How to start an online shop with no monthly fee

By Povilas, who runs Ginta · 8 November 2026 · 6 min read

You can start an online shop with no monthly fee in two ways: on a marketplace such as Etsy, which charges per listing and per sale instead, or on a free shop plan (Big Cartel, Square, Payhip, Ginta), which has limits. Nothing makes card payments free: every option takes a payment fee on each sale. For a shop with 20 orders of €30 a month, the difference between options is roughly €14 to €69 a month in fees, worked out below.

We make Ginta. Every other number comes from the company's own pages, linked, checked on 8 November 2026.

What "no monthly fee" really means

• Marketplaces charge nothing a month but take a share of each sale. Etsy charges $0.20 per listing, 6.5% of each order including shipping, and payment processing on top (Etsy fee basics).
• Free shop plans charge nothing a month but limit what you can do. Big Cartel's free plan holds 5 products (Gold plan); Payhip's free plan takes 5% of every sale (Payhip pricing); Square Free has a higher card fee and no own domain (Square plans); Ginta's free plan has the whole Shop for up to 25 products per website at a name.ginta.page address.
• Card fees are never free. Stripe, for example, has no setup or monthly fee, but charges per payment: 1.5% + €0.25 for a standard EEA card in the euro area, 1.5% + 20p for a standard UK card, 2.9% + 30¢ for a US card (Stripe Ireland, Stripe UK, Stripe US).

A worked example: 20 orders of €30 a month

The assumptions: a small shop in the euro area, 20 orders a month at €30 each including delivery (€600 in sales), buyers paying with standard EEA cards. Real months will differ: premium and non-European cards cost more (Stripe charges 2.8% + €0.25 for premium EEA cards and 3.15% + €0.25 for international cards), and returns, postage and packaging are not included.

How the numbers are worked out:

• Stripe, standard EEA card: 1.5% of €30 = €0.45, plus €0.25 = €0.70 per order; × 20 = €14.00.
• Payhip: 5% of €600 = €30.00, plus the same Stripe fees, which Payhip says still apply at their standard rates.
• Etsy: 6.5% of €600 = €39.00. Etsy Payments in Lithuania is 4% + €0.30: €24.00 + €6.00 = €30.00 (Etsy payment processing fees). Each item sold from a listing with more than one in stock costs another $0.20, about $4 for 20 sales. Not included: the one-time shop set-up fee, which varies by country, and Offsite Ads, which take 15% (12% for bigger shops) of an order that came from one of Etsy's ads (Etsy fees and taxes).
• Shopify Basic: €27 a month paid monthly (€19 paid yearly), after a 3-day trial and three months at €1. Shopify Payments on Basic: 1.8% + €0.25 per standard card, so €10.80 + €5.00 = €15.80 (Shopify pricing). Paid yearly, the month comes to €34.80.

In the US, Square Free is another no-monthly-fee option: its online card fee is 3.3% + 30¢, so 20 orders of $30 cost $25.80 a month, against $23.40 at Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ (Square pricing).

So which is cheapest?

On fees alone, a free plan with 0% platform fee (Big Cartel Gold or Ginta Free) costs least: you pay only the card fee. Etsy costs the most per sale, and that's the price of its buyers: people already search on Etsy, while a shop of your own only gets the visitors you send. If Etsy already works for you, you can keep it and add your own shop next to it; our move from Shopify or Etsy plan explains how.

A monthly plan starts to make sense when its features save you more than it costs, or when you need something the free plans don't have: hundreds of products, a point of sale, digital products, an app store.

Starting with no money: what you actually need

1. Products and photos. A phone and daylight are enough to start. Your own photos beat stock pictures.
2. A payment account. Stripe has no setup or monthly fee; it charges when you're paid.
3. A shop. A free plan from the list above.
4. The trust pages: contact, delivery, returns and privacy. Stripe checks for them too: Stripe is asking for a business website.

What will cost money later: your own domain, packaging and postage, and whatever registration or tax your country asks of a business.

How Ginta's free plan works

The Shop is part of a Ginta website, made from a description by Ginta's AI or by your own Claude or ChatGPT. On the free plan you get every Shop feature: product pages with sizes and colours, discount codes and automatic discounts, gift cards, delivery by weight, pickup times, PDF receipts, and a Sales view of what came in. Buyers pay on Stripe's checkout and the money goes to your own Stripe account; Ginta takes 0% on every plan.

The limits on Free: up to 25 products per website, a name.ginta.page address and a small "Made with Ginta" badge. Your own domain and no badge start at €5 a month (Hosting, if you build with your own Claude or ChatGPT) or €19 a month on Light with Ginta's AI (pricing). What the Shop can't do at any price: digital downloads, subscriptions, PayPal, more than one currency, a point of sale. The full list is on Ginta Commerce, and Ginta vs Big Cartel compares the two free plans.

Written with AI help for Ginta, which Povilas runs; he also teaches a website-building course. The screenshots are from the real Ginta on the date above, and prices come from our pricing page.