Big Cartel vs Merchize Comparison 2026
Big Cartel is a small shop built for a handful of releases: free to start, Platinum at $15 a month and Diamond at $30, with no transaction fee stacked on top and tiers that cap how many products you list rather than how much you sell. Merchize is a print-on-demand fulfiller first: printing and shipping cost nothing beyond the product itself, and its storefront is a separate $79 a month for up to 50,000 products, $299 above that. Big Cartel suits an artist with five things to sell. Merchize suits somebody who already sells elsewhere and just wants the printing handled, or needs a storefront sized for a catalogue Big Cartel was never built for.
A small shop for people who make things
Print on demand with a storefront attached
At a glance
- Big Cartel starts cheaper, at $15.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Big Cartel | Merchize | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $79 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | 7 days | 7 days |
| API |
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.
Merchize
Print on demand with a storefront attached
Merchize prints and ships the order, and will also host the shop it was bought from. Those are sold separately: fulfilment costs nothing beyond the product, and the storefront is the part with a monthly fee. That split suits somebody who already sells somewhere and only needs the printing, and somebody who wants both without wiring two services together.
Why people weigh these two
- Merchize instead of Big Cartel
- Merchize adds print on demand behind the storefront from $79 with a free tier, so stock is printed to order rather than made in advance.
- Big Cartel instead of Merchize
- Big Cartel is a small storefront on its own, without printing or fulfilment attached, for someone handling production themselves.
Which one should you pick
Pick Big Cartel for a small catalogue you want online this week with no ongoing platform fee beyond a flat monthly price. Free ships a real Gold-plan shop, Platinum is $15 a month and Diamond is $30, and none of them take a cut of sales the way many storefronts do. A seller who needs subscriptions, dozens of variants or a hundred products will hit the product-count wall fast.
Pick Merchize if printing and shipping are the actual job, or if the catalogue is too large for a shop like Big Cartel. Fulfilment alone is free, unlimited users included, and only the product cost per order is charged. Add the storefront and it jumps to $79 a month for up to 50,000 products, $299 above that, billed per store rather than per account, which is not the tier to choose for five t-shirt designs.
Common questions
- Is Big Cartel cheaper than Merchize?
- For a small shop, yes, clearly: Big Cartel tops out at $30 a month for Diamond with no per-sale fee. Merchize's fulfilment is free, but its storefront starts at $79 a month, more than double Big Cartel's top tier, and is built for a catalogue in the thousands of products rather than a handful.
- Does Merchize charge for printing and shipping the way a subscription would?
- No. The fulfilment plan is free, including unlimited users, API access and order tracking, and the only cost is the product itself per order. The $79 or $299 monthly fee only applies if Merchize is also hosting the storefront.
- Does Big Cartel take a percentage of sales like some storefronts do?
- No. Big Cartel charges a flat monthly fee only, free, $15 or $30, with no transaction fee layered on top. Merchize's storefront plans are also flat monthly fees per store, $79 or $299, separate from the per-order product cost its fulfilment side charges.
- Which one is built for a bigger catalogue?
- Merchize. Its storefront plans are scaled for 5,000 to 50,000 products before the price even changes again. Big Cartel's tiers separate by how many products can be listed at all, and the whole product is built around a small catalogue rather than a large one.
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.