# Self-sown vs Barn2Door (2026)

*Full disclosure: we build Self-sown, so yes, we're biased. We're going to tell you who each platform is actually right for — including when it isn't us.*

Barn2Door is the farm-specific incumbent, and parts of it are genuinely excellent. It's also one of the most expensive ways a small farm can sell online: Entrepreneur is $119/mo billed annually with a $399 setup fee, Business is $159/mo with a $499 setup fee, and Scale is $299/mo with a $599 setup fee. That's over $1,800 in year one before your first order.

Self-sown is free — unlimited listings, no platform fees — with an optional $21/mo Herd plan for custom domains, email flows, and shipping labels. Here's the honest trade.

|  | Self-sown | Barn2Door |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Monthly cost | Free (Herd $21/mo optional) | $119-299/mo billed annually + $399-599 setup |
| Transaction fees | None from us, ever | Card processing on top; ~2.9% + 30c typical |
| Payments | Bitcoin (Lightning/Cashu), cards via Stripe or Square, Venmo/Zelle/cash | Their processor, their rules |
| Who owns the store | You — listings live on Nostr relays you control | Theirs — it's a hosted platform you rent annually |
| Best for | selling local food and artisan goods with zero platform fees | established farms that want white-glove onboarding |

## Where Barn2Door honestly wins

Depth and hand-holding. Subscriptions, sell-by-weight, delivery routing, and pick-pack workflows are mature, and a real human migrates your products and trains you during onboarding. If you run a $300k/yr farm with delivery routes and you value "someone else sets it up" above all else, Barn2Door is built for you and priced accordingly.

## Where Self-sown wins

Price — and it's not close. Barn2Door's entry tier costs more per year ($1,827) than most market farms spend on packaging. Self-sown is free, and even our fully-loaded Herd plan is $168/yr — about a tenth of Barn2Door's entry. For a farm testing online sales for the first time, that difference decides whether the experiment happens at all.

Ownership too: Self-sown listings live on Nostr relays under your keys, so the store you build is yours. Barn2Door is a rented silo like the rest of the hosted platforms — leave, and you start over.

## Who should pay Barn2Door

A farm already doing serious volume that wants white-glove migration and deep fulfillment features will get its money's worth. A farm that's pre-revenue online should not sign an annual $1,800 commitment to find out whether their customers will order on the internet. Start free, learn, then buy depth only if you outgrow it.

## Our pick

First online store, or volume under ~$50k/yr online: Self-sown, free. Spend the $1,800 on feed.

Established farm with complex delivery logistics and budget for onboarding: Barn2Door earns its fee.

## Questions

**What does Barn2Door actually cost in year one?**

Entrepreneur is $119/mo billed annually ($1,428) plus a $399 setup fee — $1,827 before processing fees. Business ($159/mo + $499) is $2,407; Scale ($299/mo + $599) is $4,187.

**Does Self-sown have sell-by-weight like Barn2Door?**

Self-sown supports weight and volume variants with per-variant pricing. Barn2Door's catch-weight fulfillment (charging the exact packed weight after the fact) is deeper — that's one of the things its fee buys.

**Can I switch from Barn2Door to Self-sown?**

Yes. You'll re-enter your products (there's no Barn2Door importer), but since Self-sown is free, most farms run both during the transition.

**Why is Self-sown so much cheaper — what's the catch?**

No catch, different architecture. Because listings live on open Nostr relays and payments go directly to you, we don't carry the infrastructure or the custody risk that subscription platforms price for. We make money on the optional Herd plan, not on your sales.

## Related

- [Best Barn2Door alternatives](https://self-sown.com/alternatives/barn2door)
- [Best online marketplace for farmers](https://self-sown.com/best/online-marketplace-for-farmers)
- [Best e-commerce for raw milk dairies](https://self-sown.com/best/ecommerce-for-raw-milk-dairies)

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*We checked prices and features for everything on this page in October 2026, against each vendor's own pricing page. This stuff changes constantly, so double-check before you commit.*

[Start selling](https://self-sown.com/onboarding/new-account)