Big Cartel vs Faire (2026): which should you pick?

Big Cartel

• Artists, bands and makers selling merch or small runs of their own work
• Sellers with a small catalog who want a flat, low monthly price
• Shops that release limited product drops on a schedule

Faire

• Independent retailers looking for new wholesale brands
• Boutiques and grocers that want low order minimums

Big Cartel

• The free Gold plan allows only 5 products and one template, with no custom domain.
• Abandoned-cart recovery, scheduled drops, automatic discounts and Zapier need Diamond at $30 a month, or $24 billed annually.
• The pricing pages do not state how many products Platinum and Diamond allow, beyond saying the paid plans add listings.
• Card and PayPal processing fees come from the payment provider; Big Cartel advertises flat monthly prices with no hidden fees.

Faire

• The brand-side pricing and fee pages are behind a bot check, so what a brand pays to sell is not recorded here.
• Faire is a marketplace for wholesale buying and selling, not a store builder for your own site.
• Wholesale prices are shown only after signing up as a retailer.

Big Cartel

Templates and shop design

Start from a template in Big Cartel's free library and change the design without code. The free Gold plan is limited to the Cosmos template.

Physical and digital products

Sell physical goods and downloads with size and color variants, edit products in bulk and import listings from Etsy, Squarespace and Shopify.

Shipping labels and tracking

Print unlimited shipping labels with discounts of up to 90% on postage, track shipments and keep count of stock on the paid plans.

Payments and in-person sales

Take cards, wallets, Venmo, PayPal and Afterpay online, and sell in person by taking payments on a phone with the iOS and Android app.

Apps, Zapier and promotions

Install apps for print-on-demand and product reviews, run discounts and a Google Shopping connection, and on Diamond link 7,000+ apps through Zapier.

Faire

Wholesale marketplace

Retailers browse products from over 100,000 brands and can filter by values such as women-owned, handmade or not on Amazon.

Low order minimums

The retailer pages advertise thousands of brands with low or no minimums, so a store can try new brands in small quantities.

Net 60 payment terms

Retailers can buy now and pay invoices 60 days later; the page says there are no fees for this.

Free first-order returns

The page says retailers get free returns on every first order with a brand.

Languages and regions

The site is offered in English (US, UK and AU), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish and Polish.

Big Cartel

• Gold$0

  5 product listings, the Cosmos template, size and color variants, card and PayPal checkout, automatic sales tax and real-time stats.

• Platinum$12

  per month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly)

  Custom domain, physical and digital products, shipping labels and tracking, design changes, apps, in-person sales and inventory tracking.

• Diamond$24

  per month, billed annually ($30 billed monthly)

  Adds abandoned-cart recovery, scheduled product drops, password-protected products, automatic discounts, Zapier and priority support.

Faire

Pricing could not be confirmed. See faire.com.

Big Cartel

• Annual discount

  Pay annually to save 20%

  Platinum costs $144 a year ($12 a month) against $15 monthly, and Diamond $288 a year ($24 a month) against $30 monthly.

Faire

No public discounts listed.