Big Cartel Alternatives: 6 Platforms for When You Outgrow It

The best Big Cartel alternatives are Shopify (deepest app ecosystem), Square Online (in-person plus online sales), Storenvy (marketplace traffic), Ecwid (add a store to an existing site), WooCommerce (full control if you're technical) and Rovela (everything built in, one flat price). Which one fits depends on what's holding you back: product limits, missing features or fees.

Big Cartel is a good first home for artists, musicians and makers. It's simple, it's cheap, and it gets out of your way. But simple has a ceiling. If you're hitting product caps, patching gaps with workarounds, or wishing you had abandoned cart emails, this guide walks through what to switch to and how to do it without losing sales.

Signs You've Outgrown Big Cartel

You've outgrown Big Cartel when the platform's limits cost you more than its low price saves you. That usually shows up as a product cap, thin marketing tools, or a design you can't push further without code.

These are the most common triggers sellers report in forums and reviews:

• Product limits. Big Cartel's plans cap how many products you can list, and the caps are tight. Historically its free tier allowed about 5 products, with paid tiers stepping up to roughly 50, 500 and more as you pay more. Limits and prices change, so verify current numbers. Once your catalog passes the cap, you pay more or you prune. Our Big Cartel pricing breakdown shows exactly where each tier stops.
• Few built-in marketing tools. Abandoned cart recovery, loyalty, advanced discounts and email automation aren't the platform's strength.
• Limited checkout and payment options. Big Cartel leans on Stripe and PayPal, and you can't customize the checkout flow much.
• Design ceiling. Themes are attractive but constrained. A brand that has grown past "nice template" feels boxed in.
• Reporting gaps. You want to know which campaigns drive repeat buyers, and the stock analytics won't tell you.

If two or more of those sound familiar, it's time to compare options. If none do, staying put is a perfectly good decision. A platform you don't have to think about is worth something.

Big Cartel Alternatives Compared

Each of the alternatives to Big Cartel below solves a different problem, so the right pick depends on your bottleneck. Prices and fees are base figures that change often, so confirm on each vendor's pricing page before you commit.

Platform	Best for	Typical entry cost	Watch out for
Shopify	Growing catalogs, large app ecosystem	Plans start around $39/month (Basic, monthly billing)	Apps and transaction fees stack up
Square Online	Makers who also sell in person	Free plan available, paid tiers higher	Tied to Square payments
Storenvy	Built-in marketplace discovery	Free store, marketplace fees apply	Less control over brand and customer data
Ecwid	Adding a store to an existing website	Free tier, paid plans scale by product count	Features gated by plan
WooCommerce	Full control, technical owners	Hosting plus plugins, often $30-$100/month	You own maintenance and security
Rovela	Everything built in, no app stack	Single flat subscription (see pricing)	Newer platform than the incumbents

Big Cartel vs Shopify

Shopify is the default step up. It has no practical product cap, a huge theme and app library, and strong shipping tools. According to Shopify's pricing page, plans start at $39/month on monthly billing, which is more than most Big Cartel plans.

The catch is the stack. Features like abandoned cart recovery, wishlists and richer product pages often come from paid apps. Our guide to ecommerce plugin costs shows how a cheap plan turns expensive, and ways to reduce Shopify app costs helps if you're already there. Third-party gateway fees also apply if you skip Shopify Payments; see Shopify third-party payment gateway fees.

A useful way to think about it: Big Cartel charges a predictable monthly fee and doesn't take a cut of sales on its paid plans, while Shopify's total depends on your plan, apps and which payment processor you use. For a seller doing a few hundred dollars a month, that difference can matter more than any feature.

Big Cartel vs Storenvy

Storenvy trades control for exposure. You get a storefront plus a marketplace where shoppers can find you, which helps if you have no audience yet. The downside is that the marketplace owns part of the relationship, and marketplace fees take a cut of sales made through it. Check Storenvy's current fee schedule, since rates and rules for marketplace versus direct sales have changed over the years.

If you already have followers and want to own your customer list, Storenvy is a sideways move, not an upgrade. If you're starting from zero traffic, it can work as a supplement rather than a replacement.

Big Cartel vs Square Online

Square Online is strongest when you sell at markets, pop-ups or a studio. Inventory syncs between your card reader and your website, which Big Cartel doesn't match as cleanly. A typical example: a jewelry maker who does weekend craft fairs can sell the same earrings at the booth and online without manually updating stock after each event.

The tradeoff is that you're committing to Square's payment processing, with per-transaction rates that apply to online sales. For a payment-focused comparison, read Stripe vs Square for an online store.

Ecwid and WooCommerce

Ecwid drops a store onto a site you already have, whether that's WordPress, Wix or Squarespace. It's a practical fit if your site is the brand and you just need a cart. Its free tier has a small product limit, and paid plans raise it, so a growing catalog will push you up the tiers. Our Big Cartel vs Ecwid comparison covers free plans and limits in detail.

WooCommerce gives you total control and the lowest software cost on paper. The plugin is free, but you pay for hosting, a domain, and often paid extensions for subscriptions, bookings or advanced shipping. In practice, you handle updates, plugin conflicts and security. If you don't have a developer or the patience to be one, it can quietly become a part-time job. For processor options, see our WooCommerce payment gateway comparison.

What's the Best Platform for Artists to Sell Online?

The best platform for artists to sell online is the one that matches how you sell. Print-on-demand and limited drops need strong catalog and inventory tools. Commission and original-work sellers need beautiful product pages. Event sellers need in-person sync.

Use this quick matching guide:

• Small catalog, low volume, minimal setup: stay on Big Cartel or try Ecwid's free tier.
• Sell at markets and online: Square Online.
• Need discovery and have no audience: Storenvy alongside your own store.
• Growing catalog, want the biggest ecosystem: Shopify, with a budget for apps.
• Technical and want full control: WooCommerce.
• Want marketing tools included, no app juggling: Rovela.

Here's a worked example. Picture a poster artist with 80 designs and size variants. On a 50-product plan she has to cut 30 designs or upgrade. On Shopify she can list everything, but adding abandoned cart emails, reviews and a wishlist might add $50 or more per month in apps. The "cheapest" option depends on which of those features she actually needs.

Whatever you pick, budget the full cost, not just the sticker. Our cheapest ecommerce platform comparison puts base plans, fees and typical add-ons side by side so you can see the real monthly number.

How to Migrate From Big Cartel Without Losing Sales

To migrate from Big Cartel, export your products as a CSV, export your orders where available, set up the new store, plan for URL changes, then switch your domain. Plan on a weekend for a small catalog and longer for hundreds of products.

Big Cartel export products: step by step

1. Export your product CSV. In your Big Cartel admin, open the Products page and look for the export option to download your catalog as a spreadsheet. Menu names shift as Big Cartel updates its admin, so check its help center if you can't find it. Confirm that names, descriptions, prices, options and inventory counts came through.
2. Save your images. Product photos may not travel inside the CSV in a usable form. Keep the originals from your camera or design files where you can. Otherwise download them before you cancel.
3. Export orders and customer data. Download order history for your records from the Orders page. Be careful with customer emails: only use them in ways your privacy policy and local law allow.
4. Build the new store and test it. Import products, place a test order, check shipping rates and tax settings, and confirm confirmation emails look right.
5. Map your old URLs. Big Cartel product URLs follow a pattern like /product/your-product-name, and the platform offers limited support for custom redirects. Export your top pages from Google Search Console and match each to its new address. Where you can't redirect from the old store, keep the old store live briefly with a banner pointing to the new one, or try to keep product slugs identical on the new platform so the paths match once your domain moves.
6. Switch the domain. Point your domain at the new store, keep the old plan alive for a week as a safety net, then cancel. Once the domain points to the new platform, redirects are set up there, not on Big Cartel.

Two mistakes to avoid. First, don't cancel before you've verified the export. Second, don't launch the new store the day before a big drop. Move during a quiet stretch so you can fix surprises.

A typical migration scenario

Consider a small apparel brand with about 120 products and a mailing list from checkout. A realistic plan: export the CSV on Friday, rebuild collections and import on Saturday, run test orders Sunday, and switch the domain midweek when traffic is lowest. Tweaking product titles and slugs to match old URLs on day one saves most of the search traffic. Expect a few days of ranking wobble even when you do it well.

Should you switch from Big Cartel at all?

Only if the math works. If you sell 20 products and a few orders a week, a migration is effort with little payoff. If you're paying for workarounds, losing carts you can't recover, or turning away product ideas because of caps, switching usually pays back within a few months.

Where Rovela Fits Among Big Cartel Alternatives

Rovela fits makers who want Shopify-level features without Shopify's app stack. It builds a complete store from a plain-language conversation, and the features Big Cartel sellers usually miss are built in: abandoned cart recovery, wishlists, loyalty, reviews, customer Q&A and marketing automations.

Here's what that looks like in practice. These are Rovela's own published claims, not independently audited results:

• Setup: a new store goes live in hours, and an existing store migrates in about 30 minutes with branding, catalog and customers preserved.
• Pricing: one flat subscription, no commission on sales and no per-app billing.
• Results: Rovela reports that merchants typically see +15% revenue, +22% margins and $5,000+ a year saved on previous platform and plugin costs. Your results will vary with your catalog, traffic and current costs.
• Ownership: stores run on standard Next.js code you can download, so any developer can take over if you ever leave.

It was built by operators who've run $15M+ in GMV and the team behind PrestaShop, which serves 400,000+ merchants, according to Rovela. That background matters because the feature list comes from what stores actually need to sell, not what looks good on a pricing grid.

Be honest about the tradeoffs. Rovela is newer than Shopify, so you won't find a decade of third-party themes and agencies. If you want a marketplace to bring you traffic, you'll still need Storenvy or Etsy alongside any platform. And if your store is tiny and happy, Big Cartel's low-effort setup is hard to beat.

How to Choose: A Short Decision Checklist

Choose by naming your single biggest bottleneck, then picking the platform that removes it. Don't pick on features you'll never use.

1. List what you pay today including plugins, transaction fees and payment processing.
2. List what you wish you had such as abandoned cart emails, bundles, subscriptions or deeper analytics.
3. Price each option with those features included. A $29 plan plus $80 in apps is a $109 plan.
4. Check payment fees. Our guides on the best payment gateway for a small store and PayPal for small handmade businesses help you compare processing costs.
5. Test with a real product. Most platforms offer trials. Build one product page and run a test checkout before committing.

Conclusion: Pick the Platform That Removes Your Bottleneck

Big Cartel is great until it isn't. If product caps, missing marketing tools or design limits are slowing you down, Shopify, Square Online, Storenvy, Ecwid, WooCommerce and Rovela each solve a different version of that problem. Export your products, test a trial store, and price the full stack before you move.

If you'd rather skip the app shopping, Rovela builds your store from a conversation and includes the features you'd otherwise rent one plugin at a time. Take a look at the pricing and see whether a flat subscription beats your current setup.