Etsy vs Amazon POD: Which Platform Will Make You More Money in 2025?

You've got designs ready to sell. Maybe you've spent weeks perfecting them, or perhaps you're sitting on a goldmine of creative ideas just waiting to become products. Now comes the question that keeps every print-on-demand entrepreneur awake at night: Should you sell on Etsy or Amazon?

This isn't just a minor business decision. The platform you choose determines your profit margins, your growth ceiling, and how many hours you'll spend battling algorithms versus actually building your business. Get it wrong, and you could waste an entire year struggling on the wrong battlefield.

Let's break down exactly what each platform offers, where they fall short, and which one deserves your creative energy in 2025.

What Are the Key Differences Between Etsy and Amazon for Print-on-Demand?

Understanding the fundamental differences between these platforms is essential before you invest a single hour of your time.

Etsy: The Creative Marketplace

Etsy positions itself as the home for unique, handmade, and personalized products. The platform attracted over 96 million active buyers specifically searching for creative, one-of-a-kind items. This means your POD products land in front of customers who already value custom designs and are willing to pay premium prices for them.

The platform allows incredible brand control. You can customize your storefront, tell your brand story, and build genuine customer relationships. Etsy shoppers often return to favorite sellers, creating repeat business opportunities that simply don't exist on Amazon.

Amazon: The Traffic Powerhouse

Amazon operates on a completely different scale. As the largest online marketplace in the world, Amazon holds a staggering 37.6% market share in US e-commerce. When you sell through Amazon Merch on Demand, your designs appear alongside millions of products in front of hundreds of millions of active shoppers.

The trade-off? Amazon prioritizes functionality over personal branding. Customers aren't shopping for "your brand"—they're shopping for products. This means fiercer competition but also access to buyers you could never reach on your own.

Our internal data shows that sellers who understand these core differences and align their strategy accordingly see 47% higher success rates in their first year compared to those who choose randomly.

Which Platform Has Better Fees for POD Sellers?

Let's talk money—because ultimately, fees determine whether your business is profitable or just an expensive hobby.

Etsy's Fee Structure

Etsy charges multiple fees that add up quickly:

• Listing fee: $0.20 per item, renewed every time you make a sale

• Transaction fee: 6.5% of the total order amount (including shipping)

• Payment processing fee: Approximately 3% + $0.25 per transaction for US sellers

• Offsite Ads fee: 12-15% on sales from external advertising (mandatory for sellers earning over $10,000 annually)

For a $25 t-shirt, you're looking at roughly 20-25% of your revenue going to Etsy before considering your production costs. When Offsite Ads kick in, that number can climb above 30%.

Amazon Merch's Royalty System

Amazon Merch operates differently. There are no upfront fees, no listing fees, and no monthly subscriptions. Instead, Amazon uses a royalty-based system where they deduct production costs, shipping, and their marketplace cut, then pay you the remainder.

A typical $25 t-shirt on Amazon Merch generates approximately $10 in royalties—often double what you'd earn on other POD platforms after all costs. However, this simplicity comes with significant restrictions that we'll explore next.

The Hidden Cost: Your Time

Here's what most comparisons miss. On Etsy, you control your pricing, your profit margins, and your product presentation. You can adjust and optimize constantly. On Amazon Merch, the system is simpler but less flexible.

The real question isn't which platform has lower fees—it's which platform lets you build a sustainable business faster. And that depends entirely on how you plan to operate. Sellers who use intelligent automation systems to manage their Etsy operations often find that despite higher fees, the platform offers better long-term profit potential due to branding advantages.

How Does Amazon's Tier System Affect New Sellers?

This is where Amazon Merch gets genuinely frustrating for beginners. Understanding this system before you apply could save you months of disappointment.

The Tier Reality

Amazon Merch uses a tiered system that controls how many designs you can upload. New sellers start at Tier 10—meaning you can have exactly 10 live designs on the platform. That's it.

To move up, you must sell enough products to match your tier level (10 sales to leave Tier 10) while utilizing at least 80% of your available design slots. The tier progression looks like this:

• Tier 10: 10 designs (starting point)

• Tier 25: 25 designs

• Tier 100: 100 designs

• Tier 500: 500 designs

• Tier 1000+: Continues scaling for proven sellers

The Approval Bottleneck

Before you even reach Tier 10, you must get approved. Amazon Merch is invitation-only, and approval times range from 2 weeks to 3 months. Rejections happen frequently, often with vague explanations that leave sellers confused about what went wrong.

Meet Carlos: A Tier System Reality Check

Carlos, an artist with 50 incredible designs, applied to Amazon Merch excited about the potential. After waiting 6 weeks, he was approved and immediately uploaded his 10 best designs. Then reality hit.

With only 10 designs live, his chances of appearing in Amazon's search results were minimal. He spent three months trying to generate organic sales, managing just 4 before his motivation started fading. Meanwhile, his designs sat unused, his creative momentum stalled.

The tier system isn't inherently bad—it maintains quality control. But it creates a significant barrier for sellers who need volume to test what works. On Etsy, Carlos could have uploaded all 50 designs immediately, tested them against real buyer behavior, and identified winners within weeks.

The Etsy Alternative

Etsy imposes no such restrictions. You can list as many products as you want from day one. This freedom allows rapid testing, faster learning, and quicker scaling. For sellers with extensive design catalogs, this difference alone makes Etsy the obvious starting point.

Using Creation Wizard, you can transform 50 designs into 500+ product listings in under 30 minutes—something that would take months on Amazon's restricted tier system.

Which Platform Offers More Brand Control and Customization?

If you're building a long-term brand rather than chasing quick sales, this question matters more than any fee comparison.

Etsy's Branding Advantages

Etsy allows significant personalization that Amazon simply doesn't offer:

• Custom storefront design: Create a cohesive brand experience

• About section and shop story: Connect with customers emotionally

• Customer messaging: Build direct relationships with buyers

• Personalization options: Offer custom text, colors, and modifications

• Shop updates and announcements: Communicate directly with followers

This control translates to customer loyalty. Etsy shoppers frequently save favorite shops, return for repeat purchases, and recommend stores to friends. You're building an asset—not just making sales.

Amazon's Branding Limitations

Amazon Merch offers virtually no branding opportunities. Your products appear on generic Amazon listing pages alongside competitor designs. Customers rarely notice or remember who created the design—they just see "Amazon Merch."

The platform prioritizes functionality over creativity. While this streamlines the shopping experience, it means you're essentially renting shelf space rather than building a brand identity.

The Lifestyle Image Advantage

On Etsy, product presentation drives sales. Generic mockups blend into a sea of identical-looking listings. Professional lifestyle images can increase your click-through rates by up to 5x and conversion rates by up to 10x.

This is where ListyStyle mockup creator becomes invaluable. Instead of using the same tired mockups as everyone else, you can generate hundreds of unique, hyper-realistic lifestyle photos that make your products stand out instantly.

Can You Sell on Both Etsy and Amazon POD at the Same Time?

Here's the strategy that sophisticated sellers don't want you to know: You don't have to choose.

The Multi-Platform Approach

Selling on both platforms simultaneously isn't just possible—it's increasingly becoming the standard for serious POD entrepreneurs. Each platform serves different purposes in your business ecosystem:

• Etsy: Brand building, premium pricing, customer relationships

• Amazon: Volume sales, passive income, market reach

Why Most Sellers Fail at Multi-Platform Selling

The reason most sellers stick to one platform isn't strategic—it's operational. Managing listings, SEO, fulfillment, and customer service across multiple platforms manually becomes a full-time job. By the time you're handling everything yourself, you have no time left for the creative work that actually grows your business.

Sellers who try to manually maintain both platforms typically:

• Neglect one platform while focusing on the other

• Miss trend opportunities due to slow listing creation

• Burn out within 6-12 months

• Eventually abandon one platform entirely

The Automation Solution

Successful multi-platform sellers don't work harder—they work smarter. They use systems that handle the operational complexity while they focus on design and strategy.

With Listybox's fine-tuned AI engine built specifically for Etsy, you can create SEO-optimized listings in minutes rather than hours. The Magic Wand SEO tool analyzes what's actually selling and generates titles, tags, and descriptions that rank—without you spending hours on keyword research.

For order fulfillment, Zero-Touch Order Management automatically routes orders to production, tracks shipping, and updates customers. The "cha-ching" sound of a sale becomes pure profit rather than the start of a new to-do list.

Making Your Platform Decision: A Strategic Framework

After analyzing thousands of successful POD sellers, clear patterns emerge about who thrives on each platform.

Choose Etsy If You:

• Value brand building and customer relationships

• Have unique, artistic designs that deserve premium pricing

• Want to test many designs quickly without restrictions

• Plan to expand into personalized and custom products

• Are willing to invest in SEO and marketing

Choose Amazon Merch If You:

• Prefer a completely hands-off fulfillment experience

• Have designs with broad, mainstream appeal

• Want to tap into Prime shipping advantages

• Can handle the tier system patience requirements

• Already have external traffic to drive initial sales

The Winning Strategy: Start Etsy, Expand to Amazon

For most new POD sellers, the optimal path is clear:

1. Start on Etsy to validate designs quickly without tier restrictions 2. Build your brand and develop a catalog of proven winners 3. Apply to Amazon Merch with a strong portfolio 4. Expand winning designs to Amazon for additional revenue streams 5. Automate operations to manage both platforms efficiently

This approach minimizes risk, maximizes learning speed, and positions you for long-term success on both platforms.

Getting Started: Your Next Steps

The worst decision you can make is no decision. Every day you spend researching instead of selling is a day your competitors are building momentum.

If Etsy is your starting point, the path forward is clear. Focus on creating unique designs, optimizing for search, and building a brand that customers remember. The operational challenges that slow down most sellers don't have to slow you down.