When you might need print-on-demand? If you are an owner of a small company or business, you need to have custom business-attribute items for more hype – be it T-shirts with your logo or fridge magnets.
Or, you may want to surprise your lover/friend/relative by capturing your joint photo on a cup or something. You can also be a designer who wants to promote your own art among entrepreneurs and, for this purpose, post your creations for sale online.
With all these purposes, print-on-demand (PoD) res come in more than handy. There are websites where you can conveniently order regular retail or wholesale custom prints.
Unlike drop-shipping providers, print-on-demand companies use ideas from other designers to produce particular products. I.e., PoD businesses don’t really offer anything of their own production.
Let’s take a look at the best sites in this design niche in our opinion.
Briefly reviewed the following sites, we also try to make an objective comparison to help you find the best option for your particular case.
Let’s start going through some of the best print-on-demand sites with USA-based Printful. There has been operating since 2013 and is now one of the most mature market players.
This site is somewhat different from the rest of the competitors when it comes to the best print-on-demand services with its commercial model. Client designers don’t exhibit their products here, using third-party eCommerce sites for these purposes (based on Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, or BigCommerce).
Instead, upon getting an order, a designer can simply turn to Printful’s printing services. Thus, the product is manufactured and delivered to the end customer. Printful can do printing on clothes, posters, bags, cups, and other small accessories.
In order to use Printful’s services, you will need to connect it to the website where you sell your art. After you receive an order, it will automatically be redirected to Printful’s production facility where, after production, it is packaged and sent to the customer with a tracking code. The site handles retail orders using popular postal services such as FedEx, DHL, USPS, and others.
Lastly, Printful also has a dedicated application, which is much more convenient for mobile users.
With manufacturing facilities in Germany, China, USA, Australia, and the UK, this site allows you to easily integrate custom printing services with your eCommerce solution. The service has been operating since 2015 and was initially focused on the B2B format, additionally providing the ability to deliver and store goods.
Designers working with Printify pay a flat rate for the integration and can therefore clearly calculate their income level on their Etsy- or WooCommerce-powered eCommerce site. Today, the service boasts more than 100 thousand active users.
The greatest thing about this one is the wide range of possibilities for choosing items on which photo printing will take place – from clothes to large-sized decorative elements. Alternatively, you can order a sample of the product to make sure it looks exactly as you expect.
Printify plans start at $0 per month (for aspiring entrepreneurs). This is followed by the premium version at $29 per month. And then, there is a custom tariff for entrepreneurs whose online store processes more than 10,000 orders every day.
Yet another popular service among the top print-on-demand sites. Despite the fact that prices here are much higher than what many of its competitors have to offer, it boasts a number of features not provided by every other service.
Firstly, there is an ability to attach your own label to clothing. Secondly, the site offers a non-standard range of products (of course, in addition to T-shirts), which significantly expands the possibilities for creating something truly creative.
As for tariffs, the site is absolutely free for novice designers. A Super Member plan costs $11.99 per month (per brand) plus a 5% discount on products that will be printed. Finally, Hero Member users must pay $19.99 per brand each month, but still receive a whopping 10% discount on print items.
Zazzle USP is another great service for creating exclusive products. There are nearly 1,500 items for customization here, including cups, bottles, clothing and interior items, notebooks, etc. Zazzle can boast almost the highest traffic among many of its competitors.
As part of this service, you can choose one of three roles: Designer (you just create art), Creator (you create your own products completely), or Partner (you get a percentage of sales on this platform, regardless of whether your or someone else’s product was sold).
The great news for sellers here is that you can set your own price for an item within the Zazzle marketplace and use built-in tools to promote them. There is also impeccable customer support always waiting to help you out via chat, email, or phone.
This is arguably the cheapest PoD solution for existing Shopify customers, boasting 24/7 customer support, a wide product catalog (over 500), and unrivaled print quality (HD). The only nuance noted by users of this platform is delivery, which can be quite time-consuming outside the United States (from 4 to 15 days).
The service also offers additional services, such as custom embroidery, mail server integration, connecting Upsells strategies, assigning coupons, as well as testing several design options to increase sales. CustomCat also integrates with Paypal, providing instant credits upon purchase.
CustomCat offers a free plan that allows you to pay only for the products you sell that will be custom printed or embroidered. You can also connect a paid account for $30 per month. This gives you an additional discount on customization items.
Lastly, a few words about shipping: it is $3.99 for the first item and $1.5 for each additional item in the cart. For international shipping, your customers will pay $7.95 for the first item and an additional $5.95 for each new item in their cart.
Redbubble is one of the best PoD companies with a wide range of light industry products and PayPal support. You don’t need to spend a dime in order to become a user of this site.
The site has an excellent interface that is quite intuitive even to beginners (the only thing is that it may be difficult to upload new designs). The first-class delivery is also pleasing – RedBubble only offers services from trusted suppliers.
Surely, you will never experience problems with customer support here. Any question you have is guaranteed to be answered within 4 hours at the most – via online chat, email, Twitter, and other instant messengers. You can also figure out the functionality of the store yourself, using the built-in knowledge base.
Moving on with our print-on-demand comparison, here’s Society6.
Society6 is considered a perfect website for art lovers. It is an international PoD service, which, in addition to traditional photo printing, also provides painting reproduction services. That is, you can easily order a painting on canvas here and receive it in less than a month.
If you are an amateur artist and create art from time to time, you will hardly be able to earn much here. If you upload your work regularly, however, you may earn a couple of hundred dollars a month. The biggest workaholics in the visual arts manage to earn over $1,000 a month here.
Such humble rates are due to really high competition. In order to break into the top orders and to make money on a regular basis, you will need to offer potential customers something really extraordinary.
This is yet another top-rated PoD service that integrates with eCommerce solutions based on Shopify. This service assigns a base price for its product unit and at the same time you indicate a margin for retail based on your particular design.
For clothing, this service uses inkjet printing – Direct To Garment. However, the list of goods here is not limited to clothing alone: the number of categories of goods here is close to 1,500. You can order accessories, dishes, household goods, stationery, wall art, kitchen decor, items for pets, and much, much more.
As for the price range, you get some of the lowest rates among the rest of print-on-demand publishers. Together with a 5-buck delivery and a 100% markup, the cost of a women’s T-shirt (retail) here will amount to $27 for the end customer.
Not least important – the delivery. Orders are dispatched every 24 hours and delivery time is 3-6 days (during the holiday period – 9-12 days). International orders usually take at least three weeks to arrive.
This is THE place for clothing photo printing services. Witness a real paradise for all art buffs and eager creators.
You can get authentic digital paintings as well as photographs and many other design images printed on just about anything: wall art accessories, home decor, portable appliances, and even beach gear.
You can set prices for your products individually and even establish a license for certain types of art. Overall, this is a great platform for fans of Pinterest images.
Last but not least among the best print-on-demand sites. TeeSpring is somewhat similar to Zazzle. Customers have two options: either choose a design from those offered or order something authentic, which will be created for you from scratch. The range of products for photo printing includes clothes, home decor items, dishes, and all kinds of memorabilia.
The only nuance is – there are certain restrictions on the minimum order. As for designers, certain requirements are also imposed in order for them to be able to promote their art through the platform.
You can assign your own rates to all your products. If you wish, you can also take training at the TeeSpring online school to learn how to promote your art with maximum efficiency, with pension and all the underlying benefits.
This section is more useful to designers than to potential clients. In order to choose the best company that provides print-on-demand services, you need to pay attention to the following key factors:
How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business
As you can see, there are quite a lot of res offered by print-on-demand fulfillment companies. You can also create your own eCommerce solution where you sell custom clothing and accessories. Contact us.
We have seasoned specialists to help you fulfill any demands and handle any underlying processes with Shopify and many other platforms.
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