Pattern by Etsy: what the website costs and how it works

What Pattern by Etsy is

Pattern by Etsy is an optional tool that lets an Etsy seller build a personalized website with its own address, separate from the Etsy marketplace. Etsy's Pattern page presents it as a way to sell beyond the Etsy marketplace.

The site draws on your Etsy shop. In Etsy's words, Etsy shop listings are instantly synced with your website. You can choose which Etsy items to list, and add items or services you can't sell on Etsy, and both the Pattern website and the Etsy shop are managed in Shop Manager. Pattern is free for 30 days, and after the trial it costs $15.00 a month after a 30-day free trial.

• What you get: a website built from templates, filled with your Etsy listings.
• What it costs: $15.00 USD a month after the trial, plus local taxes such as sales tax or VAT/GST, where applicable.
• What it does not include: a domain name, which is a separate fee to register the domain name, plus any related services you buy from Tucows, Inc..
• Where you manage it: Shop Manager, the same dashboard as your Etsy shop.

Etsy Pattern pricing: every charge in one table

Etsy lists Pattern's charges in two places: its fees and payments policy, and a help article called Pricing and Fees for Pattern. The table puts each charge next to what it applies to, as those pages state it. Amounts are in US dollars.

All Pattern fees are deducted from your current balance and shown in your payment account. The monthly fee is the main fixed cost; the order fees depend on what you sell.

How the Pattern trial and monthly billing work

Pattern bills on a calendar month, which shapes what you pay in the first month and in the month you cancel.

1. Start the free trial

   It is free to try Pattern and design a custom website; the 30-day trial starts when you publish. Pattern is free for 30 days from that point.

2. Pay a pro-rated first month

   When the trial ends, the first month's fee is pro-rated, then the full fee is charged each month. A trial that ends mid-month leads to a part-month charge first.

3. Renew on the first of each month

   The subscription renews automatically on the first of the month at 12:01am Eastern Time, at $15.00 USD a month plus local taxes such as sales tax or VAT/GST, where applicable.

4. Cancel before the first to stop the next charge

   You cancel with "cancel Pattern" in the Pattern settings on your dashboard or from your payment account. Timing matters: the full subscription fee for that month is still owed if you cancel after it renews on the first. If you bought a domain through Etsy, the domain registration stays active after you cancel.

How Etsy listings sync to a Pattern website

Pattern does not need a separate catalogue. Etsy says Etsy shop listings are instantly synced with your website, so the website starts from the listings you already have. You can also choose which Etsy items to list, and add items or services you can't sell on Etsy, so the website does not have to carry everything in the Etsy shop.

The listing fee follows where the item is listed. An item on Etsy pays $0.20 per listing there and has no additional listing fees to list items on your Pattern site. An item you list only on Pattern has no listing fee, and Pattern-only listings do not expire, while Etsy.com listings renew because a listing expires after 4 months.

Fees on a Pattern order compared with an Etsy.com order

The biggest difference between the two sales channels is the transaction fee. Etsy's help article says there is no transaction fee on Pattern, while Etsy's fees policy charges 6.5% on sales made through Etsy.com. Payment processing does not change: items sold on Pattern pay the same payment processing fees as items in your Etsy shop.

Pattern orders are also kept out of the Offsite Ads threshold: Pattern orders are excluded from the sales counted toward the $10,000 Offsite Ads threshold. That threshold decides whether a shop can opt out of Offsite Ads, and Etsy's rule is that shops under $10,000 in sales over the past 365 days can opt out.

Etsy Pattern cost: a worked example

Example: a US seller with a $30 item, free shipping and no sales tax keeps Pattern for a year after the trial, buys no domain through Pattern and owes no tax on the subscription. The dollar results below are arithmetic on these example inputs, not Etsy figures.

1. Add up the subscription

   The trial is free for 30 days. After it, twelve renewals at $15.00 USD a month each come to $180 for the year in this example, before any pro-rated part month.

2. Work out the fee on one Pattern order

   A Pattern order has no transaction fee on Pattern and pays the same payment processing fees as items in your Etsy shop, which is 3% + $0.25 for a US seller. On the $30 example item that is $1.15.

3. Compare it with the same Etsy.com order

   On Etsy.com the same order also pays the 6.5% transaction fee, $1.95 on $30, plus the $0.20 per listing listing fee. So each $30 order taken on Pattern instead of Etsy.com avoids $1.95 in transaction fees in this example.

4. Find the monthly break-even

   Divide the $15.00 USD a month subscription by the $1.95 avoided per order. About 8 example orders a month on Pattern cover the subscription, assuming those buyers would otherwise have ordered on Etsy.com.

5. Add the domain if you buy one

   A domain bought through Pattern adds a registration fee that varies, plus $3.00 USD per year if you add WHOIS Domain Privacy.

Is Etsy Pattern worth it: the numbers to weigh

This page does not give a verdict. These are the figures from Etsy's own pages that decide the sum for a given shop.

• The fixed cost: $15.00 USD a month a month after the trial, plus local taxes such as sales tax or VAT/GST, where applicable and any domain.
• The fee per order: Pattern has no transaction fee on Pattern, against 6.5% on Etsy.com orders. Processing fees are the same on both.
• The listing cost: items only on Pattern have no listing fee, against $0.20 per listing on Etsy.
• The traffic: Etsy's pages quoted here give no figure for how many buyers reach a Pattern site, so the break-even in the example above only counts orders that actually arrive on Pattern.
• The timing: the fee is non-refundable and automatically renewed until canceled, and the full subscription fee for that month is still owed if you cancel after it renews on the first.

Where Nation fits

Questions about Pattern by Etsy