The cost of entry into mermaiding is ridiculously cheap compared to furry1. My very first cat tail, which I bought in 2008 at MFF, cost me $50. These days a tail and ears run more than that, off-the-rack leather collars I've seen at cons for $200, and a partial fursuit from a good maker is easily over $10002.
This complete outfit, including the accessories and all, probably ran me about $150-200, and $70 of that was the tail, which of course I can swim in. If you already owned a bikini (or have male presenting nipples) and some costume jewelry, you probably can look like a real respectable mermaid for less than $100, maybe 20-50x less than a custom fursuit.
Why is that? The word "custom" does a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. This is an off the rack mermaid tail and monofin. Nearly every mermaid tail is. While there is a market for bespoke mermaid tails, it's small and niche and the end product is way more expensive than the premade ones, for no improvement in quality.
The reason lies in the manufacturing process. Fursuits are, obviously, made of faux fur. It's a difficult fabric to work with, doesn't take color well, and you have to make a whole suit out of it. That's expensive and time consuming, but the upside is that every one can be custom made, because there's no financial benefit to mass production.
Mermaid tails, on the other hand, are made from the same materials as swimsuits. It's a much cheaper fabric and most importantly, it can be dye sublimation printed. That means that as long as you've got the machinery, you can make a thousand tails as easily as one3.
Most mermaids have at least a few tails, some as many as a dozen. This is largely a matter of practicality. If you go swimming in the morning, your tail won't be dry by the afternoon for another session. They also wear out quickly, since chlorine and saltwater are harsh environments. Because tails are cheap, it's easy to just buy a new one.
I find that fascinating. I own two fursuits, both of which I made substantial parts of myself. I think I've owned the two suits combined for close to twenty years at this point, and I still care for and cherish them. The mermaid tail I've already had to replace once, because the monofin snapped in half and I snagged the tail on a rock.
This disposability leads mermaids to collect tails, create looks for each one, even give names and personalities to them. Someone might dress up as five or six different mermaids without having a tail that looks like their true mersona. As a furry, that seems crazy to me.
The difference between the two fandoms on this issue is driven largely, in my opinion, by the fabrics they use to create their costumes. If faux fur was easy to print patterns on and wasn't so difficult to work with and bulky to store and travel with, isn't it possible that we'd all own 4 or 5 $200 fursuits and have a mass produced fox and a lion and a possum or whatever? You already see a few people do this and that's with suits going for $4000!
Now that's an interesting alternate timeline to contemplate.
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Obviously the true cost of entry for both is effectively zero, if you've got internet access, but lots of people like to dress up at least a little.
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These are my personal experiences. I might be off by large amounts from your own personal experiences.
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There are custom mermaid tails made of silicone, which are similar to fursuits in terms of cost, transportability, and awkwardness to wear, store, and use, but that's for next time.