Printful vs Printify 2023: The Ultimate Print-on-Demand

When you step outdoors or visit a clothing shop in the nearby market, you come across many pieces of apparel with fascinating prints. You get intrigued and either want to get a customized one for yourself or start an e-commerce business out of it. But have you ever wondered how you would get that printing on a piece of cloth and satisfy your customers in no time?

Customized gifts and personal belongings are in vogue. You can get your pictures or your firm’s name printed on your uniform, any casual wear, or any other item. This unique printing trend has also set its foot in the e-commerce sector and is fast spreading.

Suppose you start a T-shirt or clothing eCommerce store offering customers customized apparel according to their preferences. In that case, you need to search for the best print provider available. The Print on Demand (POD) service makes its entry at this point. This Print-on-demand business is blooming all around at an increased pace.

According to market experts, businesses that create custom products will likely generate a $10 billion in revenue by the end of 2025.

These days, many young entrepreneurs show up who believe that they can earn more by starting an e-Commerce business than by doing a white-collar job. These Print on Demand companies support these enthusiastic young businessmen to fulfill their dreams and make the most out of it.

With such high demand, two Print-on-demand service providers have created a mark on the eCommerce platforms. These two highly efficient print providers and the leading contenders in this sector are Printful and Printify.

Since both Printful and Printify are equally efficient, it is tough to choose between the two. However, they too have the pros and cons, and so a detailed scrutinization of these two Print on Demand for drop shippers is necessary. If you are interested in starting your own T-shirt printing business and making a considerable profit, stay tuned to know more.

So before you get started, let’s take a look at these two Print on Demand drop shipping companies and then consider the one that suits your needs.

In this guide for the best Print on demand, you will find the following information on Print-on-demand services:

• The ease of use is provided by these print providers.
• The pricing for printing on the desired product.
• The time is taken for order fulfillment.
• The quality and efficiency of customer support provided by Printful and Printify.
• The print quality of the design printed on the apparel.
• The integrations

Now, let’s delve deeper and take a look at the different aspects of Printful and Printify and decide which one should be considered for your use.

What is Print On Demand?

Are you planning to create custom design products and sell them to the customers? If yes, the Print on Demand or POD service is curated just for your ease. Printful and Printify services support you to do so and flourish on the eCommerce Platforms.

As the name suggests, this service helps you with your orders and prepares them on time for the sale. There are two parties involved in it. The first one is the seller and the second one is the supplier. The seller collects the orders and passes them down to the supplier. The supplier is the print provider who creates fascinating designs on a range of products like key chains, T-shirts, caps, etc.

If we see in this context, Printify and Printful are the suppliers present on the digital platform integrating with the sellers or the drop shippers. They customize the white label products for order fulfillment.

Since printing on the products is tedious, a Print on Demand company makes your job much more comfortable and provides you with whatever you want. They work as a ghost artist and create custom designs on behalf of your brand. So you gain the name and fame while they do the main work behind the screens.

Besides, you also need not to worry about the delivery and other aspects of an online store. A print-on-demand company like Printful or Printify has its warehouse where the entire printing process is carried out. After the designs ordered by the customers are printed, this company takes charge of the shipping fulfillment. The items are delivered within a specified time at the customers’ addresses.

In a nutshell, a print-on-demand company works similarly to a dropshipping company. It entirely takes care of the printing and shipping fulfillment while maintaining excellent product quality.

For your plans and strategies to work out well, you need to be careful while opting for your business’s suitable Print-on-demand service provider. For that, let’s take a step further and know about how both these companies work to fulfill your dreams.

How Printful Works?

The production houses of Printful are located in countries like Mexico, the USA, and Europe, with wide locations that aid in on-time delivery to various locations. It provides all the essential tools to its user who needs to create designs as per the customer’s orders and fulfill those orders.

To integrate it with your online store, you need to sign up. Once done, your store will be linked to Printful. Since you will require a mockup generator or the design tool to work on your designs, this print provider equips you with the generator as soon as your store is integrated with it.

Now you can create your custom designs using the mockup generator and its tools. You get access to attractive templates and many customizable options. You can find hundreds of different graphic tools, fonts, symbols, etc. Besides, 80+ Getty images and illustrations help you enhance your designs. Also, you get many options like image quality upscaling, pattern generator, etc.

Printful allows you to experiment with the designs and come up with your inventions. Listed below are the few things that you can do using Printful’s design maker.

• Upload the desired image and adjust it according to your preference.
• Create different and attractive text designs to print on any item.
• Create unique designs using emojis, pictures, illustrations, and many more.
• You can also create embroidery designs for customers who look for ethnic patterns and traditional designs.

Hence, use the mockup generator integration effectively to increase your sales and expand your business.

Printful’s High Selling Categories

You get varieties of products to display on your online store and attract customers. Some of these high-selling categories are listed below.

• Clothing: Sweatshirts, T-Shirts, leggings, Hoodies, etc.
• Accessories: Phone cases, necklaces, stickers, etc.
• Bags: Drawstring bags, Fanny bags, Backpacks, etc.
• Home accessories: Blankets, Bean bags, coffee mugs, key chains, beach towels, etc.

After you have created your custom designs and are satisfied with the same, you can import the products from the categories mentioned above with the custom designs to your store. Promote your brand and the products to attract customers and increase your sales.

Once a customer places an order, Printful takes up the fulfillment charge. It does the printing and shipping without bothering you. You only have to pay the fulfillment charges once the order completes.

Use Printful to avoid the tedious task of manual order creation and shipping fulfillment. With Printful in action, your job is reduced to managing the sales while the fulfillment is taken care of. Simple and easy, isn’t it?

How does Printify work?

Similar to Printful, Printify also aims to provide you with the ease of creating customized prints for your customers. While you manage the sales, Printify looks after the printing and shipping.

You get access to 300+ products and design the custom product according to your customers’ tastes. Besides, a mockup generator is available similar to what you get in Printful. You get access to 3-D pictures, all shades of colors, and a product catalog.

This service has its partners located in Australia, the USA, the UK, China, and Germany. This diverse geographical location enables it to ship items worldwide.

Printify has laid out five simple steps to simplify the entire process that will guide you through creating a dynamic design and becoming famous overnight. These steps are listed below.

Integration

The primary step to start the process is to connect your store to Printify. Sign Up to create an account and get started to create your designs.

Product Selection

After connecting your marketplace with the Print-on-demand service, select the products from the product catalog you want to sell to your customers. You get 300+ products starting from shoes, T-shirts, beach towels, phone cases, etc.

Design creation

The dynamic mockup generator enables you to create unique, attention-grabbing prints. You can use the color palette, designing tools, templates, graphics, and many more options to make your signature design.

Request the product samples

Unlike Printful, Printify works with many print partners. It provides you the freedom to choose any of them with whom you would like to work. Since product quality matters, you can always request the product samples from the preferred print provider and ensure that the print quality and the product quality are up to the mark. After the scrutinization, you can proceed to work with the selected partner.

Publishing and selling

After the quality assurance, you can import the products to your online store and start your sale without worrying about fulfillment. At last, it is about selling and generating revenue. The tool aids you in the process.

Who is the winner? Printify vs. Printful

In terms of how the two Print-on-demand services work, Printful and Printify are on the same boat. They are equally efficient and can be effortlessly used by new entrepreneurs with no prior business experience.

Printify vs. Printful: Pricing

Whenever a sale takes place, the seller fixes a potential profit margin through which it gains earnings on every purchase made by a customer.

The pricing considerably shifts and is never constant. It depends on many factors, one of which is the choice of the Print-on-demand service provider. As a sales manager, you need to decide whether the Print on demand company you are choosing is cost-effective or not.

Both Printful and Printify have transparency in their pricing plans. It enables the seller to opt for the one which offers a suitable price. Also, while signing up, you don’t have to pay any amount as no fees are charged.

Now that you know that they have no hidden fees and charge no amount for using them, it’s time that you should dive into their pricing plans. Let s take a look at both of them and opt for the best Print-on-demand solution based on the pricing.

Printful’s Pricing Plans

You won’t find Printful charging any monthly subscription fees for the services that it offers. Every time an order is placed and you are processing it, you will have to pay the amount charged for that specific service. The product that you will display on your dropshipping site will include the fees of these services.

For instance, the neck labels you will be using to promote your brand and the pack-ins accompanying shipping will cost you individually.

So, you get to use all the present features on Printful but at a price. These features include pack-ins, design tools, white-label branding, warehouse storage, neck labels, etc. Besides, you get excellent 24/7 customer support and many products to opt from.

Printify’s Pricing Plans

If you are inclined towards Printify, then you should know that it offers three different pricing plans to its customer. These plans have some features that the user can avail of by buying the subscription. The highlights of these plans are:

• Advanced and updated mockup generator.
• Integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay, etc.
• 24/7 customer support
• Manually creating the orders placed.

Now, let’s have a quick look at the plans offered by Printify.

Free Plan

You get charged $0 for getting this subscription. This plan is curated for the new merchants who have recently started their business. You get access to unlimited product designs and can import them to your online store.

With this plan, you can integrate a maximum of 5 Print on demand dropshipping stores. You get access to the essential features that cater to your needs initially and help you grow your business.

Premium Plan

If you have multiple stores and want to uplift your merchandise’s standards and designs, this plan is a highly suitable plan for you. At just $29 a month, you can integrate a maximum of 10 stores, five more than the free plan. There is no change in the limitation of product designs. You get unlimited designs and can import them to your store.

The cherry on the cake is the discount you get on every product by investing in the premium plan. You get a 20% discount on all the products that you import to your store. Another perk is personalizing the products and selling them in your store. Isn’t that great?

Enterprise plans

The enterprise plan is the way to go for those who get massive orders each day and have to fulfill them on time without any delay. This plan is the most expensive one; however, you get the opportunity to connect unlimited stores and product designs. Like the premium plan, you also get a 20% discount on each product you import to your store.

This plan’s significant perk is that you get access to exceptional support dedicated only to the users that help resolve any issues. Also, whenever Printify adds a new feature on its site, the users using the enterprise plan get informed instantly.

Who is the Winner? Printful vs. Printify

Based on pricing, Printify is the winner since it has a suitable subscription plan for every merchant, whether he be a newbie or a flourished seller. This option is not present in Printful as it charges for every customization that you do.

The only drawback that Printify has is that the pricing is not mentioned as Printful. When you opt for Printful, you will get to know each option’s cost, which lacks in Printify. Else, Printify has cheaper and more suitable plans than Printful.

Printify vs. Printful: Integrations

Integration is the crucial part without which you cannot create the patterns and complete the fulfillment. Both Printify and Printful have built-in APIs. These APIs help you integrate or connect your store with the eCommerce giants like Amazon, eBay, etc.

While Printify has limited integration options, Printful, on the other hand, has a long list. However, the most popular eCommerce platform for integration that is used by both is Shopify. The others include Weebly, Bigcommerce, Wix, Gumroad, Magneto, etc.

If you use Printify and are subscribed to its premium plan, you will be able to integrate with only two marketplaces: Etsy and eBay. On the other hand, Printful enables you to integrate with other platforms such as Amazon, Wish, Bonanza, etc.

For a newbie like you who wants to sell Print on demand items using the eCommerce platforms, it is recommended that you head for Shopify, BigCommerce, Etsy, Ecwid because these channels are effortless to integrate with and use.

Who is the Winner? Printful vs. Printify

Printful is the winner here! It is because Printful allows you to integrate with a vast number of eCommerce channels while Printify restricts you to a certain number like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.

Printful vs. Printify: Fulfillment and Shipping

Do you get annoyed if your shipment doesn’t reach you on time? Have you given a thought to what your customers will feel if their orders reach them late from your store? If not, it’s high time to ponder on the fulfillment and shipment aspects, for they will influence your sales strata.

To fulfill the new order placed by a customer, Printful states that it takes 2 to 7 business days for the apparel printing process while the non-apparel items get ready within 2 to 5 business days.

After the products are ready, it’s time for the shipping. The shipping time varies from one location to the other. It depends on the distance between the warehouse and the customer’s address. The average shipping time is 12 business days; however, the time may vary depending on the distance.

3 million orders are fulfilled and shipped by Printful each year, and the backend forces are the global carriers. The significant shipping companies are FedEx, DPD, DHL, and USPS.com.

Besides, the shipping rates of all the orders are different. These rates differ according to country, and they are listed below.

The first product (for T-shirts, crop tops, long sleeve shirts, etc.)

• USA- $3.99
• UK- $4.39
• Canada- $6.49
• Australia/New Zealand-$6.99

Additional Product (For T-shirts, Crop tops, Long sleeve shirts, etc.)

• USA-$1.25
• UK- $1.09
• Canada-$1.25
• Australia/New Zealand-$1.25

In addition to the shipping rates, some customers may also have to pay customs fees. This fee applies to those users who stay at a different geographical location.

Printify also seeks help from the Global carriers and the local fulfillment carriers to help drop shippers worldwide. It takes more time to deliver international orders due to the lack of fulfillment carriers, and also, the Printify shipping rates are different. Printify has partnered with print providers who have different shipping rates. Let’s have a look at some of the different Printify Shipping to get a rough idea.

Air Waves (For T-Shirts: First Product)

• USA (3-8 business days)-$5.00
• Canada (4-14 business days)-$14.40
• International (4-14 business days)-$14.40

Big Oven Tees (For T-shirts: First product)

• USA (4-9 business days)-$8.00
• Canada (3-7 business days)-$11.70
• International (10-30 business days)-$27.45

Though the shipping costs are defined, Printify doesn’t provide any details about the number of days it will take to fulfill the order and print on the item. It is not the case with Printful, as it keeps you updated about the fulfillment time and the shipping rates.

Who is the Winner? Printful vs. Printify

The best Print-on-demand solution based on the fulfillment and shipping process is Printful. The reason is the excellent optimization done by Printful for international orders and keeps you updated about the entire completion and shipping process. This feature lacks in Printify, and also it is not optimized adequately for dispatching international orders.

Printful vs. Printify: Customer Support

Customer support is an integral part that finds its place in every eCommerce store. What if you or your customer faces any difficulty? Whom will you consult with? To eradicate this problem and help resolve your issue in no time, both these Print-on-demand solutions have highly effective support systems available on their sites.

Since customer service is exceptionally crucial and holds a high significance, Printful or Printify, whichever site you opt for, you will find an effective customer-friendly support option available there. In Printful, you will get access to their blog section wherein everything has been illustrated deeply, and the insights have been provided. This blog helps you understand how a print-on-demand business operates.

On the other hand, Printify has a help center that consists of innumerable articles that come in handy whenever you are stuck at any step, be it the payment, integration, troubleshooting, etc. The only drawback found in Printify is the lack of live support round the clock. 24/7 live support is present in Printful, and hence it performs well in terms of customer service.

However, there are mixed reactions based on the support available on both the Print-on-demand solutions.

Who is the winner? Printful vs. Printify

There is a tie between both services. They are both equally good and have excellent customer support available on their sites, such as blogs or a help center.

Printful vs. Printify: Product and Print quality

Not much information is available regarding the product and print quality of the items shipped by Printful or Printify. It is hard to find out which has a better print quality.

However, some data collected by the user’s response reveals that Printful improvises its collection of custom options that are more likely to succeed in the market. While on the other hand, Printify has a conventional array of custom options that have been present there for a long time.

When searched, it was found that Printful offers you more compelling designing options that boost your confidence in designing your merchandise using this site. The feedback regarding Printful was also positive, and it was ranked higher than Printify.

The main reason why Printify outperformed and ranked lower was the print quality. It has been reported that the colors fade over time, and the prints crack soon. This issue was not found in Printful, which was why it ranked higher.

Who is the Winner? Printful vs. Printify

Again! Printful emerges as the winner here. Since it has invested in its warehouses, machinery, and graphics, the product’s quality is eventually enhanced. With this sort of maintenance and setup, Printful is more worthy of investment if the print quality and products are concerned.

What to like about Printful?

• All the products available here are unique, and you will find plenty of them. It enables you to make your prints more alluring.
• The orders get fulfilled automatically as soon as they are received.
• It integrates with various marketplaces and eCommerce platforms and provides you with a broad range of integration options to choose from.
• The product and print quality are excellent and durable. Your customer will never go unsatisfied and will keep coming back to you.
• The customer base is massive, especially in the USA and Europe.

What not to like about Printful?

With constant upgrades in the customization options and graphics to meet the current demand and many other factors, the products of Printful are quite expensive.

To become a successful T-shirt merchant, you need to audit your buyers’ budget and then set your pricing accordingly so that they don’t refuse your products and refrain from buying them.

What to like about Printify?

• You get the freedom to choose your print providers and work with them.
• The pricing is flexible, and there is a suitable plan for everyone.
• You get access to more than 300 products to opt for the one that you want to sell.
• Printify’s products are relatively cheaper.

What not to like about Printify?

• The integration options are limited, which restricts your choice of integration.
• Printify offers you limited branding services.
• The print quality is inconsistent, which might upset your customers.
• The shipping time is more, and hence the shipping rates are high.

Printful vs. Printify vs. Print Aura

Print Aura is another print-on-demand platform that is not as effective as Printful or Printify and couldn’t make it in the race. The reason for being left behind is the inefficiency of meeting the merchants’ and customers’ expectations. The goals are not fulfilled, which leads to disappointment.

When compared based on the shipping time, Print Aura takes the lead to deliver the shipment within 3 to 5 business days. This period is less when Printify and Printful are considered.

Besides, this platform’s design tool is not up to the mark. The customization cannot be done appropriately when the mockup tools are used.

The efficiency of this platform is further lowered because of the delay in loading the page. Since every person now prefers a fast-loading page, this factor has pushed back Print Aura. Printful and Printify have overcome the fault in the optimization, and hence, they take the lead in this matter.

If you are a beginner and want to brush up your skills in designing and custom creation, print Aura is a better platform for it is cheaper, and even if you mess up, it would be covered up by the basic patterns.

Like Printful and Printify, which have an organized structure that enables the user to use Print-on-demand platforms efficiently, is lacking in Print Aura. You won’t find any navigation path and would fumble many times.

Finally, the precision that both Printify and Printful have to make your work stand out is nowhere to be seen in Print Aura. The basic patterns and the not-so-fancy graphics don’t elevate your creation; instead, they pull it down.

Printify vs. Printful: Final Verdict

This comparison made here between the two leading Print-on-demand service contenders will benefit you whether you are starting your Print-on-demand service or are launching your own customized T-shirt brand using such a platform.

For any merchandise brand, product quality is the most sought-after aspect. If the quality of the items that you are selling is not top-notch, your sales will face a downtrend and eventually collapse. To eliminate such issues from arising, you need to be one of the best Print-on-demand solutions providers or use such a platform that doesn’t compromise with the print quality and the products.

After referring to both these print providers’ pros and cons, we have concluded that Printful wins the battle in the Printful vs. Printify challenge. It is the dominant one in the Print on demand industry.

By the above arguments, you can notice that, unlike Printify, Printful has a quick fulfillment and shipping process and keeps you updated. It has a well-organized setup with highly efficient machines and warehouses that cater to all your needs.

You get various integration options by using Printful, which is another excellent factor that adds a star to it. The print quality is also fantastic and lasts long, whereas Printify has a low quality, which fades away with time. With Printful, you can assure quality consistency and faster shipments.

The consistency and quality, when kept aside, reveal the downsides of Printful. However, these pitfalls don’t overshadow the overall performance of Printful, and hence, it takes the lead from Printify.

But despite this lead, you shouldn’t overlook the pros of Printify. You should survey the market and opt for the Print-on-demand solution that meets your goals. After all, it is you who will be using it.