Who each one suits
Redbubble suits an artist who wants to be found: upload designs onto a huge catalog, let marketplace shoppers discover them, and never touch an order, a parcel or a customer email.
Merch5 suits someone who already has the audience: a band, a podcast, a shop, a creator with a following. You get your own store at a link, a widget for your site and production by Customnia in New York, with no cut taken from your margin.
Since 2025 Redbubble sets its platform fee by account tier: half of monthly earnings on Standard accounts, a fifth on Premium. If most of your Redbubble buyers already come from your own links, you are paying marketplace fees for traffic you bring yourself.
Redbubble vs. Merch5 at a glance
Redbubble figures come from its help center and its artist blog at the time of writing (November 2026).
| Redbubble | Merch5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | Free to join, open a shop and upload | $0. No subscription and no setup fee; selling is free on every plan |
| How you earn | Redbubble sets a base price per product; you set a markup percentage on top and earn that margin | You set the retail price; printing and shipping come out of each paid order and the rest is yours |
| Platform fee | By account tier: 50% of monthly earnings on Standard, 20% on Premium, none on invite-only Pro. No sales, no fee | 0% platform cut of your margin, on every plan |
| Pricing high | 50% excess markup fee on the part of your margin above a 20% markup (Pro exempt) | No fee for pricing high: your price, your margin |
| Fee cap | Platform and excess markup fees never exceed $150 in a monthly payment period | Nothing to cap |
| Other fees | $3 a month, from July 31, 2026, while your payment details are invalid and your balance is $10 or more | None |
| Where buyers come from | Redbubble's marketplace search and browse, next to other artists' designs | You bring them: your link, your website widget, a QR code |
| Your store | An artist shop page on redbubble.com | A storefront at yourstore |
| Buyer service | Redbubble takes payment, prints, ships and answers buyers | Buyers write to support@merch5.com about orders: tracking, address changes, faulty prints |
| Catalog | Apparel, stickers, wall art, home goods and more | T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, caps, totes and mugs |
| Minimums | None | One item |
| Payouts | Monthly, landing by the 15th, from a $10 balance (since July 1, 2026), to PayPal or a bank account | On request, to PayPal or your bank account, no minimum |
Redbubble facts from help.redbubble.com (account fees, platform fee, excess markup fee, payment threshold and timing) and blog.redbubble.com at the time of writing (November 2026). Fees and terms change, so check their pages before you decide.
Redbubble or Merch5: which one fits
Pick Redbubble if
- You want marketplace shoppers to discover your designs
- You have no audience of your own yet and do not want to build one
- You want stickers, wall art and home goods next to apparel
- You never want to think about a store, a price list or a buyer's email
- You are on Premium or Pro, where the fees are low or zero
Pick Merch5 if
- Your buyers already come from your own links, site or shows
- You want to keep your whole margin, with no tier deciding your fee
- You want to price above a 20% markup without a fee for it
- You want a store under your own brand, on your own site as a widget
- You want payouts on request to PayPal or your bank, with no minimum
Try Merch5 next to your Redbubble shop
Nothing to migrate and nothing to cancel. Redbubble keeps the marketplace buyers while you test.
Upload the same artwork
Pick products and set prices. The production cost is shown next to each one, so you see your margin before you publish.
Share it where people already are
Post the link, print the QR code or paste the widget into your site. Send your own audience there and compare what is left per sale.
Redbubble vs. Merch5 questions
It depends on your tier and your price. Redbubble takes a platform fee of 50% of monthly earnings on Standard accounts and 20% on Premium, adds an excess markup fee when your markup is above 20%, and caps all of it at $150 a month. Merch5 takes no cut of your margin: printing and shipping come out of each paid order, and the production cost is shown next to each product before you publish. Price the same shirt in both and compare what is left.
No. Redbubble's marketplace search is the reason many artists start there, and Merch5 has nothing like it. Merch5 is a store you send people to: a link, a widget on your site, a QR code at your table. It suits sellers who already have an audience; if you rely on being found by strangers, Redbubble's traffic is worth its fees.
Redbubble places every artist in Standard, Premium or Pro. Its help center says placement reflects how original and appealing your designs are rather than sales volume, Standard can reflect high volumes of repetitive or low-effort uploads, and Pro is invite-only for the top 1% of artists, reviewed once a year. The tier sets your platform fee: 50%, 20% or none.
If you set a markup above 20% on a product, Redbubble deducts 50% of the margin above that 20%. Its own example: a $20 base price with a 30% markup gives a $6 margin, the extra 10 points are $2, and the fee is $1. Pro accounts are exempt, and the fee counts toward the $150 monthly cap.
Redbubble pays monthly, with money landing by the 15th, once your balance reaches $10; the threshold dropped from $20 on July 1, 2026. Payments go to PayPal or a bank account. On Merch5 your margin collects in a balance, and you request a payout to PayPal or your bank account whenever you want it, with no minimum amount.
Yes. Opening a Merch5 store costs nothing and needs no card, so you can upload the same artwork, set prices and share the link while your Redbubble shop keeps selling to marketplace shoppers.
No. Both print each item after it is bought, and the minimum on Merch5 is one item.
Customnia prints and embroiders every order in New York and ships it with tracking to 100+ countries.
Your audience, your store, your margin.
Free to open, printed per order, paid out when you ask.