If you sell handmade products and want to stop guessing your prices, the right tool depends on how you work. For a fast, phone-first calculator that includes marketplace fees, CraftCost is a strong fit. For deep inventory and bookkeeping across a growing shop, a web platform like Craftybase is heavier but more complete. Below is an honest breakdown of the main options in 2026, including where each one is weak, and the pricing formula that works no matter which you pick.
We make CraftCost, so treat this as a guide written by an interested party. We have tried to be straight about where other tools are stronger, and every fact about another app was checked against its live store or website listing on the date above.
What a good handmade pricing tool actually does
Most makers price by doubling their materials and rounding to a number that feels right. That quietly loses money, because it ignores three real costs. A pricing tool earns its place if it does four things you usually skip on your own:
1. Counts your labor, not just materials. 2. Includes marketplace fees, so the price reflects what you actually keep. 3. Lets you reuse a material library instead of re-entering costs every time. 4. Gives you a price you can act on in minutes, not a spreadsheet you have to maintain.
The options in 2026
CraftCost (iOS and Android)
A phone-first calculator built for handmade sellers. You log materials once into a library (it ships with 200+ common ones), build a product as a recipe, add labor and overhead, and it returns the price to charge for the margin you want. You can also work backwards from a target price. Marketplace fee presets for Etsy, eBay, Amazon and more are built in, so the number is what you keep after fees. Free to use, on-device, no account required.
Where it is weak, honestly: it is a young app with few public reviews so far, and it is intentionally a calculator, not an inventory or bookkeeping system. If you need stock tracking and tax reports across hundreds of SKUs, it is lighter than a full platform on purpose.
Roamer Maker: Handmade Pricing (iOS)
A handmade pricing calculator aimed at sellers on Etsy, at craft fairs, and in their own shops. Free. Covers the core job of turning materials and time into a price. A reasonable single-purpose option if you are on iOS.
Craft Pricing Calculator (iOS)
A simple calculator: enter your costs and it works out what to charge. Free. As of this writing it carries a 2.8 star rating across 19 reviews on the App Store, which is worth checking against your own needs before you commit.
Craftybase (web)
Not a phone app but a cloud platform for small-batch makers: inventory tracking, automatic cost of goods sold, batch manufacturing, and sync with Etsy, Shopify and Amazon. Subscriptions start at $24 per month with a 14-day free trial. Best for higher-volume shops that need real stock and tax records, not just a price. The trade-off is heavier setup and an ongoing subscription, which is more than a hobby seller usually needs.
Comparison at a glance
- CraftCost is iOS and Android, free. It counts labor, builds in marketplace fees (Etsy, eBay, Amazon), and ships with a 200-plus material library. Best for fast, fee-aware pricing on your phone.
- Roamer Maker is iOS, free. It covers the core job of turning materials and time into a price. Best for a simple iOS option.
- Craft Pricing Calculator is iOS, free, rated 2.8 stars across 19 reviews. Best for basic one-off pricing.
- Craftybase is web, from $24 per month. It adds inventory tracking and cost of goods sold. Best for high-volume shops that need stock and tax records, not just a price.
The pricing math that works in any of them
Whatever tool you choose, the formula is the same. This is the part most makers are missing, and it costs nothing to apply:
- True cost = materials + (hours worked x your hourly rate) + overhead per item.
- Price before fees = true cost divided by (1 minus your target margin). For a 50 percent margin, that is true cost times two.
- Final price = price before fees divided by (1 minus your all-in fee rate). If marketplace and payment fees are about 10 percent, divide by 0.9.
A quick example. A soy candle with 4.50 in materials, half an hour of labor at 18 per hour (9.00), and 1.50 of overhead has a true cost of 15.00. At a 50 percent margin that is 30.00 before fees, and about 33.00 after a 10 percent fee. Compare that to a "materials times two" price of 9.00, which is below the true cost before a single fee. That gap is the money many makers lose on every sale.
A good app just does this arithmetic for you and keeps your material costs on file so you never re-enter them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free handmade pricing app? For a free, phone-first option that builds marketplace fees into the price, CraftCost is a strong choice on both iOS and Android. Roamer Maker and Craft Pricing Calculator are free iOS alternatives.
Do I need an app, or is a spreadsheet enough? A spreadsheet works if you maintain it. The value of an app is the fee presets and a reusable material library, so you are not re-entering costs and re-deriving the same formula every time.
Why is my handmade item not profitable even though it sells? Most often because the price does not include your labor and the marketplace fees. Add both and re-price using the formula above.
What about high-volume shops? If you are tracking real inventory and need tax-ready cost of goods sold across many products and channels, a platform like Craftybase does more than a calculator, at the cost of a monthly subscription.
CraftCost is free on iOS and Android. The math above works anywhere, which is the part that actually matters.