“Which is cheaper, eBay or Etsy?” has no single answer, because the two fee structures are shaped differently rather than one simply being lower. Here is one item worked through both, with every number visible.
A $48 item with $6 shipping charged to the buyer. It cost $14 to source, $5 to post, and $1 to pack. Same item, same price, same costs — only the channel changes.
eBay charges a final value fee on the order total, item plus shipping, and that fee normally covers payment processing. On top of it there is a small fixed fee per order. Using an illustrative 13.6% and $0.40:
| Order total ($48 + $6) | $54.00 |
| Final value fee, 13.6% of $54 | −$7.34 |
| Fixed fee | −$0.40 |
| Item, postage, packaging | −$20.00 |
| You keep | $26.26 |
|---|
Etsy splits the same job across four line items: a per-listing fee charged whether or not the item sells, a transaction percentage, and a separate payment-processing percentage and fixed fee. Using an illustrative $0.20, 6.5%, 3% and $0.25:
| Order total ($48 + $6) | $54.00 |
| Transaction fee, 6.5% of $54 | −$3.51 |
| Payment processing, 3% of $54 + $0.25 | −$1.87 |
| Listing fee | −$0.20 |
| Item, postage, packaging | −$20.00 |
| You keep | $28.42 |
|---|
On this item Etsy leaves about $2.16 more, because 9.5% in percentage fees plus $0.45 in fixed fees is less than 13.6% plus $0.40. But that gap is not a constant:
A marketplace fee is partly a payment for demand you did not have to create. A channel that charges 13% and sells the item forty times a month can be worth more than one that charges 9% and sells it four times — and a channel that sells in a week can be worth more than one that sells in three months, because your cash is not sitting in unsold stock. Put those volumes and days-to-sell in each channel’s panel on the calculator — monthly keep and cash per day are the columns that answer that, and a monthly plan is spread over the same volume number. Fees are the part that is easy to calculate, not the whole decision — treat the comparison as one input. Returns are a separate input: a completed-sale winner can lose once each channel’s return rate is counted. Returns can flip the ranking.
Run these numbers on your own item →
On the worked example of a $48 item with $6 shipping, Etsy leaves about $2.16 more, because 9.5% in percentage fees plus $0.45 in fixed fees is less than eBay's 13.6% plus $0.40. That gap is not a constant: on cheap items the fixed and per-listing fees dominate, Etsy's per-listing fee is charged whether or not the item sells, and Offsite Ads can invert the result.
Not on their own. A marketplace fee is partly a payment for demand you did not have to create, so a channel that charges 13% and sells the item forty times a month can be worth more than one that charges 9% and sells it four times. Days to sell and return rates move the ranking too, which is why the calculator compares monthly keep and cash per day rather than fees alone.