Printify vs Gooten 2024: Comparing POD Solutions

Printify vs Gooten: Which of these popular print on demand solutions should you be using? After using both tools myself, I can say they do have a lot in common.

Both companies take a similar approach to print on demand, connecting companies with a network of providers for printing and fulfillment.

They both also have a massive global footprint, and allow you to create a range of highly customized products (though Printify’s product collection is much larger).

So, which platform do you choose? I created a free account with both companies, to explore the features, benefits, and pricing, and help you make the right choice.

The Quick Verdict

For me, and many of the companies I’ve worked with, Printify is definitely the stronger solution. It offers more advanced design tools (including an AI image generator), more product options, and a wider range of selling options.

You can integrate Printify with a ton of ecommerce platforms and marketplaces, and even create your own popup shop.

Gooten is easy to use, and offers pretty competitive product prices, but it falls behind Printify in virtually every other area. However I was impressed by it’s exclusive product collection.

Standout Features of Printify

• AI design tools and quality assurance
• Access to a wide range of free assets
• Extensive customization on the mockup generator
• Pop-up store generator for people without a storefront
• Experts program for extra support
• Easy-to-navigate supplier list
• Huge product and vendor catalog

Standout Features of Gooten

• Lots of resources to help you optimize your designs
• Excellent VIP program
• Shipping calculator for budgeting
• Reports and analytics (relatively basic)
• Unique custom products
• Automated workflows
• Solution consultants

Printify vs Gooten: How the Platforms Work

As I mentioned above, Printify and Gooten are pretty similar. When working with a Print on Demand platform, you’re usually choosing between companies that produce products themselves, and those who simply connect your company to a network of partners.

Gooten and Printify fall into the second category, giving you more options when choosing who you want to work with.

How Printify Works

Printify gives vendors access to a huge selection of production partners, located all over the world, like Gooten.

This means you can choose the partner that’s closest to your customer, offers the fastest shipping, has the best reviews, or delivers the lowest prices. However, quality can vary.

Unlike Gooten, Printify gives you a lot of different ways to sell your products. You can integrate the platform with a range of popular ecommerce platforms, from Wix to Shopify. Plus, there’s support for selling on social media and marketplaces like Etsy.

Alternatively, beginners can keep costs low by creating a free pop-up store with Printify, and selling products through a custom link.

In all instances, you’ll have access to all of Printify’s leading design tools, the mockup generator, and a huge range of products.

Notably, Printify also offers a range of additional services, such as express delivery, bulk ordering, an Experts program, and a studio to help you design your online presence.

How Gooten Works

Like Printify, Gooten connects companies with a selection of global partners, in over 70 countries. It also offers more than 400 product lines to choose from (including exclusive products), and benefits from pretty fast shipping and production times.

With Gooten, there are a few one-click integration options to choose from, but the best way to connect Gooten to your store is through an API, which may require some developer knowledge. Getting started with Gooten is pretty straightforward, and there are free design tools to help you.

Additionally, Gooten can also offer specialist support to vendors, just like Printify. You can access “solution consultants” who help you scale your business. There are also product sourcing services, business launch support, and a fantastic internal routing engine.

Notably however, with both Printify and Gooten, specialist support will cost extra.

Printify vs Gooten: The Pros and Cons

Before I dive into the core features and benefits of both Gooten and Printify, I did notice a few stand out pros and cons using both platforms.

Printify Pros and Cons

Gooten Pros and Cons

Printify vs Gooten: Pricing and Fees

For most companies launching a print on demand company, keeping costs low is a priority. It’s certainly one of the first things I look at when reviewing a platform.

The good news? You can get started with both Printify and Gooten for free.

Printify’s Pricing and Fees

Printify offers a comprehensive “free forever” plan that I recommend wholeheartedly to beginners. You can create up to 5 stores, design unlimited products, and access all of Printify’s powerful tools for creating mockups and designs.

However, as your business starts to grow, It’s worth consider Printify’s Premium plan. Not only does it increase the number of stores you can launch, but it gives you up to 20% discounts on all of your products, which can significantly reduce your operating costs.

There’s also an Enterprise plan available, which gives you extra discounts, and access to more advanced customer support. However, I think the Enterprise plan really only makes sense for the largest print on demand companies (those selling thousands of products a month).

In terms of product pricing and shipping, Printify is pretty reasonable. Some of the products can be a little on the expensive side, but you get to choose the best price for you by sorting through partners.

The shipping costs can also vary a little, but they follow the industry standard starting at around $3.99 per product for the US.

Notably, you can purchase express shipping from Printify, but this does come with an extra fee. Of course, you can always pass that fee onto your customers. Shipping times vary too, with some items taking 7-15 days to be delivered.

However, you can always look for local suppliers to accelerate your shipping times if you don’t want to pay for express delivery.

Plus, it’s worth noting that you can purchase additional services from Printify for a custom price, such as access to product transfer options, bulk orders, and Studio web development services.

Gooten Pricing and Fees

Gooten doesn’t charge any monthly fees at all, and there are no premium prices to choose from. You simply pay for the production costs of your items, and shipping if you don’t want to pass that cost to your customer.

Notably, while there are no “premium plans” for Gooten, there are ways to access more features and benefits on your account.

Gooten has it’s own “VIM” loyalty program, which gives you access to certain advantages based on how much you actually sell with Gooten.

For instance, on the lowest tier, you get faster customer support, self-service reprints, and business partner discounts, this could help you save some cash.

The more you sell, the more you’ll be able to access, from annual sample credit, to access to advanced educational content. Here’s how the tiers work:

• Insider: Earn $1-$6,249
• Plus: Earn $6,250-$24,999
• Pro: Earn $25,000-$99,000
• Elite: Earn $100,000+

You can also purchase additional services, like white label support, and assistance from specialists, as well as custom neck labels (starting at $2). Like Printify, Gooten’s product and shipping costs can vary depending on your chosen partner and location.

Gooten prides itself on its shipping and fulfillment times, however, I found that they’re very variable. US deliveries can take up to 12 business days, and international deliveries can take up to 21. Notably, you can also pay for express deliveries on certain products.

Core Features and Functionality

In terms of core features, there’s a lot of overlap between Gooten and Printify. Both tools give you access to APIs and integration options for various selling channels. They also both have their own mockup generators and design tools.

In my opinion, though, Printify has a pretty significant edge over Gooten in a lot of areas. The design tools are more intuitive and advanced, giving you the freedom to experiment with a generative AI image creator, as well as a range of clipart options, fonts, and free assets.

Gooten only allows you to upload your own custom artwork and adjust its position on your product. Speaking of products, while Gooten has some excellent exclusive options to choose from, Printify offers a lot more variety, It even recently started branching out into CPG products like coffee.

On top of that, Printify gives you a lot more ways to sell, including the option to create your own pop-up store.

Printify also gives you the freedom to choose which partner you want to work with, while Gooten limits you based on where you want to sell your products.

Printify vs Gooten Product Designs and Quality

Testing product quality can be complicated, particularly with vendors like Gooten and Printify, because you’re not necessarily working with the same partner every time.

The good news is that both companies offer access to samples (although you will need to pay the base cost and shipping costs).

Both companies also use strict quality assurance policies. For instance, Gooten claims that their strategies have helped them to maintain a consistent product quality level of more than 98%.

They use proactive quality administration techniques, and offer incident management services.

Printify takes a similar approach, constantly evaluating suppliers to ensure they deliver excellence. However, with both companies print and product quality can vary depending on a range of factors, including the quality of the image you upload to the platform.

I found both companies to offer relatively good quality, but I’d definitely recommend ordering samples whenever you’re working with a new partner.

It’s also worth remembering that Printify gives you more variety in terms of products. There are more than double the number of product options to choose from on Printify, including options specific to your local selling area, and eco-friendly items.

Plus, Printify offers a wider range of printing options, including direct-to-garment, screen printing, and all-over printing.

I also appreciate the fact that Printify allows you to choose partners based on their rating from other companies, so you have a good idea of how high the quality is, in advance.

Gooten vs Printify: integrations

As I mentioned above, both Printify and Gooten are pretty flexible when it comes to integrations. They both offer access to an API; in case you have the developer knowledge required to create your own automated workflows.

However, there are only a handful of platforms you can directly integrate with using Gooten, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, and BigCommerce.

Printify, on the other hand, offers instant integrations with dozens of platforms, from Amazon and Ebay, to Shopify, Weebly, Squarespace, Magento, Gumroad, Prestashop, and many more.

Plus, as I mentioned before, if you don’t have your own storefront already, you can design a free pop-up shop with Printify and sell that way instead.

Customer Support and Service

One thing both Printify and Gooten do incredibly well is customer support. First, both companies give you access to a huge range of self-service resources, including articles, FAQs, guides, and instructions, to ensure you can make the most of the platform.

They also both allow you to source support from dedicated experts, who can help with building your website, growing your business, and offering design advice.

In terms of direct customer support, Printify offers 24/7 assistance via live chat and email. However, I couldn’t find any phone options.

Gooten delivers customer support via email and live chat too, but their hours are limited from Monday to Friday, 8am, to 4pm, EST.

The level of support you get from Gooten also varies. Most beginners will receive an answer within 72 hours. If you want faster support, you need to sell more, so you can benefit from a higher VIM rewards plan.

This is a little frustrating as I’d assume that beginners would require more support than companies with thriving sales, but that’s just me.

Printify vs Gooten: The Verdict

Ultimately, I think Gooten and Printify both have their virtues. Both offer excellent print quality, and a wide range of products.

They’re also both pretty easy to use, and provide access to great specialist support, if you’re willing to pay for it.

However, Printify stands out in a lot more areas than Gooten. It has more product options to choose from, gives you more control over the partners you work with, and delivers stronger design tools.

It also gives you more options for how you’d like to sell your products, through a range of integrations, and its free pop-up store generator.

That being said, some of Gooten’s products can be less expensive to purchase, so it may be a good alternative if you’re looking for affordability.