Etsy vs Amazon Handmade: which one should this product be on?

What one sale actually costs on each

Amazon Handmade charges one fee: a 15 % referral on the total the buyer pays, with a $0.30 minimum per item. Etsy charges three — a $0.20 listing fee, 6.5 % transaction, and US payment processing of 3 % + $0.25 — which is more lines but less money on anything above $8.18.

The reason the two cross at $8.18 is that Etsy's fixed 45 cents ($0.20 + $0.25) hurts most on a cheap item and stops mattering on an expensive one, while Amazon's percentage never changes. Amazon's $0.30 floor (it applies below $2.00 of buyer spend) sits under Etsy's fixed 45 cents, so it never tips a cheap order back to Etsy: below $8.18, Amazon Handmade costs less all the way down.

Run your own numbers: Etsy fee calculator → · The same for Amazon Handmade →

Sources: Etsy Fees & Payments Policy (listing $0.20, transaction 6.5 %, Offsite Ads), checked 27 August 2026 · Etsy Payments Policy (US processing 3 % + $0.25), checked 27 August 2026 · Amazon Handmade: Referral fees (15 %, $0.30 minimum per item), checked 3 October 2026

The monthly fee Amazon waives, and what it is really worth

Amazon Handmade's headline saving is the one Amazon leads with: the $39.99-a-month Professional selling plan is waived for approved Handmade sellers after a one-time first-month payment, which Amazon puts at about $480 a year. Etsy has no monthly fee to waive, so on this line Amazon Handmade simply costs less than a Professional Amazon account would — not less than Etsy.

Read that saving for what it is. It compares Amazon Handmade against a regular Professional Amazon account, not against Etsy — and Etsy never charged a monthly fee in the first place. It is a real reason to prefer Handmade over a standard Amazon seller account; it is not a reason to prefer Amazon over Etsy.

Source: Amazon Handmade programme page (monthly fee waived for approved sellers), checked 25 September 2026

The Offsite Ads clause that flips the answer once you grow

The clause that actually changes the decision runs the other way. Etsy's Offsite Ads fee is optional at 15 % while a shop is under $10,000 in a rolling 365 days. Once the shop passes $10,000 the fee becomes mandatory and stays mandatory for the life of the shop, at a reduced 12 %, capped at $100 per order. It applies only to orders Etsy attributes to one of its ads — not to every sale — but you no longer get to opt out.

Put that on the $25 item and the comparison inverts for those orders: 23.3 % on Etsy against 15 % on Amazon Handmade. Which platform is cheaper therefore depends on how much of your Etsy revenue arrives through Etsy's own advertising, and that is a number you can only read after the fact, in your own Etsy statements.

• Under $10k/365 days: Offsite Ads is 15 % and you can turn it off.
• At or above $10k/365 days: 12 %, mandatory, permanent, capped at $100 per attributed order.
• Amazon Handmade: flat 15 % referral, no advertising fee unless you choose to run ads.
• On a $25 sale that Etsy attributes to one of its ads: 23.3 % on Etsy against a flat 15 % on Amazon Handmade.

Source: Etsy Fees & Payments Policy (Offsite Ads 15 % / 12 %, $10k threshold, $100 cap), checked 27 August 2026

The same product needs two different listings

This is the part most sellers discover after they have copied a listing across. The two platforms do not read the same fields, and the field they both call a title is almost twice as long on one as on the other.

Etsy gives you 140 characters of title and 13 tags of up to 20 characters each. Amazon Handmade caps the title at 75 characters — its own guidance recommends staying under 60 — and moves the rest of the selling copy into a separate 125-character Item Highlights field, with one hidden Search Terms field of under 250 bytes the buyer never sees. A 140-character Etsy title does not carry over: Amazon's rule is that a title must not have more than 75 characters, spaces included.

Every field limit, every marketplace, dated → · Check a title against either cap, free →

Sources: Etsy Help: How to Create a Listing (140-character title), checked 3 September 2026 · Etsy Help: How to Use Tags to Get Found in Search (13 tags, 20 characters), checked 3 September 2026 · Amazon Seller Central: product title requirements (75-character cap, 125-character Item Highlights), checked 10 September 2026 · Amazon Handmade: product title best practices (recommends 60 characters), checked 10 September 2026 · Amazon Seller Central: keyword attributes explained (Search Terms under 250 bytes), checked 30 September 2026 · Amazon Handmade: list your products (bullets required, 4–5 recommended, 1,000 characters total), checked 30 September 2026

The main photo follows a different rule too

Amazon's main image rule is specific and enforced: the product sits on pure white — RGB 255, 255, 255, not nearly white — and fills roughly 85 % of the frame, with no props and no scene. Etsy publishes no equivalent rule for the first photo, and its own guidance is about file type and size rather than background; the styled, in-context shot that does well on Etsy is exactly the shot Amazon rejects.

So the photograph is a second thing that does not travel. One product, two shoots — or one render pass that produces both.

Both shots from one phone photo →

Sources: Amazon Seller Central: product image requirements (pure white main image, ~85 % of frame), checked 22 September 2026 · Etsy Help: Requirements and Best Practices for Images in Your Etsy Shop, checked 25 September 2026

One is open, the other is an application

Anyone can open an Etsy shop and list the same afternoon. Amazon Handmade does not work that way: you apply, and Amazon reviews the application before you can list, because the programme is restricted to handcrafted goods and exists to keep mass-produced stock out of it.

That matters to the decision in two ways. It is a delay you have to plan for rather than a step you complete, and it is also the reason the category is worth being in — the barrier that keeps you waiting is the same one keeping the shelf next to yours from filling with drop-shipped duplicates.

Approved? Amazon Handmade SEO: the hidden Handmade attribute, the 75-character title and Search Terms →

Source: Amazon Handmade programme page (“Apply to sell your handcrafted products”), checked 25 September 2026

So which one should this product be on?

If you are starting, sell above $8.18, and want to be listing today: Etsy. It is cheaper per sale at every realistic handmade price point, there is no application, and the styled photography most makers already have is the photography that works there.

If you are already established on Etsy and a large share of your orders arrive through Offsite Ads, or your items sell for under $8.18, or you simply want a second shelf that is not a duplicate of the first: Amazon Handmade earns its place — a flat 15 %, no monthly fee once approved, and a buyer who is already in a checkout flow.

Score a listing you already have, free → · Write it for the other marketplace →