Guides · Pricing

eRank vs MarginJar: they don't compete, and you probably need both

This comparison gets searched a lot, so here's the honest version. eRank is a keyword and listing-research tool — it helps buyers find you. MarginJar is a margin tool — it tells you whether the resulting sales are worth making. Neither one substitutes for the other, and picking the wrong one first is a common, expensive mistake.

What each one actually does

eRank works on the demand side of your shop. Keyword research, search volume and competition estimates, listing audits, tag suggestions, trend data, competitor tracking. Its output is a decision about what to write in your titles and tags, what to make next, and which listings deserve another photo.

MarginJarworks on the money side. It applies Etsy’s fee stack to your real numbers, combines that with what each product costs you to make, and produces a true margin per SKU. Its output is a decision about what to reprice, what to retire, and what to promote.

Put plainly: eRank helps you get found. MarginJar tells you whether being found on that particular listing is a good idea.

The failure mode of using only a keyword tool

Optimise a listing, get it ranking, watch orders arrive. It feels like success and the revenue chart agrees. Here is a listing that a keyword tool would call a triumph — a $12.00 item with $4.50 shipping that sells constantly:

Revenue$16.50

− Etsy fees−$2.02

− Materials, postage & 20 min of your time−$13.50

Profit per order — 6.0%$0.98

Every extra unit of traffic makes this worse. Rank it higher and you lose money faster, with more packing, more messages and more chances for a return. No amount of keyword work fixes it; only a price change, a cost change, or retiring the listing does.

The order matters. If your margins are unknown, fix that first — it takes an afternoon and it can change which products you want traffic on. Optimising a listing you later discover loses money is the most expensive kind of productive-feeling work.

The failure mode of using only a margin tool

The mirror image is just as real. A catalogue of beautifully priced, high-margin products that nobody finds earns exactly nothing. Margin is a multiplier on volume, and multiplying zero is still zero.

MarginJar has no opinion about your titles, your tags, your photos or your niche. If your problem is “I get twelve visits a week”, this is not the tool that helps, and a keyword tool genuinely is.

How to tell which one you need first

Sales are flat or nonexistent → demand problem. Start with keyword and listing research.
Sales are decent but the bank balance isn’t→ margin problem. Start here. Run three listings through the calculator at the top of this page; if any of them are under 10%, you have found your afternoon’s work.
You’re busier than ever and no better off → margin problem, urgently. This is what a high-traffic, low-margin bestseller feels like from the inside.
You’re about to launch something new → price it before you list it, then research keywords for it. Repricing after launch costs you reviews and ranking.

Using them together

The useful loop is short. Work out margin per product, sort by it, and take the top few — the products that deserve traffic. Then take that shortlist into a keyword tool and put the research effort there instead of spreading it across the whole catalogue. Everything under 10% gets a price rise, a cost fix, or a quiet retirement first.

That sequencing is the entire argument of this page. Find out what’s worth selling, then go get found for it.