TPT alternatives compared: Etsy, Classful, Made By Teachers, Payhip, Shopify and your own store
There is no drop-in replacement for TPT. The alternatives fall into two groups: marketplaces that bring some buyers and take a larger cut, and storefronts that take a small cut and bring no buyers at all. Which group you need depends on whether you already have an audience.
One thing first. All of these only apply if you are a TPT Basic seller. From January 1, 2027, TPT Exclusive sellers may not sell digital educational resources anywhere else. This post is for sellers who are weighing Basic, or who have already chosen it. Nothing here is a reason to leave TPT, and most sellers who use these keep their TPT store as well.
The comparison
All third-party fees below were checked in October 2026 against the linked pages. They change. Check the source before you decide.
| Option | Type | Brings buyers? | Fixed cost | Fees per sale | You keep on a $10 sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TPT Basic | Teacher marketplace | Yes | One-time $29 | 45% plus 30¢ per resource | $5.20 |
| TPT Exclusive | Teacher marketplace | Yes | $59.95 a year | 22.5% on orders over $3 | $7.75 |
| Etsy | General marketplace | Yes, mostly not teachers | One-time shop set-up fee (amount shown at sign-up) | 20¢ listing, 6.5% transaction, 3% + 25¢ processing | About $8.60 before any ad fees |
| Classful | Teacher marketplace | Some | None listed | 5% transaction plus 2.9% + 30¢ processing | About $8.91 |
| Made By Teachers | Teacher marketplace | Some | See their plans page | See their plans page | Not stated here |
| Payhip | Storefront | No | Free, $29 or $99 a month | 5%, 2% or 0% depending on plan, plus card processing | About $8.91 on the free plan |
| Shopify | Storefront | No | Basic plan $39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly | 2.9% + 30¢ card rate on Basic | About $9.41, before the monthly fee |
| Your own WordPress store | Storefront | No | Hosting and a domain | Card processing, typically 2.9% + 30¢ | About $9.41, before hosting |
A note on Made By Teachers: the figures we found on different pages of its site did not match each other, so we are not printing a number. Its seller plans page is the place to check.
The card processing rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents is Stripe’s published rate for US cards as of October 2026.
Marketplaces: you rent the traffic
TPT, Etsy, Classful and Made By Teachers all have their own search box and their own visitors. A new listing can be found by someone who has never heard of you. That is worth a lot, and it is why marketplace fees are higher.
The amount of traffic is not equal. TPT is the largest teacher marketplace we know of. We do not have reliable traffic numbers for Classful or Made By Teachers and will not guess. The honest test is to list a handful of your best sellers and watch for three months. Listing on a smaller teacher marketplace costs you some hours and not much money.
Etsy has a very large audience, but most of it is not teachers. Printables aimed at parents and homeschoolers tend to fit better than a full curriculum unit.
Marketplaces such as TPT and Etsy also collect and remit sales tax on marketplace sales, which takes a real chore off your plate.
Storefronts: you bring the traffic
Payhip, Shopify and a WordPress store are checkout pages with a catalog. They do not come with marketplace search traffic. If nobody knows your store exists, nobody buys. Sales come from your email list, Pinterest, your blog, social media and search engines.
What you get in exchange:
- You keep most of each sale.
- You get the buyer’s email address, with their permission, so you can tell them about your next resource.
- You set the rules: bundles, passes to your whole catalog, school licenses, discounts.
- Nobody can change the payout rate on you.
What you take on: sales tax registration and filing are yours, customer support is yours, and so is the work of getting visitors.
How the storefronts differ
Payhip is the lowest-risk start. The free plan has no monthly charge and takes 5% per sale plus card processing. It is a simple storefront, and that is a fair trade at low volume.
Shopify is polished and well supported. It has a fixed monthly fee whether you sell anything or not, so check how it handles digital downloads and what that adds before you commit. Sellers on Reddit’s TPT forum report at least one teacher-seller closing a Shopify store because of the sales tax work, which is a reminder that the tax job comes with any storefront, not only Shopify.
A WordPress and WooCommerce store is what we build. It has no per-sale platform fee, and it handles downloads, bundles and catalog passes without a stack of paid apps. It needs someone to host and maintain it.
Which one fits you
- No email list and no audience outside TPT: a storefront will sit empty. Stay where the traffic is, and start a list.
- A small list and curiosity: a free Payhip store or a few listings on a second marketplace is a cheap experiment.
- A real list and steady outside sales: a store of your own starts to pay for itself.
About us
Up At Last builds and hosts WordPress stores for teacher-sellers, from $25 a month with hosting included. We are one of the options in the table, so weigh our view accordingly.
Up At Last is not affiliated with or endorsed by Teachers Pay Teachers.
What to do next
- Run the free calculator to see whether Basic or Exclusive pays more on your numbers. If Exclusive wins, none of these alternatives apply to you.
- Read TPT’s Exclusive Seller announcement and its fees page.
- Open the fee page for any platform you are considering and confirm the numbers yourself.
- Count your email subscribers. That number tells you more about a storefront’s chances than any fee table.