the visible part of the calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real trade-off goes deeper. It involves your time, your traffic, your customer data and your freedom. Before selling on Etsy or elsewhere, you need to understand what each option really costs you. Let's do the maths together, with figures to back it up. Then you can make an informed decision, not out of fear or habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How much will it really cost to sell on Etsy in 2026?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let's start by dispelling a common misconception. Opening an Etsy shop is free, but selling is never. In 2026, every sale triggers a pile of fees well documented by specialist calculators like Craftybase, Marmalead and Merch Titans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first charge is the listing fee, around $0.20 (around \u20ac0.18) per item, which is deducted from each publication and each renewal. Second charge: the transaction fee, set at 6.5 % of the total amount paid by the buyer, including postage. Etsy raised this from 5 % to 6.5 % in April 2022, and it has not changed since. The third charge is for payment processing, which varies according to your country. Expect to pay around 3 % plus \u20ac0.25 in the United States, and more in the euro zone (often close to 4 % plus \u20ac0.30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill comes as a surprise. According to Marmalead, a seller loses an average of 20 to 30 % of his selling price once all the costs have been added up, even before counting his raw materials and time. The most costly trap? The Offsite Ads<\/strong><\/a>. This external advertising becomes compulsory above $10,000 in annual sales and then levies an additional 12 % on each sale resulting from an advert. Below this threshold, the rate rises to 15 %.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selling on Etsy means accepting a layered cost structure. There's a logic you should bear in mind: the more expensive your item, the lower the percentage of fixed costs. Selling for \u20ac50 absorbs costs better than selling for \u20ac8. If your margins are tight, this detail will determine your survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much does a personal website really cost?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let's move on to the other side of the scale. A personal site is based on two dominant models in 2026: Shopify<\/strong>, all-in-one, and WooCommerce<\/a><\/strong>, open source plug-in for WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopify's 2026 subscriptions range from $5 per month (Starter) to $39 (Basic), $109 (Grow) and $399 (Advanced). Beware of the catch: if you don't use Shopify Payments, a platform fee will be added (2 % on Basic, 1 % on Grow, 0.5 % on Advanced). Payment processing is around 2.9 % plus $0.30, comparable to Stripe. Add a premium theme (150 to 350 dollars, once) and a few applications (20 to 100 dollars monthly). Wisitech estimates that a medium-sized shop spends $300 to $600 a month on platform costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WooCommerce extension is free, but nothing else is. You need hosting (30 to 100 dollars a month), a domain name (around 15 dollars a year), an SSL certificate and paid extensions. According to Uptek, a basic WooCommerce site costs around $369 a year, and a full site easily exceeds $1,000. Here again, the payment processor charges around 2.9 % plus 0.30 dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to selling on Etsy, your own site reverses the logic of costs. The costs per sale are much lower: around 3 % compared with 10 to 30 %. But you pay a fixed subscription fee, and above all, you inherit an invisible expense that we're now going to put a figure on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost that nobody calculates: traffic<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the heart of the matter, the one that superficial comparisons forget. On Etsy, you pay a lot, but you buy visibility. The platform attracts millions of buyers who are actively looking to buy. Selling on Etsy means setting up your stall in an already crowded marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On your personal site, it's the other way round. The fees are low, but the market is empty. Nobody knows your address. So you have to generate 100 % of your traffic yourself: natural referencing, social networks, paid advertising, newsletter. This is what the specialists call customer acquisition cost<\/strong>, and is rarely zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make an honest calculation. If an advertising campaign costs you \u20ac8 to get a customer to buy an item for \u20ac30, your cost of acquisition is 26 %. That's as much or more than the Etsy commission you were avoiding. What's the difference? On your site, that customer belongs to you. You can make them come back for free. On Etsy, they belong to the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is exactly where the real calculation lies. It's not \u00abEtsy fees versus site fees\u00bb. It's \u00abEtsy fees versus site fees, plus cost of traffic, plus value of your time\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real calculation, based on a concrete example<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let's take a realistic example. You sell hand-bound notebooks for \u20ac30, with \u20ac5 postage payable by the buyer, and you make 100 sales a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Etsy, your approximate monthly costs: 100 listings (around \u20ac18), commission of 6.5 % on \u20ac3,500 in sales (around \u20ac227), payment processing of around 4 % plus \u20ac0.30 per transaction (around \u20ac170). Total: nearly \u20ac415, or around 14 % of your turnover, excluding advertising. Selling on Etsy is therefore expensive here, but there are no separate traffic costs, as visibility comes with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a Shopify Basic site, your costs: subscription (approx. \u20ac36), processing at 2.9 % plus \u20ac0.30 (approx. \u20ac117). Total: around \u20ac153, or 5 % of your turnover. Much better. Except that these 100 sales won't fall from the sky. If you have to invest even \u20ac300 a month in advertising to generate this volume, your real cost rises to \u20ac453, or 15 %. The balance reverses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lesson is clear. As long as you depend on paid advertising to exist, your site is no more profitable than Etsy. It becomes more profitable when your organic traffic and loyal customers take over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the numbers: what really matters to you<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Financial calculations don't tell the whole story. Three strategic and emotional factors weigh heavily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data ownership first. On your site, you know your customers' emails, their history, their preferences. It's your most valuable asset. On Etsy, this data remains largely compartmentalised by the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is the risk of dependency. A change in algorithm, an increase in fees, an account suspension, and a flourishing shop can falter overnight. But your site will never be taken away from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the brand. A website tells your world, your story, your visual signature. Etsy<\/a> locks you into a common template where your work can be seen alongside thousands of competitors at the click of a button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let's be fair. Selling on Etsy offers something invaluable when you're just starting out: immediate buyers, without any technical expertise or marketing budget. When it comes to testing a product, validating an idea and cashing in on your first sales, it's hard to beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that you don't have to choose<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The debate between the two options is largely artificial. The strongest designers use Etsy as their gateway and their site as their home. You attract people by selling on Etsy, and you build loyalty on your site. In practical terms, you can sell on Etsy to attract strangers, then slip a card or a promotional code into each parcel to bring them back to your shop. In this way, you turn a passing buyer into a repeat customer who you never have to pay again to reach. This is the hybrid strategy recommended by most creative coaches in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start where you are. If you're just starting out and don't have an audience, launch first on the marketplace to learn quickly. If you already have a community, your site will make every sale profitable right away. And as soon as your figures allow it, let the two channels coexist guilt-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real calculation never gives the same result for everyone. It depends on your average price, your traffic, your time and your risk tolerance. But you now have the right figures. The rest is up to you, and that's fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vous fabriquez des bougies, des bijoux, des illustrations. Vient le moment de les vendre. Et l\u00e0, une question vous tient \u00e9veill\u00e9 : faut-il ouvrir une boutique Etsy, ou cr\u00e9er votre propre site ? La plupart des conseils que vous lisez s’arr\u00eatent aux frais. Or les frais ne sont que la partie visible du calcul. Le […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":20390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ventes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20601,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20389\/revisions\/20601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-ari.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}