Big Cartel's Free Gold Plan Sells Five Things, Fee Free
Five products, no monthly cost and no commission. The oldest free tier in e-commerce is still the cheapest way to run a small shop honestly.
Big Cartel's Gold plan is free forever and allows up to five products, with no transaction fees, mobile-friendly shop templates and built-in sales reporting. It does not include a custom domain. Platinum is $15 a month and Diamond is $30, and neither charges a commission on sales either.1
Big Cartel has been offering a free shop for independent sellers since long before free tiers were a marketing device. The Gold plan is a real shop with a real checkout, limited only by product count.2
The plans, measured
| Gold | Platinum | Diamond | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $15/mo | $30/mo |
| Products | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Transaction fee | None | None | None |
| Custom domain | No | Yes | Yes |
| Physical and digital products | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sales reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Abandoned cart recovery | No | No | Yes |
Prices measured on 22 October 2026. Vendor plan terms, allowances and prices change without notice, so treat every figure on this page as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent fact. Where a number here differs from the vendor's own pricing page, the vendor's page is correct and the figure above is simply older than it.
No transaction fee is the differentiator
Most free e-commerce tiers take a percentage. Payhip takes 5%, Gumroad takes 10% plus 50 cents, and both of those are on top of payment processing. Big Cartel takes nothing beyond what your payment processor charges.
On a $40 product sold a hundred times a month, that is the difference between keeping $4,000 and paying $200 to Payhip or $450 to Gumroad. Big Cartel's free plan is genuinely, structurally cheaper at that volume.
| Monthly sales | Big Cartel Gold | Payhip 5% | Gumroad 10% + 50c |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 sales of $40 | $0 | $20 | $45 |
| 100 sales of $40 | $0 | $200 | $450 |
| 1,000 sales of $40 | $0 | $2,000 | $4,500 |
Those are platform fees only, excluding card processing on all three.
Five products is a real shop, briefly
For a maker with a single line, five products is the whole catalogue. For a print shop doing four designs, it is enough. For anyone whose range grows, it is a wall, and it arrives faster than expected because variants count separately.
A t-shirt in three colours and three sizes can consume several product slots depending on how the shop is structured, which makes the practical ceiling lower than five items in the window.
What free does not include
Custom domains. A Gold shop lives at a bigcartel.com address, and connecting your own domain requires Platinum. For a shop that wants to look established, that is the first thing to break.
Abandoned cart recovery is Diamond only. Discounts and promos work on Gold, but the advanced discount logic is Platinum upward. Import tools, bulk editing and prioritized support are also paid features.
Card payments, PayPal and Afterpay all work on Gold, so a free shop can take money normally. The limits are presentation and scale rather than checkout.
When the free plan is enough
A maker with a small line who sells occasionally. A first shop testing whether a product sells at all. A personal store where five items is genuinely the full range.
It is also the right plan for anyone who objects to commission on principle and sells little enough that five products is not a constraint.
When it stops being enough
At the sixth product, or the first time a custom domain matters. Platinum at $15 a month removes the product cap and adds the domain, and it still charges no transaction fee.
That combination makes Big Cartel's paid tiers unusually good value for a small shop: $15 flat against a percentage that grows without limit.
How it compares
Against Ecwid, which no longer has a free tier at all, Big Cartel is the only option here that gives a free shop and takes no commission. Against Payhip, Big Cartel wins on fees and loses on products. Payhip is unlimited products at 5%; Big Cartel is five products at 0%.
Against Gumroad, Big Cartel is dramatically cheaper per sale, but Gumroad is simpler and allows no physical goods while Big Cartel handles both. Against Square, Big Cartel is the better pure online shop and Square is better if you also sell in person.
Frequently asked questions
Is Big Cartel's Gold plan really free?
Yes. Up to five products, no transaction fees, no expiry.
Does Big Cartel take a commission?
No. It charges no transaction fee on any plan. You still pay your payment processor.
Can I use a custom domain on the free plan?
No. Custom domains require Platinum at $15 a month.
Can I sell digital products on Gold?
Yes. Digital and physical products are both supported.
What happens when I add a sixth product?
The shop requires an upgrade to Platinum before the extra product can go live.
Plans, limits and fees verified against Big Cartel's own pricing and Gold signup pages on 23 October 2026.
Sources
- Big Cartel pricing: www.bigcartel.com/product/pricing.
- Big Cartel Gold plan signup: my.bigcartel.com/signup/gold.
All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 22 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.
