If you make things with your hands and want to sell online, you have two main marketplaces aimed at you - Etsy and Amazon Handmade. They look similar from outside. They are not similar inside. The wrong choice does not kill the business but it slows it down for years. Here is the honest comparison from someone who has tested both with real students.

Who shops where

This is the biggest difference and the one most beginner crafters get wrong. Etsy and Amazon Handmade attract different buyers.

Etsy shoppers come specifically looking for handmade or one-of-a-kind. They expect a small story. They expect to wait a few days for a custom order. They pay 20-30% more for craft-quality than they would for a mass-market equivalent because the handmade-ness is part of the value.

Amazon Handmade shoppers were not necessarily looking for handmade. They found you because they searched for "leather wallet" and your listing appeared next to factory-made wallets. They expect Amazon-quality shipping (2-day Prime), Amazon-quality return policy, and Amazon-quality customer service. They will compare your $80 handmade wallet to a $25 factory one in the same search results and judge accordingly.

That difference shapes everything that follows.

Fees

Etsy: $0.20 listing fee, 6.5% transaction fee, payment processing around 3% + $0.25. Optional Etsy Ads if you choose. Total bite is roughly 11-14% of the sale.

Amazon Handmade: 15% referral fee. No listing fee. Professional seller plan ($39.99/month) waived for Handmade sellers. Optional FBA fees if you use Amazon to fulfill. Total bite is 15% if you fulfill yourself, 25-35% if you use FBA.

Etsy is cheaper on fees alone. But fees are not the whole picture - traffic costs and conversion rates matter more.

Traffic

Amazon has roughly 30 times the traffic of Etsy. But that does not mean 30 times the relevant traffic for your handmade product. Most Amazon traffic is searching for mass-produced items at low prices. The portion of Amazon traffic actually interested in handmade is a fraction.

Etsy traffic is smaller but better-converted for handmade specifically. A 2% conversion rate on Etsy is normal for a decent listing. On Amazon Handmade, the same product might convert at 0.6% because most viewers click through and decide it is too expensive compared to factory alternatives nearby.

Net effect: for most handmade sellers, Etsy produces more sales despite being a smaller marketplace, because the audience match is closer.

SEO and search behaviour

Etsy search is keyword-heavy. Tags, titles, attributes - get those right and you rank fast. The Etsy SEO playbook is well-documented and you can climb to page one on a niche keyword within weeks of launching, even with no reviews. I broke down the full process in Etsy SEO and Etsy tags that help you rank.

Amazon search is review-heavy. Without 20+ reviews, your listing struggles regardless of how good the copy is. The algorithm rewards sales velocity and review count more than keyword relevance. This penalizes new handmade sellers who cannot generate review velocity quickly.

Competition just means customers exist. You just need to do a little better.

Brand-building

Etsy lets you build something close to a brand. Custom shop page, story, "About" section, photos, custom thank-you notes. Repeat-buyer rate on Etsy is around 35-45% in established categories. Buyers remember which shop they bought from.

Amazon Handmade puts you inside Amazon's brand. Buyers remember "I bought this on Amazon", not "I bought this from Maria's shop". Repeat-buyer rate is much lower. You are largely a one-night-stand business on Amazon Handmade, no matter how good your work is.

For most crafters this matters more than they realize. The brand you build on Etsy can move with you to a Shopify store later. The brand you build on Amazon Handmade mostly cannot.

Shipping expectations

Etsy buyers will wait 2-3 weeks for a custom or handmade item. They expect to wait. They will be patient if you communicate clearly.

Amazon buyers expect Prime-style shipping. If your "made to order" item takes 10 days, the negative reviews start. If you cannot do 2-3 day shipping, Amazon Handmade is going to fight you.

This alone disqualifies a lot of true handmade work from Amazon Handmade. Anything genuinely made-to-order is awkward on the platform.

Who should pick which

Pick Etsy if:

  • Your work is true handmade or made-to-order
  • You want to build a brand identity
  • You are starting with a small budget and need to keep fees low
  • Your price point is above $30 and the buyer needs to be sold on the craft, not on price
  • You see Etsy as a stepping stone to a Shopify or independent store later

Pick Amazon Handmade if:

  • Your work can ship in 1-3 days (pre-made stock, not made-to-order)
  • Your price point is competitive with factory alternatives
  • You already have a stock pile and want exposure to Amazon's audience
  • You do not particularly care about repeat customers - you want volume

For most genuine crafters reading this, Etsy is the right answer. Amazon Handmade is best as a second channel after Etsy, not a first.

The hybrid approach

Many established crafters run both. Etsy as the primary store for made-to-order and brand customers. A small selection of pre-made stock on Amazon Handmade for impulse buyers. This works if you have the volume to keep stock available on Amazon without distracting from the Etsy work.

Do not try to launch both at the same time. Pick the primary channel, get to your first 50 orders there, then expand.

For the full Etsy launch playbook, read how to start an Etsy shop. For broader context on platform selection, see Etsy vs Amazon vs your own store. The deeper version of how to make handmade work as a real business lives in the course. Pick one, launch one. The second one can wait.