Fraya vs. Big Cartel and Carrd: the simple, cheap options
Big Cartel and Carrd are the lightest ways to sell online. What each costs, what each leaves out, where the math favors them, and where Fraya fits.
By Lance Culbreth, founder of Fraya · · 3 min read
Short answer
Big Cartel and Carrd are the lightest ways to sell online. Big Cartel is a simple store: free for 5 products, $15 a month for 50, $30 a month for 500, with no platform fee on sales. Carrd builds one-page sites for $19 to $49 a year and takes payments through Stripe, PayPal, or Gumroad, with no cart. Fraya is free to publish and sell with 1% on sales, and adds the site design, email campaigns, bookings, reviews, and weekly operating work those two leave to you.
Big Cartel
A store for artists and small makers, simple on purpose.
- Gold: free, 5 products, one image each, no custom domain.
- Platinum: $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly. 50 products, custom domain.
- Diamond: $30 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly. 500 products, abandoned-cart emails, scheduled drops.
- No listing or transaction fees from Big Cartel. You pay Stripe or PayPal for processing.
Carrd
One-page sites, billed yearly.
- Pro Standard: $19 a year. Custom domain, forms, and embedded Stripe, PayPal, or Gumroad buttons.
- Pro Plus: $49 a year. Adds forms that take payment through Stripe Checkout.
- No cart, inventory, or order management. Carrd takes a payment; the rest is up to you.
Figures from Big Cartel’s and Carrd’s own pricing pages, September 2026. Their pages are the source of truth; these move.
Where the math favors them
Fraya takes 1% of sales; Big Cartel takes a flat monthly price. At $1,500 a month in sales, Fraya’s 1% equals Big Cartel Platinum’s $15. At $3,000 it equals Diamond’s $30. Above those lines, on price alone, the flat plan wins.
Carrd is the cheapest way to take a payment at all. If you sell one thing and want one page, about $4 a month is hard to beat.
What they leave out
- Design. Both give you a template or a blank page to fill; the look is your job.
- Email. Neither sends campaigns to your customers; that is another tool.
- Bookings, tickets, and memberships. Big Cartel sells products. Carrd sells a payment.
- Reviews, legal pages, and a record of what worked each week.
Where Fraya fits
Fraya is for the business that has outgrown a single page or a plain store but does not want ten subscriptions. She designs the site, sells products, downloads, services, tickets, and memberships through your own Stripe, captures email, sends campaigns, takes bookings, collects reviews, keeps the legal pages current, and drafts the week’s work every Monday. Free to start, with 1% on sales; $29 a month for the operator.
Straight answers.
Is Big Cartel cheaper than Fraya?
Under $1,500 a month in sales, Fraya’s free plan usually costs less than Big Cartel Platinum. Above that, a flat Big Cartel plan costs less in platform fees. Both add Stripe or PayPal processing. Compare what each includes, not only the fee.
Can Carrd run an online store?
Not a full one. Carrd takes payments through embedded Stripe, PayPal, or Gumroad buttons, and Pro Plus adds payment forms, but there is no cart, inventory, or order management.
Does Big Cartel charge a transaction fee?
Big Cartel says it charges no listing or transaction fees. You pay the payment processor, Stripe or PayPal.
When should I move from Big Cartel or Carrd to Fraya?
When you want email campaigns, bookings, reviews, or a designed multi-page site without adding separate tools, or when the weekly marketing work is the part you never get to.
