# Big Cartel

> Simple online store for artists, makers and independent sellers

Big Cartel is a hosted online store aimed at artists, bands and small independent sellers, with a free plan for up to five products and two flat-priced paid plans. Shops start from a template and sell physical and digital products, print shipping labels and take payments by card, PayPal and other methods, online or in person through the mobile app.

- **Category:** Online Store Builders
- **Made by:** Big Cartel, LLC
- **Website:** https://www.bigcartel.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Big Cartel has a free plan. Paid plans start at $12 per month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Gold plan: 5 product listings, one template, card and PayPal checkout, sales tax autopilot and real-time stats, with no credit card required. Custom domains need a paid plan.
- **Free trial:** 7-day free trial of Platinum.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |

Read from https://www.bigcartel.com/product/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Big Cartel before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Pay annually to save 20%** (Annual discount): Platinum costs $144 a year ($12 a month) against $15 monthly, and Diamond $288 a year ($24 a month) against $30 monthly. Source: https://www.bigcartel.com/product/pricing

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- 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

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Big Cartel is the small, friendly store for artists, bands and makers: a template, your products, shipping labels and in-person sales from your phone. Platinum is $12 a month on yearly billing with your own domain, and Big Cartel doesn't take a cut of sales. It's simple on purpose, so bigger, busier shops will outgrow it.

- **Value for money: B.** Platinum is $12 a month on yearly billing ($15 monthly) with your own domain, labels and stock tracking, which sits in the cheap quarter of this category. Prices are flat with no Big Cartel fee on sales, so you only pay your payment provider.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** The free Gold plan is a real shop, with card and PayPal checkout and sales tax handled, but it's 5 products, one template and no custom domain. You'll hit that fast. There's also a 7-day trial of Platinum.
- **Features: C.** It does the basics well: physical and digital products, unlimited labels, stock tracking, in-person sales and print-on-demand apps. But it's a simple toolbox, Google Shopping is the one outside channel named, and the pricing pages don't say how many products paid plans allow.
- **Ease of use: A.** 4.74 from about 6,800 App Store ratings, among the best here. Pick a template, add your products and you're open.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with PayPal, Afterpay, Venmo, Google Shopping and Etsy imports, and Zapier's 7,000+ apps on Diamond. No desktop app, so not an A.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Big Cartel's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among online store builders

- Big Cartel's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 8 of the 9 other online store builders we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on ease of use (A, above 8 of 9) and worst on features (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $12 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 1 of the 7 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.0 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/online-stores

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Big Cartel you would be making checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 8 of the 9 other online store builders we grade. It costs $144 a year.

- You could make: Digital downloads and inventory: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- You could not: Discounted carrier rates and labels, which take an agreement with each carrier.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, PayPal, Afterpay and Venmo among them.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.7 out of 5 from 6,835 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id739285899

## Works with

PayPal, Afterpay, Venmo, Zapier, Google Shopping, Etsy

**Tags:** Online store, Digital downloads, Shipping labels, Inventory

## Alternatives

- [Ecwid](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ecwid): Online store you can add to any website or run as its own site. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/big-cartel-vs-ecwid)
- [Square Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/square-online): Online store builder that shares stock and payments with Square POS. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/big-cartel-vs-square-online)
- [Shopify](https://toolgpa.com/tools/shopify): Hosted commerce platform for online, in-person and social selling. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/big-cartel-vs-shopify)
- [Squarespace](https://toolgpa.com/tools/squarespace): Template-based website builder with an online store and invoicing. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/big-cartel-vs-squarespace)
- [Sellfy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sellfy): Store builder for selling downloads, subscriptions and print-on-demand. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/big-cartel-vs-sellfy)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.bigcartel.com/product/pricing
- https://www.bigcartel.com/plans/gold
- https://www.bigcartel.com/plans/premium
- https://www.bigcartel.com/company/about

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/big-cartel
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).