Why we built MakerMade

There’s a particular kind of magic in something made by hand. A mug with a thumb-rest worn exactly where your thumb wants to be. A knife balanced by someone who has made a thousand of them. A print pulled one at a time.

For years, the places to buy those things online have been getting louder and more crowded — more ads, more fees, more pressure to churn out volume. The maker who quietly does excellent work gets buried under whoever can spend the most on promotion. That never sat right with us.

So we built MakerMade: a marketplace that puts the maker first and keeps the buying experience calm.

What that means in practice

• No buyer fees, ever. The price you see is the price you pay. We don’t bolt on “service fees” at checkout.
• A single, honest seller fee. Makers pay one flat commission — no listing fees, no renewal fees, no pay-to-play ads deciding who gets seen.
• Real shipping, calculated per shop. When your cart spans several makers, each order is its own shipment with its own rate. Nothing is averaged or hidden.
• Discovery that rewards good work, not big ad budgets. Search ranks on what buyers actually respond to, not on who paid to jump the line.

A calmer place to shop

We’ve tried to make MakerMade feel like a good independent shop, not a vending machine. Clean pages. No dark patterns. A favorites list and a follow feed so you can keep up with the makers you love and hear from them only when they have something new — never just to fill a quota.

We’re early, and we’re building in the open. If you make things, we’d love to have you. And if you just love handmade goods, welcome — pull up a chair.

— The MakerMade team