Detailed Full Review of Printify: All you need to know (2024)

A few years ago, if you wanted to start your own T-shirt business, you had to design a model, find a printer, then order hundreds of T-shirts and hope they sold. If they weren't liked by your customers, you'd end up with useless inventory and lost revenue.

That is no longer the case today. Now anyone who has a design can start a business using the print-on-demand model. How?

Print on demand services like Printify make it easy for designers and artists to create and sell products. And if you're not good at the arts, you can hire graphic designers to produce images for you. Then, you choose the items you want to create and sell.

There is no minimum order and there is no risk since the products are not printed until they are purchased. You can create custom products to list in your e-commerce store and then, every time a customer places an order from you, the order is placed at the printer.

So how do you choose which print-on-demand service you want to work with? Start by doing extensive research. Our Printify review covers everything you need to know.

What is Printify?

Printify is a leading print-on-demand company. With this platform, you can create and sell a variety of personalized products. Printify prints your items one at a time, only when a customer places an order.

With a Printify account, you're connected to over 60 print providers and third party providers around the world. The platform operates on a dropshipping model, so you don't have to worry about managing orders. All you need to do is focus on creating products and selling them.

How does Printify work?

Printify is a print-on-demand platform that offers over 600 products from 67 print providers. Many of these print-on-demand T-shirt companies deliver international orders, making them a great option for businesses outside of the United States.

After registering and creating your store (see below), you choose the products you want to sell. Many products have multiple suppliers, so you can choose the one that works best for you.

When choosing the provider, consider things like:

• Location
• Turnaround time
• Customization and color restrictions
• Print quality (always order samples first - we'll talk about that later too).
• Ratings from other Printify users

You can use their design tool to create a mockup of the products you want to reference in your store.

Connect your Printify account to your store. Printify integrates with numerous e-commerce platforms and marketplaces like Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon. You can also use Printify without an online store.

Each time a customer places an order in your store, the print provider receives the order. You pay the provider. It prints the products and takes care of the order fulfillment process with drop shipping. You keep the benefit and then you do it again.

Print technologies

Printify offers a variety of printing technologies, depending on the print provider and the product you choose.

Options include:

• Direct to Garment (DTG) : The ink is sprayed onto the fabric. The design appears because the ink penetrates the fibers. It is the same concept as printing on paper, but with clothing products. Printing on demand is easy because it doesn't require complex setup. It is an ecological alternative to screen printing, which can lead to overproduction and textile waste.
• Full surface printing (sublimation) : With this method, the graphics are printed on special paper and then the image is transferred to the shirt by heat. The ink heats up until it disintegrates in the fabric. Sublimation costs more than other printing techniques, but the final product doesn't crack or flake over time. It lasts longer than products that use other printing methods. Sublimation can be used with polyester materials. It can also be used with materials that have a specialized polymer coating, including cups, coasters, mouse pads, etc. Since it uses CMYK printing, there is no way to create the color white. If your design only consists of white, you cannot use this printing method.
• Digital printing with professional quality inks : Digital printing traces images by pixel and applies the corresponding small amounts of ink. This printing method is best for non-apparel products, such as paper.
• Embroidery : Some products, like jackets, hats, and bags, can be embroidered instead of being printed directly onto the garment or by sublimation. The patterns should be specific to embroidery, which means you can only use 16 thread colors. Printify offers a design guide specific to embroidery to help you.

Print suppliers

This is not an exhaustive list of businesses that offer services.

You can consult the full list here.

• AVMM
• Air waves
• Arts Add
• Bizarre styles
• Tees Big Oven
• Colorway
• Ink stain
• Monster Digital
• Custom luggage
• OPT OnDemand

The suppliers are located in the United States, United Kingdom, United Kingdom, Latvia, China, and other countries.

Some products allow you to choose from several print providers. Other products only have one.

What about print quality?

Print quality is subjective - it depends on a lot of factors, such as

• The printing technology used
• The source product (the type of product influences the printing technologies you can use)
• Image quality - high resolution images are a must.

How to use Printify

To get started, create your free account.

After registering, design your products with the Mockup tool. To do this, simply download graphics and position them on the product. Choose the base color of the product, and you're good to go.

Request samples from different print providers so you can compare print quality. This is a quality check, which allows you to know what products your customers are receiving. This is a crucial step in ensuring customer satisfaction.

Once you've found the print vendor you want to use, put the product up for sale and start promoting it.

Products you can sell with Printify

Printify offers a wide variety of apparel and non-apparel products. Your custom branding options are virtually unlimited. You can sell:

• T-shirts, long sleeve shirts and hoodies
• Tank tops, sweatshirts, sportswear
• Trousers, skirts and dresses
• Swimsuits
• Socks and shoes including sneakers and boots
• Face masks
• Hats
• Scarves
• Aprons and napkins
• Totes and backpacks
• Baby accessories
• Phone cases
• Mouse pad
• Buttons
• AirPods cases
• Playing cards and puzzles
• Keychains and jewelry boxes
• Phone grips
• Yoga mat
• Can cooler sleeves
• Bag tags
• Watch straps
• Bluetooth speakers
• Block holders
• Wireless chargers
• Cups, bottles and cups
• Toile
• Posters
• Postcards
• Ornaments
• Notebooks and journals
• Magnets and stickers
• Blankets, pillows and pillowcases
• Towels, shower curtains and bath mats
• Table runners
• Christmas skirts and stockings
• And more...

A note on the quality of the products

Printify does not determine product quality. It depends on the quality of the brand you use for your designs. The advantage is that with the variety available, you can choose until you find the one you like the most.

For T-shirts, Bella+Canvas 3001 is a safe bet. It's not as expensive as Next Level 6010 or Stanley Stella, but it's still a quality product. Even after several washes, it keeps its shape and does not lose its fibers like some other brands.

Rates

You can choose from three printify pricing plans. These plans are in addition to the per-item prices paid on each order. The unit price varies depending on the product. This price includes printing costs.

For example:

• A face mask costs between $4.14 and $8.28, depending on the type and vendor.
• T-shirts cost between $6.55 and $18.28, depending on the type and vendor.
• Skirts and dresses range from $15.06 to $24.69.

You control the retail price and set your profit margins. If you need more than what the free plan offers, Printify also offers a premium plan and an enterprise plan.

• Free plan - Free forever: With this plan, you can have up to five stores per account, and an unlimited number of product designs. It is the best option for people who are just starting out. You won't have a subscription fee in addition to the per-item fee.
• Premium plan - $29/month or $24.99/month with annual billing: Under this plan, you can open up to 10 stores per account, with unlimited product designs. You can also get up to 20% off all products. This formula is ideal for retailers who are seeing an increase in sales volume.
• Enterprise Premium Plan - Printify's custom pricing: With this plan, your account can have an unlimited number of stores and product designs. You'll also get a discount of up to 20% on all products. The price of the business plan depends on several factors, including your order volume. You should contact Printify to find out more about their business plan. An advantage of this plan? You can get early access to new features before they go live for all Printify retailers.

Features

Printify offers plenty of features, even for users on the free plan.

Use without an online store

You can use Printify without connecting it to an online store. If you don't link your store, you'll need to manually submit customer orders through your Printify dashboard.

Since Printify doesn't offer an accessible storefront for your customers, most people choose to integrate Printify into their storefront. Connecting Printify to an online store automates all ordering operations.

Design tool and model generator

You don't have to be a graphic designer or tech magician to create products with Printify.

With the model generator, you can easily download images of your creations.

You can drag and drop multiple image files onto the same product if needed.

You can also choose the base color of the product. For example, you can create black T-shirts, white T-shirts, or another color - depending on what the supplier has made available.

Not all suppliers offer the same product colors.

One of the benefits of the design tool is that it alerts you if you stretch your chart too much. An indicator is available to help you see if you are using a high, medium, or low resolution image.

Order delivery

If your print supplier is not available for any reason, the order routing function comes into play. It will automatically send your order to another supplier in the network. It works in the following situations:

• The product you ordered is currently out of stock at the supplier you have chosen.
• The supplier you have chosen no longer offers the product you ordered.
• The print supplier has reached its daily order capacity.
• The print provider has been temporarily closed.

Activate the setting in your account, and order routing becomes automatic.

Follow these steps:

• Navigate to Manage My Stores.
• Choose the store you want to enable the setting for. Click on the Settings icon.
• Click on Preferences. From there, find Automated Order Routing.
• Click Replace Commands Automatically and save the new settings.

Custom order import tool

With Printify's order import tool, you can manually import orders from your store into Printify, even if those orders don't have linked Printify products. You can find these commands in the Other Commands tab.

This feature is useful for retailers who:

• Migrate to Printify from another print-on-demand platform
• Suggest product bundles
• Offer personalized products

If an associated Printify SKU has been changed manually, the system will not recognize it. It will appear here as well.

To use the custom import tool:

Go to the Other Orders tab. You'll see any orders you've received that aren't linked to a Printify product. Select the order (s) you want to import.

From there, link the product you ordered to a Printify product. Click on Select a product. Then, go to the Catalog tab to choose the product, print vendor, and other details. You also have the option of linking the product to another product that you have already created in My Products.

Product migration tool

If you connect Printify to a Shopify store, you can use a product migration tool.

With this tool, you can move your existing Shopify products to Printify. So you won't lose any of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

To use this tool:

Visit the External Products tab in the My Store section. Select the product you want to fill and click Migrate Product.

You can either stay in the My Products tab to choose a product you've already created to connect it to your chosen Shopify product. You will only be able to see unpublished products.

You can also go to the Catalog tab to create a new product that closely matches your Shopify listing.

After selecting or creating the project, you can match the Shopify variants to the Printify variants. Any listing that does not have a Printify SKU assigned is automatically removed.

Then, click Migrate Product and follow the instructions.

Shipping calculator

A shipping calculator is also available for Shopify users. It allows you to calculate shipping costs. It will make sure to automatically add the correct flat rate shipping rate to your customer's cart.

To set up the shipping calculator, you need to have an advanced Shopify plan, an annual Shopify payment plan, or shipping calculated by carrier. The shipping function calculated by the carrier costs an additional $20 per month. You need to request it directly from Shopify Support.

To activate this function:

Visit your store settings. Click on Shipping Calculator. Check the box next to “Enable Printify shipping calculation for Shopify checkout.”

Integrations

With Printify, it's easy to integrate the main e-commerce platforms and market places. Connecting your account to these tools automates the order processing process.

1. Shopify

Integrate Printify with Shopify in a few clicks, by adding the Printify app to your Shopify store. Importing your products and orders is very easy. As soon as an order is placed in your Shopify store, it is automatically sent to Printify for processing.

2. BigCommerce

Add the Printify app to your store BigCommerce in a few clicks as well. Installation only takes a few minutes. Import products and orders. As soon as someone places an order on your BigCommerce site, everything is transferred directly to Printify for order processing and fulfillment.

3. Woocommerce

With woocommerce, all you need to do is connect your Printify store to your account. In a few clicks, your products and orders are imported. Each time someone places an order on your site, the order is automatically transferred to Printify.

4. Wix

Wix integrates with Printify to automate your entire order process. Connect your Printify and Wix accounts and let technology take care of the rest.

As an added bonus, it also integrates with online marketplaces.

5. Etsy

Running your online empire from Etsy? You no longer have to worry about inventory management thanks to the Printify integration. Connect your store directly from the Printify dashboard.

6. eBay

You want to be able to sell your products on your website and on ebay also?

No problem. Connect your store directly from the Printify dashboard. For now, the eBay integration is only available in the United States.

If you want access to another integration, you can hire a developer to create a custom API integration. In the meantime, you can submit orders manually via the Printify dashboard, or use the CSV import tool to import orders in batches.

How do you integrate Printify into your e-commerce platform?

During the account creation process, you will have the option to connect your store to Printify. Simply enter your store URL on the Printify website.

You can also connect to your store and download the Printify app from there.

You'll need to connect your Printify account to your debit or credit card to automate payments when someone places an order.

Printify shipping time

With Printify, you can expect orders to ship within 2 to 7 business days. There are several factors that influence your shipping time, such as:

• Where is the printer
• Where is the product shipped
• The maritime carrier used

Printify ships products directly from your chosen supplier. If you are in the United States, it makes sense to order products from suppliers based in that country. If you are elsewhere, it is a good idea to use the suppliers closest to your customers.

You can get a better idea of what shipping costs you can expect hither. If you want to offer free delivery to your customers, you'll still need to cover the shipping costs with the seller.

Printify Shipping Options

Shipping methods depend on the seller you order your products from. You have no control over which shipping company the seller chooses. The options vary depending on where the seller is located. Printify announces that it is working with:

• USPS
• FedEx
• UPS
• DHL
• DPD
• Royal Mail
• Canada Post
• Asendia
• OSM Worldwide
• Springs Global Delivery Solutions
• Australian Post

To find out which shipping companies your supplier uses, contact your supplier directly.

All sales channels offer flat rate shipping as a standard shipping option. Express shipping is sometimes available:

• For Shopify stores, if you use the Printify shipping calculator
• For WooCommerce stores
• For manual orders that you submit through your Printify account.

Express shipping is only available if the chosen printer offers it.

If you use a different sales channel, your existing orders that were imported from that sales channel can be upgraded at an additional cost, if offered by the print provider.

To request a shipping upgrade, click the order you want to upgrade, then click the “Shipping Upgrade” button. The support team will contact you with more information.

Customer Support

What do you think of Printify's customer service?

1. For salespeople

Printify is relatively easy to reach if you have problems with running your store or creating products. You can use the email address (merchantsupport@printify.com) to get in touch, or you can fill out the form to ask your question.

You can also turn to live chat or social media for help. If that's not your cup of tea, a help center is available. The latter is full of information that will help you solve your problems by yourself.

At this time, Printify does not offer telephone support.

2. For consumers

Printify does not offer refunds if the customer orders the wrong size or color, or if they simply decide they don't like the product. In contrast, Printify offers a refund if the problem is caused by a manufacturer error.

You can set up a personalized return policy for your store. If refunds and exchanges are an important part of your customer support philosophy, you can add a custom return address that customers can use.

Printify doesn't handle customer support for you. You are responsible for your own customer service. Your customers won't even know that you used Printify instead of an internal team.

Alternatives

Printify isn't the only game in town, but it's one of the most popular. Not sure which platform to use for your business? Take a look at these alternatives.

1. Printful

Printful is Printify's main competitor. They offer a similar product line and customization options. When it comes to comparing printify and printful, the main differences between the two are as follows:

• Printiful's profit margin is lower.
• Printful offers design services, store set-up, and more.
• Printiful offers custom marking and warehousing services.

For this reason, Printful is generally the best option for businesses that want to offer a complete brand experience with custom packaging and complements. It is also a good option for larger businesses that need to keep a certain amount of inventory.

2. Gelato

Gelato is a platform similar to Printful and Printify. The main difference is that there are fewer products to choose from. Unlike other platforms, it integrates with Canva, so you can easily create your own designs and send them directly to create products. That said, the sign-up process is quite lengthy. Depending on the products you want to sell, this is not necessarily the best option.

3. GearLaunch

GearLaunch is a POD service that works standalone or with Shopify. If you're using a platform other than Shopify, this might not be the right option for you. The products are less varied, but the prices are similar. A major difference is that your profit is based on the volume of your sales. If your store has a low sales volume, you may be able to make more money with another POD company.

Is Printify right for your POD business?

The print-on-demand model isn't for everyone. But if you've done some market research on print-on-demand and found that there's room for you, Printify could be an easy way for you to manage your custom print business. That said, it's not the only solution in town, and you might want to explore other options, like Printful. (We're working on a comprehensive review, and will update this content when it's ready.)

Have you used Printify before? Do you want to share your experience with us?

FAQs

What is the best choice? Printify or Printful?

The answer to that question really depends on what you're looking for in a supplier. Printful offers multiple fulfillment and print sites. Printful also offers warehousing, store creation, and store installation services. If you need one of these services, Printful might be the best option. If not, Printify could be the answer.

You can read the Detailed comparison of Printify vs Printul here.

Can you really make money with Printify?

Yes, you can really make money with Printify. It all depends on how you market your e-commerce business. You only have to pay the royalty to Printify, and all you earn on top of that is a profit. You pass on your shipping costs to the customer.

If you pay 12 dollars for a shirt and your customers are willing to pay 30 dollars, you can make a profit margin of more than 100% on each shirt sold. It's all about volume and variety of products.

Final Verdict

Printify is incredibly easy to set up. It offers you a quick way to start a business selling personalized prints on various products. Overall, the products are more affordable in terms of price and shipping. Their global coverage is wider than that of Printful.

Your product options allow you to easily create niche stores. And because you can have multiple stores on a single account, you can easily launch multiple brands. For example, you can start a clothing store and a homeware/home decor store.

Printify automates the entire process and takes care of order management for you. They take care of everything except marketing and promotion.

You are never tied to a specific print vendor. If you decide that their quality has changed, you are always free to work with another supplier.

Some users report that the quality of DTG needs to be improved. This may be a vendor-specific problem. That's why it's so important to order samples in advance.

Other users say that some product providers are not as available as the Printy website suggests. The processing time that Printy suppliers show is not necessarily reliable. The delivery time shown is an average of all orders over 30 days.

In our experience, the orders we placed did not spend more than two days in production. We received the items well in advance of the announced seven business day deadline.