Websites Like Etsy: 2026 Alternatives for Makers and Small Brands
The real alternatives to Etsy, grouped by what they actually solve — marketplace reach, lower fees, or owning the customer relationship — with the trade-off each one asks for.
People search for alternatives to Etsy for three different reasons, and they need three different answers. Some want another marketplace. Some want lower fees. Some have realised they do not want a landlord at all.
Most “Etsy alternatives” lists mix all three into one ranking, which is why they are not much help. This guide separates them.
Key Takeaways
- Know which problem you are solving first. Reach, cost, and ownership pull in different directions.
- Etsy’s take rate hit 24.9% of gross merchandise sales in Q3 2025 (Etsy, retrieved 2026-07-16).
- Etsy’s marketplace is shrinking on both sides: sellers −10.9% and buyers −5.0% year over year.
- Another marketplace solves fees but not dependence. Only your own storefront changes who owns the customer.
Why Are People Leaving Etsy?
Two numbers from Etsy’s own quarterly reporting explain most of it.
First, cost. Etsy’s take rate — the share of gross merchandise sales it keeps as revenue — reached 24.9% in Q3 2025. Roughly a quarter of gross sales value goes to the platform once fees, payment processing, and advertising products are counted.
Second, reach. In the same quarter, Etsy marketplace active buyers fell 5.0% year over year to 86.6 million, and active sellers fell 10.9% to 5.5 million. Gross merchandise sales on the marketplace declined 2.4%.
Sellers are paying a rising share of revenue into a marketplace reaching fewer buyers. That is a rational reason to look around — though not, on its own, a reason to leave. 86.6 million buyers is still substantial distribution.
Option 1: Another Marketplace
Best for: sellers who want someone else to bring the traffic and are willing to pay for it.
Marketplaces solve exactly one problem — discovery — and charge for it. Moving between them changes your fee percentage and your audience, but not the fundamental arrangement.
What to compare:
- Audience fit. A marketplace with the wrong buyers is worse than a smaller one with the right ones.
- Total fee stack, not the headline rate. Listing fees, transaction fees, payment processing, and ads all count.
- Category rules, especially around handmade, vintage, or manufactured goods.
- Whether you get customer data, which is usually little or none.
Amazon is the highest-volume option. Its referral fees range from 5% to 45% by category, most commonly 15%, plus either $0.99 per item on the Individual plan or $39.99 per month on the Professional plan (Amazon, retrieved 2026-07-16). That is a lower platform take than Etsy’s reported 24.9%, against a very different competitive environment and far less scope for brand.
If Amazon is where you are heading, see our guides to creating an Amazon storefront and Amazon print-on-demand.
The trade-off: you swap one landlord for another. Your ranking, your fees, and your access to buyers remain someone else’s decision.
Option 2: Your Own Storefront
Best for: sellers with any existing audience, repeat buyers, or a distinctive brand.
This is the option that actually changes the arrangement. You own the customer relationship, the data, the margin, and the presentation.
What you gain:
- No marketplace take rate. You pay hosting and payment processing rather than a share of gross sales.
- Customer data, including email addresses, which is the asset marketplaces most reliably withhold.
- Full brand control over the entire experience.
- A durable asset. Your store does not change its ranking algorithm overnight.
What you take on:
- Traffic is now your job. This is the real cost, and it is the reason marketplaces exist.
- Setup and maintenance, though far less than it once was.
The honest framing: a marketplace fee buys distribution. If you already have distribution — a following, a mailing list, repeat customers, word of mouth — you are paying for something you already own.
Our guides to choosing an e-commerce platform for a small business and launching a store in about ten minutes cover the practicalities. Also see our comparison of Shopify alternatives and Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, and WooCommerce alternatives.
Option 3: Both
Best for: almost everyone, in practice.
The strongest pattern is not either-or. Use a marketplace for discovery by people who have never heard of you, and your own store for repeat purchases, email, and margin.
The dividing line is repeat buyers. Paying a marketplace fee to reach a stranger is a fair trade. Paying the same fee to reach someone who deliberately came back to buy from you again is margin you are giving away for nothing.
Running both is more work, which is the real argument against it — and most of that work is repetitive catalogue and order admin rather than anything strategic. See catalog and variant management and automating orders and returns.
How to Choose
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| No audience, no product validation yet | A marketplace — buy the distribution while you learn |
| Selling steadily, thin margins | Your own store alongside the marketplace |
| Repeat customers asking where else to buy | Your own store, urgently |
| Strong brand, distinctive product | Your own store as primary, marketplace as a discovery channel |
| High-volume, commodity-ish product | Marketplace, and compete on operations |
One caution on the middle rows: do not close a marketplace shop the week you launch your own store. Run both until your own traffic is real. The marketplace is buying you time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best alternative to Etsy?
There isn’t one, because “alternative” means different things depending on whether you want reach, lower fees, or ownership. Another marketplace fixes fees. Only your own storefront fixes dependence.
Is Amazon cheaper than Etsy?
On platform take, generally yes — most Amazon categories carry a 15% referral fee against Etsy’s reported 24.9% overall take rate. But Amazon is far more competitive, gives you less brand presence, and its own advertising costs can close much of that gap.
Can I move my Etsy reviews to another platform?
No. Reviews stay with the marketplace, and this is one of the strongest lock-in mechanisms marketplaces have. It is also an argument for starting to build reviews on your own store sooner rather than later.
Will I lose sales if I leave Etsy?
Almost certainly, at first, unless you already have another source of traffic. This is why running both channels in parallel is the standard advice rather than a clean switch.
Do I need technical skills to run my own store?
Much less than you would have needed a few years ago. Modern platforms handle hosting, checkout, and payments. The hard part is not building the store; it is getting traffic to it.
Sources
- Etsy, Inc. Q3 2025 Results — take rate 24.9%, marketplace active sellers 5.5M (−10.9% YoY), active buyers 86.6M (−5.0% YoY), GMS −2.4%. Retrieved 2026-07-16.
- Amazon — Individual plan $0.99 per item, Professional plan $39.99 per month, referral fees 5%–45% by category with 15% most common. Retrieved 2026-07-16.