A fairer deal for makers: how our fees work
If you sell handmade goods online, you’ve probably done the math that ruins the fun: list fee, renewal fee, transaction fee, payment fee, and then — if you want anyone to actually see your work — ad fees on top. By the time you add it up, a surprising slice of every sale is gone before you’ve shipped a thing.
We wanted MakerMade’s pricing to fit on a napkin. Here it is.
The whole fee
On each sale, a maker pays:
- A flat 4% commission to MakerMade.
- Payment processing at cost (Stripe’s standard rate, passed straight through — we don’t mark it up by a cent).
That’s it. To be explicit about what you don’t pay:
- No listing fees. Post as many items as you like.
- No renewal fees. Listings don’t expire and re-charge you.
- No mandatory ad fees. You’re never charged a cut for “offsite ads” on a sale you would have made anyway.
- No payment surcharge. We don’t add our own percentage on top of Stripe.
What that looks like
Say you sell a $48 ceramic mug with $6 shipping — a $54 order.
| MakerMade | A typical marketplace | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission / transaction fee | $1.92 (4%) | ~$3.12 (6.5%) |
| Payment processing | at cost (~$1.87) | ~$1.87 + markup |
| Listing / renewal | $0 | $0.20+ |
| Ads cut (if attributed) | $0 | up to 12–15% |
The exact numbers vary, but the shape doesn’t: you keep more of what your work earns, and you can see precisely where every cent goes on your Payouts page — gross sales, our fee, the processing cost, and your net, all in the open.
Why so low?
Because a marketplace should make money when makers do, not by taxing them at every step. A flat, legible fee keeps our incentives pointed the right way: help good work sell, and we both do well.
If you make something worth keeping, come sell with us.
— The MakerMade team