Plenty of people sell well on Instagram, and some of them should carry on. Here is the honest comparison.
What Instagram genuinely does better
You already have the audience. Years of followers who know you. That is real and it is not nothing.
It costs nothing.
It is where people already are, every day, without being told to go there.
Total control of presentation. Your grid, your voice, no category structure.
What it does not do
Hold the money. The buyer pays you directly or they do not. Every first sale to a stranger is them taking a risk on you with nothing behind it — which is why most do not.
Give either side a dispute route. If something arrives broken, the two of you work it out, and one of you has already got the money.
Keep a record. No order, no description of what was promised, no evidence of either. Six months later nobody can reconstruct what was agreed.
Chase payment. You do it, by message, repeatedly.
Find you new buyers who are already shopping. A follower is browsing; a person at a show is buying.
The part people miss
Selling off-platform does not only remove the buyer's protection — it removes yours. No record that you sent it, no proof of what was agreed, no standing if somebody says they never received it. The fuller argument.
Who should use which
Instagram alone: an established audience who already trust you, low-value items, and you do not mind the admin.
Here: anything where a stranger has to trust you, anything where condition needs explaining, anything where chasing payment is eating your week.
Both: most people. Build the audience there, sell here, and let the structure do the work it does.
More: how to sell on Metzee.