MadeIt Fees 2026: Complete Seller Fee Breakdown
MadeIt's headline fees look modest. But stack listing fees, 6.5% commission, and PayPal's cut together and a $50 sale can cost you over $5 in platform charges before you've shipped a single item.
Table of Contents
- •What Is MadeIt?
- •Every MadeIt Fee Explained
- •Real-Dollar Fee Calculations
- •Fee Comparison Table
- •Membership Plans: Worth It?
- •What Sellers Actually Keep
- •Profitability at Different Revenue Levels
- •Hidden Costs Sellers Miss
- •When MadeIt Fees Make Sense
- •When to Consider Your Own Store
- •Frequently Asked Questions
- •About This Research
- •Related Articles
What Is MadeIt?
MadeIt is Australia's dedicated handmade marketplace. It connects Australian makers - jewellers, ceramicists, textile artists, woodworkers, candle makers - with Australian buyers who specifically want to shop local and handmade.
The platform has been running since 2011, well before Etsy dominated the global handmade category. MadeIt's entire proposition is domestic reach: buyers come because they want something made in Australia, by an Australian.
For sellers, that focus is both the appeal and the constraint. You get in front of a warm, purchase-intent audience. But that audience is limited by geography, and the platform's fee structure compounds quickly once sales volumes climb.
Understanding every line item before you list is non-negotiable if you want to price correctly and stay profitable.
Every MadeIt Fee Explained
The Full Fee Stack at a Glance
MadeIt charges fees at three separate points: when you list, when you sell, and when you get paid. Each is modest on its own. Together, they take a real bite.
Listing Fee: AUD $0.35 per item
Every time you publish a new listing or relist a sold item, you pay $0.35. This fee is charged regardless of whether the item ever sells. If you list 100 products and sell 10, you've still paid $35 in listing fees.
Listings do not have a built-in expiry like Etsy's 4-month window. MadeIt listings remain active, so relisting costs are primarily triggered by sales rather than time expiry. That said, any time you duplicate or recreate a listing you trigger a new $0.35 charge.
Commission Fee: 6.5% of the sale price
When an item sells, MadeIt takes 6.5% of the item price. This applies to the product price only. It does not include shipping costs you charge the buyer. If your item sells for $80 with $12 shipping, commission is calculated on $80 only: $5.20.
The 6.5% commission is the primary ongoing cost for active sellers. At any real volume, this is where the dollar amount starts to add up.
Payment Processing: ~3% via PayPal
MadeIt processes payments through PayPal. PayPal's fee structure for Australian sellers is approximately 2.6% + $0.30 AUD per transaction for domestic payments (rates vary based on your PayPal account tier and monthly volume - see PayPal Australia's current fee schedule for exact figures).
For simplicity, most sellers use approximately 3% as a working estimate. This fee is charged by PayPal, not MadeIt, but it is unavoidable on every transaction.
The Compounding Effect
These three fees do not replace each other. They stack. Every single sale triggers all three: listing fee (already paid upfront), commission (charged on sale), and payment processing (charged on payment receipt). The total take-rate on a transaction typically lands between 9% and 10.5% depending on the sale price.
Fee rates verified as of November 2025. Always check MadeIt's official seller information page for current rates. This is not financial advice.
Real-Dollar Fee Calculations
Percentages are abstract. Here's what the fee stack actually looks like on specific sale prices.
$50 Sale (e.g., a handmade candle set)
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat rate | $0.35 |
| MadeIt commission (6.5%) | $50 × 6.5% | $3.25 |
| PayPal processing (~3% + $0.30) | $50 × 2.6% + $0.30 | $1.60 |
| Total fees | $5.20 | |
| Seller receives | $50 − $5.20 | $44.80 |
| Effective take rate | $5.20 / $50 | 10.4% |
$100 Sale (e.g., a ceramic bowl)
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat rate | $0.35 |
| MadeIt commission (6.5%) | $100 × 6.5% | $6.50 |
| PayPal processing (~3% + $0.30) | $100 × 2.6% + $0.30 | $2.90 |
| Total fees | $9.75 | |
| Seller receives | $100 − $9.75 | $90.25 |
| Effective take rate | $9.75 / $100 | 9.75% |
$200 Sale (e.g., a statement piece of jewellery)
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat rate | $0.35 |
| MadeIt commission (6.5%) | $200 × 6.5% | $13.00 |
| PayPal processing (~3% + $0.30) | $200 × 2.6% + $0.30 | $5.50 |
| Total fees | $18.85 | |
| Seller receives | $200 − $18.85 | $181.15 |
| Effective take rate | $18.85 / $200 | 9.4% |
$500 Sale (e.g., a commissioned artwork)
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat rate | $0.35 |
| MadeIt commission (6.5%) | $500 × 6.5% | $32.50 |
| PayPal processing (~3% + $0.30) | $500 × 2.6% + $0.30 | $13.30 |
| Total fees | $46.15 | |
| Seller receives | $500 − $46.15 | $453.85 |
| Effective take rate | $46.15 / $500 | 9.2% |
Key takeaway: The effective take rate drops slightly as price rises (the fixed $0.35 listing fee becomes proportionally smaller), but the dollar amount leaving your pocket grows substantially. A $500 sale costs you $46 in fees before materials, time, and shipping.
Fee Comparison Table
How does MadeIt stack up against comparable platforms? This table uses a $100 item sale for comparison.
| Platform | Listing Fee | Commission | Payment | Total on $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MadeIt | AUD $0.35 | 6.5% | ~3% (PayPal) | ~$9.75 |
| Etsy | USD $0.20 | 6.5% | 3% + $0.25 | ~$10.20 (USD) |
| Not On The High Street | None | 25% | Included | ~$25.00 |
| Folksy (UK) | £0.15 | 6% | 3.5% (Stripe) | ~$10.00 (GBP) |
| Own Shopify store | None | 0% (on Basic) | 2.2% + $0.30 (Stripe AU) | ~$2.50 |
Note: Currency differences apply. Comparison is for structural illustration only. Etsy charges are in USD. Etsy's fee schedule is published in their Help Centre. MadeIt and Etsy are broadly similar in take rate. The real difference is audience size and geographic scope.
The Shopify comparison is deliberately included. On your own store with Shopify Basic ($49 AUD/month) and Stripe, your per-transaction cost is roughly 2.5% - less than a quarter of what MadeIt charges. The trade-off is that you supply all your own traffic. That trade-off is explored fully in MadeIt vs Your Own Website.
Membership Plans: Worth It?
MadeIt offers optional membership tiers for sellers who want additional features or visibility. Membership details and pricing can vary, so always verify current options directly on MadeIt's seller page.
The general principle with any marketplace membership: calculate your break-even. If the membership costs $X per month, it needs to either reduce your per-sale fees by enough to offset $X, or generate enough additional sales through increased visibility to justify the spend.
For low-volume sellers (under $500/month), a paid membership rarely breaks even on fee savings alone. The math only works if increased visibility genuinely lifts your conversion rate and average monthly revenue.
For high-volume sellers (over $2,000/month), the membership calculus depends heavily on whether the included features - additional listings, promoted placement, analytics - deliver measurable lift. Test a membership month against a non-membership month before committing.
The honest assessment: membership plans benefit the platform more reliably than they benefit the seller. A seller spending $20-30/month on a membership while simultaneously paying 6.5% commission and PayPal fees is paying three separate revenue lines to MadeIt and its partners.
What Sellers Actually Keep
The Number You Should Actually Track
Gross revenue is not your number. Net seller revenue after all platform fees is the only number that matters for pricing decisions.
Here's the gross-to-net reality for a seller doing $1,000/month on MadeIt. Assumptions: average sale price $75, 13 sales per month, 13 listings created/renewed during the month.
| Revenue line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross sales | $1,000.00 |
| MadeIt commission (6.5%) | −$65.00 |
| PayPal fees (~3% blended) | −$30.00 |
| Listing fees (13 × $0.35) | −$4.55 |
| Net seller revenue | $900.45 |
That's an effective take rate of 9.95% - almost exactly 10 cents of every dollar going to platform costs. After materials and time, many handmade sellers are working on margins of 30-50% gross profit. Losing 10% to platform fees before anything else is a real constraint.
Now apply this across a year: $1,000/month × 10% fees = $1,200/year in platform costs. That's money that could be funding your own marketing, building an email list, or paying for a one-time website build.
Profitability at Different Revenue Levels
Understanding fee impact at different scales helps sellers make better decisions about where to invest.
Low Volume: $500/Month
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $500 |
| Platform fees (~10%) | −$50 |
| Materials (assumed 35%) | −$175 |
| Net before time | $275 |
At $500/month, MadeIt's fees are $50. That's real money, but the platform is also likely providing genuine discovery value. You're probably getting buyers you couldn't reach yourself without marketing spend. MadeIt makes sense here.
Growth Stage: $2,000/Month
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $2,000 |
| Platform fees (~10%) | −$200 |
| Materials (assumed 35%) | −$700 |
| Net before time | $1,100 |
At $2,000/month, you're paying $200/month in fees - $2,400/year. At this level, your own store starts becoming financially rational. A one-time $999 store build from Get Started: build your store and own it forever pays for itself in 2 months of fee savings. You'd need to generate your own traffic, but you keep 97.5% instead of 90%.
Scale: $5,000/Month
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $5,000 |
| Platform fees (~10%) | −$500 |
| Materials (assumed 35%) | −$1,750 |
| Net before time | $2,750 |
At $5,000/month, you're paying $500/month - $6,000/year - just in platform costs. At this scale, owning your own channel is not optional; it's a business imperative. The question is not whether to build your own store, but how fast to do it.
See how to launch your own store as a MadeIt seller for a step-by-step walkthrough.
High Volume: $10,000/Month
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $10,000 |
| Platform fees (~10%) | −$1,000 |
| Materials (assumed 35%) | −$3,500 |
| Net before time | $5,500 |
$12,000 per year in platform fees on a $10k/month business. At this revenue level, sellers with their own stores are putting that $12,000 into paid advertising, SEO content, or email marketing - all of which they own. MadeIt fees at scale are a tax on inaction.
Hidden Costs Sellers Miss
Beyond the headline fees, several costs catch sellers off-guard.
Photography and Listing Effort
Every listing requires professional-quality photos. If you're re-listing frequently (seasonal items, sold-out restocks), you're repeatedly investing time and potentially money in photography and copywriting for a $0.35 listing fee. The time cost per listing often exceeds the listing fee by a factor of 10.
Returns and Refunds
When a buyer requests a refund, PayPal's refund policy may not return the payment processing fee in full. MadeIt's own policy on fee reversals for refunded transactions should be confirmed directly with their support team, as platform policies can change. You may absorb both the return and a portion of the processing fees.
Currency and FX Considerations
While MadeIt transacts in AUD, PayPal's fee structure can have nuances around currency conversion for international buyers. For a domestic-focused platform this is rarely a major issue, but sellers shipping internationally should understand their full cost stack.
Time Cost of Platform Management
Managing shop updates, responding to messages, handling custom order inquiries, and monitoring listings all consume time. On MadeIt, that time produces no compound return. You're not building SEO equity, you're not building an email list, you're not building a brand asset you own. On your own store, every hour spent on content or email marketing builds something permanent.
For a deeper look at this trade-off, see our guide to building your customer list as a marketplace seller.
When MadeIt Fees Make Sense
MadeIt fees are worth paying when the platform delivers value that exceeds its cost. That means:
You're under $1,000/month in sales. The platform provides discovery that's genuinely difficult to replicate independently at low volume. Paying 10% for organic traffic to a warm, handmade-intent audience is reasonable at this scale.
You're testing a new product line. MadeIt's existing buyer base lets you validate demand before investing in your own marketing infrastructure. Test your ceramics range on MadeIt; when it sells, build a dedicated store.
You're targeting exclusively Australian buyers. If your product is inherently Australian (native flora prints, Australian animal designs, locally-sourced materials) and has no international appeal, MadeIt's domestic focus fits your market.
You don't have time to manage another channel. Running your own store requires marketing work. If you're at capacity fulfilling orders, MadeIt's passive traffic is genuinely valuable even at 10% cost.
When to Consider Your Own Store
The fees become a strategic problem - not just a cost - when any of these apply:
You're paying more than $100/month in MadeIt fees. At that point, you're spending $1,200/year on a channel you don't own, can't customize, and could be outranked on with no warning.
You want to reach buyers outside Australia. MadeIt's audience is domestic by design. International growth requires your own channel. See our full MadeIt vs own website comparison for a detailed breakdown.
You want to build an email list. MadeIt does not give you your buyers' email addresses. Every sale on MadeIt is a customer the platform owns, not you. Your own store lets you capture and market to every buyer forever.
The One Number That Changes Everything
How much have you paid MadeIt in fees over the last 12 months? Open your seller dashboard and calculate it. If the number is over $400, a one-time store build has already broken even. You'd own the store forever while MadeIt fees keep compounding.
Get Started: build your store and own it forever
The complete guide to launching your own store walks through every step, or see MadeIt seller own store guide for a MadeIt-specific walkthrough.
You can also explore what platform to use when going D2C and review our marketplace vs own store pros and cons breakdown.
The Bottom Line
MadeIt fees are a real cost of doing business on the platform. They compound in ways that catch sellers off guard. A clear understanding of what you pay is the foundation of any serious pricing strategy.
At lower revenue levels, the platform's built-in traffic often justifies the fee burden. At higher volumes, the math increasingly favors building a channel you own. The question is not whether fees are high - they are. It's whether the traffic they buy is worth the price.
Many sellers find the answer is to run both. Use MadeIt for discovery. Build your own store for retention, repeat buyers, and long-term margin. The two are not mutually exclusive.
If fees are pushing you toward independence, Get Started: build your store and own it forever. The Launch package starts at $999 - a one-time cost that replaces years of compounding platform fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does MadeIt charge a listing fee?
Yes. MadeIt charges AUD $0.35 per listing. This fee is charged when you publish a new listing and again when you relist after a sale. It applies regardless of whether the item sells.
What is MadeIt's commission rate?
MadeIt charges 6.5% commission on each sale. This is calculated on the item price only, not on the shipping amount you charge the buyer.
Does MadeIt charge shipping fees?
No. The 6.5% commission applies to the item price only. Shipping costs you charge the buyer are not subject to MadeIt's commission fee.
What payment processor does MadeIt use?
MadeIt processes payments through PayPal. PayPal charges its own processing fee (approximately 2.6% + $0.30 AUD for domestic transactions) on top of MadeIt's platform fees.
What is the total effective fee rate on MadeIt?
When you combine the listing fee, 6.5% commission, and PayPal processing, the effective take rate is approximately 9% to 10.5% depending on the sale price. On a $50 sale, fees total approximately $5.20 (10.4%). On a $200 sale, fees total approximately $18.85 (9.4%).
Are there membership fees on MadeIt?
MadeIt offers optional membership or subscription plans with additional features. These are optional and in addition to the standard listing and commission fees. Check MadeIt's current seller information for active plan pricing and inclusions.
Does MadeIt charge fees on refunded transactions?
Platform fee reversal policies on refunds should be confirmed directly with MadeIt support, as policies can change. PayPal may not refund its processing fee in full on refunded transactions, meaning sellers can absorb a net cost on returns.
How does MadeIt compare to Etsy on fees?
Both platforms charge 6.5% commission. Etsy's listing fee is USD $0.20 (approximately AUD $0.31), making the headline fees similar. The key difference is Etsy's global audience vs MadeIt's Australian-only buyer base. MadeIt sellers pay comparable fees for considerably less traffic exposure.
Can I sell on MadeIt and have my own store at the same time?
Yes. Running both channels simultaneously is a common and recommended strategy. Your MadeIt store provides passive discovery while your own store builds long-term customer relationships and cuts per-sale fees. See how to run both channels for a practical guide.
At what monthly revenue level does my own store make financial sense?
The math favours your own store once you're paying more than roughly $100-150/month in combined MadeIt fees. That's approximately $1,000-1,500/month in gross sales. At that level, a one-time store build cost is recovered within months of fee savings, and you own the asset permanently. Read more in our marketplace vs own store comparison.
Is it worth paying for a MadeIt membership plan?
It depends on your monthly volume and how much lift the membership features genuinely provide. For sellers under $500/month, membership fees are hard to justify on fee savings alone. For sellers above $2,000/month, calculate the break-even carefully against the actual benefits - increased visibility, additional listings - before committing.
What is the best way to reduce MadeIt fees?
The most practical long-term move is to stop relying solely on MadeIt by building your own store. In the near term, minimise unnecessary re-listing, price your products to absorb the ~10% fee stack, and consider whether a membership plan genuinely improves your sales rate enough to offset its cost.
About This Research
StableCommerce is an e-commerce agency that builds independent stores for marketplace sellers. This article is based on current platform fee schedules, seller community discussions, and hands-on platform research conducted in 2025-2026.
Content reviewed and updated: 2025-11-13
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