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Most buyers should pick Big Cartel.
Choose Big Cartel for a straightforward independent shop: it has a free Gold plan, then Platinum at $15/month and Diamond at $30/month. Choose Turbify if you need a wider business bundle—domains, hosting, email, WordPress/WooCommerce and local marketing—rather than just a storefront. Its hosting headline starts at $0.99/month for the first year on annual billing, but the pricing page returns 404 and Business Mail annual rates are unpublished. For a store-first comparison, we give Big Cartel the edge.
01Side by side
| Big Cartel | Turbify | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0 Gold plan; paid plans start at $15/month | $0.99/month hosting, first year, annual billing |
| Free plan | Gold is free; features are limited | No free plan listed |
| Best for | Independent sellers building a focused online shop | Businesses needing hosting, domains, email and marketing |
| Core strength | Storefront, product sales and in-person selling | Broad business tools, including hosting and AI site building |
| Learning curve | Review ease-of-use score: 8/10 | Review ease-of-use score: 6/10 |
| Integrations and data | Imports Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace; Diamond connects 7,000+ apps | LocalWorks lists on Google and 70+ directories |
| Team and seat costs | Store plans; staff-seat pricing not published | Mailbox tiers listed; 20+ mailboxes require custom pricing |
| Support | Review support score: 5/10 | 24/7 support listed; review support score: 3/10 |
Big Cartel Choose Big Cartel if
- Choose Big Cartel if you want a free starting storefront.
- Choose Big Cartel if you sell physical or digital goods.
- Choose Big Cartel if you need product drops and shop tools.
Turbify Choose Turbify if
- Choose Turbify if you need hosting alongside your store.
- Choose Turbify if business email and domains matter.
- Choose Turbify if you want WordPress or WooCommerce hosting.
02Pricing compared
Big Cartel has a free Gold plan with limited features; the published pricing details don’t specify what those limits are. Platinum costs $15 per month and Diamond costs $30 per month. The pricing summary also lists a 7-day free period, but annual prices aren’t published.
Turbify’s hosting rates are harder to compare: its pricing page returns 404. The published summary lists annual first-year rates, billed monthly, of $2.99 for Essentials, $3.99 for Advanced and $0.99 for Professional. Professional’s regular monthly rate is $17.99. Business Mail is listed from $1.19 per mailbox per month, but annual rates aren’t published. The $0.99 headline is therefore a first-year annual-billing rate, not a general monthly price. For a store-first budget, Big Cartel’s free entry point and clearly stated paid tiers are easier to assess.
03Features and depth
Big Cartel is the more focused storefront option. It supports physical and digital products, print-on-demand and in-person selling through its app. Sellers can customize a template without coding, import products from Shopify, Etsy or Squarespace, and connect to Instagram, Facebook and Google Shopping. Platinum includes custom domains and shipping labels; Diamond adds abandoned-cart recovery, scheduled product drops, password-protected products and Zapier connections to 7,000+ apps.
Turbify covers more business infrastructure than storefront features. Its offering includes domains, web hosting, AI website building, business email, WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, online stores and local marketing. The homepage says its AI builder can make a site in under 60 seconds. WooCommerce hosting supports payments and inventory, while LocalWorks manages reviews, social profiles and listings across Google and 70+ local directories. That wider bundle may suit a business assembling several services, but it is not the same as choosing a dedicated shop builder. For product selling features, Big Cartel is the clearer fit.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Big Cartel’s stated setup approach is straightforward: choose a template and customize the storefront without coding. Its product imports can help sellers move listings from Shopify, Etsy or Squarespace. The review gives Big Cartel an ease-of-use score of 8, though that score doesn’t explain specific setup steps or limits.
Turbify’s homepage says its AI builder can create a site in under 60 seconds, and its review has an ease-of-use score of 6. But Turbify spans domains, hosting, email, WordPress, WooCommerce and local marketing. That breadth can mean more decisions if all you need is a small shop. The best fit depends on scope: a focused storefront points to Big Cartel; a broader web-services bundle points to Turbify.
Questions people ask
Is BigCommerce better than Shopify?
This comparison covers Big Cartel and Turbify, not BigCommerce and Shopify, so the published information doesn’t support a verdict between those two platforms. For the products here, Big Cartel lists product imports from Shopify, but that alone doesn’t establish which platform is better.
What is the Big Cartel website?
Big Cartel is an online store builder for independent sellers. It supports physical and digital goods, print-on-demand and in-person sales. Sellers can customize a storefront template without coding, and its plans range from a limited free Gold plan to paid Platinum and Diamond plans.
What are some good alternatives to Big Cartel?
Turbify is an option if you need more than a storefront: it offers domains, hosting, email, WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, and local marketing. It isn’t a like-for-like shop-builder comparison, though, and its pricing page currently returns 404, according to the published pricing information.
Which is better, Etsy or Big Cartel?
They serve different roles in the published information: Big Cartel is a storefront builder, while the review characterizes it as no substitute for marketplace discovery. Big Cartel can import products from Etsy, but the published details don’t compare Etsy’s fees, audience or selling features.