The Real Cost of Selling on Etsy — and What You Keep on Your Own Site

Many readers, witches and spell casters started on Etsy because it was easy: open a shop, list a reading, wait for orders. But over the years the cost of that ease has grown. Fees have climbed, advertising has become harder to avoid, and for spiritual sellers there is the added risk of a shop being closed overnight. This article adds up what selling on Etsy really costs and compares it with selling from your own website.

Figures below are based on Etsy's published US fee schedule at the time of writing. Fees change and vary by country, so always check Etsy's current Fees & Payments policy for your own shop.

Where the money goes on Etsy

• Listing fee: $0.20 per listing, renewed every four months or every time an item sells.
• Transaction fee: 6.5% of the total sale price, including shipping and gift wrap.
• Payment processing: about 3% + $0.25 per order in the US (higher in many other countries).
• Offsite Ads: 15% of the order when a sale comes from an Etsy ad on another website. Once a shop passes $10,000 in yearly sales, this is mandatory at 12% and you cannot opt out.
• Etsy Ads (onsite): optional, but many sellers say listings are hard to find without them.
• Currency conversion: 2.5% if your listing currency differs from your bank currency.

A worked example: one $40 tarot reading

Cost	Etsy (normal sale)	Etsy (Offsite Ad sale)	Own website
Listing fee	$0.20	$0.20	$0.00
Transaction fee (6.5%)	$2.60	$2.60	$0.00
Payment processing	$1.45	$1.45	$1.46 (2.9% + $0.30 card fee)
Offsite Ads (15%)	—	$6.00	$0.00
Total fees	$4.25 (10.6%)	$10.25 (25.6%)	$1.46 (3.7%)
You keep	$35.75	$29.75	$38.54

What that means over a year

Say you sell 50 readings a month at $40 — $24,000 a year. On Etsy, ordinary fees come to roughly $2,550. If a quarter of those orders come through Offsite Ads (at the mandatory 12% rate once you pass $10,000), add about $720 more, for around $3,270 a year. Add $5 a day in optional Etsy Ads and that rises past $5,000.

On your own website, card processing on the same sales is about $880. Add a website plan at around $20–$40 a month and a domain at about $15 a year, and the total is roughly $1,150–$1,400 a year. That can leave $2,000–$3,500 more in your pocket every year — before counting the cost of being shut down.

The hidden cost: losing your shop

As we covered in our report on Etsy shutting down tarot readers and spell casters, Etsy's rules do not allow listings that promise a metaphysical result. When a shop is suspended, sellers can lose:

• Their reviews and star rating, often built up over years.
• Access to their customer list — Etsy buyers belong to Etsy, not to you.
• Funds held back in their payment account while the case is reviewed.
• Every listing, photo and search ranking they had.

On your own website, your customers, emails, reviews and content stay yours.

Etsy vs. your own site, side by side

	Etsy	Your own site
Fees per sale	About 10–25%+	About 3–4%
Monthly cost	None required (ads optional)	About $20–$40
Customer emails	Not yours	Yours
Rules on spiritual services	Restricted; risk of closure	Your own (within your payment provider's terms)
Built-in shoppers	Yes	No — you bring your own
Branding	Etsy's look	Fully yours

To be fair to Etsy

Etsy does bring buyers to you, and that is worth something when you are just starting. A website on its own gets no visitors until people find it. That is why many practitioners now use both: keep a small Etsy presence for discovery, and send repeat clients to their own site where they keep more of each sale. Also check your card processor's rules — some payment companies have their own limits on psychic and spiritual services.

Practical steps to move off Etsy

1. Buy your own domain name, so your address never depends on a marketplace.
2. Set up a simple website with booking or checkout for readings and spellwork.
3. Start an email list now, and invite every happy client to join.
4. Ask past clients to leave reviews on your own site.
5. Get listed in directories that welcome spiritual work — like the Crossroads Journal shop and reader listings, which are free for human-made shops from any platform.

The bottom line

Etsy is convenient, but convenience has a price. For a busy reader or spell caster, that price can be thousands of dollars a year — and, for spiritual sellers, the risk of losing everything overnight. A shop on your own website takes more effort to grow, but what you build there stays yours.

— Seraphina