Printful vs Printify: A Comparison of Top-Rated Print-On-Demand Companies

Print-on-demand companies are taking the eCommerce industry by storm. They let entrepreneurs turn their designs into tangible products like shirts, mugs, caps, and hoodies. Just send your designs—they’ll take care of the printing process. What’s more is that they’ll help with other relevant tasks, from order management to fulfillment. Despite the multiple POD service providers available, two companies currently dominate the market: Printful and Printify. At a glance, they’ll both make great partners. Their business models, service fees, and production quality are arguably identical. However, there are some nuances. And it’s these minute differences that’ll dictate your business’s long-term performance and profitability. Here’s our guide about Printful vs Printify, and things you should know when deciding between Printful and Printify.

Comparing Printful and Printify Based on 8 Crucial Factors

When comparing Printful and Printify, it’s fallacious to say one’s definitively better than the other. Their business models come with varying features. To help you assess their strengths and weaknesses, let’s compare them based on these X crucial factors.

1. Business Model

The biggest difference between the business models of Printify and Printful is their fulfillment process. Both companies serve as one-stop shops for your POD needs. However, Printful has in-house teams that handle the entire process, from design printing to shipping, while Printify outsources these roles. You can actually choose between Printify’s partners when placing orders.

An in-house team lets Printful control its warehouses and perform stricter QA checks on orders. You’ll notice consistent printing quality across all batches. Meanwhile, Printify’s business model lets shop owners customize their payment and fulfillment processes—the tradeoff is that printing quality might vary per batch.

2. Printing and Subscription Fees

Printful and Printify follow a similar pricing model. Basically, users can print products individually, order batches en masse, or subscribe to monthly plans for exclusive benefits. You’re free to customize these three tiers, including Canvas Prints.

Printify offers cheaper deals. Not only are their products more affordable, but their membership fees and shipping rates are relatively lower. You’ll also maximize the savings once you become a member. 

Alternatively, Printful’s products are a bit pricier. Their items cost around $1 to $2 more per piece, which might not seem much at first, but they’ll add up to thousands of dollars in lost profits if left unaddressed.

Note: Try to diversify your product range. As a startup, you don’t have a fixed, definitive target market yet—your ideal buyer persona might still change. You’d do well to accommodate a broader range of consumers. Take Jeep as an example. It’s known as a high-end brand with expensive vehicles, but it taps into the middle-class market with lower-priced models like the Patriot. Adopt a similar approach when crafting your product line.

3. Ongoing Support

Printful provides customer support via live chat and email. It answers basic queries in minutes, but for more complex matters, you’ll have to email your request. Most agents typically respond to users within 24 hours.

Printify provides customer support via email. While the site doesn’t have a live chat feature like Printful, you’ll still get an initial response within a few hours. Of course, expect follow-ups on complicated issues to take more time.

Likewise, both sites have a robust help center. You’ll find hundreds of articles on marketing tactics, eCommerce, brand awareness, and graphic designing, among other areas of running an online business. 

4. Shipping Times

Since Printful runs its own fulfillment centers, it can offer faster printing and shipping times than its competitors. It needs 1 to 3 days for fulfillment and 2 to 10 days for shipping—customers could get their orders within 3 to 10 days. The only downside is its shipping costs are above industry standards.

Printify offers better shipping rates. However, since it only connects you to third-party printing and fulfillment service providers, it can’t guarantee fast, consistent shipping times. Fulfillment takes 2 to 5 days, while shipping takes 4 to 12 days. Going by these numbers, it would take 6 to 17 days for customers to receive their orders.

Puneet Gogia, the co-founder at Desk Mojo, reminds entrepreneurs that buyers despise expensive, lengthy shipping times. He says, “A poor shipping process is one of the top causes of cart abandonment online. Even if your prospect is already toward the end of the sales funnel, they could still drop their orders if product shipping is too expensive or long. You need to strike a balance between affordable yet speedy logistics.” 

5. Order Customization

As POD service providers, both Printify and Printful will print your preferred designs on your items and packaging. However, they have slightly different customization guidelines. Printify generally offers the standard inside and outside labels, plus branding inserts for the product packaging. It can execute most basic designs.

But if you need more leeway with your customization, you should probably consider Printful. It accommodates a broader range of patterns, color themes, logo styles, and design placements than other POD companies. You can also overhaul the way your product packaging looks. To explore more options, you can visit Imprint. They offer a broad range of customizable goods which opens doors for vast branding opportunities

Design Generation

Printful and Printify carry similar design tools. They have product mockup generators, logo editors, text tools, clipart libraries, and design sharing within groups. You can literally conceptualize and create drafts on these platforms. 

One difference, however, is that Printful offers design services. Using AI-powered graphics editors to put together layouts is one thing, but creating aesthetically pleasing, trendy styles that shoppers would buy is another. It’s best to consult professionals if you have no experience with fashion design.

Tip: You can hire third-party designers if you prefer Printify over Printful but want professional design services.

6. Production Quality

As we mentioned, Printify’s production quality might vary per batch since it outsources orders to third-party printing and fulfillment service providers. Printful has more control over its production. But this isn’t to say you should skip Printify altogether—you can check your inventory’s quality yourself.

Let’s say you’re selling custom shirts. You could invest in samples from different Printify fulfillment centers near your target locations, test them yourself, and then read relevant reviews about their quality consistency. The extra work might be worth it if you create a more lucrative model.

Jesse Hanson, the content manager at Online Solitaire & World of Card Games, encourages shop owners to do routine sample checks. He says, “Regardless of whether you opt for Printful or Printify, you should still check your inventory quality from time to time. Yes, dropshipping is convenient. But if you keep getting and distributing defective units in your batches, you’ll have trouble establishing a positive reputation.”

7. System Integration

Printify offers decent eCommerce system integration. You can connect it to the following online platforms:

• Bigcommerce
• PrestaShop
• Shopify
• Squarespace
• Walmart
• Wix
• WooCommerce

While it doesn’t offer as many opportunities as its competitors, online store startups and SMBs can already do a lot with these sites. After all, most brands generate much of their sales from just one or two platforms.

If you need a broader range of systems, you can consider Printful. It accommodates integration with the following systems:

• 3dcart
• Big Cartel
• BigCommerce, Square
• Ecwid, Weebly
• Gumroad
• Launch Cart
• Magento
• Nuvemshop
• Prestashop
• Shift4Shop
• Shopify
• Webflow
• Wix, Squarespace
• WooCommerce

8. Product Diversity

Printful and Printify carry a broad range of products. Their catalogs feature shirts, hoodies, pants, caps, and mugs, among other items. Just check what you need. Whether you’re packaging company swag or selling custom band shirts, you’ll likely find various options on both platforms.

That said, Printful does offer more diversity. Take shirts as an example. You’ll find a handful of variations on Printify, like tank tops and cotton shirts, but on Printful, you can choose your preferred material, style, texture, and even brand.

How To Choose a Print-On-Demand Partner

Here are some extra tips to help you choose the best POD partner if you’re still on the fence:

Compare Your Total Expenses With Different Pricing Models

Don’t blindly go for the cheapest options. Look for the products you need on Printful and Printify, compute your total order values on both sites, and then compare your estimated profit margins. Make sure you account for product quality, of course. Industry-low rates will grab your prospects’ attention, but high-quality goods will turn them into loyal patrons.

Set up Initial Appointments With Your Prospects

Contact both Printify and Printful. Set up an appointment with their customer service team so that you can ask any specific questions you have. Online research will only tell you so much. It’s best to acquire first-hand information from the source—you’ll make educated, informed business decisions that way.

Research the Products You Need

Look for products that complement your business. Let’s say you sell Rolex watches. Your ideal buyer persona is likely a working adult who belongs to the upper-middle class income bracket; think of the items they’ll like. For instance, tank tops with the Rolex logo might look cheap. But they might find baseball caps, mugs, and notebooks with Rolex watch designs appealing.

Show Your Design to Your Audience

Publish teasers of your proposed custom items. Upload them on your social media channels and ask for input from your loyal audience. Remember: you need POD items that they’ll like. Ordering high-quality custom goods that no one wants, even as a freebie, will only set back your business.

Read up on Customer Reviews

This guide should merely serve as a starting point when researching Printful vs Printify. Ensure you read other relevant reviews, too. Go through their social media platforms and see what people say about their printing quality, customer support, and fees. See if they have many long-term partners.

Printful vs Printify: Which Should You Choose?

There’s no one-size-fits-all POD solution. As this Printful vs Printify comparison guide explains, Printful and Printify offer varying benefits—you must determine which option best suits your business needs. For instance, entrepreneurs who’re fine spending on robust integration systems and top-quality printing might prefer Printful. Meanwhile, those who need cost-efficient printing en masse might lean toward Printify.

That said, running an eCommerce brand goes beyond POD systems. Finding the perfect partner won’t mean much unless your shop attracts and converts qualified prospects. Make sure you spend as much effort on traffic generation. You can also consult professional agencies like Intercool Studio if you have little to no experience with brand marketing.