Stan Store vs Big Cartel for selling things you make
Stan Store is US$29 a month and made for digital things. Big Cartel is free for 5 products and made for things you ship. Here's which I'd pick for you.
Ask a seller group what to put in your link in bio, and Stan Store and Big Cartel both come up. Stan because so many creators on Instagram have one, and Big Cartel because makers have had shops on it for years.
If what you sell goes in a box, pick Big Cartel over Stan. Stan's made for digital things like guides, presets, courses and coaching calls, and its own help center says it leaves shipping and stock to you1. If you only sell digital stuff, Stan's good at it and you can stop reading here.
I should say up front that I make Tinbird, which does the same job as these two, so I'm biased. I'll tell you where it fits at the end. All the prices here are in US dollars, from Stan's and Big Cartel's own sites in November 2026.
What each one's for
Stan Store
Stan gives you one page that's built for a phone, with everything you sell stacked down it. It does that well, and even the $29 plan has AutoDM, which sends someone your link in a DM when they comment a word you've picked on Instagram2. If your buyers are used to commenting on your posts, that saves you sending the link by hand to everyone who does.
Can you sell physical products on Stan Store?
Sort of. You make a Custom Product, add form fields for the street, city, state and zip, and mark each one required. Stan emails you when someone buys, and you ship it. It doesn't figure out shipping, so that goes into the price1. Really it's an order form with an address on it. That's fine for the odd tote bag next to your downloads, but I wouldn't sell anything that ships on it.
Big Cartel
Big Cartel was built for things you ship. You can give a product sizes and colors and set your shipping prices, and on the paid plans it counts your stock for you and does digital downloads too3. Buyers pay by card through your own Stripe account, or with PayPal if you connect it, and Big Cartel doesn't take anything from your sales, even on the free plan4.
Prices, fees and the free plan
| Stan Store | Big Cartel | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | No, but there's a 14-day trial | Gold, for up to 5 products, or 7 days of Platinum |
| Cheapest paid plan | Creator, $29 a month | Platinum, $15 a month for up to 50 products |
| The plan above that | Creator Pro, $99 a month | Diamond, $30 a month for up to 500 products |
| Paying for a year | Creator $300, Creator Pro $948 | Platinum $144, Diamond $288 |
| Tracks stock | Creator Pro only | Platinum and Diamond |
| Discount codes | Creator Pro only | Platinum and Diamond |
| Fee on each sale | None | None |
Card fees come on top either way, and they're the same because they both use Stripe, at 2.9% + 30¢ for a US card. PayPal's a bit more if you turn it on4. So Big Cartel's cheaper, $15 against $29, and for someone who ships things it does a lot more for the money.
What the cheap plans leave out
Big Cartel's product and photo limits
Big Cartel prices its plans by how many products you have, and hidden and sold out ones still count3. That's the rule I like least. A lot of vintage sellers leave sold pieces up so people can see what they missed, and here every one of them takes a spot. If you make prints and the same eight designs sell all year, 50 goes a long way. Vintage is harder, because every piece is its own product.
Say you put 12 pieces up every Friday. A month in, you're over the Platinum limit, so you'd be deleting old sold pieces every week to make room, or paying $30 for Diamond.
Photos run out too. Platinum gives you five per product, which is fine for a candle and stingy for a jacket, which wants the front, the back, the label, the measurements laid flat and a close-up of that mark on the cuff. Diamond gives you 25.
Diamond's also where scheduled drops are5. You give the pieces a day and time, they can show as Coming Soon with the price hidden until then, and they go on sale at that time. But Big Cartel doesn't tell your customers when they go on sale, so the reminding is all on you, and that's the part that makes a drop sell.
One-offs
If you sell one-offs, like vintage or a single painting, the shop has to stop selling each piece once someone's bought it. Stan only lets you limit quantity on Creator Pro, at $99 a month2. On the $29 plan, two people can pay for the same jacket, and you're the one refunding whoever paid second.
Big Cartel's free plan has the same problem, because it doesn't count stock either. Once you're on the Platinum plan you can set each piece to a quantity of one, and it shows Sold Out by itself when it goes.
Shipping more than one thing
On Stan, shipping is whatever you added to the price, so someone buying three prints pays it three times. Big Cartel lets you set a price for an item shipped on its own and a lower one for each extra item in the same order, so they pay for one envelope and a bit. If you're in the US and on a paid plan, it can figure out shipping at checkout from the package's weight and size, with USPS rates, and you can buy and print the label from the order.
Which I'd pick
If you sell patterns, presets or a course, consider Stan. That's what it's for, and you won't be fighting it.
If you've got a handful of things and want to see if anyone buys before you pay for anything, Big Cartel's free plan does five products with one photo each, which is enough to find out. Just don't put one-offs on it.
If you sell prints, soap or anything else that stays listed for months, pay the $15 for Big Cartel's Platinum. It does digital downloads too, one file per product, so your prints and PDFs can live in one shop.
If you do drops, putting new pieces up for your followers every week or so, I'd skip Stan, because getting it to count your stock means Creator Pro at $948 a year. Big Cartel's Diamond plan at $30 gets closer, with the room and the photos and scheduled drops, but your followers won't hear about a drop unless you tell them yourself. That's the seller I made Tinbird for, so this is where I'd send you.
Sources
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Stan "is best used for selling and hosting digital products" and "doesn't calculate shipping prices or inventory." See Can I sell physical products with Stan?. ↩ ↩2
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Stan's plans in November 2026: Creator at $29 a month or $300 a year, and Creator Pro at $99 a month or $948 a year, after a 14-day trial. AutoDM is on both, and discount codes and limited quantity are Creator Pro only. See Stan Store pricing and Creator vs. Creator Pro. ↩ ↩2
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Big Cartel's plans in November 2026: Gold free for 5 products with one image each, Platinum at $15 a month or $144 a year for 50 products with 5 images each, and Diamond at $30 a month or $288 a year for 500 with 25 images each. Stock tracking, discounts, digital products and automatic shipping rates (US only) are on Platinum and Diamond, and "hidden and sold out products do still count against your total product limit." See Big Cartel pricing, Plans and features, Automatic shipping rates and Delete a product. ↩ ↩2
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Stripe's standard rate for a US card is 2.9% + 30¢ on both, and sellers outside the US pay their own country's rate. Big Cartel "does not charge transaction fees on your orders," and gives PayPal's US rate as 3.49% + 49¢. See Big Cartel's Processing fees explained, Stan's Stan, Stripe and PayPal fees and Stripe pricing. ↩ ↩2
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Scheduled drops are on Diamond only, and "customers won't receive automatic alerts when products go live." See Big Cartel's How to schedule product drops. ↩
