Etsy vs. Shopify vs. Faire vs. Whatnot vs. The Painted Porch

Every displaced vendor has gotten pitched five platforms in the first two weeks. Most of the pitches come from people who make money when you sign up. This page does not.

This is what each one is actually good for, where it costs you, and who should skip it.

Etsy

What it is. The single largest marketplace for handmade and vintage goods. Every buyer you reach already came to Etsy looking for something like what you make.

Where it shines. Discovery. If your product is searchable — a phrase buyers type — Etsy will put eyes on it without you doing marketing.

Where it costs you. Listing fee ($0.20 per item), transaction fee (6.5%), payment processing (~3% + $0.25), and Offsite Ads — a program that takes 12–15% of any sale that came from a paid placement you didn't opt into. For a vendor with no off-platform traffic yet, the all-in rake lands in the 10–20% range of each sale.

Who it's for. Vendors whose products have clear search intent (custom pet portraits, wedding signage, specific niches). Vendors who are okay with a platform that owns the customer.

Who should skip. Vendors who already have a following on Instagram or from their old booth. You don't need Etsy's discovery — you have your own — and you'd be paying them for traffic you brought.

Shopify

What it is. A storefront builder. You get your own domain, your own email list, your own buyer data. There is no marketplace underneath.

Where it shines. Ownership. Brand control. The ability to add anything over time — subscriptions, wholesale, apps, custom pages.

Where it costs you. $39/mo minimum, plus payment processing (~2.9% + $0.30). You own marketing. There is no built-in traffic. If you don't promote it, nobody shows up.

Who it's for. Vendors who already have an audience and want to own the relationship. Vendors planning to sell wholesale or subscription.

Who should skip. Vendors whose first marketing channel doesn't exist yet. You'll pay $39/mo for a store that takes zero orders.

Faire

What it is. A wholesale marketplace. Your customers are other retailers, not end buyers.

Where it shines. If you make something other shops want to stock (candles, stationery, small decor), you can get placement in stores nationally without doing the cold-call work.

Where it costs you. 25% commission on the first order from any retailer Faire introduces you to, then ~15% on repeats. Net payout terms are slow (60 days). You give up control of how your product is presented in the store.

Who it's for. Manufacturers and studio producers — not one-off makers. If your production can support wholesale pricing (your retail price is at least 2.5× your cost), Faire is a solid lever.

Who should skip. Anyone whose margins don't support 50% off retail (the standard wholesale discount). You will lose money on every order.

Whatnot

What it is. Live-selling video platform. You go live, hold up your work, and buyers in the stream bid or buy at a set price.

Where it shines. Buyers who like the urgency of live auctions. Certain categories kill it here — vintage, comics, collectibles, fashion.

Where it costs you. 8% commission on sales plus payment processing. Time commitment is real — to build an audience you're streaming two or three times a week for hours.

Who it's for. Vendors with camera-ready products, good on-camera energy, and inventory that benefits from narration ("this one's from the 1940s, look at this stitching").

Who should skip. Vendors whose work is heavy-texture (paintings, textiles, art) that doesn't come through well on video, or vendors who hate being on camera.

The Painted Porch

What it is. The turnkey version of the business you had on April 13 — a branded ecommerce website at your own domain AND a marketplace listing AND every tool you need to actually run the thing, in one flat price with no app store, no per-feature upcharges, and no nickel-and-diming. Your data stays yours: one-click export of your product catalog, order history, customer list, and email subscribers any time, for any reason.

Where it shines. Most platforms make you stitch the stack together — Shopify for the store, Klaviyo for email, Recharge for subscriptions, Zipify for upsells, Later for social scheduling, Circle for community, a shipping calculator app, a loyalty app, a reviews app. Each one is a monthly fee. Each one is another login. Each one is another thing that breaks. The Painted Porch is one login and one price. And underneath the store sits a marketplace + a national porch-pickup network that no other platform has.

What's in The Shop ($297/mo founding — locked for life for the first 50 — or $497/mo standard, 0% commission on everything):

• A custom ecommerce website at your own domain. Done-for-you build, twelve storefront templates, full brand kit control (colors, fonts, hero video). Prettier than a Shopify theme. Comparable agency build runs $8k–$12k.
• Every commerce tool included. Unlimited products. Upsells, downsells, cross-sells, order bumps. PASTOR funnels per product. Abandoned-cart recovery. Promo codes. Affiliate program. Free-shipping threshold calculator. Product wizard that writes your listing from a photo.
• Email marketing, built in. Unlimited contacts, broadcast campaigns, automated flows, drafted in your brand voice. No Klaviyo bill on top.
• Social media scheduling + content engine. Plan posts, schedule drops across platforms, get AI captions in your voice. No Later or Buffer on top.
• Community + learning, built in. Skool-style vendor community, workshops, coaching, shared ad spend pooled from the membership base. No Circle or Kajabi on top.
• The Porch Pickup Network. Your own porch + a national network of Porch Pro hosts + direct shipping. Customers can pick up tonight. Nobody else has this.
• Your list, your domain, your data. You own your customers. You own your email subscribers. You own your site. One-click export at any time. If we ever go out of business, you walk with everything.
• Zero commission. On your own store and on the marketplace. A vendor doing $3k/mo in sales pays $297 flat — not $297 plus 10% plus app fees.

What's in The Anchor ($897/mo, 0% commission): Everything in The Shop plus done-for-you Meta ads management, a monthly 1:1 strategy call, DFY email writing, monthly content support, featured marketplace placement (homepage rotation + category top + Staff Pick), white-label course selling, priority Porch Pro scheduling, and the Anchor affiliate program. For a vendor who wants someone else running the marketing so they can focus on making.

What's in the Free Porch ($0/mo, 10% on marketplace-originated sales only): Marketplace listing with a subdomain store, up to 10 products, 50 email contacts, shipping fulfillment. No credit card, no commitment — the "does my category convert on this platform" test ride. Paid features (custom domain, email marketing, funnels, social scheduling, community, Porch Pickup Network) are upgrade-gated, on purpose, so The Shop has real weight to it.

Stack math. A Shopify Basic plan ($39) + Klaviyo email ($45 at 5k contacts) + Recharge subscriptions ($60) + Zipify OCU upsells ($35) + Later social scheduler ($25) + Circle community ($89) + a shipping calculator app ($15) + Judge.me reviews ($15) lands at roughly $323/mo — and you still have no marketplace, no pickup network, no DFY build, and no shared ad pool. The Shop founding rate is $297/mo for all of that bundled.

Who it's for. Displaced Painted Tree vendors who want the booth replaced with a complete, ownership-clean, self-serve business — not just a listing on someone else's shelf. Founding 50 pricing is locked for life at $297/mo and never increases, even on ownership change.

Who should skip. Vendors who already have a full Shopify + Klaviyo + social-scheduler + upsell-app stack tuned and converting and who don't value a marketplace or pickup network on top. You're already set.

The honest summary

• Want a complete business replacement — website, email, upsells, community, marketplace, pickup — in one login at one price → The Painted Porch (The Shop or Anchor).
• Happy to stitch a stack yourself and already have the audience → Shopify.
• Need pure discovery traffic for a searchable niche product → Etsy, or The Painted Porch (Free Porch) to test ours first.
• Sell wholesale → Faire.
• Perform inventory live → Whatnot.
• Can't decide, don't want to pay yet → Start with a Free Porch. It costs nothing, sets up in two minutes, and you'll know within 30 days whether to stay, upgrade to The Shop, or move.

You own your stuff here. Domain, customer list, email subscribers, order history — all exportable in one click, any day of the week, for any reason. That's in writing. The best platform is the one that can't hold your business hostage.