Last Updated on April 30, 2021 by Jay Clover
The Internet has opened countless business opportunities. A lot of people started seeing their dream come true thanks to the vast options of this technology. They started their own business, either as offering services to clients or starting an e-commerce business. And, e-commerce has really made a boom in the last decade and flourished, even more, this year due to the COVID-19 breakout. So, if having your own business has always been your dream, the time is now.
In fact, if you have always wanted to sell your own designs and show your creativity to the world, now it’s your chance. With Print-On-Demand tools like Printify and Printful, you can see all your scratched designs coming alive and worn/used by people around the globe. What makes these services amazing is that both of them take care of order fulfillment, printing, and shipping. You don’t have to worry about anything.
But which one to choose?
Although both tools have a great rating online, they differ one from the other in their features. So, let’s see what makes Printify stand out from the crowd and whether or not is better than Printful and how.
Printify Review
What Is Printify?
Printify is a free all-in-one solution for print-on-demand businesses. It allows you to print your designs on demand after someone has ordered them from your store, without worrying about the order fulfillment, packing, and shipping them to your customers.
This dropshipping provider is available in Shopify stores. It allows you to create your products and sell them in your stores. Also, you get access to top printing companies in Europe, China, Australia, and the U.S. once you import your products to your store, you can let the Printify team take care of the rest.
How Does Printify Work?
- Integrate it into your store – Open your Shopify App store, find Printify, and integrate it into your store.
- Open an account – Open an account by providing your personal and business data.
- Choose your products – Choose from the 250+ types of products offered by this tool. From flip-flops to shirts to phone cases, you can find lots of products you can design and sell in your shop.
- Design – Once you chose your products, you can start designing them. Printify offers you some great responsive design tools and a Mockup Generator to help you with designing. When you have created your designs, upload them, customize them if needed, and use the Mockup Generator to add them to your store.
- Choose your printing provider – Printify offers many top-class printing providers you can choose from. You can also check the quality of their products by requesting a product sample(s). When you find the one that suits you best, you can choose which “supplier” you will work with.
- Import the products into your store – Import the products you want to sell, write the product description on each, set the price, and you can start selling.
- Let Printify take care of the rest – When you get an order, you can celebrate as Printify will take care of all the processes that follow.
Features
- Custom Order Import – This feature allows you to send your orders to Printify easily. In fact, it pulls the orders from your store and allows you to fille them out.
- Order Routing – It’s the life-saving feature of Printify as it automatically routs your order(s) to another printing provider if your partner is currently unavailable.
- Replace Products and Print Providers – This feature gives you the freedom to update/replace the products you sell. You want to offer new products because some of the ones you already sell aren’t doing well. Or, maybe you want to update the color offerings of your existing products. Either way, with this option you can do that easily. You can also change your printing provider with another one if you think it’s right, no matter the reason.
- SOS Folder – This feature allows you to help yourself. How? When you have a problem with an order, you just need to click the “Submit Issue” link on each line of the product. This link is found in the Orders tab. When you submit an issue, the Printify support agents take a look at it and resolve it fast. No more waiting or calling the support or waiting in line because they
- Product Selective Publishing – Want to change something in your product but not the whole thing? Then this feature is the one for you. It allows you to change specific parts without changing everything.
- Product Migration Tool – As you may have guessed, this tool allows you to migrate your products from other print-on-demand platforms to your Shopify store. It also allows you to synchronize them with Printify so that you can enjoy all of its benefits for their future orders.
- Import’Ant extension – This is the Printify’s Google Chrome extension. It allows you to import orders from any e-commerce platform, like Amazon, or print-on-demand platform into your Printify store in a few clicks.
Printify vs Printful
Now that we looked at Printify we can compare it to Printful. Apart from their similar names, these two dropshipping print-on-demand tools share some of their features. Of course, they differ in some. So, let’s take a closer look at them.
Ease of Use
One of the features they share is that both of these tools are easy to use. They have similar minimalistic user-friendly interfaces and neatly organized layouts for easy navigation.
Also, both of them use a basic and simple setup procedure. Namely, you just need to open an account, integrate them to your online store, choose the products, customize them, and you are good to go.
Therefore, we can say that both, Printify and Printful, are very convenient and simple. That makes them a perfect choice for beginners in this business.
Integration
It’s great that both of these tools are easy to use. But, which e-commerce/dropshipping platforms you can use them with?
Well, you can integrate Printify with Shopify, WooCommerce stores, Etsy, eBay, PrestaShop, BigCommerce, Wix Stores, and Printify API.
On the other hand, Printful works with Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Ecwid, Weebly, BigCommerce, Inktale, Tictail, Bigcartel, Shipstation, Storenvy, and Gumroad.
As you can see, both tools offer a lot of integration options, thus providing you with great freedom to choose which one you choose based on your preferences. Hence, the choice is yours.
Order Fulfillment
Printify use third-party suppliers to fulfill your orders. Therefore, they have fulfillment centers in multiple locations across the globe, including in the U.S, China, Australia, and Europe. Hence, your products will be shipped out of the location that is closest to the customer.
On the other hand, Printful do everything in-house, so they don’t have many fulfillment centers. They have a few in the U.S., Mexico, and Latvia. While they may be better for local (U.S) customers as they process everything on their own, Printify are a better choice for international customers. But, it all depends on your target audience and the market where you operate.
Products and Suppliers
In terms of the products, both tools offer a wide variety of products. Hence, you can choose between many different types of items. This gives you the freedom to sell products you really like.
When it comes to their suppliers, these tools differ. Namely, Printify use third-party suppliers to fulfill your orders. On the other hand, Printful do all the things themselves. This gives a bit of advantage to Printify referring to product options and flexibility.
Lead Time
This is the time between the day when your customer has made an order and the day when the order is shipped. With so many suppliers, Printify lead times can vary between two days and a week. Although it’s not much, it can cause some issues and delays in shipping. On the other hand, since Printify do all the work, they ship all their orders in three days after being placed. Although they are not as fast as some of the Printify’s suppliers, they offer consistency in their shipping. Plus, this allows you to know when they’ve shipped your order(s) exactly so that you can tell your customers if asked.
Does Printify Ship for You?
As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Printify manages the order fulfillment, packing, and shipping. However, this doesn’t mean they ship out the products to your customers. Instead, their printing providers do the shipping, each using different shipping carriers. In comparison, Printful do the shipping on their own as they don’t use third-party suppliers.
How Much Does Printify Charge for Shipping?
The shipping cost depends on how you set it. Is it going to be on a weight base or flat rate? Or, you will use express shipping? The cost also depends on the shipping carrier chosen as each offers different shipping rates. You can also check the rates for each carrier. But, the average shipping cost of Printify is between $8 and $15.
Printify Shipping Times
Printify ship out the order between 2 and 8 days after it’s been placed. However, their shipping times vary depending on the customer’s location. On average, it takes:
- 5-7 days within the U.S.
- 10-15 days to Canada
- 10-30 days internationally
Printify Pricing
Printify offers three pricing plans:
- FREE – $0/month.
- Premium – $29./month.
- Enterprise – custom pricing.
As you can see Printify offers a free plan for all those who are just starting out and don’t have a big budget. Hence, instead of offering a limited free trial, they allow you to use it for free as long as it suits you.
In comparison, Printful doesn’t have a monthly plan. Instead, it charges you per each order. Therefore, you get access to all their features and pay just when someone places an order. The prices vary depending on the label:
- Outside label – $2.49/label
- Long sleeve print – $5.95/sleeve
- Short sleeve print- $2.49/sleeve
- Embroidered logo- $2.95 per additional placement.