Shopify vs Redbubble: Fees, Tiers and When to Open a Store

Redbubble vs Shopify, Side by Side

Redbubble and Shopify sell the same T-shirt in two different ways. On Redbubble you upload a design, set a markup and let the marketplace do the rest: it brings the buyer, takes the payment, routes the order to a printer and handles the return. On Shopify you run the store yourself, so you set the price, pay a print-on-demand app for each order and own the buyer relationship, along with the work that comes with it.

Find your row below; each one is sourced in the section that covers it.

How Much Does Redbubble Take From Each Sale?

Every Redbubble product starts from a base price that covers Redbubble's service fee for hosting the marketplace and the manufacturer's fee, and it varies with the delivery address. On top of it you set a markup, a percentage of the base price that Redbubble's help center says defaults to 10% and can be changed at any time on the Product Pricing page. Your margin is that percentage turned into cash, and Redbubble's fees come out of it.

Standard, Premium or Pro: Redbubble Decides

As of October 2026, Redbubble charges Standard artists a 50% platform fee and Premium artists a 20% platform fee on monthly earnings, and Pro artists pay none. The tier is assigned to you; you don't pick it.

The rules behind the tiers matter more than the rates. Redbubble says Standard and Premium are not based on how much an account sells, so growing your sales does not move you from Standard to Premium. It lists the origin of the work, file quality, appeal to buyers and tag spamming among its criteria, and says it cannot disclose every factor. Pro is an invite-only program for artists within the top 1% of performance and engagement.

Timing matters too. A new shop doesn't go public until it has its tier, which Redbubble says takes up to five business days after setup, and the tier you hold at the time of the pay run decides the rate for that month. Redbubble's blog announced the current fees, 50% on Standard, 20% on Premium, the 50% excess markup fee, the $150 cap and Pro's exemption from both, as starting September 1, 2025.

Pricing Above a 20% Markup

The second fee is about price. Redbubble's help center says that if any product's markup is set above 20%, it deducts a 50% excess markup fee from Standard and Premium artists, and that the fee is taken only from the earnings on the additional markup. For a Standard artist, Redbubble spells out where that leaves the extra money:

In practice, a Standard artist who raises a markup above 20% charges the buyer more and keeps the same amount until the month's fees reach the cap. Redbubble's page states the same fee for Premium but spells out the combined result only for Standard, so check your Earnings Details before pricing above 20% on Premium. Pro artists pay no excess markup fee.

The $150 Monthly Cap

Both fees have a ceiling. Redbubble's platform-fee page says your total platform fees never exceed $150, €150 or £150 in a payment period, which is a calendar month, and its excess-markup page says that fee counts toward the same cap. Once a month's fees reach the cap, Redbubble takes nothing more from that month's earnings.

Opening an account and a shop on Redbubble is free, and neither fee is ever charged out of pocket: both come out of your earnings, and only when you make a sale.

One separate charge is easy to confuse with them. Since July 31, 2026, an Unpayable Artist Account Fee of $3, £3 or €3 a month applies only when your payment details are invalid or incomplete and your balance is $10, £10 or €10 or more; valid details avoid it.

When Redbubble Pays You

Redbubble pays monthly, and four rules decide whether a month's earnings reach you:

• Threshold: you need $10, £10 or €10 or more and valid payment details, after Redbubble lowered the threshold from $20 on July 1, 2026. A balance below it carries over, and the next month's fee is charged only on new earnings.
• Date: Redbubble's help center says the payment should land in your account by the 15th, while its User Agreement says payment usually takes place between the 15th and 20th of the month.
• Unshipped orders: orders that haven't shipped by the end of the month are paid in the following month's cycle, unless they are canceled first.
• Methods: a valid PayPal account, or a bank account with a UK, Australian or US bank. Stripe is used only to verify your identity, not to pay you.

One T-Shirt Across Three Tiers

Redbubble's help center uses one example that works well for the comparison: a Classic T-Shirt shipped to the US with a $20 base price and a 20% markup earns a $4.00 artist margin before account fees, and sells for $24 before taxes. A 20% markup is also the highest that avoids the excess markup fee, so only the platform fee applies here.

The fee is a share of the month's earnings, so it grows with every sale until the cap stops it. Below the cap, a Standard artist hands Redbubble half of every margin; once the month's fees reach the cap, the rest of that month's sales carry no fee at all. That is why the cap matters most to an artist whose monthly earnings already pass the cap points in the table.

The Basic column is a deliberately narrow comparison. It sets Redbubble's fee against Shopify's plan alone: on Shopify you would also pay card processing on each order and your print-on-demand app's production and shipping cost, while Redbubble's base price already includes production. The same sales would also have to reach your store through traffic you bring yourself.

One input moves under you. Redbubble's User Agreement says the base amount may change at any time, with or without notice, which changes the dollar value of a margin you set as a percentage.

What Does a Shopify Print-on-Demand Store Cost?

On Shopify the money flows the other way round. The buyer pays your store, and your print-on-demand app bills you for each order it produces, so your margin is whatever you set the price above that cost.

Who Prints, Who Pays

The printer on Shopify is the app, not Shopify; our FAQ on whether Shopify prints and ships for you covers that boundary. Shopify's own description of the flow is short:

The bill goes to you, not the buyer. Printful says that once an order is imported, it charges your Printful Wallet or saved billing method for the product price, shipping and tax, and Printify charges the production price and shipping fees to your Printify Balance or linked card.

Printful also says it never receives funds directly from your buyers, outside its Quick Stores, so the retail price your customer pays lands with you, and what you keep is that price minus the app's charge and card processing.

Shopify's Learn With Shopify channel walks through the print-on-demand model in a 2025 video; the store setup part starts at 7:10.

Shopify's guide adds that a product that sells can move from print on demand to inventory you hold yourself, or stay with the service while you grow your audience. If you also sell originals or fine-art prints, our guide for artists compares print on demand with fine-art giclée printing.

Plan, Card Rate and POD App

Shopify Basic costs $39 a month on monthly billing or $29 a month billed yearly, and Shopify Payments charges 2.9% + 30¢ per online payment with a standard card on Basic, in the US as of October 2026. Shopify starts with a 3-day free trial, then most plans cost $1 a month for the first 3 months.

Shopify's print-on-demand guide names three popular services, and each is listed as free to install: Printful, Printify and Gelato. Each bills production and shipping only when an order comes in, and each also sells an optional paid plan; our comparison of the three apps' subscription plans shows what those plans add.

Here the comparison cuts against Shopify. Redbubble charges nothing until you sell, and its fees come only out of earnings; Shopify's plan is billed whether you sell or not, and apps, a domain and marketing add to it. That stack is one of Shopify's structural costs worth pricing before you open a store.

What You Control on Each

Fees are the visible difference. Control is the one that decides whether a store of your own is worth the work, and it comes down to three questions.

Who Sets the Price

On Redbubble the price is a percentage, not a number. Redbubble's help center describes the markup as a percentage of the base price and your margin as the cash it produces, and notes that some products carry bulk discounts that lower the base price on larger orders. As the worked example notes, the base price itself can change without notice.

On Shopify you set the number the buyer pays. Your print-on-demand app charges you its product price and shipping for each order, so the margin is a figure you choose rather than a percentage of someone else's price.

Who Owns the Buyer and the Returns

On Redbubble the buyer is Redbubble's to serve. Return requests can only be processed by Redbubble's customer service, buyers who need help are sent to the Redbubble Help Center, and Redbubble's policy offers them a free return within 30 days of the latest estimated delivery date when an item arrives in less-than-perfect condition. Formally you are still the seller: the User Agreement calls you the principal in the sale and Redbubble an independent contractor.

Contact details are the bigger gap. Redbubble's help center says that, for privacy reasons, it cannot disclose any personal information about the customers, though it lets you set a message that goes to your buyers each time you sell. Shopify documents the opposite: every time a new customer places an order, their name and other details are added to your customer list.

On your own store the service side moves to you as well: refunds are yours to issue, in full or in part, and Shopify's help center tells buyers to contact the store directly. Owning that list, and the repeat sales it makes possible, is the core of the own-store-versus-rented-audience argument our TikTok Shop comparison makes in full.

Where Buyers Come From

Redbubble's strength is that buyers already search it. Its User Agreement also leaves Redbubble free to promote other sellers' products that are the same as or similar to yours. Off-site marketing is an opt-in Redbubble setting that shares your product information with ad platforms such as Google, Facebook and Pinterest, though Redbubble doesn't guarantee your products will appear in ads.

On your own store, finding buyers is the whole job. What Shopify itself does to surface a store is answered in our FAQ on whether Shopify promotes your store; plan as if every buyer will come from your own following, email list or ads.

Can You Sell on Redbubble and Shopify at Once?

The two never connect. Asked whether it integrates with Shopify or other third-party platforms, Redbubble's answer is “We do not at this time”, and it won't put its checkout on your site either:

So selling in both places means two catalogues: the Redbubble shop keeps its listings, and your Shopify store sells through its own print-on-demand app.

Listing the same original design in both is where the terms matter. Redbubble's User Agreement grants Redbubble a non-exclusive license to the content you upload, and the agreement and help pages we read set no general exclusivity requirement, though they don't state a permission to sell elsewhere either.

Fan art licensed through Redbubble's Fan Art Program is the exception: Redbubble says that license covers the sale of your artwork on the Redbubble marketplace only, and that selling it anywhere else can get the design removed or, in some cases, your account suspended.

Stay, Add a Store, or Move?

The verdict at the top answers by one profile. Most artists sit across several, so this quiz crosses five signals: your tier, where buyers find you, what your designs are, what you need that Redbubble doesn't give, and how much time you have for running a store.

A few answers settle the route on their own. Fan art licensed through Redbubble's Fan Art Program keeps those designs on Redbubble, whatever else you answer; for other designs, needing buyers' contact details or your own domain adds a Shopify store; and if most of your buyers already come from your own audience as well, the quiz makes the store your main shop.

Opening a Store Beside Redbubble

Every route that opens a store runs these seven steps, and step three is the one that decides your margin. If the quiz kept Redbubble beside the store, step one is your filter for which designs move, and in step seven your store link sits next to your Redbubble shop instead of replacing it.

Building the store itself — theme, product pages, launch — is covered step by step in our merch store setup guide.

The Bottom Line

Redbubble and Shopify are not two versions of the same thing. Redbubble rents you a marketplace, a printer and a service desk, and takes a share of your margin for them; Shopify gives you a store and hands you the printer's bill, the service desk and the job of finding buyers.

Frequently Asked Questions