Guides
The calculators tell you what a platform takes. These cover the next question: whether you can pay less, and what it costs you to try.
Marketplaces
How to reduce eBay seller fees
Seven practical ways to cut what eBay takes per sale, from store subscriptions to the $7,500 breakpoint, with the ones that are not worth bothering with.
Etsy Offsite Ads explained
How Etsy Offsite Ads fees work, who can opt out, and how to judge whether an ad-driven sale is actually profitable once the 12-15% fee is applied.
Is Amazon FBA worth it?
Why FBA economics collapse on cheap items, where the realistic price floor sits, and how to judge FBA against fulfilling orders yourself.
Amazon FBA vs FBM
A practical framework for choosing between Fulfilled by Amazon and merchant-fulfilled, based on cost, Prime eligibility and how much your time is worth.
Which Shopify plan is cheapest?
Basic, Grow or Advanced: how to work out which Shopify plan actually costs you least, based on monthly orders rather than the headline subscription price.
eBay vs Etsy fees on a $40 sale
Etsy takes less than eBay on a typical $40 handmade sale, but one Etsy setting can more than double its cut. The full arithmetic on both.
Etsy vs Shopify: where the break-even actually is
Shopify's monthly plan spreads across every order, so it beats Etsy above a specific volume. At a $40 average order that number is 14 orders a month.
Amazon FBA vs eBay on a $30 product
FBA takes more than twice what eBay does on a $30 item once fulfilment is counted. The gap is 31.9% against 14.9%.
Why you pay two fees on every sale
Almost every online sale carries a marketplace cut and a payment processing cut. Most sellers only ever look at one of them.
What eBay's $7,500 fee breakpoint saves you
Above $7,500 eBay's rate drops from 13.6% to 2.35% on the excess. On a $10,000 sale that is a saving of over $300.
Pricing backwards from what you actually keep
Most sellers price from cost and discover the fee afterwards. Working backwards from your target net is the fix, and it takes one calculation.
You pay platform fees on shipping too
Marketplaces charge their percentage on the total the buyer pays, shipping included. Charging $10 postage costs you $1.36 extra on eBay.
Payments
PayPal vs Stripe fees
A direct comparison of PayPal and Stripe processing costs, including where each one wins and why the fixed fee matters more than the percentage on small payments.
How to lower Stripe fees
Practical ways to cut Stripe processing costs, from moving large invoices to ACH to minimum order values that stop the fixed fee eating small payments.
What selling internationally really costs you
An international card costs half again what a domestic one does. On $1,000 that is $44.30 instead of $29.30, before currency conversion.
Why small orders carry the worst fee rates
Fixed and minimum fees mean a $10 order can cost 50% while a $1,000 one costs 10%. The percentage on the pricing page only applies to large orders.
Freelance
How to lower Upwork fees
What actually reduces your Upwork costs now that the sliding fee tiers are gone, plus why the Connects you spend bidding are the cost most freelancers ignore.
Is Fiverr's 20% worth it?
An honest look at what Fiverr's flat 20% commission buys you, when it is good value, and when you are better off sending clients elsewhere.
Is Freelancer.com membership worth it?
How to work out whether a paid Freelancer.com plan pays for itself, and why the $5 minimum fee matters more than the percentage for most small projects.
Upwork vs Fiverr vs Freelancer on a $1,000 project
The same $1,000 project pays out three different amounts depending on the platform. Fiverr costs twice what the other two do.