AddTheShop vs Big Cartel
Big Cartel is loved by artists and makers for being simple and honest. It is a hosted storefront though: your shop is a Big Cartel site with your branding, not your own site with a shop in it. If you already made a site you are proud of, AddTheShop lets you sell from that one.
| Big Cartel | AddTheShop | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | Free for 5 products; $15 and $30 plans | None |
| Transaction fee | None from Big Cartel; Stripe or PayPal fees | 2% + Stripe's fee |
| Where the shop lives | A Big Cartel storefront (custom domain on paid plans) | Inside your existing site |
| Design | Big Cartel themes | Your site's design; grid inherits your font |
| AI management | Admin UI | OAuth MCP server, REST API |
Your site, not a storefront
Big Cartel's themes are nice, but they are Big Cartel's. With AddTheShop the shop is a section of the site you already built, in Lovable, Framer, Webflow or plain HTML, and it inherits your design.
Pricing
Big Cartel's free plan covers five products; after that it is $15 or $30 a month. AddTheShop has no product limit and no monthly fee; we take 2% per sale.
For makers who use AI
Describe a new piece to Claude or ChatGPT connected to AddTheShop and it is in the shop with a price and stock count. That is a different relationship with your store than logging in to an admin.