What does a gift card system really cost? Fixed fee versus commission compared fairly

With Gifty you pay a monthly fee plus a fee for every gift card sold. On Essential and Pro that fee is a fixed amount, on Start it is 10% of the card amount. Which one is cheaper depends on how many cards you sell a year and how much a card is worth on average. Below you can work it out for 20, 100 and 500 cards.

The short version

• Three plans: Start €19, Essential €39 and Pro €69 a month, each with its own fee per card.
• Fixed or percentage: Essential and Pro charge a fixed amount per card, Start charges 10%.
• Tipping point: with a €50 card, Start is cheaper up to about 114 cards a year, after that Essential.
• On top: transaction fees per payment method, and for physical cards the cost of the card and packaging.

What does a gift card system cost?

A gift card system almost always has three kinds of cost. The first is a monthly fee for the platform. Secondly, there is a fee per card sold, either a fixed amount or a percentage. The third is cost tied to the type of card: payment fees, printing, packaging and shipping.

When you compare providers, look at the yearly total, not the lowest number in an advert. A low monthly price with a percentage per card can get expensive once your cards are worth more on average. A higher monthly fee with a low fixed fee pays off at higher volume.

Fixed fee or commission: what is the difference?

With a fixed fee you pay the same for every card, whether it is worth €25 or €100. You know up front what a card costs. With a percentage the fee grows with the card value. That is good when you mostly sell small cards, and expensive when your cards are worth more.

Gifty has both models side by side. Essential and Pro use a fixed fee per card sold online. Only Start charges 10% of the card amount. In 2025 the average card sold online was €90.21 (Gifty data, 66,820 cards through the order module), so on Start that is a little over €9 per card on average.

What does each plan cost?

	Start	Essential	Pro
Per month	€19	€39	€69
Card sold online	10% of the card amount	€2.90 fixed	€2.75 fixed
Physical card you sell yourself	not included	€1.70	€1.60
Card created in the dashboard (excl. printing and shipping)	€1.60	€1.25	€0.50
1+1 free promotions with promo codes	not included	€0.50	included

Source: Gifty pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026. For gift cards sold online on Essential and Pro there is tiered pricing from 500 cards a year. That amount is not on the page, so the examples below do not use a discount.

Worked examples for 20, 100 and 500 cards

These are the yearly costs for cards sold online: the monthly fee times 12 plus the fee per card. Transaction fees are not included. First with a €50 card:

Cards per year	Start	Essential	Pro
20	€328	€526	€883
100	€728	€758	€1,103
500	€2,728	€1,918	€2,203

And with the average online card of 2025, €90.21:

Cards per year	Start	Essential	Pro
20	€408	€526	€883
100	€1,130	€758	€1,103
500	€4,739	€1,918	€2,203

The difference comes down to the card value. Start is cheapest at small volumes. However, the percentage adds up quickly with higher-value cards. In fact, at 500 cards of €90.21, Start costs more than twice as much as Essential.

How many cards before another plan pays off?

• Start or Essential, with a €50 card: Essential pays off from about 114 cards a year.
• Start or Essential, with a €90.21 card: here, the tipping point is much lower, at about 39 cards a year.
• Essential or Pro: looking at the fee per card alone, Pro is only cheaper from about 2,400 cards a year. Keep in mind, though, that this leaves out the feature differences.

So do not choose on price alone. If you want physical cards and packaging in your shop, several locations, promo codes or phone support, you will find that in Essential. Customer data, order management and automated marketing, on the other hand, are part of Pro. In short, the plan should fit how you use it, because the cheapest option is not always the smartest.

Which other costs apply?

First of all, the fees per card exclude transaction fees. These depend on the payment method and are therefore charged separately from the plan:

• iDEAL, Wero and Bancontact: €0.29 per payment.
• Credit card: €0.29 plus 2.9%.
• Klarna: €0.40 plus 2.99%.

In addition, some costs depend on your situation. For instance, an extra location costs €25 a month (Essential and Pro). Likewise, a physical card has its own fee, and the matching packaging costs €1.85 on Essential and €1.70 on Pro. Moreover, a card you create yourself in the dashboard and send by post costs printing and shipping on top. Finally, the buyer can also pay for a personal message (€0.95), postal delivery (€2.95) or gift wrapping (€2.50). Those are listed on the pricing page under costs for the consumer.

Note: prices can differ per business when a custom agreement was made. For that reason, the amounts in this article are the standard rates from the pricing page.

Checklist: what to ask every provider

• To begin with, what is the monthly fee, and what exactly does it include?
• Next, is the fee per card a fixed amount or a percentage? And what does that mean at your average card value?
• Also, are payment fees included, or are they on top?
• Then, what costs apply to physical cards, packaging and shipping?
• Furthermore, is there tiered pricing, and from which volume?
• In addition, can you switch plans later, and on what terms?
• Lastly, which costs are not on the website?

After that, work out your own scenario with your expected number of cards and average card value. Above all, compare the yearly total instead of the separate amounts. For another comparison, read our Dutch article on an alternative to gift cards through Zenchef: Alternatief voor cadeaubonnen via Zenchef (in Dutch).

Then work out your own scenario with your expected number of cards and average card value. Compare the yearly total, not the separate amounts. For another comparison, read our Dutch article on an alternative to gift cards through Zenchef: Alternatief voor cadeaubonnen via Zenchef (in Dutch).

Frequently asked questions