Big Cartel vs Dreamship Comparison 2026
Both cover merch & print on demand. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A small shop for people who make things
Print on demand routed through thirty print sites
At a glance
- Big Cartel starts cheaper, at $15.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Big Cartel | Dreamship | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $22 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | 7 days | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Big Cartel
A small shop for people who make things
Big Cartel has sold for artists and bands since before most of this category existed, and the product still reflects that: a handful of themes, a product limit rather than a transaction limit, and no upsell machinery. Setting up a shop takes an evening. The free plan is genuinely usable for a first release, and the paid ones are cheaper than any general storefront. Anybody who wants apps, subscriptions or a hundred variants should look elsewhere.
Our note
Count your products before choosing, because that single limit is the whole pricing model and it is easy to outgrow in a month if you sell variants as separate listings. For a catalogue that stays small this is cheaper than any general storefront in this directory and stays that way as sales grow.
Only on this side
- Covers digital products & storefronts
Dreamship
Print on demand routed through thirty print sites
Dreamship connects a shop to more than thirty printing locations and picks between them, which is what decides whether an order posted from a customer's own country arrives in a week or a month. The free plan covers product creation, the marketplace integrations and two connected stores. Paying buys a discount on every unit rather than a feature, so the subscription pays for itself at a volume the merchant can calculate. Item costs are quoted per product and are not on this page.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.