What to Put in an Etsy Profit-Tracking Spreadsheet (Free vs. Paid, 2026)

The minimum columns an Etsy profit tracker needs

Before comparing tools, it helps to know what the tool (or your own spreadsheet) actually has to hold. At minimum, that's one row per order with these columns:

The three fee rows in the middle of that list — transaction, processing, and listing — are the part people build a spreadsheet without, then wonder why the profit column looks better than their bank balance.

The fee detail most trackers get wrong

These three numbers are simple once you know them, but easy to encode wrong in a spreadsheet formula:

The free option, and where it stops being enough

If you just need to check one listing, or one order, you don't need a spreadsheet at all. The free Etsy Fee Calculator takes the order total, the two fee rates, shipping, and materials, and returns an estimate on the spot — no signup, nothing leaves your browser.

That works fine order by order. It stops scaling the moment you want a monthly or store-level total: a calculator doesn't remember the last order you checked, so getting a month's number means re-entering every order from that month by hand, and getting a combined number across shops means adding up separate totals yourself outside the tool. That's the point where a spreadsheet built once with the columns above — or something that builds those rows for you — starts saving real time instead of costing it.

Buy-once spreadsheet vs. subscription vs. manual entry

Searching for an Etsy profit tracker spreadsheet turns up the same handful of options repeatedly. Here's how they differ, based on what each vendor states on their own current pricing page.

Pricing checked directly on each vendor's own site: Paper+Spark — shop.paperandspark.com/products/etsy-seller-spreadsheet (July 2026). Craftybase Studio — stocksmith.io/pricing (July 2026); Craftybase rebranded to Stocksmith in July 2026, and Studio continues as its lower-priced tier for smaller shops under the new company.

The trade-off underneath that table is simple. Manual entry costs nothing but your own time, every month, indefinitely. A subscription automates the import but keeps billing whether or not you log in that month. A one-time spreadsheet or tracker sits between the two: pay once, keep the file, and the only recurring cost is however long exporting and re-importing a CSV takes you each month.

Start with the free calculator, build the columns as you need them

Whichever option from the comparison above ends up fitting your shop, the fastest way to check a single order right now — before building out a full spreadsheet or evaluating a paid tool — is the free Etsy Fee Calculator. It covers the same order total, fee, and cost columns described above, one order at a time, with no signup and nothing you enter leaving your browser.

Frequently asked questions

What columns does an Etsy profit-tracking spreadsheet need?

At minimum: order date, shop/platform, the order total the buyer paid (including any shipping and gift wrap you charged), the Etsy transaction fee (6.5% of that total), payment processing (a percentage plus a flat fee that varies by country), the $0.20 listing fee, your actual shipping cost, materials cost, and the estimated profit and margin those roll up to. Skip any one of the three fee rows and the profit column will overstate what you actually kept.

Is a free spreadsheet enough, or do I need to pay for one?

For one order at a time, the free Etsy Fee Calculator is enough — enter the numbers once and read the estimate. It turns into a real time cost once you're doing this every month, or across more than one sales channel, since nothing free automatically pulls in and totals your order history for you.

What's a good profit margin on Etsy?

There isn't one figure that applies across shops — a seller with a couple of dollars of materials in a $30 item lands in a very different place than one with $18 of materials at the same price. The honest answer is to calculate your own margin, per listing and per month, from your actual cost structure, rather than aiming at someone else's published average.

Does the free calculator handle Shopify or eBay orders, or is it Etsy-only?

The free calculator's fee fields are built around Etsy's own schedule — the 6.5% transaction fee and Etsy's payment-processing rates. The same column structure covered above still works for Shopify or eBay orders, but you'd swap in that platform's own fee rates and total each platform separately, since the calculator doesn't auto-detect which platform an order came from.

Does the free calculator include taxes, Offsite Ads fees, or currency conversion?

No. The free calculator estimates profit from the fee and cost columns you enter — it doesn't calculate income tax, sales tax, Offsite Ads fees, or currency conversion. Factor those in separately if any apply to your shop.

How should a refund show up in my profit tracker?

Etsy refunds the transaction and payment-processing fees on a refunded order, but not the $0.20 listing fee — so a refund row shouldn't just zero the order out, or your tracker will understate the listing-fee cost. See Does Etsy Refund Fees When You Refund a Buyer? for the full breakdown with worked examples.

Not affiliated with Etsy

This page and the tools it links to are an independent project — not created, affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Etsy, Inc. "Etsy" is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. The Etsy fee numbers cited above come from Etsy's own help articles, checked as of the update date shown at the top of this page; Etsy can change its fee schedule, so confirm current rates directly with Etsy before a pricing decision that matters. Competitor names, features, and prices are likewise quoted from each vendor's own current pricing page as of the date noted — mentioning them is a comparison, not an endorsement or a criticism. None of this is tax advice, and no figure here is a guaranteed payout.

← How Etsy Fees Work: the fee layers explained, with a worked example

How to price duty into an Etsy listing: the DDP gross-up formula

Every Etsy fee, one sourced table (CSV download) →

This page provides estimates for informational purposes only, not tax or financial advice — please consult a licensed professional for decisions specific to your situation.
Etsy is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. This content is not created or endorsed by Etsy, Inc.