Etsy takes 6.5% of every
handmade item. We take 0%.
VeloCMS is a publishing platform for independent handmade sellers that handles product listings with rich photo galleries, a craft-process blog, variant tracking, and back-in-stock email alerts — all in one place with zero platform fee on sales. The Atelier Modern theme — a light portfolio layout with a warm ivory palette, serif headings and a bento-style grid — ships free on every plan and gives handmade work room to breathe the way Etsy's listing grid never did.
Why independent makers keep running into the same walls
Three different fee layers, an algorithm that shows your competitors alongside your listings, and a platform that buries your craft story — all have the same root cause: Etsy was built for Etsy, not for your brand.
Etsy's fee stack compounds — 6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 processing + $0.20 listing renewal = about $3.30 lost on a $30 sale, about $7.80 when a 15% offsite ad drives it
Run the actual numbers on a $30 handmade item. After Etsy's standard 6.5% transaction fee ($1.95), a $0.20 listing renewal, and payment processing (3% + $0.25, $1.15), you're clearing about $26.70. If a buyer comes through an ad Etsy ran on your behalf (Offsite Ads), they add another 15% ($4.50), dropping your take to roughly $22.20. You didn't write that ad. Shops under $10,000 in annual sales can opt out; above that you can't, and the rate is 12%. At 200 sales a year on a $30 item, that's about $660 in fees without any offsite ad and up to about $1,560 if every sale were attributed to one — fees you're paying to a platform that also shows competitors alongside your listings. On BYOK Stripe with VeloCMS, that same $30 item nets $28.83 — Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 is the only cut. The savings compound fast.
Etsy owns your customer relationship — your buyer thinks they're shopping 'on Etsy', not 'on Your Brand'
When a customer searches your shop name in Google, the result that surfaces is Etsy's page — not your page. The URL is etsy.com/shop/yourbrand. The platform's branding dominates the checkout. If a buyer types your shop name directly into Google, Etsy may surface competitor shops in the same result. Your returning customers bookmark etsy.com, not your domain. Their email address — the one they used at checkout — goes into Etsy's system, not yours. When you eventually leave Etsy, or when Etsy changes its algorithm or fee structure again, you leave without your customer list. You built a business on land you don't own.
Etsy hides your craft story — the place where you explain how you carved the wood, dyed the yarn, sourced the vintage materials
Etsy gives you a shop bio and product description fields. That's it. The long-form explanation of how you developed your signature ceramic glaze, the story of sourcing antique fabric in Portugal, the process post showing the 14-step tooling sequence for a leather wallet — none of that has a home on Etsy. Etsy is a product listing grid. It was never designed for maker storytelling, and its SEO rewards product titles stuffed with keywords, not prose that builds a relationship. The buyers who become loyal fans — the ones who buy again, who recommend you to friends, who wait for a restock — are the ones who understand the 'why' behind the work. Etsy's product description field isn't the right container for that story. A blog post is.
What a maker-first platform gives you
Rich photo product listings, a craft-process blog, product variants with per-variant stock, BYOK Stripe at 0% platform fee, and back-in-stock email alerts — bundled in one platform where you own the customer, not Etsy.
Product listings with rich photo gallery — multi-photo, alt text, lightbox
Publish a showcase post for each product with as many photos as you need — process shots, detail close-ups, in-use lifestyle images, scale references. The editor's Gallery block takes up to 24 photos with captions and an optional full-screen lightbox, hosted on Cloudflare R2, with alt text per image for accessibility and image SEO. No separate gallery plugin, no five-photo limit, no compression to Etsy's thumbnail grid.
Craft-process blog — the WHY of your work, not just product specs
Publish long-form making-of posts alongside your listings: how the glaze was developed, where the reclaimed wood came from, the sketch-to-final process for a commission. These posts rank in Google for terms your product listings never will. They're the content that converts a first-time visitor into a repeat buyer who follows the work, not just the product. Etsy has no equivalent. Your craft process posts live on your domain, compound SEO authority over time, and can be emailed to your restock list as newsletters.
Variants + simple inventory — size, color, finish, stock counts
Set up each product with its available variants (small / medium / large, natural / stained / painted, sterling / gold-fill) in Admin → Products, each variant with its own price, stock count and SKU. Update stock counts as pieces sell, and buyers can sign up for a back-in-stock email on a sold-out item. Add a restock date estimate in the product description. No Shopify product metafields, no WooCommerce attribute tables — variants, stock and shipping are built in.
BYOK Stripe paid checkout — 0% platform fee, keep 100% minus 2.9%+$0.30
Connect your own Stripe account in Admin → Settings → Membership. Add each piece in Admin → Products — buyers pay on your domain via your Stripe account. Revenue goes directly to your bank on Stripe's payout schedule. VeloCMS takes 0% platform fee. The only cut is Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30. For a $30 item that's $0.87 in fees, not the $3.80-$8.00 Etsy takes. At 200 sales per year the difference is $585-$1,426 staying in your pocket instead of Etsy's.
Restock-notification email list — the customer-relationship layer Etsy never gave you
Sold-out products collect back-in-stock email signups: 'This piece is sold out — join the restock list and be the first to know when it returns.' When the restock goes live, VeloCMS emails the people who signed up, and you can announce it to everyone from Admin → Newsletter. The emails you collect belong to your account, not Etsy's. Export them anytime. When you restock a popular piece, your email list converts at 3-5x the rate of a cold visitor from Etsy search — because these are people who already wanted exactly this thing.
Features handmade sellers actually need
Atelier Modern theme showcase, multi-photo galleries, product variants with per-variant stock, BYOK Stripe checkout, back-in-stock alerts, and ship-from notes — all in one platform without a plugin stack, and nobody taking a cut of every sale you make.
Atelier Modern theme — a light portfolio showcase for handmade products
Atelier Modern is a modernist, minimal portfolio theme: a warm ivory palette, serif headings and an asymmetric bento grid that lets photography lead, with clean typography that doesn't compete with the photos. Each product gets a showcase post with big imagery and a link into your shop. It's the opposite of Etsy's keyword-stuffed listing grid. Ships free on every plan, zero configuration. Aperture (photo-first) and Curator (magazine grid) are free alternatives.
Multi-photo showcase galleries — R2 hosted, captions, lightbox ready
The editor's Gallery block takes up to 24 photos in one go. Each photo is hosted on Cloudflare R2 and includes an alt text field and a caption for accessibility and image search. Add as many photos per showcase as the piece deserves — close-ups of stitching, process shots, packaging detail, scale reference, styled flat lay. Buyers open a full-screen lightbox from any thumbnail, and images lazy-load. Images keep the format you upload (JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF, up to 10 MB each), so resize large photos before you upload them.
Product variants + inventory — size/color/finish, per-variant stock
Set up each product's variants — ring-size-6, ring-size-7, ring-size-8, or natural, walnut, ebony — in Admin → Products, each with its own price, stock count and SKU. Update the stock count as pieces sell, and add restock-date estimates in the product description. Buyers pick a variant at checkout. Variants and inventory are built in, so you don't repurpose blog tags for them.
BYOK Stripe checkout — 0% platform fee, direct bank payout
Connect your Stripe account once. Add products in Admin → Products. Buyers check out on your domain. Stripe's payout schedule is daily (business accounts) or weekly (standard) — your sales from Monday hit your bank account by Tuesday. VeloCMS has no revenue share, no monthly fee based on sales volume, no Offsite Ads levy. You pay $9/month for Pro regardless of whether you sell $100 or $100,000 worth of handmade goods that month.
Back-in-stock alerts + newsletter — email buyers when items return
The back-in-stock workflow: a visitor lands on a sold-out product and signs up for a back-in-stock email. When stock returns, VeloCMS emails them. For a wider announcement, go to Admin → Newsletter, compose a short 'Back in stock' email, and send it to your audience. The buyer who waited comes back and buys immediately — no Etsy algorithm needed to reach them. You own that relationship.
Ship-from transparency — a line in your product description
Add your ship-from location to every product description as a plain line — 'Made and shipped from Portland, Oregon, USA' or 'Ships from Kyoto, Japan — 7-10 day international delivery'. There is no dedicated ship-from field. Buyers increasingly filter Etsy search by ship-from location to avoid customs delays and get faster delivery. On your own platform, your ship-from transparency is a selling point you control, not a filter someone else applies to your listings.
VeloCMS vs Etsy vs Shopify vs Squarespace
| Feature | VeloCMS | Etsy | Shopify | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Platform fee on sales | 0% (BYOK Stripe) | 6.5% + $0.20 listing | 0–2% | 2% on entry plan, 0% on higher plans |
| Selling patterns and printables | Yes — you host the file (0% fee) | Included (6.5% fee) | App required | Commerce plan |
| SEO blog + gift-guide content | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| SSL / HTTPS included | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email marketing | Yes | No list ownership | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly base cost | $9/mo Pro | $0 (fees per sale) | $29/mo Basic | Paid plan (price varies by billing country) |
From Etsy to your own handmade shop in five steps
No developer, no multi-tool stack, no ongoing platform commission. Get your products, craft blog, and restock signups live in an afternoon.
Export your Etsy listings as CSV via Etsy's export tool
In Etsy Shop Manager, go to Listings → click the three dots → Export. Etsy gives you a CSV with listing titles, descriptions, prices, quantities, and variant names. This is your product inventory in a portable format — save it. Your product photos are not included in the CSV; download those separately from each listing's edit page (or batch-export via Etsy's full shop export in Account → Privacy → Download your Data). The CSV becomes your roadmap for recreating listings in VeloCMS.
Upload product images to Cloudflare R2 via VeloCMS media library
In Admin → Media, bulk-upload your product photos. VeloCMS hosts each photo on Cloudflare R2 and adds it to your media library. Media is a flat library, so use descriptive file names such as walnut-bowl-side.jpg. From the editor, you'll pull photos directly from the media library into each showcase post — no re-upload needed. Start with your top 10-20 best-selling products for the first migration wave.
Create products and showcase posts with the Atelier Modern layout
In Admin → Themes, click Atelier Modern → Apply first. Then in Admin → Products, create one product per listing. Use the listing title from your CSV as the product name, write the description in prose rather than keyword-stuffed title format, and add the price plus variants (size, color, finish) with stock per variant. Set the product live. For the story behind a best-seller, publish a showcase post in Admin → Posts → New with a Gallery block and link to the product. The Atelier Modern theme lays your posts out in a bento-style grid.
Set up BYOK Stripe + connect Printful if dropshipping
In Admin → Settings → Membership, paste your own Stripe secret key — copied from your Stripe dashboard, takes about a minute. Your Stripe account is now linked. For any product you want to sell direct, create it in Admin → Products and set the price. If you use Printful for print-on-demand, install the Printful plugin in Admin → Plugins: paid physical orders are forwarded to Printful for printing and shipping while buyers still check out on your site. The two coexist: BYOK Stripe for your handmade originals, Printful for print products.
Activate restock signups and open your first craft-process blog post
Add a subscribe block to a page of your site so visitors can join your list, and send your first campaign from Admin → Newsletter. Sold-out products collect back-in-stock signups on their own. Then write your first craft-process blog post — the making-of story behind your most popular item. Publish it. Share the URL on Instagram with a link-in-bio update. That single post starts building your Google authority for terms no Etsy listing title can rank for. Your shop is now discoverable without Etsy's algorithm.
Start a 14-day free trial with a craft blog and the Atelier Modern theme. Pro when you need a custom domain and a BYOK Stripe shop with variants.
Pro
$9
per month
- E-commerce store (products, variants, shipping)
- Custom domain + SSL
- BYOK Stripe checkout (0% fee)
- Back-in-stock email alerts
- All themes included
- AI writing assistant
Business
$29
per month
- Everything in Pro
- Team accounts (multi-maker)
- Unlimited AI translations
- Priority support
- Custom sender domain (email)
- Team collaboration
Questions Etsy sellers ask before switching
Honest answers — no Etsy fee apology.
Can I use VeloCMS as my primary storefront instead of Etsy?
Either. VeloCMS has its own shop — products, variants, shipping and checkout on your own Stripe account at 0% platform fee — so it can be your storefront. It doesn't bring Etsy's marketplace traffic, so many sellers run both: your Etsy shop handles marketplace discovery, while VeloCMS handles your standalone blog (SEO-driven gift-guide content, craft tutorials, behind-the-brand storytelling), your email list (owned, not Etsy's), your own product sales and your paid subscriber community. The typical setup links the two via a custom domain: your branded site at yourcraftbrand.com on VeloCMS, with 'Shop on Etsy' buttons linking to your Etsy listings.
How does VeloCMS help Etsy sellers reduce algorithm dependency?
Etsy's search algorithm controls whether your listings appear in search results — and Etsy updates it frequently, often with zero notice to sellers. A seller who drives 80% of their revenue from Etsy organic search is building on a foundation that Etsy can shift at any time. VeloCMS builds a parallel organic acquisition channel via SEO-driven gift-guide content on your own domain. A handmade jewelry seller publishes 'best personalized gifts for bridesmaids 2024,' 'handmade vs machine-made wedding rings comparison,' and 'custom gemstone birthstone ring buying guide' — each post builds search authority independent of Etsy's algorithm. Your email list on VeloCMS belongs to you: 500 subscribers reachable directly, regardless of what Etsy decides to do with their seller discovery tools.
Can I sell SVG files, patterns and printables through VeloCMS?
Yes, with one limit. Digital products work like this today: add the product and its price in Admin -> Products, then paste the link to a file you host yourself on the variant. VeloCMS emails that link to the buyer after payment. Uploading the file inside VeloCMS isn't available yet. SVG cut files, embroidery designs, cross-stitch patterns, quilling templates, crochet charts, knitting patterns, scrapbook printables, editable Canva wedding invitations and planner printables can all be sold this way, whatever format you host. You keep 100% minus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30, and VeloCMS charges 0% platform fee. No Etsy 6.5% + $0.20 listing fee on every sale.
Which VeloCMS theme works best for an Etsy-adjacent handmade craft brand?
Three themes pair well with handmade craft brands. Atelier Modern (a modernist portfolio theme with a warm ivory palette, serif headings and an asymmetric bento grid) is the primary recommendation for handmade jewelry, pottery, ceramics, textile art, and any brand that wants its photography to lead. Velvet Editorial (Cormorant Garamond italic, cream and burgundy, editorial magazine layout) suits craft brands with a literary voice — the slow-craft essayist, the textile artist who writes about the history of their materials, the jewelry maker whose brand is as much the writing as the product. Pacific Modern suits Etsy sellers whose brand spans craft + lifestyle (home goods, wellness-adjacent products, self-care gifts). All three themes are free on every plan.
How does the gift-guide SEO content strategy work for Etsy sellers?
Gift-guide content is the highest-converting organic SEO strategy for Etsy-adjacent brands because gift-intent searches ('best handmade jewelry gifts for mom,' 'personalized gifts under $50 for bridesmaids,' 'unique ceramic mugs as housewarming gifts') convert at significantly higher rates than product-category searches. A VeloCMS blog post targeting 'best personalized birthstone rings as anniversary gifts' can rank for that exact query, drive readers to your Etsy listing or your VeloCMS product page, and convert at 8-15% vs the 2-4% typical of cold Etsy search traffic. VeloCMS's SEO panel runs generic on-page checks as you write (title, meta description, headings, length, links, alt text); it doesn't find keyword gaps for you. One gift-guide post per week for 6 months builds compounding organic traffic that survives any Etsy algorithm update.
Can I run a paid craft membership or subscription box community on VeloCMS?
Yes. Connect your Stripe account in Admin → Settings → Membership and create a paid membership tier: 'Monthly Craft Supply Bundle' at $19/mo (with a curated suppliers list, project PDF, and behind-the-scenes newsletter), 'Pattern of the Month' membership at $9/mo (one new pattern per month, member-only), or a 'Ceramics Technique Deep-Dive' at $15/mo. Gated posts are visible to paid members only. The newsletter broadcast goes to your paid members each month. Physical subscription box logistics are handled by you separately (VeloCMS handles the payment and email list; you handle the physical fulfillment). VeloCMS charges 0% platform fee on membership revenue — vs. Patreon's 10% cut.
How do I build an email list from my Etsy shop and move subscribers to VeloCMS?
Etsy does not provide seller access to buyer emails. Etsy's messaging system is the only direct seller-to-buyer channel, and Etsy restricts what sellers can include in those messages. To build an email list independent of Etsy: include a card in your physical product packaging with a URL to a free opt-in page on VeloCMS ('Download the free pattern matching your purchase at yourcraftbrand.com/free-pattern'). Create an opt-in incentive in VeloCMS (a free SVG file, a free pattern PDF, a care-instructions guide) that visitors receive in exchange for their email. Those subscribers go into VeloCMS directly — not through Etsy, not subject to Etsy's messaging restrictions, fully yours to email at any time.
Can I migrate my Etsy digital product listings to VeloCMS?
Yes, though the process is manual (Etsy doesn't provide an export of your digital listing files). Recreate each listing as a product in Admin → Commerce → Products, as described in the answer above on selling patterns and printables, and link to each product from your craft posts with a button. Your listing titles, descriptions, and keywords from Etsy serve as the foundation for your product content on VeloCMS — expand them for SEO. Your existing email list or ConvertKit subscribers import via CSV in Admin → Members → Import.
Run a free technical SEO, performance, and migration-readiness audit — no signup required.Audit my site
Etsy is the marketplace. VeloCMS is your shop. Start your free trial with Atelier Modern.
Multi-photo product listings, craft-process blog, product variants, BYOK Stripe at 0% platform fee, and back-in-stock email alerts to a list you own — all on a platform where the customer relationship belongs to you, not Etsy.