Big Cartel vs Payly: which is better for a small store?
Big Cartel and Payly both let you open a small online store without a transaction fee, and both send payments to your own PayPal or Stripe account. The differences are in product limits, custom domains, discounts and what each plan costs. Here is a fair look at both.
The short version
- Big Cartel is a store builder made for independent artists and makers. It is simple, and its free plan is very small.
- Payly is a free ecommerce platform with hosting built in. Every feature is open to every store, and nothing is behind a paid plan.
If you sell a handful of items and want the simplest possible shop, Big Cartel is a comfortable fit. If your catalog is larger or you want discount codes and your own domain without paying for a plan, Payly is worth a look.
Big Cartel's plans
| Plan | Price | Products | Images per product | Custom domain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Free | 5 (variations count) | 1 | No |
| Platinum | $15 a month, or $12 billed yearly ($144) | 50 | 5 | Yes |
| Diamond | $30 a month, or $24 billed yearly ($288) | 500 | 25 | Yes |
Platinum starts with a 7-day free trial. Big Cartel says it does not charge transaction fees on orders and does not hold your funds. You use PayPal and Stripe directly, which charge their own standard rates. The Gold plan also cannot offer discounts. See Big Cartel's pricing page.
The product count matters. Because variations count toward the limit on Gold, a shirt in four sizes uses four of your five slots. A shop with ten items in a few sizes each will need Platinum or Diamond.
How Payly compares
Payly charges no monthly fee, no transaction fee and no commission. Customers pay your own PayPal or Stripe account directly, and the only fee on a sale is PayPal's or Stripe's standard one. How can it be free? Payly is an official PayPal and Stripe partner, and that partnership lets Payly run the platform without charging you. Your money never passes through Payly.
| Big Cartel Gold | Big Cartel Platinum | Payly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $0 | $15 ($12 yearly) | $0 |
| Platform fee on sales | None | None | None |
| Product limit | 5 | 50 | No limit set by Payly (see below) |
| Custom domain | No | Yes | Yes, connecting is free |
| Payments | PayPal and Stripe | PayPal and Stripe | PayPal and Stripe |
Product limits in Payly
Payly sets no product limit of its own. Your store runs on your own free Cloudflare account, and its limits apply: Cloudflare's free plan covers roughly 1,500 products with a photo each, and photos and files share 500 MB of storage. If a store outgrows that, Cloudflare's paid plan is $5 a month, paid to Cloudflare, and Payly stays free either way.
Custom domain
Every Payly store gets a free address ending in workers.dev. Connecting your own domain costs nothing in Payly; you pay only the registrar for the name, typically about $10 to $20 a year for a .com. See Connect a custom domain.
Discounts and other features
Payly's discount codes can be a percentage or a fixed amount, with a minimum spend, start and end dates and a usage limit. Products can have variants with their own price, SKU and stock. Other features include stock tracking with low stock alerts, digital downloads, subscriptions, shipping zones, sales tax rates and reports you can download as spreadsheet files.
Where Big Cartel is better
- Simplicity. A small catalog and a few clicks is Big Cartel's whole idea. If a tool that does less suits you, that is a real advantage.
- It is made for artists. Independent artists and makers are who it was designed around, and a store with a few products is exactly what it expects.
Moving between them
Payly imports products from Shopify, Etsy, Wix, Squarespace and WooCommerce. Big Cartel is not on that list, so moving a Big Cartel catalog means adding products by hand. For a store of 5 to 50 items, that is a short job. See Add a product.
Questions
Is Big Cartel's free plan enough to start?
For a very small shop, yes. With 5 products (variations counted) and one image each, it fits a single drop or a few items.
Do I need to pay to use my own domain?
On Big Cartel, a custom domain needs Platinum or Diamond. On Payly, connecting a domain is free; you only buy the domain.
Can I use both?
Nothing stops you from trying Payly with a few products while your Big Cartel shop stays up. Test mode lets you place practice orders first.
Prices as published by each company for the US in October 2026. Prices can change; check each company's own pricing page.
