Big Cartel vs Order Desk Comparison 2026
Both cover merch & print on demand and digital products & storefronts. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A small shop for people who make things
Route orders to whoever is printing them
At a glance
- Big Cartel starts cheaper, at $15.
- Only Big Cartel has a free tier.
Side by side
Big Cartel | Order Desk | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $20 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 7 days | 30 days |
| API | Not stated |
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.
Order Desk
Route orders to whoever is printing them
Order Desk sits between the shops a creator sells on and the printers who fulfil the orders, applying rules that decide which item goes to which supplier. That matters the moment a catalogue spans two print partners or a marketplace and a storefront at once. It integrates with several hundred services rather than being tied to one. This is plumbing, and it is bought by people whose fulfilment has already become a spreadsheet.
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.