Etsy has always been a favorite of artisans and designers selling art and handmade crafts. However, over the past few years, many sellers have been starting to look for alternatives.
Why is that? There are a number of reasons Etsy sellers may want to expand beyond the Etsy platform.
For one, the competition has become very fierce. In the past, when there were fewer sellers on Etsy, it was a lot easier for buyers to find you; now, it’s getting harder.
Not only that, but a lot of sellers on Etsy are no longer sellers like you — people creating their own, handcrafted art, clothes, textiles, and other crafts made at home. Instead, a lot more sellers have been importing products and reselling them — reselling is allowed in the vintage and crafts categories on Etsy.
The problem is that buyers don’t really know the difference between items made personally by the seller vs items that were resold. That makes it harder for you to compete, despite your originality and hard work.
Finally, you might simply want to expand your operations. By selling on more platforms, you can reach more people.
And, other platforms give you more marketing tools and opportunities than Etsy, allowing you to broaden your audience.
Whether you have been looking for an Etsy alternative for one of the above reasons or any other reason, this article is for you. I will go over the top 12 sites like Etsy for selling handcrafted items online.
If you are a buyer, you can also check these sites out and buy handcrafted products on them.
Let’s get into it!
The 12 Best Sites Like Etsy
1. Amazon Handmade
Not everyone knows about this, but Amazon has a program called Amazon Handmade. Only artisans are allowed to join this program — you need to get approved to sell there.
If you do get approved to join the artisan program, Amazon will waive the Professional selling fee.
You will then get a custom URL for your shop, so you can promote your shop on your social media profiles, on your website, or in your email newsletters.
It is entirely free to join the program, start an online shop, and sell products. However, you will have to pay 15 percent of each sale to Amazon as a commission.
That’s higher than Etsy’s standard commission (5 percent + transaction fees), so you might have to price your products just a bit higher to make the same margins. (There is also a minimum commission of $1 — if the product you sell only costs $3, for example, the commission will be $1.)
However, since it’s free to create your store and list items, you won’t really lose — you can only gain.
In addition, while Etsy charges you a small listing fee for each listing you put up, Amazon Handmade does not — it is entirely free to create a listing.
If you already have a seller account on Amazon, you can’t sell in Handmade automatically. Instead, you need to apply as an artisan for a Handmade account as well.
That ensures the Handmade category is truly only open for artisans selling their crafts. It might take a while to get approved, however, depending on the application backlog.
One downside of Amazon Handmade is that it does not have as many categories as Etsy. Nevertheless, it still has a decent selection of categories.
2. Folksy
Folksy is a UK-based site for selling online crafts. Unlike Etsy, it does not allow reselling — so all sellers are artists selling their own crafts.
It also does not allow vintage sales.
While Folksy is a British site, it does get visitors from all over the world. Prices are in British Pounds.
A cool thing about Folksy is that it does not charge a commission on shipping. Etsy, on the other hand, started charging a five percent commission on shipping fees in 2018.
Your first three listings on Folksy are always free — you won’t have to pay anything for them. After that, however, you will be charged 15 pence per listing.
You can also sign up for Folksy Plus. Folksy Plus costs £5/month (see here for updated pricing data), but it allows you to create an unlimited number of listings, with no charge per listing.
Another advantage of Folksy Plus Is that you can feature three items (in random order) at the top of your store.
If you already have an Etsy store, choosing Folksy Plus will give you another benefit — you will be able to import products directly from Etsy into Folksy, saving you a lot of time and effort.
However, you will still have to pay a commission per sale, which is fixed at six percent + VAT.
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3. Aftcra
Aftcra is a good alternative to Etsy if you’re based in the US. It is open only to American artisans and buyers.
Unlike Etsy, it has zero listing fees; you will never have to pay to put up your listings!
Aftcra is very clear about what they allow you to sell on the platform — only handcrafted items that you or your small team personally handcraft in the USA.
Unlike Etsy, they don’t allow vintage sales, and they don’t allow reselling. Not only do you need to make the product yourself, but you need to make it in the US — if you imported the product, you can’t sell it.
While Etsy listings expire after four months, Aftcra listings expire after six months, and you can renew them for free once they do expire.
Although there are no listing fees, you do have to pay a seven percent commission + transaction fees on each sale, which is a bit higher than Etsy’s fees.
I like that Aftcra has an Etsy Importer tool, which allows you to import several Etsy listings to Aftcra at once, saving time.
4. Just Artisan
Just Artisan is a somewhat newer alternative to Etsy, but it seems promising, so I’d suggest checking it out.
It beta launched in the beginning of 2020, but it only officially launched in June 2020. At that point, it already had a few hundred sellers and a couple of thousand buyers.
According to founder Marcello De Lio in an interview about his project, Just Artisan made $15k in sales in December 2020, with very little advertising. However, they are now working on expanding their user base, using retargeting on Facebook and other marketing methods to reach new customers.
Unlike Etsy, Just Artisan does not allow any reselling, in any category. All products need to be made by you, the seller, or by a small team that includes you.
You can sell digital downloads on Just Artisan as well.
Just Artisan also allows you to set up a shop and list all your products for free, with no listing fees — unlike Etsy. You only have to pay when you make a sale.
However, commission fees are slightly higher than on Etsy, as you have to pay 7.5 percent per sale.
Just Artisan focuses on creating a community for artisans, not only a place where they can sell stuff online. Since it doesn’t cost anything to set up your online shop and post listings, it doesn’t hurt to try it out.
5. Goimagine
Goimagine is a pretty unique marketplace, as it donates 100 percent of its profits to charity! If you want to sell your handmade products, earn money, and make a difference in the world, why not sell on Goimagine?
Goimagine is very strict with its handmade selling guidelines. They only allow you to sell something you personally made yourself, or that you worked on with a small group of family members or a small team.
Also, you need to make all your products in the United States. You are not allowed to resell products or sell mass-produced products.
You do need to sign up for a monthly plan to sell on Goimagine, but it is not very expensive. Plans start at just $2.50/month for up to 25 active listings and go up to $10/month for up to 1,000 listings (see updated prices here).
Also, there are no listing fees — you only need to pay the monthly fee — and commission fees start at 5 percent and go down to 3.5 percent per sale, depending on your plan.
It might actually turn out to be cheaper than Etsy, depending on how many listings you have and how many sales you make per month.
Most importantly, however, you will be supporting children in need and helping make the world a better place. All of those commission fees go to charity!
In addition to commission fees, you will have to pay payment processor fees.
One thing to know about Goimagine is that you need to apply for a seller’s account. It will take up to 48 hours for Goimagine to review and approve your account — but that also means the platform is for a select group of real artisans, not resellers.
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6. ArtFire
ArtFire has been around since 2008, so it isn’t new. It has thousands of shop owners and a large customer base (though nowhere near the size of Etsy).
Like Etsy, ArtFire does allow you to sell vintage and craft supplies in addition to handmade goods.
ArtFire is an interesting alternative to Etsy because you need to sign up for a monthly plan to sell products on the marketplace. However, depending on how many listings you create, it can come out cheaper than Etsy.
The Standard Shop plan costs $9.99/month, but ArtFire still charges a listing fee of $0.23 per listing, which is more than what Etsy charges.
However, the Popular Shop plan costs $29.99/month, and it allows you to create up to 1,000 active listings without any listing fees (see here for updated pricing).
Initially, it would cost less to start on ArtFire with that many listings, compared to paying $200 to list 1,000 items on Etsy.
However, in the long run, I’m not sure ArtFire would be cheaper than Etsy. First, those 1,000 listings refer to active listings, not how many new listings you can add per month.
Also, the commission fees per sale are much higher than Etsy’s. ArtFire charges between 12.75 percent and 14.75 percent, depending on your plan.
One advantage ArtFire does have over Etsy is that it has a CSV importer tool, allowing you to import products in bulk, while Etsy does not currently offer such a tool.
Another possible advantage of ArtFire is that it seems to offer better support for sellers, with a US-based team ready to chat via email or instant messaging.
All in all, however, I’d say that ArtFire might be a good alternative if you are trying to get on as many platforms as possible or if your Etsy account was suspended. I’d suggest trying it out for a month or two to see if you get any traffic and sales.
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7. eBay
eBay isn’t limited specifically to artisans or handcrafted items, as you can sell really anything on eBay, barring a few prohibited categories. Nevertheless, I highly recommend considering it as an alternative to Etsy, even for selling handmade crafts.
First, it is much, much larger than Etsy. It is the second-largest online marketplace in the US (after Amazon, of course), allowing you to reach a much larger audience. There are plenty of people who are looking for handcrafted items online, and not everyone has heard of Etsy.
Many online consumers only know about Amazon and eBay and search for handcrafted items on those platforms.
In fact, if you are simply looking for an Etsy alternative to expand your reach on more than one platform, I’d say that eBay is one of the best options available to you. It simply has much more traffic than almost any other alternative you might find.
In addition, it is free to get started! eBay gives you a certain number of free listings per month, with no listing fees, so it definitely does not hurt to set up an eBay store and add a few items.
You will only have to pay when you make a sale.
In fact, even without a premium store package, you will get 200-250 free listings a month. You can check here for more information on free listings.
Although eBay is a general eCommerce store, it has many categories to choose from, including those that are specific to handcrafted items, jewelry, and so on. For example, you might list your item in the Handcrafted & Finished Pieces category.
8. indieCart
indieCart is one of the few Etsy alternatives that does not charge listing fees or commissions per sale. However, they do charge a $7.50/monthly fee to set up a store and sell on the platform, but there are no fees other than that (except transaction fees that PayPal charges).
indieCart has been around for a long time, but it’s hard to say just how popular it is. According to the ticker at the bottom of the website, there are over 16,000 registered shoppers on indieCart, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all of them are active shoppers.
However, indieCart has some other unique features that make it a worthwhile alternative to Etsy:
- Choose the sale type (reserve with deposit, auction, regular sale, etc.)
- Select the currency to sell in (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.)
- Create your own categories and subcategories
- List an unlimited number of products for free
- Blacklist shoppers you don’t want to sell to
- Integrate with Facebook to add your products to your page
- Schedule products to be in stock at a specific date (these are showcased in a calendar for buyers to see)
If you don’t mind the $7.50/month fee, I’d say try indieCart out for a month to see if you get any sales. You can always cancel later.
9. Madeit
Madeit, or Made It, is a fantastic Etsy alternative for Australian-based sellers. You need to live in Australia to sell on Madeit, so it’s awesome if you want to reach Australian buyers.
How popular is Madeit? According to its website, it has:
- 80,000 unique visitors each month
- 840,000 total pageviews a month
- 120,000 registered users
You can actually also sell craft supplies on Madeit, but all finished products must be handmade, so you won’t need to compete with sellers importing items from other countries.
Unlike Etsy, Madeit does not charge any commissions, nor do they charge any listing fees. Instead, they have set pricing plans, which are paid quarterly or yearly, with each plan allowing you to post a certain number of active listings.
Prices start at just $4/month for 16 active listings. Always look at the pricing page for updated information.
10. iCraft Gifts
iCraft Gifts, or simply iCraft, has been around for over a decade. Its mission is to help handmade sellers and artisans excel.
For that reason, they don’t allow resellers to sell on the site; you can only sell handmade products you actually made yourself. In addition, they don’t charge you any listing fees, unlike Etsy, or let your listings expire. Instead, you pay a monthly fee for an unlimited number of new listings.
What I didn’t like was that in addition to the monthly fee, there is also a $25 one-time registration fee. I feel like that makes it harder to try iCraft out for a single month to see how much traffic you get as a seller.
According to iCraft’s website, however, it got over 1.3 million unique visitors in the past six months, with an average of five page visits per session.
Nevertheless, with plans starting at just $10/month, it might be worth it — check this page for updated pricing.
Also, you get a free .store domain when you create an account, and you can get 50 percent off a .com domain, so that might help offset the price of the registration fee.
11. Felt
I already mentioned some good Etsy alternatives for UK and Australian sellers, so how about a New Zealand one? Felt is a great platform for New Zealand sellers who want to sell their own crafts, jewelry, and fabric.
The team at Felt is based in Christchurch, and pricing is similar to Etsy, with no monthly fees.
Although people can buy products from anywhere in the world, most of the customer base seems to be in New Zealand, and only New Zealand sellers can use it, helping you narrow down the competition (compared to Etsy).
12. Shopify
Finally, I’m going to make a recommendation: Consider setting up your own Shopify store. Yes, Shopify is not exactly like Etsy, as you will have to drive your own traffic instead of being able to sell on an existing marketplace with an existing customer base.
Nevertheless, the reality is that there are not a lot of sites that cater exclusively to artisans and also get a lot of traffic. Some Etsy alternatives are wonderful and also free to use, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a lot of sales.
Shopify allows you to sell your handcrafted items on your own terms. You won’t have to deal with competition from other sellers — your site will be for you, and for you only.
You also won’t have to deal with listing fees, commissions, shipping commissions, and other problems that Etsy has. It also allows you to market your products and reach a lot more people.
Etsy just doesn’t give you the tools that are accessible with a Shopify store, such as email marketing.
Wrapping It Up: What Is The Best Etsy Alternative?
Amazon Handmade is the best Etsy alternative, without a doubt. Sure, it charges a bit more per sale than other Etsy alternatives, but there really isn’t another handcraft marketplace that gets nearly as much traffic as Amazon or Etsy.
I’d also suggest setting up stores on marketplaces that do not charge monthly fees or listing fees — you have a few to choose from in this article (Just Artisan and Aftcra). While you might not get any traffic, you have nothing to lose, as you only pay once you make a sale.
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