Overview

Big Cartel is a hosted storefront for independent sellers offering physical goods, digital products, or memberships. It suits creators who want a compact shop and a way to sell in person without building a store from scratch. Its appeal is the combination of no platform transaction fees and a free plan; the trade-off is that even the top plan caps a shop at 500 products.

Sellers choose a template, add products, connect Stripe or PayPal, and publish at their own web address without coding or plugins. Payments through those providers can include cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, Cash App, Amazon Pay, Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm, PayPal, Venmo, and PayPal Pay Later. For category browsing, see Ecommerce platforms and No-Code E-Commerce Platforms.

Key features

Online and in-person sales: The free mobile app supports tap-to-pay and cash sales, with orders and inventory syncing to the online shop. That makes it useful for sellers who move between a web store and in-person transactions.
Product imports: Every listed plan supports imports from Etsy, Squarespace, and Shopify, which can help sellers bring an existing catalog into a new shop.
Apps and integrations: Big Cartel lists more than 60 apps, including Printify, Printful, ShipStation, Zapier, Google Analytics, social and shopping channels, Omnisend, and Fera. The selection covers common selling and marketing connections, though sellers should check that the integrations they rely on are included.
Store security and support: Big Cartel says its addresses and connected custom domains are SSL encrypted, and checkout is always covered by SSL. Account holders can contact support by in-app messaging 24/7; people without accounts can use email.
API: The version 1 API supports OAuth 2.0, APIs, and webhooks for integrations, a useful option for sellers connecting systems beyond the app catalog.

Pricing

Big Cartel is freemium, with a 7-day trial and no transaction fees stated by the platform. The three plans are billed monthly for paid tiers, and the product caps are the main dividing line.

Gold — free: The free plan allows five products, one customizable store template, real-time stats, and sales-tax autopilot. It is a sensible starting point for a very small catalog, but five products is a hard constraint for sellers with more inventory.
Platinum — 15.00 USD per month: This plan raises the cap to 50 products and allows five images per product. It fits a small, growing catalog, but sellers needing richer product imagery or more than 50 listings must move up.
Diamond — 30.00 USD per month: The 500-product cap and 25 images per product suit larger catalogs. Diamond also adds password-protected products, scheduled drops, automatic discounts, advanced Google Analytics reporting, audience-targeted ads, abandoned-cart emails, and prioritized support. Those tools matter most to sellers running promotions or timed launches; the plan still has a defined catalog ceiling.

All plans share the platform's product-import support. The cheaper tiers give up Diamond's marketing and reporting tools as well as its higher product and image allowances. No seat limits are given for the plans.

Platforms

Big Cartel supports web, iOS, Android, and API access. The hosted model means sellers do not need to host the storefront themselves, while the mobile app extends selling to in-person transactions.

Who it's for

Big Cartel is best suited to independent creators, artists, musicians, resellers, fundraisers, and makers with a modest catalog who want both online and in-person selling. A seller with only a handful of products can start free; a shop that needs more listings can scale through Platinum and Diamond. Businesses that need an uncapped catalog should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

Pros: No platform transaction fees keep the platform's own transaction charge at zero; Stripe or PayPal still handle payments.
Pros: The free plan includes real-time stats and sales-tax autopilot, not just a storefront for five products.
Pros: In-person app sales sync orders and inventory with the online shop, reducing the divide between channels.
Cons: Gold stops at five products, which makes it a trial-sized option for many growing catalogs.
Cons: Even Diamond tops out at 500 products, so larger inventories will outgrow the plan structure.
Cons: Key promotional features such as abandoned-cart emails and scheduled drops are reserved for Diamond, doubling the monthly price of Platinum.

Alternatives

Wix eCommerce is worth considering when a seller prioritizes a drag-and-drop editor, no-code design features, and thousands of templates; its free plan includes reliable web hosting.
Shoptet offers a free plan capped at 10 products, with higher listed tiers for 100 and 1,000 products; choose it if those catalog steps fit better.
BigCommerce is a paid platform with a free trial and a Core plan at 29.00 USD per month, billed annually; consider it when that plan's stated $30K TTM GMV allowance and auto-upgrade structure suit the business.
Bagisto is a free open-source download for sellers who want self-hosting and can meet its PHP, database, and memory requirements.
Shopify is a paid option with a free trial; its Grow plan is aimed at small teams and includes up to five staff accounts and 10 inventory locations.
Shopware offers a free Community Edition with an open-source core and modular architecture; it may suit sellers seeking that model.
Tiendanube has a free Inicial plan with unlimited products, sales, and visits, a fit for sellers whose main constraint is catalog size.
WooCommerce offers free, self-hosted core software with unlimited products, orders, and APIs; it suits sellers prepared to use a self-hosted platform.

Verdict

Choose Big Cartel for a creator-led shop with a small-to-medium catalog, especially if in-person sales and a zero platform transaction fee matter. The free tier is a credible starting point, and Diamond adds useful launch and marketing tools, but a strict ceiling of 500 products makes a different platform the better choice for a larger inventory.

	Big Cartel	VirtueMart
Free plan	Yes
Free trial	Yes
Paid from	$15/mo
Platforms	Android, api, iOS, Web	self-hosted
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	$15/mo
Hosting model	hosted	self-hosted
Sales channels	omnichannel
Transaction fee	none	varies
Abandoned cart recovery	Yes
App marketplace	Yes	Yes
Digital products	Yes	Yes

Big Cartel vs VirtueMart

Big Cartel

VirtueMart