In the UK, the fee gap between Etsy and Shopify is wider than the US comparison suggests. On the pages each company published on September 11, 2026, Etsy’s UK payment processing fee is 4% + £0.20, against 2% + 25p on Shopify’s UK Basic plan, and Etsy adds a 0.48% regulatory operating fee. VAT does not change either fee schedule. What it changes is who is responsible for VAT on your sales, and leaving a marketplace can move some of that responsibility onto you.
This page covers the UK in detail and uses Ireland as the worked EU example, because both companies publish different fees in each country. It is general information about published rules, not tax advice. Your VAT position depends on where your business is established, where you sell and how much, and HMRC’s guidance or a qualified accountant is where to confirm it.
Last checked: September 11, 2026. Fees read that day from Etsy’s and Shopify’s UK and Irish pages; VAT rules from GOV.UK, the European Commission and Shopify’s Help Center.
Shopify vs Etsy fees in the UK, as published
Etsy states that “Fees vary according to the location of your bank account,” so the figures below apply to a UK bank account. From Etsy’s UK sell page, read September 11, 2026:
| Etsy fee (UK) | As published |
|---|---|
| Listing fee | £0.15, with listings active for four months or until they sell. Etsy notes that listing fees “are billed for $0.20 USD, so the amount in your currency may vary” |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% |
| Payment processing | 4% + £0.20 |
| Regulatory operating fee | 0.48%, charged “in certain countries where the cost of doing business has increased” |
| Offsite Ads | 15% on sales from those ads |
| Currency conversion | 2.5% where your listing currency differs from your payment account currency |
From Shopify’s UK pricing page, read the same day in GBP:
| Shopify plan (UK) | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Online card rate | Amex and international cards | Other payment provider fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | £25/mo | £19/mo | 2% + 25p | 3.1% + 25p | 2% |
| Grow | £65/mo | £49/mo | 1.7% + 25p | 2.7% + 25p | 1% |
| Advanced | £344/mo | £259/mo | 1.5% + 25p | 2.5% + 25p | 0.6% |
The UK pricing page did not say whether its plan prices include VAT, so nothing on this page assumes either way.
Why the UK math is not the US math with a currency swap
On the US versions of the same pages, Etsy’s processing fee is 3% + $0.25 and Shopify Basic’s card rate is 2.9% + 30¢. Those two lines are almost identical, which is why US comparisons treat card processing as a wash and focus on Etsy’s 6.5% transaction fee against Shopify’s plan price. The US version of this comparison works through that crossover.
In the UK the processing line is not a wash. Etsy’s 4% is double Shopify Basic’s 2%, and the regulatory operating fee has no Shopify equivalent. Adding up the percentages, a UK Etsy sale carries 6.5% + 4% + 0.48%, or 10.98% before flat amounts, against 2% on Shopify Basic for a standard card. That gap of 8.98 percentage points is larger than the US gap of 6.6 points (9.5% against 2.9%).
The practical effect shows up in the break-even. Ignoring flat per-order amounts and listing fees, the percentage gap covers Shopify Basic’s £25 monthly price at roughly £278 a month in sales. The equivalent figure on the US pages is roughly $379 against a $25 plan. Both numbers are my arithmetic from the published rates, not figures either company publishes, and they are in different currencies. The point is the direction: in the UK, the percentage gap pays for the plan at a lower level of sales.
A worked illustration
The assumptions are invented round numbers, not a real shop: £1,500 a month in sales, 40 orders, 100 active listings, standard UK cards, no Offsite Ads, and Shopify Basic billed monthly. The regulatory operating fee is applied to the full sale value. Etsy’s fee policy defines its exact base, and that page did not open for us on the day of writing.
| Line | Etsy (UK) | Shopify Basic (UK) |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | £0 | £25.00 |
| Transaction fee (6.5%) | £97.50 | £0 |
| Regulatory operating fee (0.48%) | £7.20 | £0 |
| Card processing, percentage | £60.00 (4%) | £30.00 (2%) |
| Card processing, flat amount (40 orders) | £8.00 | £10.00 |
| Listing renewals (100 listings, four-month cycle) | £3.75 | £0 |
| Monthly fees | £176.45 | £65.00 |
If a large share of your buyers pay with Amex or international cards, the Shopify card line rises toward 3.1% + 25p, which on these numbers is £46.50 plus £10.00. Etsy’s UK page did not list a separate international rate.
None of this includes apps, a theme, a domain or the cost of replacing marketplace traffic. What a Shopify store costs per month beyond the plan covers those lines, and every one of them lands on the Shopify side.
Ireland as the EU example
EU fees differ by country, so Ireland is here as one worked case, not as a stand-in for the whole EU. Etsy’s Irish sell page, read September 11, 2026, lists a €0.17 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price including postage, payment processing of 4% + €0.30, 15% on Offsite Ads sales and 2.5% currency conversion. No regulatory operating fee appeared on that page when I read it.
Shopify’s Irish pricing page, read the same day, lists Basic at €32 a month or €24 billed annually, Grow at €92 or €69, and Advanced at €384 or €289. Online card rates are 2% + €0.25 on Basic, 1.7% + €0.25 on Grow and 1.5% + €0.25 on Advanced. International rates are 3.1%, 2.7% and 2.5% respectively, each plus €0.25. Every card rate on the page is marked “excl. VAT”.
That “excl. VAT” matters, and the next section explains why Ireland is treated differently from the UK.
How VAT changes the answer: three separate questions
Sellers often ask what VAT does to the comparison as if it were one thing. It is three.
1. VAT on your own sales does not depend on the platform
If your UK business is VAT registered, VAT on your sales is owed whether the sale happens on Etsy or on your own store. GOV.UK’s VAT rates page lists the standard rate as 20% for “most goods and services.” The registration threshold, per GOV.UK’s registration page, is reached when “your total taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000,” or when you expect to go over it in the next 30 days.
The word “total” is the practical point for anyone planning to run both channels. The threshold looks at the business’s taxable turnover, not at one sales channel, so a shop that sits under it on Etsy alone can cross it once own-store sales are added. Running a store alongside your Etsy shop changes your fee picture and can change your VAT picture at the same time.
2. VAT on the platforms’ own fees
Shopify’s Help Center page on Shopify Payments payouts and fees, read September 11, 2026, states that for businesses operating from the European Union, among other places, “taxes are added on processing fees,” and that “In the United Kingdom and within the European Union, excluding Ireland, a 0% tax rate, termed as a reverse-charge, is applicable.” Read together, a UK store sees reverse charge on its Shopify Payments processing fees, while an Irish store has tax added on top of card rates that the Irish pricing page quotes excluding VAT.
Etsy also applies VAT to seller fees in some countries. Its Help Center article on how VAT is collected on seller fees did not open for us on the day of writing, and the UK sell page does not mention VAT, so I am not quoting Etsy’s rules here. That article, and the invoices in your own Etsy account, are where to check how it applies to you.
3. Who collects VAT on cross-border sales: the change that comes with leaving
This is the part fee comparisons skip, and it matters most to sellers based outside the UK who sell to UK buyers.
GOV.UK’s guidance on VAT and overseas goods sold through online marketplaces states that for goods outside the UK in consignments of £135 or less, “The online marketplace must charge and account for VAT at the point of sale.” It also makes marketplaces liable for VAT on goods of any value located in the UK and sold by an overseas business through them. On your own store there is no marketplace in the middle, and GOV.UK’s registration page states that a business based outside the UK must register “regardless of taxable turnover” if it supplies goods to the UK or expects to in the next 30 days.
For EU-based sellers, the European Commission’s One Stop Shop page describes an annual EUR 10,000 threshold that has applied to intra-EU distance sales of goods since July 1, 2021. Below it, and subject to conditions, VAT stays with your home country. Above it, “the general rule applies without exception,” and the One Stop Shop lets a business declare VAT due across member states through one portal. Non-EU businesses have separate schemes listed on the same page.
A new Shopify store has one more line worth knowing about. Shopify’s Help Center page on Shopify Tax pricing, read September 11, 2026, lists Shopify Tax as free for stores created on or after May 13, 2026 until a lifetime threshold of $100,000 USD in global sales. After that it costs 0.25% per order in the EU and UK on Basic, Grow and Advanced, capped at $0.99 per order, and is charged only in regions where you have activated tax collection.
What this means if you are deciding
Put the three together and the UK answer has two parts that point in different directions. On fees, the UK comparison leans further toward your own store than the US one does, because Etsy’s processing fee and regulatory operating fee both sit above Shopify’s UK card rates. On administration, leaving a marketplace can hand you VAT work the marketplace was doing, especially if you are based outside the UK or sell across EU borders.
Neither part settles the move on its own, and I am not going to tell you which way to go. If you use our fee calculator, note that it has no country field, so compare its result with the UK or Irish figures above rather than assuming the rates match. The wider question, whether the move makes sense at all, is in the full framework for moving from Etsy to Shopify.
FAQ
Is Shopify cheaper than Etsy in the UK?
Does selling on Shopify change my UK VAT registration threshold?
Does Etsy collect UK VAT for me?
Is there VAT on Shopify’s fees in the UK?
Last checked: September 11, 2026. Etsy fees from etsy.com/uk/sell and etsy.com/ie/sell; Shopify fees from shopify.com/uk/pricing and shopify.com/ie/pricing; VAT rules from GOV.UK, the European Commission’s One Stop Shop page and Shopify’s Help Center, all read that day. Fees and tax rules change and differ by country.