Big Cartel alternative
A Big Cartel alternative with no product limit.
Big Cartel caps every plan’s product count: 5 on the free Gold plan, 50 on Platinum at $15 a month, and 500 on Diamond at $30, with at most three variant groups and 150 variants per product. Gift cards need the Gift Up! app, subscriptions are a monthly beta, and there is no preorder setting. Flint Pay has no product cap and no monthly fee: options and variants, inventory, discounts, gift cards, subscriptions, local pickup, and line-item returns are in every account, at 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment with Stripe’s processing included. Flint doesn’t host a storefront theme, so you sell through payment links, the site you already have, Instagram, or a site an AI tool builds for you.
3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card
last reviewed 2026-10-27 · sources
01The alternatives
Big Cartel alternatives for artists and small brands.
Ranked for a US artist, maker, band, or small brand that has outgrown a Big Cartel plan. Each price is from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the date under Sources.
- 01
Flint Pay
US sellers who sell through links, a portfolio site, or Instagram and want no product cap, no monthly plan, and gift cards, subscriptions, pickup, and returns built in.
- Cards
- 3.79% + 35¢, Stripe's fees included
- Monthly
- No monthly fee
- Products
- no plan cap
- 02
Shopify
A hosted store and theme on a monthly plan.
- Basic
- $39/mo, $29 billed yearly
- Shopify Payments
- 2.9% + 30¢ online
- Other gateways
- +2% on Basic
- 03
Square Online
Square's site builder, with a $49 plan for your own domain.
- Free plan
- 3.3% + 30¢ online
- Plus
- $49/mo per location
- Plus online rate
- 2.9% + 30¢
- 04
Etsy
A marketplace that charges per listing and per sale.
- Listing
- $0.20 per item
- Transaction
- 6.5% of the sale
- US processing
- 3% + 25¢
02Side by side
Flint vs Big Cartel, need by need.
The Big Cartel column is what Big Cartel's own pricing page and help center say today, each linked under Sources. The Flint column is what a Flint account does, with the API name behind it for your developer or AI tool.
| What you need | Big Cartel plans | Flint |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Big Cartel plans: Gold is free. Platinum is $15 a month or $144 a year; Diamond is $30 a month or $288 a year. | Flint: No monthly fee. 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, which covers Stripe's processing. |
| Products | Big Cartel plans: Up to 5 on Gold, 50 on Platinum, and 500 on Diamond. Images per product: 1, 5, or 25. | Flint: No product cap on any account.POST /v1/products |
| Variants | Big Cartel plans: Up to three variant groups, such as size, color, and cut, and 150 variants per product. | Flint: Options and variants with no three-group limit, each variant with its own price, SKU, and stock, set up on the product page in the dashboard. One payment link lets the buyer pick the size or color.POST /v1/products |
| Inventory | Big Cartel plans: Inventory tracking on Platinum and Diamond. | Flint: On every account, from the dashboard: stock per variant and per location, held when payment starts, so the last print sells once. A sold-out size shows Sold out at checkout.held_quantity |
| Discounts | Big Cartel plans: Discount codes on Platinum. Automatic discounts and advanced discount logic on Diamond. | Flint: Codes and automatic promotions in every account: percent or amount off, buy X get Y, and free shipping.POST /v1/promotions |
| Gift cards | Big Cartel plans: Through the Gift Up! app at 3.49% per gift card, on a separate checkout. A card works as a discount code and must be used in one order. | Flint: A gift card product in your catalog, sold at the same checkout as everything else. Buyers apply up to 20 cards to one order, and a partial spend keeps the rest.gift_card_configuration |
| Subscriptions | Big Cartel plans: A beta on paid plans with Stripe connected: one monthly Subscribe page where subscribers enter the amount. Pauses and cancellations show only in Stripe. | Flint: Subscription plans with a set price, daily to yearly billing, trials, setup fees, and buyer pause and skip, at 0.40% of subscription payments.POST /v1/subscription-plans |
| Preorders | Big Cartel plans: No preorder setting. The help center suggests saying so in the product description. | Flint: Set a payment link's payment limit to the number you plan to make, and it stops selling when the run is spoken for. Ship from the fulfillment queue when the run arrives. |
| Local pickup | Big Cartel plans: A pickup method inside manual shipping profiles. | Flint: Pickup at the locations you choose, with in-store or curbside instructions.pickup_mode |
| Returns and refunds | Big Cartel plans: A refund of any amount from $1 to the order total. Restocking is an option when you cancel the whole order. | Flint: Returns by line item: received units go back in stock, and the buyer is refunded for just those items.POST /v1/returns |
| Payments | Big Cartel plans: Stripe or PayPal accounts you connect. Big Cartel takes no fee on sales; processor fees apply. | Flint: Stripe, on a processing account Flint sets up and runs: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH debit, and Affirm.POST /v1/checkout-sessions |
03Product limits
What are Big Cartel's product limits?
Big Cartel counts listed products by plan. The free Gold plan lists 5, Platinum lists 50, and Diamond lists 500, and there is no plan above Diamond. Images follow the same ladder: 1 per product on Gold, 5 on Platinum, and 25 on Diamond. Inside each product, variants stop at three groups and 150 combinations.
Those numbers arrive faster than they sound. An illustrator with 60 prints passes Platinum and pays for Diamond. A band with 15 shirt designs in 4 colors and 6 sizes needs 360 variants, so each design becomes its own product. A ceramicist who lists every one-of-a-kind piece separately reaches 500 within a few busy seasons, and then has to unlist old work to add new.
Flint doesn’t count products against a plan. List every print and every one-off, give each shirt design its colors and sizes as variants with their own price and stock, all from the dashboard, and pay only 3.79% + 35¢ when something sells.
04Without a theme
How do artists sell through Flint without a storefront theme?
Flint has no shop template to pick. It runs the checkout, the orders, and the payouts behind whichever front you choose, and each sale lands in one dashboard.
Payment links. Make a link in the dashboard for a print, a ticket, or a subscription, and post it in your bio, a DM, a newsletter, or a QR code on your merch table. A shirt in three sizes is one link: the buyer picks the size at checkout, and a size that runs out shows Sold out. No website is needed.
A portfolio site with checkout. Keep the Framer or Squarespace site you already have and point each Buy button at a Flint payment link. Add a store to a Framer site walks through it.
Instagram and DMs. Sell drops from a post or answer a DM with a link. The order and the receipt are handled, and a payment limit closes the drop when it sells out. See taking payments from Instagram.
A site an AI tool builds. Ask Lovable, Bolt, or Claude for a shop page with a size picker and a cart, and connect it to Flint. A cart that sends several items to one checkout needs a server call, which the AI tool or a developer writes. Sell online with AI shows the setup.
05What Flint adds
What does Flint add that Big Cartel doesn't?
Every account has these from the first day, with no plan to upgrade. Variants and stock counts are set up in the dashboard, with no code. Subscriptions are priced at 0.40% of subscription payments; the rest is inside the card rate.
Products with options and variants, with no product count tied to a plan.
POST /v1/productsStock per variant and location, held when payment starts, so two buyers can't both pay for the last print.
held_quantityGift cards as a product type: fixed or custom amounts, a code emailed to the recipient, partial spends that keep the rest.
gift_card_configurationSubscription plans with a set price, trials, setup fees, and buyer pause and skip.
POST /v1/subscription-plansPickup at the locations you choose, filled from that location's own stock.
pickup_modeReturns by line item, with received units back in stock and a refund for just those items.
POST /v1/returnsDiscount codes and automatic promotions, including buy X get Y and free shipping, in every account.
POST /v1/promotionsSell gift cards online →Preorders with local pickup →Memberships and subscription boxes →Subscriptions →
06Big Cartel vs Shopify
Big Cartel vs Shopify: what changes when you move up?
Shopify removes the product cap, but Basic costs $39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly, before any apps. Shopify Payments charges 2.9% + 30¢ online, and Basic adds a 2% fee on each sale if you use another payment provider. A shop moving from Diamond at $30 a month starts paying more every month whether or not it sells.
Flint removes the cap without a plan. There is no monthly fee, gift cards and pickup come with the account, and the card rate, 3.79% + 35¢, already includes Stripe’s processing. Sellers coming from a marketplace can read selling on your own site instead of Etsy, and the Square Online alternative covers Square’s site builder.
07Worked example
What does Big Cartel cost compared with Flint?
A shop past 50 products is on Diamond, and Big Cartel's plan fee comes on top of Stripe's fees. At $40 orders, Flint costs less than Diamond with Stripe below about $2,900 a month in sales, and below about $1,900 with automatic tax on every order. Past 500 products, Big Cartel has no plan to compare.
| Monthly fees at $40 per order, Diamond billed monthly | 10 orders | 25 orders | 40 orders | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly sales | $400.00 | $1,000.00 | $1,600.00 | |
| Big Cartel Diamond | $30.00 | $30.00 | $30.00 | |
| Stripe processing, 2.9% + 30¢ | $14.60 | $36.50 | $58.40 | |
| Big Cartel and Stripe | $44.60 | $66.50 | $88.40 | |
| Flint, 3.79% + 35¢ | $18.70 | $46.75 | $74.80 | |
| Flint with automatic tax (+0.50%) | $20.70 | $51.75 | $82.80 | |
Assumptions
- Every order is $40, paid with a US card. International cards add 1.5% on Stripe and on Flint.
- Big Cartel Diamond at $30 billed monthly, the plan a shop with more than 50 products needs. Big Cartel takes no fee on sales.
- Stripe as the payment processor at its standard US rate of 2.9% + 30¢. Big Cartel also connects PayPal, which sets its own rates.
- Billed yearly, Diamond is $288, or $24 a month, which moves the breakeven without automatic tax to about $2,300.
- On Platinum at $15 a month, for shops with 50 products or fewer, the breakeven is about $1,400 without automatic tax and $900 with it.
- Gift cards sold through Gift Up! add 3.49% per gift card on Big Cartel. Flint's rate card has no gift card add-on.
08Who Flint is for
Flint is built for US sellers who make things.
Artists, makers, bands, and small brands that sell online through links, a site they already have, or social posts. Everything above is running the day you create your account.
US businesses
Flint onboards businesses in the US and pays out in USD to your own bank account. Buyers can pay from anywhere with a card.
Physical goods and drops
Prints, merch, ceramics, and records that ship, get picked up, or sell out in a drop, with a payment limit that closes the drop.
Your links or your site
Payment links in a bio, a DM, or a QR code, or Buy buttons on a portfolio site. A full cart on your site needs a developer or an AI tool.
Sellers who file their own tax
Automatic US sales tax calculates and records tax on each order line at 0.50% of taxed payments; you register and file.
09Switching
How do you move from Big Cartel to Flint?
Product by product. Your Big Cartel shop keeps selling until your Flint links replace its buttons.
Copy your catalog
POST /v1/productsCreate each product in the Flint dashboard, then Add option and Add variants for its sizes or colors, each with its own price, SKU, and stock count. For a big shop, Big Cartel's public product feed (its older v0 API) lists every product with its options, prices, and image URLs, so a developer or an AI assistant can load them through the API in one pass.
Set shipping and pickup
POST /v1/delivery-methodsSet shipping rates and a pickup method in the dashboard's fulfillment setup.
Recreate discount codes
POST /v1/promotionsCreate each Big Cartel discount as a promotion with a code, or as an automatic promotion that applies when an order qualifies.
Make payment links
POST /v1/payment-linksCreate a payment link for each product, and choose Let buyers choose for one that comes in sizes. Tracked stock closes a limited run on its own. Replace the links in your bio, your site's Buy buttons, and your QR codes.
Or send a cart from your site
POST /v1/ordersFor a multi-item cart, your developer or AI tool creates a Flint order from variant IDs and quantities and opens hosted checkout for it.
Turn on sales tax and go live
Add the states where you're registered for automatic US sales tax, take a test payment in your sandbox, then switch your links to live.
10Start
Sign up, make your first link, and pay it yourself.
Sign up, add a product or make a payment link in the dashboard, and open it on your own phone to see exactly what your buyers will see. No code and no monthly plan.
3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card
Then read these
- 01Payment linksSell from a bio, a DM, or a QR code
- 02
- 03
- 04
Sources
Where each claim comes from.
Platinum $15 a month ($144 billed annually), Diamond $30 a month ($288 billed annually), a free limited Gold plan; automatic discounts, advanced discount logic, scheduled drops, and abandoned cart recovery on Diamond only; cards, PayPal, and Afterpay. Big Cartel: Pricing
www.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Products: 5 on Gold, 50 on Platinum, 500 on Diamond; images 1, 5, and 25; discounts and inventory tracking from Platinum. Big Cartel help: Plans and features
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Each product can have up to 150 total variants and a maximum of three variant groups. Big Cartel help: FAQ
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Variant groups create up to three dropdown menus on each product listing. Big Cartel help: Create product variant groups
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Customers pay by card via Stripe or with PayPal; Big Cartel charges no fees on sales, and processor fees still apply. Big Cartel help: Set up checkout
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Subscriptions need a paid plan and Stripe; a Subscribe page where subscribers enter the monthly amount; cancellations, pauses, and skips don't appear in the Big Cartel admin. Big Cartel help: Subscriptions
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Subscriptions are a beta feature. Big Cartel help: Subscription FAQs
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Gift Up! charges 3.49% per gift card; its checkout is separate from the Big Cartel shop; cards are accepted as discount codes and must be used in a single transaction. Big Cartel help: Gift Up!
www.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26No specific setting for pre-order products; state it in the product description. Big Cartel help: Add and edit products
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Local pickup or delivery as methods in shipping profiles. Big Cartel help: Shipping profiles
help.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26Refunds of any amount between $1 and the order total; restocking is offered when canceling an order. Big Cartel help: Order cancellations and refunds
www.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-26A public, read-only products endpoint returning each product's options, images, and categories; the v0 API is deprecated. Big Cartel developers: API v0
developers.bigcartel.com · checked 2026-10-262.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction; international cards +1.5%. Stripe: Pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-26Basic $39 a month or $29 billed yearly; online card rate 2.9% + 30¢; third-party transaction fee 2% on Basic. Shopify: Pricing
www.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-26Free $0 a month with online card payments at 3.3% + 30¢; Plus $49 a month per location at 2.9% + 30¢. Square: Online store plans
squareup.com · checked 2026-10-26Listing fee $0.20 per item; transaction fee 6.5% of the item price plus shipping. Etsy: Fees and payments policy
www.etsy.com · checked 2026-10-26US payment processing fee 3% + $0.25. Etsy: Payments policy
www.etsy.com · checked 2026-10-26
last reviewed 2026-10-27 · corrections: Flint Help
FAQ
Questions people ask.
What is the best Big Cartel alternative?
For a US artist, maker, or small brand that has outgrown a Big Cartel plan, Flint Pay. Flint has no product cap and no monthly fee, one card rate of 3.79% + 35¢ that covers Stripe's processing, and every account includes options and variants, inventory, discount codes, gift cards, subscriptions, local pickup, and line-item returns. Flint doesn't host a storefront theme: you sell through payment links, your own site, Instagram, or a site an AI tool builds.
How many products can you sell on Big Cartel?
Big Cartel's help center lists 5 products on the free Gold plan, 50 on Platinum at $15 a month, and 500 on Diamond at $30 a month, with no plan above Diamond. Each product can have up to three variant groups and 150 variants. Flint has no product cap on any account.
Does Big Cartel have gift cards or subscriptions?
Not as built-in features. Big Cartel's help center points to the Gift Up! app, which charges 3.49% per gift card, sells cards on a separate checkout, and redeems each card as a discount code in a single order. Subscriptions are a beta on paid plans with Stripe: one monthly Subscribe page, with pauses and cancellations visible only in Stripe. Flint includes gift cards with partial spends and up to 20 cards per order, and subscription plans at 0.40% of subscription payments.
How does Big Cartel compare with Shopify?
Big Cartel caps products at 500 on its top plan, $30 a month. Shopify lifts the cap, but Basic costs $39 a month or $29 billed yearly, and adds 2% per sale if you use another payment provider. Flint lifts the cap with no monthly fee, at 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment including Stripe's processing.
Is Flint a good alternative to Big Cartel?
Yes, for a US seller that has hit Big Cartel's product limit or needs gift cards, subscriptions, preorders, or line-item returns. At 25 orders of $40 a month, Big Cartel Diamond with Stripe costs $66.50 in fees and Flint costs $46.75. Flint doesn't host a shop template, so you sell through payment links, your own site, Instagram, or a site an AI tool builds.
Do I need a website to sell with Flint?
No. Create payment links in the Flint dashboard and share them in your bio, DMs, emails, or a QR code at a show; each buyer gets a hosted checkout and you get an order. A site with a cart that sends several items to one checkout needs a developer or an AI tool to make one API call.
List every piece you make, with no plan to outgrow.
Free sandbox, no credit card, no sales call. Add a product, make a payment link, and take a test payment in a few minutes.
Or run npm install -g @flintpay/cli && flint signup to create your account and a sandbox key from the terminal. CLI guide
More comparisons · last reviewed 2026-10-27