If you're selling under roughly $500 a month, the reflexive "just use Shopify" advice is wrong. Shopify Basic runs $39 a month ($29 a month if you commit to annual billing) plus 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction through Shopify Payments (source: shopify.com pricing page, 2026). Below about $500 a month in sales, that fixed monthly bill costs you more than the percentage-only models that Etsy and Gumroad run on, even though their headline cut looks worse. Above that line, Shopify's lower percentage starts winning. Which platform is "best" depends entirely on which side of that number you're on, and on whether you're selling physical goods or digital files.
Why the surface-level comparison is misleading
Most "best e-commerce platform for side hustlers" posts compare the sticker price of a monthly plan and call it done. That misses three things that actually decide your total cost: whether the platform charges a percentage on top of the monthly fee, whether you're using the platform's own payment processor or an outside one (which changes the fee on Shopify specifically), and whether you're selling physical goods or digital downloads, since several of these platforms charge a different rate depending on which one it is. A $39-a-month plan with a 0% transaction fee can be cheaper than a free-to-list marketplace that takes 10% of every sale, or more expensive, and the crossover point is a specific revenue number you can calculate, not a guess.
What each platform actually charges
Shopify. The Basic plan is $39 a month standard, $29 a month if you pay annually, and includes Shopify Payments at 2.9% + 30 cents per online transaction (source: shopify.com pricing page, 2026). The gotcha: if you don't use Shopify Payments, meaning you check out through PayPal or another processor instead, Shopify adds its own extra transaction fee on top of whatever that processor already charges you, 2% on Basic, 1% on the Grow plan, and 0.6% on Advanced (source: shopify.com pricing page, 2026). A lot of sellers who already have a PayPal Business account keep using it out of habit and pay both fees without realizing it. Shopify also sells a $5-a-month Starter plan, but that's not a real online store comparison here. It's a social-selling and buy-button tool for Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp checkouts with a 5% Shopify Payments rate and no actual storefront (source: demandsage.com, Shopify Starter plan review, 2026).
Squarespace. The Basic commerce plan is $25 a month standard, $16 a month billed annually, and charges its own 2% transaction fee on physical product sales on top of card processing, roughly 2.9% + 30 cents (source: aitoolpick.org, Squarespace pricing 2026 guide, 2026). Step up to the Core plan, $36 a month standard or $23 a month annually, and that 2% platform fee drops to 0% on physical goods, though digital content and memberships still carry a 5% fee on Core, falling to 0% only on the Advanced plan at $139 a month, $99 annually (source: aitoolpick.org, 2026). If you're selling digital products specifically, the plan tier matters more on Squarespace than it does on Shopify, since Shopify doesn't charge a separate digital-goods surcharge at all.
Etsy. No monthly plan is required to open a shop. Instead you pay per listing and per sale: a $0.20 listing fee every time an item is listed or renews, a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus shipping and gift wrapping, and a US payment processing fee of 3% + $0.25 per transaction (source: craftybase.com, Etsy fee guide, 2026). Stack those on a $30 item with $5 shipping and you land at roughly $3.78 in fees, about 10.8% of the sale, before Etsy's Offsite Ads fee even enters the picture (source: craftybase.com, 2026). That ads fee is mandatory once your shop crosses $10,000 in trailing 12-month sales, 12% on any sale that comes from one of those ads, 15% below that threshold if you haven't opted out (source: etsy.com fee policy, 2026). Etsy Plus, an optional $10-a-month add-on with extra listing and ad credits, is not required to sell.
Gumroad. No monthly fee at all. Direct sales through your own Gumroad link or profile cost 10% + $0.50 per transaction, full stop, with no plan tiers to climb (source: dodopayments.com, Gumroad fees breakdown, 2026). Sales that come through Gumroad's own Discover marketplace instead of your direct link cost 30%, so treat that as a separate, worse deal rather than the standard rate. Gumroad also became the merchant of record for every sale as of January 1, 2025, meaning it collects and remits sales tax on your behalf worldwide at no extra charge (source: dodopayments.com, 2026), something Shopify and Squarespace don't do for you. If you sell digital products and don't want to register for sales tax yourself, that's worth more than the percentage difference suggests.
Side-by-side comparison
| Platform | Monthly cost | Per-sale fee | Physical vs digital goods | Key gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $39/mo ($29/mo annual) | 2.9% + 30 cents (Shopify Payments) | Both, no separate digital surcharge | +2% extra if you skip Shopify Payments |
| Squarespace Basic | $25/mo ($16/mo annual) | 2% platform fee + ~2.9% + 30 cents card processing | Physical: 2% fee. Digital: 7% fee | Digital goods cost more here than on Shopify |
| Squarespace Core | $36/mo ($23/mo annual) | 0% platform fee (physical) + ~2.9% + 30 cents | Physical: 0% fee. Digital: 5% fee | Still no free ride on digital products |
| Etsy | $0/mo (Etsy Plus optional, $10/mo) | $0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + 3% + 25 cents processing | Mostly physical/handmade | Offsite Ads fee (12-15%) mandatory past $10k/yr |
| Gumroad | $0/mo | 10% + 50 cents (direct link); 30% via Discover | Digital products | Handles sales tax remittance for you |
The math that actually matters
Don't pick a platform off the fee percentage or the monthly price alone. Work through this instead:
- Pull your actual average monthly revenue from the last three months, not a projection. The breakeven math below only means anything against a real number.
- Set your platform's fixed monthly cost against its percentage cut. For Shopify Basic at $39 a month plus roughly 2.9%, and Gumroad at $0 a month plus 10%, the two costs are equal at $39 = 0.071 x revenue, which solves to about $549 a month. Below that, Gumroad's all-in cost is lower. Above it, Shopify is.
- Run the same math against Etsy if you sell physical goods. Using its roughly 10.8% stacked rate (listing, transaction, and payment processing, before ads) against Shopify Basic's 2.9%, the breakeven is $39 = 0.079 x revenue, or about $494 a month.
- Decide whether you're selling physical goods or digital files, since that changes which platform's fee structure applies to you. Squarespace's transaction fee is 0% on physical goods starting at the Core plan but still charges up to 5% on digital content and memberships on that same plan.
- Check whether you'll use the platform's own payment processor. If you plan to keep using an existing PayPal or Stripe setup on Shopify instead of switching to Shopify Payments, add Shopify's extra transaction fee, 2% on Basic, on top of that processor's own rate before you compare.
- If you're a physical-goods seller under the breakeven line, weigh Etsy's built-in marketplace search traffic against Shopify's requirement that you build your own traffic from zero. That's not a fee, but it's a real cost difference in time and ad spend that the percentage comparison doesn't capture.
- If you're near the $10,000 trailing 12-month mark on Etsy, factor in that Offsite Ads fees become mandatory past that point, which changes your effective rate going forward.
FAQ
Is Shopify always cheaper than Etsy or Gumroad once you're doing decent volume?
Roughly yes, above the specific breakeven revenue for each comparison, about $549 a month against Gumroad and about $494 a month against Etsy using the math above, Shopify Basic's lower percentage cut starts outweighing its $39 monthly fee. Below those numbers, the percentage-only platforms cost less overall.
Does Shopify charge extra if I don't use Shopify Payments?
Yes. On the Basic plan, using an outside processor like PayPal instead of Shopify Payments adds a 2% fee on top of whatever that processor already charges you (1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced). If you're already set up with another processor, check whether switching to Shopify Payments would actually be cheaper before assuming your current setup is fine.
Is Gumroad's 10% actually worse than Etsy's fees for digital products?
Not necessarily. Etsy's stacked fees (listing, transaction, and payment processing) land around 10 to 11% before shipping-related items even apply, close to Gumroad's flat 10% + 50 cents, and Gumroad also handles sales tax remittance for you as merchant of record, which Etsy does not.
Do I need Etsy Plus or Squarespace's top plan to actually sell anything?
No. Etsy Plus is a $10-a-month optional add-on for extra listing and ad credits, not a requirement to open a shop. On Squarespace, the entry-level Basic plan lets you sell, it just carries a 2% transaction fee on physical goods and 7% on digital content that the higher tiers remove.
If you take one thing from this: calculate your own breakeven revenue against the platform's fixed monthly cost before you pick one, because the "best" platform on this list changes depending on which side of roughly $500 a month you're actually selling on.
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