Selling online: Shopify, Square or Etsy?

Say you make handmade furniture, and you want to sell it to people beyond your workshop and the local craft fair. A few years ago, that meant paying someone to build an online shop from scratch: the product pages, the basket, the checkout and the card payments. It took a long time and cost a lot.

You don’t need to do that any more. There are now ready-made shops you can move into, where someone else looks after the technical side and you pay a monthly fee or a cut of each sale. For most small businesses, one of three is the right place to start: Shopify, Square or Etsy.

This guide explains the difference, what each costs, and how to choose.

Shopify: your own shop, run for you

Shopify gives you a shop on your own web address, with your name on it. You add your products, photos and prices, and Shopify takes care of the checkout, card payments and keeping the shop online.

What it costs. Shopify’s pricing page lists the Basic plan at £25 a month, or £19 a month if you pay for a year up front. On top of that, each online card payment costs 2% + 25p when you use Shopify’s own payments. If you use a different payment provider, Shopify adds a further 2%.

Good for: a business that wants a shop of its own, expects to sell regularly, and wants room to grow.

Square Online: if you already take cards in person

Square makes the card readers and tills many cafés, shops and market stalls already use. Square Online is its website and shop builder.

What it costs. Square’s plans page lists a free plan at £0 a month, with online card payments at 1.4% + 25p for UK cards (2.5% + 25p for cards from abroad). Paid plans start at £20 a month, billed yearly, and add more features.

Good for: a business that already uses Square in person and wants to add online orders without a monthly fee, such as click and collect.

Etsy: a market stall, online

Etsy isn’t your own shop. It’s a big online marketplace for handmade, vintage and craft items, where shoppers browse many sellers at once. You get a shop page on Etsy, not your own website.

What it costs. There’s no monthly fee, but each sale costs more. According to Etsy’s fees policy, there’s a small fee to list each item, and when it sells, Etsy takes 6.5% of the price, including what you charge for delivery. If you take payment through Etsy, which most sellers do, there’s also a payment processing fee of 4% + 20p for UK sellers.

Good for: handmade and craft businesses that want shoppers to find them, and want to test whether things sell before spending anything on a shop of their own.

What a £100 sale costs on each

Using the figures above, here’s roughly what you’d pay in fees on a single £100 online card sale, before any monthly fee:

• Shopify (Basic): about £2.25, plus £19 to £25 a month
• Square Online (free plan): about £1.65 for a UK card, with no monthly fee
• Etsy: about £10.70 (the 6.5% plus the payment fee), plus the listing fee

Etsy costs much more per sale, but it brings you shoppers. Shopify and Square cost less per sale, but you have to bring the shoppers yourself, through Google, social media, or customers who already know you.

Prices are from each company’s own pages in October 2026, and they do change, so check before you sign up.

How to choose

A few questions usually settle it:

• Do people already know your name? If so, your own shop on Shopify or Square makes sense. If not, Etsy’s shoppers might be worth the higher fees while you build up.
• Do you already take cards with Square? Then Square Online is the easy next step.
• Do you sell handmade or craft items? Etsy is built for exactly that, and plenty of businesses use it alongside their own shop.
• Do you only sell a few things, or mostly take orders by phone? You might not need a shop at all. A clear website with good photos and an easy way to get in touch can be enough. Our guide on whether you need a new website or just fixes covers that.

Setting it up yourself

All three are designed so you can set them up yourself, and plenty of people do. Getting a shop online is the easy part. Getting one that people actually buy from takes a bit more experience: clear photos and descriptions, a checkout that doesn’t put people off, delivery costs that don’t come as a surprise, and making sure people can find you in the first place.

If you’d like a hand with any of that, or a second opinion on which to choose, get in touch. If you already have a shop that isn’t selling as well as it should, we can help with that too.