Printful and Teepublic are two of the most well-known print-on-demand services, but they cater to different types of sellers.
Whether you're an artist looking for passive income or an ecommerce entrepreneur building a full brand, choosing the right platform can have a big impact on your success.
After researching and testing both platforms across critical areas like product range, profit margins, branding, ease of use, and shipping, I found clear differences between the two.
Printful vs Teepublic: Quick Verdict
- Printful – Best for building a brand with full control over pricing, customer data, and product presentation
- Teepublic – Best for passive sales without needing to manage a storefront or fulfillment
In this comparison, I’ll break down where each platform excels—and where it falls short—so you can choose the one that aligns best with your ecommerce goals.
Quick Comparison: Printful vs Teepublic
Here’s a snapshot of the key differences between the two platforms:
| Feature | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Fulfillment service | Marketplace |
| Store ownership | You own it | Teepublic owns it |
| Product pricing | You set the price | Fixed royalty |
| Product range | 330+ SKUs | ~75 SKUs |
| Branding | Full customization | No branding options |
| Passive income | No (requires effort) | Yes (hands-off) |
| Traffic | You drive it | Teepublic provides it |
| Ideal for | Entrepreneurs, brands | Artists, passive sellers |
Best for Control and Customization: Printful
If you’re looking for complete control over your products, pricing, and customer journey, Printful is the clear winner.
Why Printful Wins Here
With Printful, you’re building your own business.
You decide how your store looks, what your customers pay, and how your brand is presented. Printful is a backend fulfillment engine that integrates with ecommerce platforms like:
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Etsy
- Squarespace
- Wix
From product mockups to branded packing slips and inside labels, everything is customizable. You can add your logo, tailor the unboxing experience, and even include marketing inserts.
Teepublic, by contrast, operates more like Etsy or Redbubble.
It’s a marketplace with no customization options and very limited control. Your designs are listed alongside thousands of others, and the customer belongs to Teepublic—not to you.
Customization Comparison
| Feature | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Logo on product | Yes | No |
| Branded packaging | Yes | No |
| Product pricing | You choose | Set by Teepublic |
| Customer email collection | Yes | No |
| Control over product listings | Full | Minimal |
If you’re serious about building a long-term brand, Printful is the better option.
Best for Passive Income: Teepublic
If you're just getting started or want to make sales without lifting a finger, Teepublic is a solid choice.
Why Teepublic Wins for Simplicity
You don’t need to run a store or pay for marketing. Just upload your designs, choose the products, and Teepublic handles the rest—fulfillment, shipping, customer service, and returns.
Teepublic’s marketplace brings in its own traffic. Customers discover your designs through site-wide browsing, trending tags, and SEO.
While you can't retarget customers or upsell, it’s perfect for artists who want to make money passively from their creative work.
Printful, on the other hand, requires you to generate your own traffic. That means investing time and money into SEO, email marketing, or paid ads. You get better margins, but you do the work.
Passive Income Comparison
| Feature | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace traffic | No | Yes |
| Setup effort | Medium | Very low |
| Support required | You handle it | Teepublic handles it |
| Passive selling | No | Yes |
| Ideal for | Marketers and brand builders | Designers and hobbyists |
If you want to earn passively without building a site, Teepublic is easier and faster to launch.
Best for Product Variety and Quality: Printful
When it comes to product catalog and variety, Printful offers a much wider range than Teepublic.
Printful Product Range
Printful offers over 330 customizable products across these categories:
- Apparel (t-shirts, hoodies, leggings, jackets)
- Home & living (pillows, blankets, mugs)
- Accessories (bags, phone cases, hats)
- Posters and canvas prints
- Drinkware and stationery
You can even create product bundles or upsell variations.
Teepublic Product Range
Teepublic has a more limited offering, focusing mostly on:
- T-shirts and hoodies
- Stickers
- Phone cases
- Mugs
- Notebooks and wall art
There are no options for changing materials, colors beyond the default set, or creating bundles. You also can’t include branding, notes, or custom packaging.
Product Comparison Table
| Product Feature | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Total SKUs | 330+ | ~75 |
| Customizable options | Yes | No |
| Product bundling | Yes | No |
| Branding elements | Yes | No |
| High-end product options | Yes | Limited |
If product diversity matters to your strategy, Printful is significantly more flexible.
Best for Profit Margins: Printful
If your goal is to earn more per sale, Printful gives you better profit potential.
Printful Pricing and Profits
You set your own prices, so you can decide how much to charge over the base cost.
Example:
- Bella + Canvas 3001 t-shirt
- Printful base price: $9.25
- Retail price: $24.99
- Estimated profit: ~$15.74 before platform fees or ad spend
You also control upsells, bundles, and retargeting—boosting customer lifetime value.
Printful’s flexibility means you can also test premium pricing strategies. For example, if you're targeting a niche market or emphasizing eco-friendly production, you can price higher than the typical range and build in more margin.
That kind of flexibility simply isn't possible with marketplaces like Teepublic, where you're locked into fixed earnings.
Teepublic Earnings
Teepublic pays a flat royalty per item:
- T-shirts: $4.00 (standard price)
- During sales: $2.00
- Hoodies: $6.00–$8.00
You can’t raise prices, and you can’t upsell. So while it’s hands-off, your income per sale is low.
What this means in practice is that volume is your only real path to earnings on Teepublic. To make $1,000 a month at $4 per shirt, you’d need to sell 250 shirts—consistently.
Without access to customer data or the ability to drive repeat business, this becomes difficult to scale without help from the platform’s algorithms.
Profit Comparison Table
| Profit Metric | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Control over pricing | Yes | No |
| T-shirt profit range | $10–$20 | $2–$4 |
| Upselling options | Yes | No |
| Customer retention tools | Yes | No |
If you're aiming to build a profitable, scalable business, Printful is the better fit.
Best for Shipping and Fulfillment: Tie
Both platforms handle fulfillment and shipping, but they take different approaches.
Printful Fulfillment
Printful has multiple global fulfillment centers across the US, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. This allows for faster shipping and lower costs, depending on where your customers are.
Typical US shipping times:
- Standard: 3–7 business days
- Expedited: 2–4 business days
Shipping cost: $3.99–$5.99 (varies by product and speed)
One of Printful’s key advantages is that it allows you to show estimated shipping costs at checkout based on live rates. This adds transparency for your customers and helps avoid abandoned carts caused by unexpected shipping fees.
You can also absorb shipping costs into your product pricing and offer free shipping—something customers often expect today.
Teepublic Fulfillment
Teepublic centralizes most of its fulfillment in the US. Shipping is slower and less customizable.
Typical shipping times:
- US: 5–10 business days
- International: 10–20 business days
Shipping cost: Around $4.00–$6.00
You can’t control carriers or speeds with Teepublic.
While Teepublic’s fulfillment works fine for passive sales, you don’t have any control over how your products are shipped or presented.
You also can’t update delivery times or customize shipping rules, which might frustrate customers during peak seasons or international delays.
Fulfillment Comparison
| Fulfillment Feature | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Global fulfillment | Yes | No |
| Shipping speed | Faster | Slower |
| Carrier options | Multiple | Fixed |
| Custom delivery options | Yes | No |
If speed and flexibility are essential, Printful edges ahead.
Best for Ease of Use: Teepublic
When it comes to simplicity, Teepublic is faster and easier to use—especially for beginners.
Teepublic Setup
You can start selling in under 10 minutes:
- Create an account
- Upload a design
- Choose product types
- Publish
No storefront, no settings, no customer service. It’s very plug-and-play.
For creators who don’t want to deal with ecommerce logistics, this is a huge plus. There’s no need to configure taxes, manage order fulfillment, or write product descriptions.
Teepublic simplifies everything into a design upload process, making it ideal for hobbyists or people testing ideas.
Printful Setup
To use Printful, you need to:
- Choose an ecommerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc)
- Create a storefront
- Connect Printful
- Set prices, taxes, and shipping rules
- Add products manually or with syncing tools
It’s more complex but gives you much more control in return.
Because of the integration aspect, Printful’s learning curve is steeper—but once you’ve got your store running, it’s also far more flexible.
You can expand into SEO, email marketing, bundling, or custom storefront layouts. That setup time pays off if you’re planning to grow beyond just a few products.
Ease of Use Comparison
| Feature | Printful | Teepublic |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 1–2 hours | 10 minutes |
| Store required | Yes | No |
| Requires integrations | Yes | No |
| Best for beginners | No | Yes |
If you’re just testing the waters, Teepublic is easier to get started with.
Final Recommendation: Which Should You Choose?
The right platform depends entirely on your ecommerce goals.
Use Printful if:
- You want to build a brand
- You need higher profit margins
- You’re ready to run marketing and ads
- You plan to own the customer journey
Printful gives you more flexibility, more profit per sale, and the ability to scale. It’s ideal for entrepreneurs who want full control and are serious about ecommerce as a business.
Use Teepublic if:
- You want to sell passively
- You’re a designer or artist, not a marketer
- You want zero setup or customer service
- You’re testing new ideas without cost
Teepublic works well if you want a passive side income or to validate designs with minimal effort. It’s easy to use, and you won’t need to manage anything post-upload.
Printful vs Teepublic: Our Winner
For ecommerce sellers who want to build a real business, Printful is the better option. It offers more control, more profit, and more tools for long-term success.
But if your goal is to earn passively and focus solely on design, Teepublic makes it easy to monetize your creativity without the headaches of running a store.
Either way, try both and see which fits your goals best.
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