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Ecommerce platforms · head to head

Big Cartel vs Shopify

Priya Nandakumar Written by Priya Nandakumar · Edited by Sebastiaan Smits · Fact-checked by Connor Blake · Published September 30, 2026 · Updated September 30, 2026

Big Cartel is a deliberately small store builder for artists and makers, with a free tier for 5 products, flat plans at $15 and $30 a month and a ceiling of 500 products. Shopify is a full commerce platform with apps, international selling and room to scale. Creators selling limited runs stay on Big Cartel; catalog businesses go to Shopify.

Side by side

Big CartelShopify
What it isSimple store builder for artists and makersHosted ecommerce with the largest app ecosystem
Best forArtists, bands and small makersDirect-to-consumer brands of any size
HeadquartersUnited StatesCanada
Pricing modelFlat monthlyMonthly plan + payment fees
PricingFree Gold plan for 5 products, then flat Platinum and Diamond plans at $15 and $30 a month set by product count, with 20% off on annual billing.Published monthly plans from Basic through Grow and Advanced, with Shopify Plus listed from €2,100 a month; an extra fee of 2% down to 0.2% applies to orders not taken through Shopify Payments.
Free optionFree planFree trial
List price
as listed on September 30, 2026		$15 per month, or $144 per year (Platinum plan)€28 per month billed monthly, or €21 per month billed yearly (Basic plan)
Place in our ecommerce platforms ranking#9 of 11#4 of 11
Websitebigcartel.comshopify.com

Both are reviewed in full in Best Ecommerce Platforms in 2026. Position in that ranking can be paid for; the wording of a review or of this comparison cannot. Placement disclosure.

Which one to choose

Choose Big Cartel if

you are an artist, band or maker selling a small run of products in occasional drops, and want a flat fee or none with no apps to manage.

Big Cartel, #9 in the ranking · Visit Big Cartel →

Choose Shopify if

you are building a catalog business with a growing product range, want to sell in several currencies and channels, and accept a larger monthly bill for it.

Shopify, #4 in the ranking · Visit Shopify →

Where they differ

The monthly bill

Big Cartel's free Gold plan lists 5 products. Platinum is $15 a month or $144 a year for 50 products, and Diamond is $30 a month or $288 a year for 500. Shopify Basic is €28 a month, or €21 billed yearly, before paid apps, and adds 2% to orders taken through an outside payment provider. For a small seller, Big Cartel is cheaper and easier to predict.

Edge: Big Cartel

How far the catalog can go

Every Big Cartel plan caps the number of products: 5 on Gold, 50 on Platinum and 500 on Diamond, with 1, 5 and 25 images per product. Shopify separates its plans by fees and staff accounts rather than product counts, allows up to 2,048 variants on a single product, and carries stores through to large brands on Plus. A seller heading past 500 products has outgrown Big Cartel.

Edge: Shopify

Taking payment

Big Cartel takes cards and PayPal on every plan, and its paid plans add Venmo and Afterpay. Shopify has Shop Pay, which Shopify says converts up to 50% better than guest checkout, but on Basic it charges 2% on orders taken through a provider other than Shopify Payments. A seller content with cards and PayPal loses nothing on Big Cartel; one chasing checkout conversion gains on Shopify.

Edge: even

Reach beyond one small store

Big Cartel has no native multi-currency, limited SEO control and reporting thin enough that growing sellers export to spreadsheets, and its Zapier connection comes only with Diamond. Shopify offers local-currency pricing, storefront translation and duty estimates on every plan, a point-of-sale product, Flow automation and the largest app store in the category. Once a seller wants more channels or better numbers, Shopify has them.

Edge: Shopify

Tally: Big Cartel 1, Shopify 2, even 1.

When neither fits

Neither fits a maker who already has a website and only needs to add a store to it, or a seller running wholesale accounts. Ecwid by Lightspeed embeds a store into an existing site with no fees on orders, and BigCommerce includes B2B features on a hosted platform.

See Ecwid by Lightspeed and BigCommerce among the 11 products in Best Ecommerce Platforms in 2026.

Questions and answers

Is Big Cartel really free compared with Shopify?

For up to 5 products, yes: the Gold plan costs nothing and needs no credit card. Beyond it, Platinum is $15 a month and Diamond $30, with 20% off when paid yearly. Shopify has no free plan: 3 days free, then €1 a month for 3 months, then Basic at €28 a month.

When should a Big Cartel seller move to Shopify?

When the simplicity starts costing time. The signs are a catalog heading past the 500 products that Diamond allows, a need for multi-currency selling or wholesale accounts, and reporting so thin that you export to spreadsheets. Shopify handles those; Big Cartel deliberately does not.

How many products can I list on Big Cartel and Shopify?

Big Cartel sets the limit by plan: 5 products on free Gold, 50 on Platinum and 500 on Diamond. Shopify's plans are separated by fees and staff accounts instead, and one product can carry up to 2,048 variants across three options such as size, color and material.

Does Shopify charge extra if I do not use Shopify Payments?

Yes. Shopify lists a third-party transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus for orders taken through another payment provider. With Shopify Payments, the listed online card rate on Basic is 1.9% plus €0.25 per order.

Sources

Prices, plan limits and product facts on this page were checked against the vendors' own pages on September 30, 2026. Vendors change both without notice, so treat the figures as of that date.