Teachers Pay Teachers vs Etsy: which is better for sellers?
·Founder, Stakk
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3 November 2026
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8 min read
Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is better if you want teachers to find you, because it is a marketplace built for teaching resources and Etsy is not. Etsy is better if you want a bigger share of each sale without giving up the right to sell elsewhere: on a $10 resource, Etsy's known US fees come to $1.40, while TPT keeps $4.80 on its Basic plan, or $2.00 on its Exclusive plan, which bars you from selling those resources anywhere else. Etsy also charges $0.20 per listing whether or not it sells. Checked 22 October 2026.
This is the head-to-head for a teacher who makes worksheets, units, clip art or classroom decor and is choosing where to list them. Every TPT number below comes from TPT's own help center, and every Etsy number from Etsy's own policy pages.
Which takes a bigger cut, TPT or Etsy?
It depends on your TPT plan, and the gap is wide. TPT keeps a share of each sale, plus a small transaction fee, and passes the rest to you. Etsy charges several smaller fees that stack. Here they are side by side, with what each leaves you on a $10 resource bought on its own.
| Where you sell | Fixed cost | Per sale | Card processing | Known fees on $10 | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etsy | $0.20 a listing, every 4 months, plus a possible set-up fee | 6.5% of the order | 3% + $0.25 (US) | $1.40 | $8.60 |
| Stakk | None | From 10% + $0.50 | Included | $1.50 | $8.50 |
| TPT Basic | $29 once | TPT keeps 45%, plus 30 cents a resource | Not listed as a separate fee | $4.80 | $5.20 |
| TPT Exclusive | $59.95 a year | TPT keeps 20% now, 22.5% from 1 January 2027, plus 15 cents on orders under $3 | Not listed as a separate fee | $2.00 ($2.25 from 2027) | $8.00 ($7.75 from 2027) |
The math, line by line. TPT's Seller Fees and Payout Rates page puts the Basic payout at 55%, so $5.50, less the 30 cent transaction fee: $5.20. Exclusive pays 80% for now, so $8.00, with no transaction fee because the order is $3 or more. From 1 January 2027 that drops to 77.5%, or $7.75. Our breakdown of TPT's seller fees walks through each plan.
On Etsy, a US seller with no delivery charge and no sales tax on the order pays 6.5% ($0.65), then processing of 3% + $0.25 ($0.55), then one $0.20 listing fee counted against the sale. That is $1.40, leaving $8.60. You can run your own prices through our Etsy fee calculator. Etsy's $0.25 and $0.20 are fixed amounts, so they weigh more on a cheap resource than on a $10 one.
What do TPT and Etsy charge before you sell anything?
TPT charges a membership. Etsy charges per listing. That is the biggest difference in how the two cost you money, and it does not show up in a per-sale number.
TPT's Basic plan is a one-time, non-refundable $29. Exclusive is $59.95 a year. If you start on Basic and move up later, the $29 does not count toward Exclusive. After that, a resource nobody buys costs you nothing more.
Etsy has no membership. Etsy's fees policy says you may have to pay a one-time set-up fee during shop set-up. Etsy publishes no figure for it and says the cost varies by location. Then each listing costs $0.20, charged whether or not the item sells. Listings expire after four months, and renewing one costs another $0.20. A shop of 40 resources pays $8.00 every four months before a single sale. Etsy Plus is an optional extra at $10 a month.
So a teacher with a big back catalog and a few best sellers pays Etsy for the whole shelf, every cycle. On TPT the same shelf costs the membership and nothing else. Stakk has no membership and no listing fee, and charges only when something sells.
Which one brings buyers to you?
Both do, and that is the main thing either one gives you that a store at your own link does not.
TPT is a marketplace for original educator-created content: instructional resources, classroom decor, professional development, and supplies for making them, such as clip art and fonts. The people searching it are there for teaching material. That built-in audience is real, and it is the best reason to be on TPT.
Etsy is a marketplace too. Buyers search it and buy from many shops in one place, and it lets you sell instant downloads you made or designed yourself. It is not built around teachers, so the people browsing are not all there for classroom material.
On both, the buyer pays the marketplace, not you. TPT says it takes care of processing orders and customer support. Etsy says each seller appoints it as agent to receive and hold payments. They bring the buyer, they hold the money, and they set the rules.
Stakk is the other model. It is a checkout at your own link and brings you no buyers, so every sale is someone you sent there yourself, from a blog, an email list or an Instagram account. Our Stakk and TPT comparison lays the two models side by side.
Can you sell the same resource on TPT and Etsy?
Yes on TPT's Basic plan. No on its Exclusive plan, for teaching resources. As an Exclusive Seller, your digital educational resources must be sold on TPT alone. You can still promote them anywhere and run your own site, as long as the purchase itself happens on TPT. Basic Sellers have no such rule, so the same unit can be listed on TPT and Etsy at once.
Some things are allowed off TPT even on Exclusive: digital items that are not about teaching, such as clip art and fonts, plus physical products, courses and professional development, Boom Cards and Kindle books. So an Exclusive Seller who also makes clip art could still sell that clip art on Etsy.
Etsy has its own rule, pointed the other way. Its Off-Platform Transactions Policy does not allow you to tell an Etsy buyer to buy through your own website, a social media shop or another marketplace, or to offer discounts or free items to pull them off Etsy. You can run both shops. You cannot use Etsy to send its buyers to the other one.
If you want more places to list as a Basic Seller, our list of TPT alternatives covers them.
When do you get paid on TPT and Etsy?
TPT pays once a month. Etsy can pay as often as daily. Both hold the money first.
TPT pays sellers through a payment company called Hyperwallet. TPT's page on how sellers get paid says each month's earnings arrive the following month, no later than the 21st, and usually around the 10th. Depending on your country, you can take it by direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo or wire. So a sale on 2 November reaches you some time in December.
Etsy keeps your sales as a balance in your payment account and deposits daily, weekly, every two weeks or monthly. Daily deposits need a balance of at least $25. The others go out on Mondays, and deposits are generally credited within five business days. Etsy can also hold part of your balance in reserve if it sees high financial risk. Its own example is 30% held for 45 days.
How both marketplaces pay you. Two hops, and the second one runs on the marketplace's calendar, not yours.
Stakk works the other way. The charge lands in your own Stripe account and Stripe pays your bank. Our breakdown of who holds your money sets the two models side by side.
What happens to your fees when you refund a buyer?
On Etsy, the fees come back. On TPT, refunds are rare by design.
Etsy says that if you refund a buyer through Shop Manager, your transaction and processing fees for that order go back to your payment account automatically. If you also cancel the order, the listing fee is credited too. You can refund through Etsy Payments up to 180 days after payment. A refund you make outside Etsy gets no fees back.
TPT treats sales of digital resources as final and nonrefundable, with set exceptions within one year, such as a broken file, a resource that was misrepresented, one that was never downloaded, or a duplicate purchase. When a refund is due, TPT's Customer Experience team can issue it on your behalf, for purchases in the last 365 days.
On Stakk, our fee is not returned when you refund a buyer. That is a real cost Etsy does not charge you, and it belongs in any comparison.
When is TPT or Etsy the better choice?
More often than a Stakk blog would like. If you need teachers to find you, TPT is the better choice, because its buyers are already searching for teaching material and no checkout link replaces that. If you are an Exclusive Seller, your teaching resources have to sell on TPT, so Stakk is the wrong choice for them, and so is Etsy. Etsy is the better choice if you want a marketplace's reach without TPT's 45% Basic cut, your fees back when you refund, or sales tax handled for you: Etsy collects and remits it on orders to US locations, and TPT does the same across a long list of US states, Canada and Australia. On Stakk, you are the seller. And if price is the whole decision, go elsewhere. Systeme.io has a free plan with no transaction fees, and Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 on a domestic card with no monthly fee. Both take less than our 10% + $0.50. Stakk also has no subscription billing, sells in US dollars only, and caps prices at $999.
What neither marketplace gives you is a checkout you can shape. I found no order bump or upsell in either TPT's or Etsy's help center. On Stakk, the answer key or a matching set can sit on the payment screen as an order bump and ride the same charge, so the order carries one fee rather than two. After payment, a bigger bundle is one tap against the card just used. That upsell is a second charge with its own fee. Both are on every account with nothing behind a tier, and the layout came out of funnels that ran for agency clients before Stakk existed.
Want a checkout for the teachers who already follow you?
If you are a Basic Seller, or what you want to sell is on TPT's allowed list, Stakk can be the checkout behind your own Instagram, email list or website, next to your TPT or Etsy shop rather than instead of it. Put the resource behind a checkout, add the answer key as an optional extra, and share the link. The payment lands in your own Stripe account, not a balance someone else holds. From 10% + $0.50 per sale, card processing included, with no monthly fee.