Head to head
Etsy vs eBay fees
Both charge a percentage of the order including shipping, both add a small fixed fee, and both look cheaper than they are. The difference is the size of the percentage and who is buying.
| Per 50 units | Etsy | eBay |
|---|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $2,550.00 | $2,550.00 |
| Platform fees | −$264.75 | −$352.88 |
| Effective fee rate | 10.4% | 13.8% |
| Item cost | −$600.00 | −$600.00 |
| Shipping cost | −$260.00 | −$260.00 |
| You keep | $1,425.25 | $1,337.13 |
| Margin | 55.9% | 52.4% |
On these numbers, Etsy leaves you $88.13 better off across 50 sales — about $1.76 per unit, or 3.9% of the sale price. On a product with a thin margin, that percentage is the profit.
What the table cannot tell you
Every comparison like this flatters the cheaper platform, because it holds demand constant. Etsy and eBay do not have the same buyers, the same conversion rate or the same return rate. A platform that takes 3% more but converts twice as well is not the expensive one.
The number to plug in yourself: what does one sale cost you in time and advertising on each? If you cannot answer that, you are not comparing fees — you are comparing guesses.
eBay's final value fee is roughly double Etsy's transaction fee, but eBay has no listing fee and no payment processing line — the final value fee absorbs it. On a mid-priced item the two end up closer than the headline rates suggest.
Etsy wins on lower-ticket handmade goods where its 6.5% is doing the work, and it brings a buyer who expects handmade. eBay wins on category breadth and on items where the buyer compares on price alone.
The real trap on both is the same: the fee is charged on shipping. If you sell a $30 item with $8 shipping, you are paying commission on $38.