11+ Best Etsy Alternatives in 2020

Looking for best Etsy alternatives you can try out? You’ve come to the right place.

In this post, I am going to give you a comprehensive 11+ list of best Etsy Alternatives you can try out.

So if you’re like me, you probably hate long intros. So let’s jump right in, shall we?

When Etsy Isn’t the first choice

With over 29 million buyers Etsy is undoubtedly one of the best marketplaces for an artist to sell their crafts.

But with recent transaction fees increases, shipping policy change, and market saturation (not to mention the devastating recent algorithmic changes), many makers and creators are looking somewhere else for greener pastures.

Thankfully, there are plenty of worthy alternatives to consider.

If you’re also looking beyond selling on marketplaces, you’re in luck. In addition to marketplaces alternatives, I have also included the best eCommerce platforms to launch your online store – that way you’re in control of content and data ownership.

Key Difference Between Online Store & Marketplaces

Online Store	Marketplace
Stand-alone website	An account on the marketplace’s website
Total site ownership	Partial Store Ownership
Have to build your own traffic from search engines & marketing activities	Marketplace free traffic, available immediately
Control of content, data, and customer list	No control over content, data analytics, and customer list
Greater freedom for product branding & scalability	Limited options product branding & scalability

Unfortunately, as easy as it easy to get started on Etsy, you could lose everything and be out of business on a moment notice like many did with their latest algorithm change. So you may have to consider creating your own online store to find and connect with your own audience.

Website-building alternatives to Etsy

Etsy is a beginner-friendly platform to test out your creative ideas for artists. As your ideas find a market and an audience, it’s normal at some point to get curious about creating an online store.

Among many reasons to do so, one of the biggest incentives is the ownership of your store where you can control content, data, and customer list.

There are plenty of other restrictions that makes it hard to scale your business on Etsy.

Either way, looking beyond Etsy is a sign your business is growing and building an online store may be a natural next thing to do.

Go to marketplace alternatives ↓

1. Shopify

Although Shopify is not a specialized platform for only crafty people, it is nonetheless, a platform that offers plenty of possibilities for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs, and that includes makers.

Its full library of well-designed templates and comparative pricing makes it possible for anyone to create and brand their own online store.

Pros and Cons: Shopify

Pros	Cons
Total Store Ownership. Content & Customer List Ownership. Unlimited Branding Control. Unlimited Scalability. Excellent Customer Support.	No Instant Traffic. Responsible For Everything, From Marketing to Designing Store Front. Budget For Marketing. Learn SEO.

Features

• Pricing: starts at $9/month for buy buttons (no online store). $29/month for online stores. Includes all the features you’ll ever need.

• Additional costs: Transaction fees of 2,9% + 0.5 c per online transaction. No transaction fees if you’re using Shopify payment.

• Traffic potential: Limitless. You’re responsible for driving traffic to your site.

• Promotional options: Advertise on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google, and plenty of other channels.

• Payment Solutions:  All major payment Gateways available. Shopify handles the taxes and fees if you live in the US and Canada.

• Ownership: Full ownership of content, data and customer list.

• Buyer and Seller Protection: Fraud protection available against fraudulent charge backs. Available in the US currently. No buyer protection.

• Shipping: Seller handles shipping. Pickup, delivery and custom shipping are available. Print shipping labels and request pickup. Available only in the US and Canada.

• Barrier-to-Entry: Very low. Everyone can build an online store. A 14-day trial is available.

• Store Migration: Possible and tons of info available on how to do it.

Shopify: How do I know it’s for me?

First, here is how you’ll know if it’s not for you: You’re not yet ready to scale. You still prefer your hobby to be a side gig and aren’t ready for any additional pressure that comes with owning an online store or marketing your business.

But if that doesn’t describe you, then you may be on your way to graduating your side gig and start crafting your own brand story and sell online, via social media, at a farmers’ market, or anywhere else in between.

Try Shopify 14-Day Trial⭷

2. Wix

Wix is one of the platforms that make it really easy to build not any online store, but a fully customized website that matches your brand’s identity. Their drag-and-drop editor is undoubtedly their shining star when it comes to building a website.

Pros and Cons: Wix

Pros	Cons
Low barrier-to-entry, Free plan available	No Built-in Store Migration capabilities
Easy to learn and use	Requires patience and appetite for learning
Complete design customization	Responsible for marketing & driving traffic to your site
Control of data & customer list	Need to learn SEO
Build your own brand	Hit and miss customer support

Features

• Pricing: eCommerce plans start at $17/month and includes a free domain for one year.

• Additional costs: $2.9 + 0.3 per transaction. Similar to Shopify.

• Traffic:  Limitless. As much as you can bring to your website. Free $75 Google ad credit available.

• Promotional: Facebook and Instagram. Other channels available but through a third-party app

• Payment: Credit card, Cheque and cash on pickup. 65+ more available.

• Ownership: Like with Shopify, you own your store, data and customer list.

• Buyer and Seller protection: Wix payment is PCI compliant. No buyer protection.

• Shipping: You can set up different shipping regions and rules. USPS available and other major carriers available.

• Barrier to Entry: very low. Free plan available to test it out.

• Store Migration: No built-in feature. Cart2Cart app is available to do that for you. Starts at $29

Wix: How do I know it’s for me?

Wix is more than an eCommerce platform – it’s also a website builder. In other words, you can create a website with online store capabilities.

If you’d like to showcase your work more predominantly, via images, videos, animations, and other graphics, then Wix may be a better option for you. If selling online isn’t the only focus of your online store and you’re looking for a simple, cheap and easy-to-manage store then you may consider Wix as an option to scale your business.

Try Wix⭷

3. Squarespace

Offers some of the best looking templates of any website builder. Their website editor is thoughtfully designed and speaks a right balance between simplicity and design customization.

Pros and Cons: Squarespace

Pros	Cons
Store ownership	Responsible for marketing and SEO
Best templates to showcase your work	Initial legwork required to drive traffic
Easy to use	No free plan, only a 14-day trial
Built-in store migration from Etsy to Squarespace	No phone support on the entry-level plan
Excellent pricing & support

Features

Pricing: Starts at $18/month with transaction fees of 3% or $26/month for no transaction fees. The plan includes unlimited bandwidth and storage and a free custom domain.

Additional Costs: Depends on the plan. Can be up to 3%.

Traffic: Limitless. You’re responsible for bring traffic to your site.

Promotional Options: Only Instagram

Payment Options: Stripe, PayPal or Squarespace point of sale

Store Ownership: Like Wix and Shopify, you own your store, data and customer list

Buyer and Seller Protection: No readily available information.

Shipping Options: create shipping zones and set shipping fees based on location. Connect with multiple carriers.

Barriers to entry: Low. Squarespace has no free plan but they do have a 14-day trial.

Store Migration: Available.

Squarespace: How do I know it’s for me?

Squarespace offers undoubtedly the best-designed templates of any website builders. If visuals are ultra important to your designs and crafts (e.g. creative arts industry) then it wouldn’t hurt to see what’s Squarespace is all about.

Otherwise, you may be better off sticking to Shopify or other marketplace alternatives below.

Try Squarespace⭷

Marketplace Alternatives to Etsy

Granted, owning an online store has its benefits, but – frankly – it’s not for everyone. There are so many things involved, like marketing, website design, SEO, and plenty of other nuts and bolts to put together. In short, it’s not for the faint-hearted.

So, If you’re looking for alternatives to Etsy as a marketplace, I’ve got you covered. Perhaps you’re looking to expand your reach into other markets or are simply changing platforms; either way, there’s plenty to try out here.

5. Bonanza

Bonanza is a marketplace that focuses on helping creators sell their art, crafts, and unique collectibles (artifacts, vintage items, etc).  Best part? Although it’s a marketplace, you can also create a stand-alone online store for further exposure.

Pros and Cons: Bonanza

Pros	Cons
Low fees, only apply upon a sale	Limited brand recognition
Automatic  google shopping advertising	Small traffic potential compared to Etsy
Importing store easily	Limited web design customization
Customer-friendly and community-oriented
Ability to open an online store and marketplace together

Features

• Pricing: Sellers pay 3.5% of final sales price, shipping included.

• Additional costs: 5.5% with Google shopping adds. Free to list items. $25/month for a website store, only if you’re using it.

• Traffic:  1M+ monthly visitors, with a high customer to seller ratio, meaning less competition.

• Promotional Options: You can enable webstore broadcaster for automatic listings on Google shopping. You can promote via other platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

• Payment Options: PayPal and Stripe are available.

• Store ownership:  You own webstore’s content, data and customer list.

• Buyer and Seller protection: Only available through PayPal.

• Shipping: Pay for postage inside bonanza and print shipping USPS labels and sent the tracking number to customers.

• Barrier-to-Entry: Very low. It’s free to list items and they charge as you make a sale  – no listing fee.

• Store Migration: You can easily migrate your store from Etsy and other platforms like eBay.

Bonanza: How do I know it’s for me?

There’s plenty of good things going for Bonanza: low fees, free listings, easy importing, dual store & marketplace and even 50 000+ sellers voted bonanza as a Marketplace of choice.

If you’re looking beyond Etsy or simply just want to give your work more exposure, it’d be hard to ignore Bonanza. Since there are no listing fees, simply try it out with only a little time commitment and get a feel for it.

Try Bonanza For Free⭷

6. ArtFire

Artfire is home to artisan goods, from Jewelry & crafts to vintage & artifacts. Artfire encourages unique crafts and artwork by providing low commission rates.

Pros and Cons:

Pros	Cons
Strong emphasis on community involvement	Limited brand recognition
Automatically upload products to google shopping	Small traffic potential compared to Etsy
Easy to understand and affordable pricing	Limited web design customization
Categorizing sellers by type and size to better support small businesses	UX and browsing experience needs improvement
Lower commission fees on handmade items	Half baked stores and products get as many eyeballs

Features

• Pricing: subscription fee starts at $5/month for up to 250 items.

• Additional costs: per item sold fee of 9% FVF for an entry-level plan. Reduces down to 3% for a $20/month subscription.

• Traffic potential: 500k visits per month.

• Promotional Options: You can advertise on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram from the dashboard.

• Payment:  PayPal and Amazon payment available.

• Store ownership:  Artfire is a marketplace, so you’re limited on customization and data ownership.

• Buyer and Seller protection: Maintains a free trade environment, therefore no obligation to mitigate or resolve disputes among buyers and/or sellers.

• Shipping Options: You can set up multiple shipping profiles to apply to different shipping options and rates for your listings.

• Barrier-to-entry: Very low with their entry-level commission-only account. Also, unlike Etsy, buyers don’t have to open an account to buy.

• Store Migration: Store importer available only to pro members, configured to work with your Etsy CSV file. Shipping info can only be added manually.

• Support & Help: Active user community and excellent customer service, offer toll-free number.

ArtFire: How do I know it’s for me?

Although there’s a listing fee, it can be as low as 23 cents. What I specifically love is: First, the focus they’re driving towards supporting small scale sellers by categorizing sellers by type. Second, customers don’t have to set up an account to buy, unlike Etsy.

One word on their UX (user experience), I think they need to do better. It’s kinda old school and hard to navigate your way through. Besides that, they’re onto something big.

So, if you’re a small scale seller and could do with some extra love and attention, ArtFire may not be a bad option for you.

Try ArtFire⭷

7. Amazon Handmade

You know Amazon right? Well, this is their Marketplace specifically dedicated to selling handmade and crafts. That means you get to benefits from all good things Amazon, like fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Amazon Payments, and Amazon sponsored ads.

Pros and Cons: Amazon

Pros	Cons
High traffic potential	High costs and fees
Strong brand recognition	Lack of control and ownership of customer data and info
Fast shipping and order fulfillment	Highly competitive environment
Credibility and brand trust
Lower commission fees on handmade items

Features

• Pricing: $40/month for membership.

• Additional costs: a little pricey. Starts at a 15% referral fee, with a $1 minimum.

• Traffic: 200 million/month.

• Promotional Options: Amazon sponsored ads. You can also run social media ads.

• Payment Options: Amazon Pay, PayPal, Stripe and all major credit and debit card processors.

• Store ownership:  Amazon owns everything from your store account, data, and customer list.

• Seller and buyer protection:  Excellent buyer protection. Not much seller protection in place.

• Shipping Options:  Fulfilled by Amazon and Amazon Prime are as good as it gets.

• Barrier-to-Entry: moderate, easy to sign up, and get product listing but competition is fierce and membership fee high.

• Store Migration:  No built-in features. May have to do manually or use a third-party app like Cart2Cart.

• Support & Help: Excellent customer support and community forum.

Amazon: How do I know it’s for me?

Thanks to fierce competition on Amazon, the only way to succeed there is by selling products that vastly differentiates itself from competitors and stands out from the ordinary. I do have to point out though, that by virtue of selling handmade items surely does come with some unique value proposition. And therefore puts you ahead of the competition.

Besides the pricing and fierce competition, Amazon is a behemoth of a marketplace that’s getting harder and harder to ignore.

Try Amazon Handmade⭷

8. Zibbet

Zibbet exists to help makers, artists and creative entrepreneurs sell more through access to their marketplace or building a stand-alone store for extending reach. Side note: their interface is fresh and modern.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
No transaction fees & listing fees	Low inbound marketplace traffic
Fresh and modern UX	Lack of brand recognition
Multiple sales channels and automatic inventory sync with Etsy	Limited item variation
Highly affordable and easy to understand pricing model	No direct checkout, have to use Paypal
Nice and helpful community
Ability to stitch up an online store, in addition to a marketplace

Features

• Pricing: $5/month per sales channel, 14-day trial available.

• Additional Costs: no transaction fees or listing fees.

• Traffic Volume: 600k/month.

• Promotional Options: Sell on Facebook, Instagram (both count as one channel), and Online store and A.C Moore. Manage stores and orders from within the Zibbet dashboard.

• Payment Options: PayPal and stripe available. Currently, all sellers must accept PayPal, it’s mandatory but may change in the near future.

• Store Ownership: You own data and customer list on your online store.

• Shipping Options: Create as many shipping profiles as you like and select an appropriate one for your different products/collections.

• Barrier-to-Entry:  Low. 14 day trial and only $5/month afterwards.

• Store Migration: When you connect Etsy as a sales channel, your store data imports immediately and you manage your Etsy store from the Zibbet dashboard too.

• Support & Help: Great support center and live chat support.

Zibbet: How do I know it’s for me?

Like Bonanza, Zibbet is such a breath of fresh air with their “no-nonsense” pricing structure – no listing or transaction fees and $5/month/sales channel.

You only have to visit their website to see how modern and fresh their interface and experience are. Their highly-rated customer service is most frequently mentioned on customer reviews.

Try Zibbet⭷

9. Redbubble

If you’re in the line of selling unique and creative print, then Redbubble is definitely a great option. Over 700k creators and designers use the platform to reach 30M+ unique visitors each month.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Lowest barrier to entry, free forever plan	The market is becoming saturated quickly
Wide variety of merchandise to print	No control of customer data and info.
Mockup generators to see how the design will look like	Pricing controlled to a large extend (max markup of 30%)
Hassle-free shipping & payment options	Payout only once a month
Plenty of promotional options

Features

• Pricing: Completely free to open a store and sell on Redbubble. It’s a print on demand, they handle the printing and shipping and you get a percentage off the base price plus mark up (between 10%-30%).

• Additional Costs: No additional costs.

• Traffic Volume:  30M+ unique visitors per month.

• Promotional Options: Self promotion through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and many more.

• Payment Options: Tons of payment options available for buyers including Amazon Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc. Redbubble handles the payment for sellers.

• Store ownership: No control over your customer data. Redbubble is a print-on-demand platform that allows you to open and online store.

• Shipping Options: Redbubble handles all orders and shipping for you.

• Barrier to Entry: As low as it gets. Free forever.

• Store Migration: No readily available information.

Support & Help: Help center with plenty of info available. Web ticket support team responds within 24 hours generally.

Redbubble: How do I know it’s for me?

Etsy is a space for handmade gifts and crafts while Redbubble is best for designs that can be printed on merch like t-shirts, mugs, wall art, clothing, stationery, home & living and few other merch types.

Simply put, if you’re an independent artist looking for meaningful new way to sell your creations, then you’ll fit right in with Redbubblers.

Try Redbubble For Free⭷

10. Printiful

Similar in some way to Redbubble but with a lot more flexibility and ability to integrate with more than a dozen other platforms, including Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, to name a few.

Printful it’s a print-on-demand that prints a wide variety of merchandise and fulfills it for you, so your only worry is doing what you love – creating. Unlike Redbubble, however, it’s not a marketplace.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
No monthly fees and free to sign up	Shipping costs a little higher
Wide variety of merchandise to print	No marketplace instant traffic
Mockup generators to see how the design will look like	Responsible for website design, marketing, SEO, etc
Hassle-free shipping & payment options
Guarantee policy, cover the cost of stolen or lost goods
Complete merchandise branding and personalization

Features

• Pricing: Free to join, only pay when order is made.

• Additional Costs: you will have to factor in additional platform fees, sales taxes, shipping when you decide on final retail price. Printiful has no additional costs except the base costs they charge per order.

• Traffic Volume: Printful, unlike Redbubble, it’s not a marketplace. It’s a print-on-demand that integrates with other platforms. It manages and fulfills orders for you. So traffic will be dependent on your marketing efforts.

• Promotional: These options would depend on where your store is hosted. If it’s Shopify, for example, you can promote on virtually all social media networks.

• Payment Options: Depends on your host platform. Most platforms, however, offer plenty of payment gateways for your customers.

• Store Ownership: you own your store if its hosted on website builders like Wix or Shopify. But if its hosted on Marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy, they have full ownership of your data and customer list.

• Shipping Options: Printiful handles all the shipping and order fulfillment.

• Barrier to Entry: Low on printful and most website builders and marketplaces. It’s free to sign up, only pay when you have an order.

• Store Migration: Integratable with many platforms, 20+ unique platforms.

• Support & Help: Tons of helpful videos tutorials and articles. Email support and 24/7 live chat available.

Printiful: How do I know it’s for me?

If you need to take your print-on-demand business to the next level, you’d hard-pressed to ignore Printiful. Yes, it’s not a marketplace like Etsy or Redbubble but Printiful allows you to 1. Integrate with dozens of other platforms, 2. store your products (both Printiful & non-Printiful) at their warehouses for easier and faster shipping and, 3. graphic design and video services. These services are all unique to Printiful.

The downside with Printiful is the fact that you still need an online store to sell your merch. It works super well with Shopify but you can also connect it with Etsy, eBay, Amazon, etc.

Try Printiful For Free⭷

11. Mercari

Mercari is a small version of Facebook marketplace. It allows you to buy and sell anything, not only limiter to crafts and unique collections.

The company currently operates in US and Japan that sees 15M+ monthly visitors, with only 25% from the US (about 2.5M+).

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to list products	Complex pricing structure
Flexibility with own price listing	Responsible for shipping
International reach	High level of competition
High traffic exposure

Features

• Pricing: Free to listing. 10% minimum fee on each completed sale.

• Additional fees: Transactional fees, shipping fees, cancellation fees may apply. Their fee structure sucks and its complicated to understand.

• Traffic Volume: 2.5M+ visitors/month from the US it’s a big cake to let it go by.

• Promotional Options: Can only rely on organic traffic for your items.

• Payment Options: Accepts all major credit cards and PayPal.

• Store Ownership: No contact between you and customers. Simply sell, ship and get paid.

• Shipping Options: Option of handing shipping yourself or print mercari shipping labels for discounted rates and insurance on items less than $200.

• Barrier to Entry: easy to start and list items.

• Store Migration: Currently not possible.

Support & Help: Adequate support and help.

Mercari: How do I know it’s for me?

Mercari offers a fast and easy way to sell anything from vintage & collectibles, and virtually anything new and used you can think of. Although it qualifies as a marketplace, it’s not specific to any craft. It’s very much similar to Facebook Marketplace.

So if you have some stuff, be it new or used, you can possibly can find a market for that on Mercari.

Try Mercari⭷

Over to you

Time for you now. Tell me what you think. Did you know any of these other Etsy alternatives? What did I leave out you wish I had touched on? What specific questions do you have?

Either way, be sure to let me know in the comment section below.

Cheers!