Brillay vs. Etsy for Custom Orders

Choose Etsy if you need marketplace discovery, shop reviews, listings, and buyer-protection trust for custom products. Choose Brillay if custom demand already comes from followers or followers and you want a direct, scoped request where you set the deliverable, price, and turnaround without a marketplace case system. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. Creators in 41 countries can get paid (pricing).

Which platform fits custom commission orders?

Etsy fits custom orders when a seller wants buyers to discover a personalized item through a marketplace. Craftspeople, print-on-demand sellers, and digital-asset sellers often use Etsy because buyers already understand listings, shop reviews, saved carts, marketplace checkout, and order support. Brillay is shaped the other way: one custom order at a time on your own page, with the scope and the delivery window written down before anyone pays, and no listing to renew or re-photograph.

Brillay fits custom commission work when the seller already has attention elsewhere: social followers, newsletter readers, repeat supporters, or followers who send direct messages asking for a one-off version. In that case, the main problem is not discovery; it is turning a vague request into a paid, bounded deliverable.

Etsy’s Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says the Etsy marketplace had 89.6 million active buyers, 5.6 million active sellers, and $10.9 billion in Etsy marketplace gross merchandise sales in its reported fiscal year (Etsy Form 10-K, SEC). That is the commission marketplace demand cluster in plain terms: many buyers, many sellers, and a standardized marketplace structure around every transaction.

A follower opens your page, chooses a paid offer, and pays by card as a guest before you start; you then deliver on your own time (how it works).

How do Etsy and Brillay compare?

Etsy and Brillay differ most on who owns the order environment after a follower checks out. Etsy keeps the sale inside a marketplace with listings, order history, seller policies, buyer support, purchase protection, and cases. On Brillay, the request and payment happen on the creator’s own page, where followers pay as guests.

For Brillay, the closest offer to an Etsy custom order is Custom Work. The Custom Work setup states what followers get, what you need from them, what is not included, the price, and the delivery time. Followers can attach files to the request, and you can deliver text plus files of any allowed type and/or a link. Custom Work has one-time delivery, and if something in the package does not work the follower can raise it in a Customer support conversation on that same order; anything materially different is a new paid order.

What fees apply to custom sellers?

Etsy custom-order sellers pay Etsy’s marketplace fees, while Brillay creators pay Brillay’s platform fee only when a follower pays. The practical difference is that Etsy charges around a listing-and-marketplace model, while Brillay charges around a direct paid interaction.

Etsy Help says most sellers need to know listing fees, transaction fees, and payment processing fees; Etsy’s fee page states a $0.20 listing fee and a 6.5% transaction fee on the total order amount in the seller’s designated listing currency (Etsy Fee Basics). Etsy’s payment-processing page says United States Etsy Payments processing is 3% plus $0.25 and that processing fees are in addition to the 6.5% transaction fee (Etsy payment processing fees).

For Custom Work, followers pay upfront, and you deliver on your own time. Stripe publishes typical United States online-card pricing of 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful card charge, with additional fees for international cards, currency conversion, and other payment methods (Stripe pricing). This page is a platform comparison, not tax, legal, or financial advice.

How much would each custom order net?

A $100 custom order would net about $90.05 on Etsy under a simple United States fee model and about $88.80 on Brillay under typical United States online-card processing, before ads, shipping, production cost, refunds, currency conversion, and taxes.

These examples are illustrative, not guaranteed settlement amounts. Etsy can be cheaper on a straightforward sale because the baseline marketplace and payment fees in this model are lower than Brillay’s platform fee plus Stripe processing. Brillay gives the people already asking you a way to pay for creator-set Custom Work with one-time delivery.

For a seller deciding where to route demand, the useful question is not only “which fee is lower?” It is “what am I paying for?” Etsy’s fee can buy discovery, buyer trust, marketplace search, and a familiar checkout. Brillay’s fee supports paid requests and one-time support from a page you share yourself.

Who controls scope and delivery time on each platform?

Brillay gives the creator the cleaner scope box, while Etsy gives the seller a familiar marketplace custom-order workflow governed by Etsy’s broader help and policy environment. That difference matters when the buyer’s request is subjective: logo variations, custom SVGs, portrait style, print sizing, pattern edits, personalization, or made-to-order items.

Etsy Help explains that enabling custom order requests lets a shop create one-of-a-kind items beyond current inventory and lets a seller convert a buyer’s request into a custom listing (Etsy Help, How to Offer Custom Items).

"Enabling custom order requests shows buyers that you can work with them to create one-of-a-kind items beyond what you have available in your inventory."

— Etsy Help, How to Offer Custom Items

That workflow is useful, but the seller still has to write the listing, manage messages, set expectations, and handle the order under Etsy’s policies. Etsy sellers choose many listing terms and shop policies, but Etsy’s return rules, case eligibility, and purchase-protection review still shape what happens when an order becomes a problem.

Brillay’s Custom Work puts price, scope and delivery time in writing before followers pay: what they get, what you need from them, what is not included, price, delivery time, and optional custom fields. Delivery is one-time. That makes Brillay a better fit for a small, defined deliverable with the scope written down before the follower pays.

What happens when buyers open cases?

Etsy cases bring the marketplace into the order; on Brillay, the request and payment stay on your own page. That can be either a feature or a drawback depending on whether you want Etsy to mediate buyer trust or you want to avoid platform-shaped outcomes on subjective custom work.

Etsy Help says a buyer can open a case after the order’s maximum estimated delivery date has passed and after the buyer contacted the seller more than 48 hours earlier (Etsy Help, How to Open a Case).

"You can open a case to get Etsy’s help with an order after you’ve contacted the seller and your order becomes eligible."

— Etsy Help, How to Open a Case

For sellers, Etsy’s seller-facing purchase protection page says Etsy will cover up to $250 of a refund for an eligible order, and any remaining amount will be charged to the seller (Etsy Purchase Protection for Sellers). That protection can be valuable for lost packages or eligible order problems, but it does not make every subjective custom-order disagreement disappear.

The follower pays when they ask; you reply when you can. After you deliver, the order page gives the follower a Customer support conversation — a question about the delivery, a file or link that does not work, a correction, a refund request — and you answer it yourself as the seller, under the support, correction and refund policies they read before paying. There is no eligibility clock, no case queue, and no outside reviewer deciding what a subjective custom order should have looked like.

When is Etsy demand worth it?

Etsy’s marketplace demand is worth it when buyers are searching for the kind of custom item you sell and the marketplace trust layer increases conversion enough to justify the fees and policy environment. If a buyer does not know you yet, Etsy’s search and review context may matter more than direct control.

Etsy is also better if the order depends on physical-item shop infrastructure: shipping profiles, production partners, tax handling in a marketplace environment, listing variations, reviews, coupons, ads, and repeat shop discovery. A print-on-demand seller who wants search demand for “custom family sweatshirt” may rationally keep that listing on Etsy even if case risk and fees are annoying.

For physical goods, Etsy requires sellers to set a return policy whenever they create or edit a physical-item listing, even if the policy says returns or exchanges are not accepted (Etsy Help, Refunds, Returns, and Exchanges for Sellers). Etsy also says that if a seller enters into a return agreement with a buyer through Messages or Etsy’s case system, Etsy requires the seller to fulfill that agreement.

The honest test is whether Etsy is bringing you buyers you would not otherwise reach. If most buyers discover you through Etsy search, Etsy is probably doing a job. If most custom work already comes from your audience, Etsy may be adding a marketplace layer to demand you already created.

When should custom sellers use Brillay?

Custom sellers should use Brillay when followers already ask for work such as a $25 file cleanup, a $50 custom asset, or a paid portfolio review—and you want to state exactly what that price includes before checkout. Examples include a custom digital asset for a follower, a mini brand review, a design critique, a pattern adjustment, a file cleanup, a thumbnail audit, a personalization mockup, or a small creative deliverable that does not need an Etsy listing.

Etsy’s Global Seller Census described Etsy sellers as creative entrepreneurs and reported that 79% identified as women, 84% were businesses of one, 95% operated from their homes, and 1 in 4 lived in rural areas (Etsy Global Seller Census PDF).

Brillay is especially relevant for Etsy sellers with an audience outside Etsy. A seller can keep Etsy for catalog products while sending social followers to a Brillay page for custom reviews, small digital deliverables, and defined one-off services. If the request is advice rather than a file, paid Q&A versus coaching calls covers how to price a written answer. If the request grows into a structured advisory product, the best platform to sell coaching packages explains the broader tool landscape.

Custom Work fits when you can define the outcome before checkout and deliver it once.

Frequently asked questions

Is Brillay a replacement for my Etsy shop?

No. Brillay adds a one-time custom-service option beside your Etsy shop. That same Brillay link can also carry Personalized Videos, Paid Questions, Tips, and Goals.

Can Etsy buyers open cases on custom orders?

Yes. Etsy buyers can use Etsy’s help and case flow when an order becomes eligible, including issues such as not arriving, arriving damaged, arriving late under Etsy’s purchase-protection criteria, or differing significantly from the listing description or photos. Custom work should be scoped carefully because subjective expectations can still become order issues.

Does Brillay allow revision rounds?

No. Brillay Custom Work has one-time delivery, and no revision rounds are built into the price. After delivery the follower can raise a correction in the Customer support conversation on that order, which the creator handles under the correction policy published before checkout, and anything materially different is a new paid order.

When does the follower get charged?

For Custom Work, the follower pays upfront at the moment they submit the brief, so the order reaches you already defined and already paid — nothing to invoice afterwards, no deposit to chase — and you deliver inside the window you set on the listing.

Which is better for digital sellers?

Etsy is better for searchable digital products, templates, and listing-based discovery. Brillay is better for a small custom digital service when the follower already follows you and the deliverable can be scoped, priced, and delivered once.

Are you ready to try Brillay directly?

If asking followers to pay feels awkward, turn the next “can you make this for me?” message into a custom request with a fixed price, clear scope, and one delivery instead of negotiating in DMs. Create your free Brillay page