eBay Fees vs Your Own Website: What You Actually Keep
What eBay actually takes per sale
Every rate on this page comes from eBay's official selling fees page and was verified on Oct 18, 2026. We don't round, and we don't average categories.
The default stack (most categories)
| Fee line | Rate | Official anchor |
|---|---|---|
| Final value fee, most categories | 13.6% of order total (up to $7,500), then 2.35% | eBay selling fees ↗ verified 2026-10-18 |
| Per-order fee | $0.30 if order total ≤ $10.00; $0.40 above | eBay selling fees ↗ verified 2026-10-18 |
| Insertion fee | 250 free listings per month, then $0.35 each | eBay selling fees ↗ verified 2026-10-18 |
The final value fee is charged on the order total — item price plus shipping plus sales tax. On a $50 sale with free shipping, that is $6.80 + $0.40 = $7.20, or 14.4% of what the buyer paid you.
Category rates that differ
| Category | Rate up to tier | After tier | Anchor + verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most categories | 13.6% (≤ $7,500) | 2.35% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Books, Movies & TV, Music (excl. vinyl/NFT) | 15.3% (≤ $7,500) | 2.35% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Trading cards, coins & paper money (excl. bullion) | 13.25% (≤ $7,500) | 2.35% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Women's bags & handbags | 15% (≤ $2,000) | 9% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Jewelry (excl. watches parts) | 15% (≤ $5,000) | 9% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Athletic shoes, order ≥ $150 | 8%, per-order fee waived | — | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
Note the thresholds most comparison posts get wrong: women's bags switch at $2,000, jewelry at $5,000 — not a flat $7,500 everywhere.
Fees that can raise your rate
| Condition | Adds | Anchor + verified |
|---|---|---|
| Below Standard seller level | +6% (4+ consecutive months: +7%) | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| International fee (item ships or buyer abroad) | +1.65% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Seller currency conversion | 3.25% | official ↗ 2026-10-18 |
Full category table and live calculator: eBay Fee Calculator →
What your own store really costs
A store is not one subscription. It is three cost lines, and one of them is the line comparison posts skip.
Line 1 — the platform subscription
| Platform / plan | Monthly billing | Yearly (monthly equivalent) | Anchor + verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $39 | $29 | shopify.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Shopify Grow | $105 | $79 | shopify.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Shopify Advanced | $399 | $299 | shopify.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| BigCommerce Core | $39 | $29 | bigcommerce.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| BigCommerce Growth | $105 | $79 | bigcommerce.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Wix | varies by region | wix.com/plans states “Prices and currency vary by location” — no fixed number published; reference only | |
Line 2 — payment processing
| Route | Cost per US online card sale | Anchor + verified |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic, Shopify Payments | 2.9% + $0.30 | shopify.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| Shopify Basic, third-party gateway | 2.9% + $0.30 plus +2% Shopify surcharge, plus the processor's own fee | shopify.com/pricing ↗ 2026-10-18 |
| PayPal Wallet (as external processor) | 3.49% + $0.49 | PayPal US merchant fee PDF ↗ 2026-10-18 |
Line 3 — the part review sites don't price
Shipping labels, a domain (~$15/year), optional themes and apps — small, predictable. The real one: traffic. eBay's 13.6% buys you placement in a marketplace where buyers already search. Your store's 2.9% buys you nothing except checkout — visitors come from ads, SEO, social, or repeat customers, and those have their own costs. Any break-even number that ignores traffic is a floor, not a forecast. We'd rather say that plainly than sell you a store.
If you sell on Etsy too, the same comparison for Etsy vs Shopify lives at /etsy-fees-vs-shopify/; for a pure eBay–Shopify fee table, see /ebay-fees-vs-shopify/. (Both go live Oct 19.)
The break-even math
All figures below: most categories (13.6%), no shipping in the fee base, $0.40 per-order tier, Shopify Basic at $39/month monthly billing versus $29 yearly equivalent. You can recompute every row yourself.
diff per order = price × (13.6% − 2.9%) + ($0.40 − $0.30) · break-even orders/month = monthly plan ÷ diff per order
Break-even by item price
| Item price | eBay fee/order (incl. per-order) | Shopify card fee/order | You keep more per order by | $39/mo break-even | $29/mo break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $3.80 (15.2%) | $1.03 | $2.78 | 14.1 orders ≈ $351 | 10.5 orders ≈ $261 |
| $50 | $7.20 (14.4%) | $1.75 | $5.45 | 7.2 orders ≈ $358 | 5.3 orders ≈ $266 |
| $100 | $14.00 (14.0%) | $3.20 | $10.80 | 3.6 orders ≈ $361 | 2.7 orders ≈ $269 |
| $200 | $27.60 (13.8%) | $6.10 | $21.50 | 1.8 orders ≈ $363 | 1.3 orders ≈ $270 |
Order counts are theoretical break-even points; round up to whole orders in practice. Read the $351–363 column as: roughly $350 in monthly sales, at any of these price points, covers a $39 plan — before you spend a dollar on traffic.
What the gap becomes at $50 average price
| Orders per month | Monthly savings on your own store |
|---|---|
| 10 | $15.50 |
| 40 | $179.00 |
| 150 | $778.50 |
| 300 | $1,596.00 |
Same $50 item, same buyer, same shipping — the difference is entirely which fee stack it passes through.
Run your own numbers
The tables above use list prices and the most common category. Your category, plan, and gateway change the answer: compute your exact per-order cost → (live Oct 19), or compare nine selling channels side by side at /compare/.
Decision tree: stay on eBay, or build?
No single answer fits every seller. Three branches, honestly drawn.
Stay on eBay (for now) if:
- You sell fewer than ~7 orders a month at a ~$50 average — the plan fee eats the per-order gap, and marketplace traffic is worth more than the fee premium
- Your category is niche and buyers search inside eBay rather than Google
- You have no time or budget for content, ads, or email — a store with no traffic is a $39/month receipt
- Your buyers are price-driven one-time purchasers
Your own store pays off if:
- You already have traffic that doesn't come from eBay — a YouTube channel, Instagram, an email list, repeat buyers
- Your average order runs $50+, where the per-order gap ($5.45 at $50) compounds fastest
- Your eBay category sits at the 13.6% tier or higher (15% bags, 15.3% media)
- You can fund a traffic budget and treat the first 3–6 months as an investment, not savings
Run both — the answer for most established sellers:
eBay keeps finding you new buyers; your own store captures repeat purchases and higher-margin orders you'd otherwise pay 13.6% on. Route new-customer orders to eBay, repeat and high-ticket orders to the store. The /compare/ page (row 9, “Your own store”) shows both stacks on one screen so you can price each order into the cheaper channel.
We don't recommend a builder, and this page won't rank them. The numbers above are the same for every platform listed; your decision is about order volume and traffic, not brand.
FAQ
Is it cheaper to sell on eBay or your own website?
On fees alone, it depends on volume. Below roughly 7 orders a month at a $50 average, eBay is cheaper — the $39 plan fee outweighs the $5.45-per-order gap. Above that, your own store is cheaper on every additional order: $179/month saved at 40 orders, $1,596 at 300. But eBay's fee includes buyer traffic; a store's does not. The break-even table above gives the exact crossover for your price point.
Is it better to sell on eBay or your own website?
“Cheaper” and “better” are different questions. eBay is better when you need its search traffic and have low volume. Your own site is better when you have your own traffic source and repeat buyers. For most established sellers the honest answer is both: eBay for discovery, your store for repeats and high-ticket orders. The decision tree above maps which branch fits you.
Should I sell on eBay or my own website?
Test with real numbers before committing: pull your last month of eBay orders, recompute them through the break-even formula above (or the calculators we link), and check whether your repeat-buyer share would justify a store. If fewer than 1 in 10 buyers ever reorder, the store's plan fee rarely pays for itself; if 1 in 4 do, it usually does.
Is this break-even calculator free?
Yes. Every table and formula on this page is free to use, no account, no signup, no limits.
Does this use official Shopify pricing?
Yes. Shopify figures come from shopify.com/pricing, verified Oct 18, 2026: Basic $39/month (or $29 yearly equivalent), card rate 2.9% + $0.30, third-party gateway surcharge +2%. The page footer notes some data as of Oct 15, 2026; we re-verified the monthly prices and per-plan fee schedule against the live page. eBay figures come from eBay's official selling fees page, verified Oct 18, 2026. Every rate row above links to its source.
What's the cheapest ecommerce website builder?
We don't recommend platforms, and we won't rank them — we only compute costs. At list price (verified Oct 18, 2026): Shopify Basic is $39/month monthly or $29/month billed yearly; BigCommerce Core matches at $39/$29; Wix publishes no single number because prices vary by region (its blog references yearly plans from $17 to $159, but the official plans page is geo-variable). Entry price is one input — the break-even math above matters more than a $10 plan difference.
What about taxes?
Marketplace fees and store costs both reduce your taxable profit, but they enter your books differently — and since 2026, payment platforms report your gross sales to the IRS on Form 1099-K. What you keep after fees is not what you owe tax on. See /ebay-1099-k/ for what gets reported, what doesn't, and the records to keep per channel.
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