In the early stages of any new venture, keeping finances as low as possible is always a big priority. One of the things I love about Etsy is that the monetary commitment to getting started is relatively low. It’s technically free to have an Etsy shop!
There are no overall start up costs to setting up on the site itself. You’ll pay a small fee to list each item and will pay the processing charges once it sells. With Etsy, you’re not paying any monthly reoccurring fees to keep your shop running which is really great crucial when you’re just beginning.
With a stand-alone website, you have to buy a domain, hosting, template or theme, and often some type plugin or ecommerce subscription in order to list and sell products. In most cases, you’ll be charged every year for your domain and hosting as they are annual fees which can be a few hundred dollars.
