Looking for an Etsy Alternative in the UK? Here’s What Luma Does Differently

Most makers searching for an Etsy alternative want one of two things. Lower fees, or a place where their work isn’t lost among digital downloads and resold stock. Usually both.

When we asked UK makers what had gone wrong, fees came up. What came up more was being buried. "I don’t feel seen" was something we heard more than once, from people whose skill made no difference to where they landed in search.

There are UK marketplaces that will charge you less than Etsy, and we’ll be straight about where we sit on price further down. This post is about the other half of the problem, because that’s the half Luma was built for.

What Etsy allows now

Since 2024, Etsy has sorted what’s for sale under four labels in its Creativity Standards: Made by, Designed by, Handpicked by and Sourced by a seller. "Designed by" covers a seller’s own design made up by a production partner, and artwork made with generative AI, as long as the listing says so.

That’s a fair set of rules for a marketplace that wants to sell everything creative. It also means a hand-thrown mug can turn up in the same search as a printable download, a print-on-demand design or dropshipped stock, and a shopper scrolling past has no easy way to tell them apart.

Luma starts from the other end

Luma is only for work made by the person selling it. The rules exist to keep it that way.

A person reviews every shop before it opens. One of us reads how you say you work and looks at your photos of the making. We do it by hand, and we will for as long as we can.

Every listing says how it was made. A process description is required before a listing can go live, and shoppers read it on the listing page. For someone who makes their own work, that’s a sentence or two. For a reseller, "how did you make this?" is a hard question.

Digital downloads, resold stock, print-on-demand and AI artwork stay out. Everything for sale here is a physical piece you made. Prints are welcome when you handle the physical piece and sign or stamp it; the Handmade Standard works through the rest. An AI image printed onto something can’t be sold here as your work. Photos have to show the real piece, the making or your workspace, with no AI backgrounds or generative fill.

Concerns go to a person. Anyone with an account can report a listing that doesn’t look like what it claims, and one of us reads every report. We also check a random sample of live listings every day, so a listing gets looked at even if nobody ever flags it.

How Luma verifies handmade listings has the full detail, including the parts that still rely on people getting it right.

Effort, not skill level

You don’t need to be a master to sell here. A beginner’s first wobbly bowl belongs on Luma as much as one from a potter with thirty years behind them. What we look at is the effort that went into a piece, and whether that effort was yours.

So gluing two bought parts together isn’t handmade here, and neither is a shop-bought sticker on a blank mug. Someone else made every part of those. The test we use is simple: if taking you out of the process would leave the product exactly the same, it doesn’t belong on Luma. What counts as handmade works through the grey areas.

Honesty is what moves you up

There’s no paid placement on Luma, and no sales target to hit before our search notices you. A new shop starts in the middle, not at the bottom.

What moves you up is being open about your work. Naming your materials and adding a photo or video of the making each earn a boost, and together they count for as much as a proven track record. A brand-new shop that shows its process can stand level with one that’s been trading for years.

Shoppers have a say too. Listings people favourite and buy rise, and so do shops with good reviews, few issues found to be their fault and parcels sent on time. A late parcel stops counting after 90 days, and an issue only counts against you when it was resolved against you. Getting found on Luma sets out everything our search counts, and what makes no difference.

What Luma costs, compared with Etsy

We take 7% when something sells, on the item and the postage together. Opening a shop is free, and so is listing: up to 10 live at once, and no monthly subscription. Card processing through our payment provider (Stripe) is separate, and Platform fees explained walks through a real sale.

We aren’t the cheapest option in the UK. Some marketplaces charge a flat monthly fee and no commission at all, and if price is the only reason you’re moving, one of those may suit you better. Our commission pays for the review, the reporting and the daily checks, and the built in certainty that what is listed on Luma is truely handmade.

Where we are right now

We’re new, and we’ll say so. Makers are opening shops first, and shoppers come in once there’s enough to browse. Luma is UK only: you need to be based in the UK to sell, and orders go to England, Scotland and Wales for now.

We’re two developers in Stockport who built Luma ourselves, from scratch, and we fund it ourselves, because we believe in it. We aren’t looking for investors. The only people we answer to are the makers and shoppers using the site, and that’s how we want to keep it. It also means that when you get in touch, whether you need help or have a suggestion, it lands with the two people who build the thing, and a person answers. When a suggestion is right it tends to get built rather than filed. Building the rules above into the site took longer than putting up a shop template would have. We’d rather have them built in than written on a policy page nobody reads.

Common questions

Is Luma cheaper than Etsy?

It depends on what you sell and how much. Luma takes one commission on each sale, with no listing fee and no monthly subscription, so a month with no sales costs nothing. Etsy charges a listing fee on every item, a transaction fee on the item and postage, and offsite ads once your turnover passes its threshold. Add card processing to both before you compare, and Platform fees explained walks through a real sale on Luma.

Can I sell on Luma and Etsy at the same time?

Yes. Nothing in our terms asks you to sell only on Luma, and running both while Luma grows makes sense. A listing here still has to meet our handmade standard, whatever it’s allowed to be elsewhere.

Can I import my Etsy listings?

Not yet. For now you add each listing by hand, process description included.

Somewhere to stand, more than somewhere to list

Luma won’t suit every maker, and that’s deliberate. If you make your own work and you’re tired of explaining to shoppers why it costs what it costs, this is the marketplace we built for you. Every maker who joins makes the word handmade mean a little more to the next shopper who reads it here.

Open your shop, or read what counts as handmade first.