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Top 11 Printful alternatives to diversify your POD options

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Whether you are a small business owner or an experienced marketer, you certainly will find dropshipping on your radar. This service enables you to obtain the branded products you need without pouring your cash out on processing or inventory. This trendy form of e-commerce is a win-win situation for you as a drop-shipper and your suppliers after all.

Of all the dropshipping services, the print-on-demand service is increasingly booming as it’s an affordable small business idea for a lot of creative artists out there. It has become one of the top-listed choices for artistic entrepreneurs to start their business with low costs required and less effort spent on other business sections other than marketing and selling.

One typical POD platform is Printiful which allows people to custom their print on various products for both business and personal purposes. However, Printiful is not the only option, and you can find many other compelling alternatives to get the POD service.

About the print-on-demand service and Printful

About Print-on-demand

The Print-on-Demand (POD) method is a printing and business mechanism where copies of books (or other documents) are not printed before the order is obtained from the customer to make single or small prints. The POD services guarantee that everything from printing to delivery will be handled by the supplier once a sale is made. Just get the set-ups done, then the order will be fulfilled with only a few clicks required.

The print-on-demand market has witnessed a massive increase in recent years. Nowadays, creative designs from local brands or indie artists are increasingly appreciated, and more people are demanding to own one of them. Therefore, by 2022, the demand for printing — where POD is a submarket - is predicted to cross $821 billion globally.

POD is unique as you have no limits to print and position orders on those websites. T-Shirts, cups, posters, and a variety of other things on POD sites can be printed.

Read more: 7 Best Print on Demand Companies

About Printful

Printful is a dropship service supplier of clothes, accessories, and homeware products such as t-shirts, jackets, prints, throw pillows, tote bags, camera cases, and many more. Printful will the products, print them on the products, and make direct shipping to fulfill customers’ orders.

All you need to do is give instructions and documents about the order and the rest will be handled by Printful. Take a look at Printful Print Order Lifecycle to see how their method is working.

Printful is ideal for e-commerce entrepreneurs who want the convenience of selling drop shipped items without compromising consistency or their branding in the process. The service works best for both of those who want to sell their custom designs on products or start a product-based business without struggling to source an inventory.

Top 11 Printful alternatives for more options

1. Printify

Printify has been a powerful competitor of Printful for a long time in the market. Printify ‘s catalog contains a various range of over 200 items, with each category having different products.

Especially, Printify offers cheaper prices, more comprehensive customer service, and relatively quick turnaround times in particular compared to Printful. For new entrepreneurs starting a PDO company, the platform is particularly easy to process.

Printify enables you to create your items and to synchronize with Etsy, Shopify, or WooCommerce online shops. Just select the products you want to print, customize the products with your design, then Printify will let you choose the print provider in your region (which is its unit selling point) and run a sample product to test the printing quality in advance. After that, you’ll just need to add products to your stores and leave the fulfillment process for Printify.

About the pricing, Printify offers 3 pricing plans: the Free plan, the Premium plan for $29/month, and the Enterprise with custom pricing based on your business’s needs. The free version supports 5 stores and gives you unlimited product designs.

The premium adds more 5 stores, custom order import, and a 20 percent discount on all products, while the Enterprise version adds more complex services such as account management or custom API integration.

2. Society6

Society6 is a COMPLETELY FREE platform for emerging artists to begin and present their work while interacting with others on the web. It brings together both young and established designers to produce stunning artworks and print them on a variety of items, including wall art, home decor, clothes, and daily products.

To kickstart, you need to first create a website account then submit your work to the artist’s store. You can choose from a variety of products on where to place your art on. And that’s it. Society6 will handle all the technical aspects from printing to shipping orders, so you just have to focus on creating your art.

3. SPOD

SPOD aims to help shops upgrade their products to the web by delivering customized printing and package personalization.

SPOD works pretty simply. You just have to submit the design to the company. They will then pick products from their stores, bring them to their printing center, and, ideally, redefine the concept. It now has 45 printing machines since its launch in 2002 and has printed around 35 million high-quality items.

Especially, SPOD offers extremely competitive prices with fast turnarounds. The current return rate is less than 0.5%, and it can send out products within 48 hours which keeps the designers updated with trends.

One biggest downside when drop-shipping on SPOD is that orders on this platform are not automatically fulfilled. You will have to pay for the shipping fees - but don’t worry, all the fees are transparent with no hidden costs at all. There are 3 shipping types - Standard, Premium, Express - which allow you to decide different delivery times. The total shipping fees are determined solely by the order value, not by the type of product.

4. Print Aura

Print Aura is one of the oldest names in the POD market. The features and services offered on this platform are quite similar to other POD sites, but the interface might not be as intuitive and the prices are a bit higher. However, those do not stop Printaura from being an outstanding option for POD drop-shippers.

Print Aura provides a variety of 100+ different garments filtered in different colors, sizes, styles, or brands, available for print on many products such as clothes, hats, mugs, phone cases, and others. The platform enables products to be added with labels and hangtags inside for branding purposes. You can also submit the wrapping materials to the products for use.

The platform integrates with other eCommerce sites including Shopify, OpenCart, Storenvy, etc. It’s easy to set up on Print Aura. Just create an account (for free), log in, and authorize the Print Aura app on your Shopify store. There are many design mockup tools available to preview how your designs will turn out on the products, so feel free to upload your images and custom designs.

Selling online with Print Aura is easy as well. Once you make a sale, you will get paid while Print Aura takes care of order processing, printing, and shipping. Your logo and brand name will be attached to the package, so your customers will know where the products are from.

Print Aura doesn’t require any membership fee. Products on Print Aura are priced based on each service selected, such as neck label removal, hangtag included, custom packaging, etc.

5. Spreadshop

Spreadshop is another great option to consider if you want to quit your 9-5 work to start a POD business.

The unique thing about Spreadshop lies in its marketplace. Spreadshop marketplace allows you to sell your designs without thinking about building a store or promotions. You just need to upload your design to your Spreadshop store and put it onto your preferred products. The buyers will choose their favorite products, and Spreadshop will take care of other hassles: from order processing, payment, printing, shipping to fulfillment. There’s no direct cost to you, and you will get paid commissions once your item sells.

Spreadshop offers many outstanding features to help you maximize your profits most conveniently. The appearance of your store can be customized according to your brand objectives and you can use the resources given to make rapid adjustments.

You may also create a personalized URL – don’t have to adhere to the one you get from Spreadshop. Lastly, you can combine Spreadshop with a plugin easily if you have a website. Plus, Spreadshop will take care of the procedure for you, if you are not sure what to do.

About the pricing, Spreadshop’s pricing is generally customer-friendly and risk-free. There’s no membership fee required, but you will have to give parts of your sales to Spreadshop.

Whenever you make a sale, Spreadshop will keep 40% in proceeds, then will pay you monthly for the sales you make - a so-called “salary”. You will start receiving 20% commission per transaction, and 40% if you sell as volume.

6. Redbubble

Redbubble functions similarly to other POD sites, but there’s a noticeable difference that makes this platform outshine others. Redbubble gives its creators the right to label each merchandise they sell while many other e-commerce sites limit this functionality to reduce costs.

Redbubble provides global fulfillment centers that keep consumers from thinking about extra fees. Especially, there is a wide variety of items on Redbubble that may not be available on other POD websites.

As Redbubble is a POD site of its own, other e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce are not supported. You can’t install Redbubble and start selling in your Shopify shop as usual. You may also upload and sell your designs on the website. The management of your whole collection is very simple with this method. You just need to register for an account, upload your designs and logos, put them on your chosen products, and market the products after that.

Pricing on Redbubble is quite transparent as there is a clear formula to follow. The basic formula for selling on Redbubble is the base price plus the artist’s margin equals the retail price, with the base price being added up by manufacturing costs and service fees. The default markup is 20 to 25 percent, and you can calculate the artist’s margin by multiplying the base price and the default markup.

7. Teespring

Teespring is an optimal solution for creating and installing of personalized goods. The service offers a variety of customized products and required resources for your e-commerce business.

To start earning from this platform, start by designing your preferred product with the Teespring Launcher. Then use Teespring’s marketing tools such as Teesprings Boosted Network, Marketing Tools, and Partnership Integrations to promote your products and boost your sales. Teespring will help you take care of the rest of the printing and fulfillment process, and you just have to hopefully wait and collect your money.

Apart from those outstanding networking tools, Teespring provides a large marketplace to get your brand noticed more easily, as the platform integrates with many major platforms such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Walmart, eBay, YouTube, or Etsy.

Especially, Teepring is 100% free to use, and you can keep 100% of the profit which equals the selling price minus the base price. The selling price you set will decide how much profit is generated after the sale, and you can take a look at Teespring’s product pricing table as a reference to price your products properly.

8. Teefury

Teefury is a printing company that is based on art and specializes in customized tee-shirt designs. New Pop culture tees are frequently selected by the company to offer more chances for people who choose to sell products online.

The underlying concept behind TeeFury is to give young artists a medium to show their artwork. If you have an exciting idea you want to share with the world, you can upload it to Teefury’s website and start engaging for sales. You should also develop a fanbase and keep your copyright so that you can own it for good after you create a product.

There are two ways to become a Teefury artist. The first way is to let the platform find your designs and ask you to join. The second way is more traditional: you fill out a form, upload your design then submit it to Teefury’s homepage.

About the pricing, Teefury requires no subscription fee or paid accounts. Artists will gain commissions for every shirt sold during the time of the sale, usually 1$ per sale.

9. Zazzle

Zazzle is another outstanding marketplace to sell and list your POD products with bare struggles. Popular as “The Make Engine,” Zazzle uses cutting-edge hardware and software to simplify its customers’ creative processes.

The platform, whose audience is mostly millennials and gen Z, works with several brands to acquire millions of exclusive products. Zazzle is one of the leading online stores to upload graphic designs and text for the products or projects. Zazzle has a user-friendly interface that can be conveniently accessed by any ordinary user, which makes it one of the best choices for digital printing and embroidery decoration for retail products.

Note that if you register as a Maker and wish to sell your goods on the website, you will have to do the processing and delivery yourself. However, if you choose a designer’s account you can upload your designs on the web and pick the items you want to put your designs on. Zazzle will help you with printing, processing, and delivery. You will also earn commissions on items you sell on the website if you want to become an affiliate.

Zazzle does not require any subscription fee - you only need to pay the base price once your customer makes a purchase. Zazzle subtracts the base price, allowing you to retain the rest.

10. Gooten

Gooten integrates you with major networks of POD. As a result, the merchandise range on this platform is more diversified than Printiful, from T-shirts to coasters, calendars, or mugs.

For its print-on-demand requests, Gooten provides fixed pricing. Additional print placements are also available (for instance, printing on t-shirt sleeves). The procedure is very easy as you only have to register and pick the items that you want to sell. Then you put your designs on the products and sell them in your shop. Payment information need not be given until registration.

The most important thing is that the Gooten app fulfills the order with a partner so that you won’t have problems with fulfillment. There is an options menu where you can handle the orders, packages, and reports. The first thing you want to do is add your billing details in your account so that when you’re finished, you can position first orders.

Gooten does not require any account setup costs or subscription fees. You only have to pay for those items which are printed, processed, and distributed through the website. Options for payment vary according to the platform selection. Gooten is free, but you will first need to pay for the Shopify package if you’re using it for Shopify.

11. Teelaunch

Teelaunch is an ideal alternative to Printify as it can be conveniently integrated with Shopify. The platform draws on the power of Shopify to create mockups and merchandise.

Working on Teelaunch is pretty easy. First, you need to open the website and then start making your personalized items. Teelaunch then creates and fulfills orders automatically in minutes. Teelaunch can manage order processing, track and upgrade them in your Shopify store when an order is made.

To create a Teelaunch store, go to your dashboard Shopify and click the applications on the left pane. Build your account and enter the address and information including a shipping label, special messages, badges, etc… Once this is done, you can choose your product to print and create your design. Upload and begin selling the products.

The prices on Teelaunch are consistent, though the margins differ between goods. Teelaunch has no monthly or hidden fees. You’re only required to pay a commission after a sale is made.

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Final Words

Printful is one of the most dominant forces in the print-on-demand industry, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t compelling competitors out there. Many of the options we’ve discussed here are more appropriate for niche groups, particularly for creative artists. These options may also be made more profitable, largely because they are meant for different markets. Companies can easily profit from these, so make sure to consider your choice thoroughly.