Redbubble vs Etsy (How do they compare in 2024?)

Etsy and Redbubble are both online marketplaces that allow users to sell handmade goods and artwork. Etsy is the more established platform, having been founded in 2005, while Redbubble was founded in 2006. Both platforms allow users to set up their own shops and sell items such as clothing, jewelry, art, and home decor.

Etsy is the better platform for selling handmade goods, as it has a more established reputation and user base. Redbubble is better for selling artwork, as it offers a wider range of printing and framing options. Overall, both platforms are good options for selling handmade goods and artwork online.

But that is not always the case, it can be hard to find what you're looking for. In this article, we'll compare the two sites to help you make a decision. Let's dive right in.

What is Redbubble?

Redbubble was founded in 2006 and now has a user base of over 700,000 people. It's an online platform where users may sell print-on-demand goods. Redbubble was created for designers, entrepreneurs, and artists who wish to earn money or profit with their arts. As a designer, online merchant, or artist, you can register and open a virtual store on their platform. You then upload your favorite designs and tests them on the products available.

What is Etsy?

Etsy was founded in 2009 and has evolved to become one of the well-known eCommerce websites globally. This website focuses on vintage items, unique crafts, handcrafted items, and art. As a worldwide online platform, Etsy attracts sellers and buyers from various parts of the globe. The website has powerful tools that aid online merchants in automating their ventures or businesses.

Etsy allows buyers to shop for clothing, jewelry, art, toys, and shoes. You set the shipping method, selling price, and shipping price since you supply the products.

Setup Process

Redbubble

To be a member of Redbubble, you must pass the registration process. Then you have to switch to your "sell your art" section to set up your store (online store). There are only three ways of setting up your store. First, you are required to add designs. You are entirely allowed to upload designs stored on your laptop or computer. This step is not mandatory and can be skipped for later.

Second, you can set up your store by adding an avatar. Ideally, it means adding your shop's logo, social links, description, and a cover image.

Lastly, you must confirm your email address, set up a payment method, and key in your user details.

Etsy

Etsy online shop needs the user to complete a 5-step of the seller registration form. First, the seller needs to sign-up on the website and click "open your Etsy shop ." The seller must set their shop preferences by choosing the currency, country, and language. Secondly, you must select a name for your store; thirdly, you can incorporate up to ten product listings. Fourthly, you can set your payment mode and choose from Etsy payment or PayPal payment. Lastly, set up the billing details for transaction fees and listing or other possible payment methods. Such as credit cards.

Conclusion

the setup or registration process is easy on Etsy and Redbubble.

Products designing/listing publishing

Redbubble

When using Redbubble, you can always make new designs offline and upload the final design. Etsy usually prefers users to use Adobe Photoshop. When designing, users should notice the ideal dimensions, the format, and based on the product.

The art you upload must possess a high resolution. PNG, GIF, and JPG are the accepted formats uploaded in Redbubble. Additionally, designs must be developed in CMYK formats and later converted into sRGB before uploading. After uploading your designs, users can multi-edit on various products simultaneously.

Etsy

Etsy is used by sellers selling readymade products; thus, you will not be designing anything online as a seller. You are only required to generate product listings. The first step of creating product listings is incorporating an image with 2000 pixels in width. From that photo, your product's thumbnail will be generated.

Secondly, you will generate the description, product price, listing details, and inventory. Lastly, you can now set the preferred shipping mode and publish your product's listing.

Conclusion

Etsy and Redbubble work differently, although both websites need users to upload readymade images/designs. Nevertheless, Redbubble is relatively simpler to use as compared to Etsy.

Product Costs

Redbubble

A base price accompanies all products on Redbubble. Usually, the base price ranges from one product to the next. Although, products in a similar category have the same prices. Sellers have to decide and set up the price before publishing their creations. The seller's selling price and the Redbubble base price defines the price viewed/paid by your customers.

However, sellers only pay for the base rate of their products after the client completes their payment. The fee is auto deducted once the transaction is completed, meaning the seller pays nothing.

Etsy

On Etsy, the sellers bring the products and not the website owners. However, there is no base rate on this platform. Therefore, the prices viewed by the clients are set by the product's owners. Sellers have the mandate to set any price they want, and there's a pricing tool available to assist you. When your clients make payments, all the proceeds go to you.

Conclusion

both Etsy and Redbubble ensure that sellers can set the prices for their products.

Production/Manufacturing process

Redbubble

The production in Redbubble is based in several regions such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States. The production centers close to your client will be utilized for fast shipping. Since the platform is a POD, production begins when an order is placed and confirmed.

All the production materials get sourced ethically and are of high quality, and the order is processed in a maximum of three days. Redbubble cooperates with third-party printing providers.

Etsy

Etsy sellers get tasked with the production of all their products. Although, Etsy may provide various production partners who might work with sellers if they fail to design products themselves. Having the chance to work on a product with the partners feels like print on demand. The production team is not affiliated with the Etsy organization; therefore, the sellers must pay for all manufactured products. Additionally, sellers can include a production partner through their account setting or making their listings.

Conclusion

Unlike Redbubble, Etsy offers the seller the flexibility or power to handle their product production themselves or utilize a production partner. They offer the seller all the freedom of working with well-known production organizations.

Packaging and branding

Redbubble

Redbubble does not allow sellers to include their custom branding on packages. Redbubble creates and ships all printed products and incorporates their branding. Their branding is mainly the Redbubble text or logo.

Packing products is entirely dependent on the project type. Sticker products and clothes are packed with polybags. Arts are delivered inside a box for the big sizes and small arts in tubes.

Etsy

Since the seller manager all productions themselves on Etsy, they can brand their products with any logo or name they prefer. Additionally, sellers can also pack their items depending on their preferences and available materials. When sellers hire production partners, they must communicate their packaging and branding preferences.

Conclusion

While Redbubble fails to accommodate custom branding, Etsy allows its sellers to pack and brand their products as they wish.

Shipping and Delivery

Redbubble

This platform ships and delivers products across all countries apart from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Crimea, and North Korea. All shipping fee is auto-generated when clients add their selected products to the card and based on the product and client's location.

Shipping is done once the production is completed. The duration the product takes to arrive depends, although the local purchases are dropped faster than international ones. UPS, FedEx, and DHL are among the shipment companies utilized. Redbubble uses only two methods of shipment, which include Express and Standard.

Express shipping is quite expensive but gets products delivered faster. Additionally, Redbubble managed to include an order tracking feature.

Etsy

Since sellers are required to ship their products, shipping becomes quite expensive. Thus, Etsy provides shipping services to aid sellers in shipping their products to clients at a cheaper fee. Etsy provides tools such as tracking, a shipping calculator, and shipping labels. Users can buy shipping labels from well-known companies like Canada Post, FedEx, and USPS. Here they reap a discount of close to thirty percent shipping fee.

Conclusion

even though Etsy shipment services seem fair and cheap, Redbubble shipment is more straightforward as they handle the whole shipping and delivery procedure or process.

Profitability

Redbubble

Sellers on this platform can generate income without paying a dime. All they have to do is develop and create their product designs. The seller's artist margin is determined by how much generate from every sale. The defaulted margin is twenty percent base price of products. However, the base rate can be set at any range, even above 100.

Redbubble asks for no transaction or subscription fees. When clients buy products from the seller's store, they are paid from their artist margin price, and Redbubble deducts the base price.

Etsy

Here, the sellers have total control over their eCommerce venture on Etsy. One is capable of deciding the product prices and shipping fees. This shows that you can earn more profit from vintage crafts or handmade products.

Etsy usually charges fees for every transaction and listing done by the seller. Listing fees get renewed every four months to retain sellers listing in active mode.

Conclusion

Redbubble remains profitable compared to Etsy since they do not have extra payment or listing fees.

Analytics and Reports

Redbubble

Redbubble has a built-in analytic feature that allows one to manage your online shop. Sellers can track their earnings. Sellers can sort their insights every week, early or monthly, but the most difficult one is monthly.

Additionally, the analytic tools allow sellers to get traffic sources like social, organic, direct, or Redbubble community. All sorts of traffics are identified.

The Redbubble analytics tool usually takes up to 48 hours to update information/data using the available insights.

Esty

For sellers to get the analytical insights on Etsy, they have to view the shop statistic section. The primary metrics reported and tracked are orders, listing views, shop visits, conversion rate, and revenue.

Analytics is divided into three sections: customer, listing, and traffic. The insights are shown in graphs which are simple to read and understand.

Conclusion

Both Esty and Redbubble deliver insightful analytics. However, Etsy updates the insights faster than Redbubble.

Pricing

Redbubble

Pricing plans are unavailable on Redbubble, and the website utilizes a 'base price + seller price = Retail price' pricing system. It generates money through the base price set for products.

Online shop owners can only pay the base rate, which ranges from item to item. No listing fees or transaction fees are charged while the clients pay shipping fees.

Etsy

Etsy does not support any direct subscriptions/transaction plans. However, merchants are needed to pay specific fees. Sellers pay for the listing fee, which is around 0.20 dollars per listing which are charged the moment sellers create new product lists. The listing fee gets renewed every four months.

Conclusion

Redbubble favors the sellers since they do not pay any fees instead of Esty, which requires them to pay listing and transaction fees.

Third-party Integration

Redbubble

Redbubble does not integrate with 3rd parties. Sellers might carry out every print demand activity on the website with zero help from applications. However, you can include google analytics and google maps. The Redbubble API is present on GitHub for showing Redbubble on website pages.

Etsy

Esty integrates a few third parties which are accessible to the store manager. Certain websites integrated with Etsy comprise AWeber, Shopify, WooCommerce, GetResponse, Hubspot, and Mailchimp. Developers use Etsy API features.

Conclusion

Etsy wins here since it integrates with 3rd parties more than Redbubble.

Customer Support and Resources

Redbubble

Its sellers might get hold of support by submitting support requests. No direct email or phone calls is supported on this platform. Users wait up to five business days to receive a response. Users can reach the support through the Redbubble help center or the website's Twitter handle. They also have a users' community on Pinterest, Facebook, and Tumblr, where they get help from other users.

Etsy

At Etsy, they provide support articles on selling and shopping platforms. Esty has an online forum where sellers integrate. Users can also reach the support directly through email, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Conclusion

Etsy support is very dependable than Redbubble since their support responds faster and has various support channels.

Redbubble vs Etsy Pros and Cons

Redbubble

Redbubble is an online marketplace that allows users to upload, share, and sell their artwork. It is a great platform for artists to sell their work, but there are also some downsides to using Redbubble. Here are some pros and cons of using Redbubble:

Etsy

Etsy is an online marketplace that allows users to sell handmade and vintage items. It is a great platform for people who sell handmade goods, but there are also some downsides to using Etsy. Here are some pros and cons of using Etsy:

Conclusion

Both platforms have their pros and cons, so it really depends on what you're looking for. If you want a more hands-off approach, Redbubble might be the better option. If you're looking for more control over your shop and marketing, Etsy might be a better fit. Ultimately, it's up to you to decide which platform is better for you and your business.

Try these free tools by Topbubbleindex

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• Redbubble Keyword Research
• Redbubble Tag Generator
• Redbubble Trends Finder
• Etsy Keyword Research
• Etsy Tag Generator
• Etsy Trends Finder
• Design Editor
• Image Background Remover
• Image Portrait Generator
• Blogs
• Calendar Holidays

And still counting! If you're still not impressed, try the Topbubbleindex tools for free. Don't hesitate to contact us for suggestions, complaints, or just feedback. We are always working on to keep the Topbubbleindex better.