Printify vs Teepublic: Which POD Solution is Best?

Printify vs Teepublic: which option is really best for creators starting their own print on demand business? On the surface, the two solutions might seem pretty similar. After all, they both give entrepreneurs the resources they need to launch a creative company of their own.

With both Teepublic and Printify, you can add unique designs to a variety of products, and sell them to customers around the world, all without having to worry about shipping and logistics.

However, these two tools do take a slightly different approach to print on demand selling. Here’s what you need to know if you’re trying to choose between Printify and Teepublic for your brand.

What is Printify?

Printify is one of the most popular print on demand companies in the world today, first founded in 2015. It supports businesses and creators from all sizes and landscapes, helping them to create and sell unique, custom products.

With Printify, you can add your own designs to more than 800 different items, ranging from apparel, to home accessories and phone cases. Once you’ve chosen your products, you can list them on your website, and a network of 110 printing professionals will handle production on your behalf.

What is Teepublic?

Teepublic is another popular print on demand solution. The company, owned by the Redbubble corporation, runs a marketplace environment, where customers can shop for unique goods, and creators can list various items. Teepublic connects business owners with printers and manufacturers, who handle the production and logistics process on their behalf.

However, unlike with Printify, where you’ll list your item on marketplaces like Amazon, or your own ecommerce store, Teepublic users list their products directly on the platform. This gives them instant access to a wide potential audience, without the need to manage an ecommerce store.

How Does Printify Work?

Printify is a simple, and effective solution for print on demand selling. Entrepreneurs can sign up to the platform for free, with nothing but an email address and password. Once you have an account, you’ll be able to use Printify’s mock-up generator to add designs to hundreds of customizable products. You can even upload designs from Google Drive or Dropbox.

The mock-up generator includes all of the design tools you need to customize colors, text, graphics, and more. Once you’re done designing, you can list your products on your own ecommerce website or an existing marketplace, using Printify’s integrations. You can also choose a printing partner from Printify’s network, browsing through options based on their rating, shipping costs, and delivery times.

Once you’ve selected a partner, information from any orders placed on your website will be automatically sent to that company, so they can manage production and fulfilment. That means you don’t have to store any inventory, or deal with any packaging and shipping yourself.

How Does Teepublic work?

Like Printify, Teepublic gives business owners an entrepreneurs an opportunity to outsource the production and fulfilment process to a third party. You don’t have to purchase any inventory, or deal with warehousing and shipping yourself. However, the sales process is a little different.

When you sign up for an account with Teepublic, you create your own storefront on the integrated marketplace, uploading designs for the products available within the company’s library. Every time you upload a new design to your storefront, it’s featured at a sale price for the first 72 hours.

This boosts your chances of attracting early buyers from Teepublic’s community. After that, the product stays listed on your storefront for the price you set. When customers purchase an item, you earn a commission from the sale, rather than paying for the core price of the product, as well as shipment, packaging, and order fulfilment.

Printify vs Teepublic: Ease of Use

Both Printify and Teepublic are designed to make getting started with online selling as simple as possible for creators and entrepreneurs. Both solutions allow you to sign up for an account in a couple of minutes. You can even get started for free if you like.

Both tools also come with integrated design and mock-up tools, so you can see what your designs are going to look like on various items before you start promoting them to your customers. However, Printify’s mock-up tools are a little more advanced, allowing you to create patterns and make adjustments on a granular level.

The biggest difference between Printify and Teepublic in terms of simplicity, is that with Printify, you do have to do a little more work to list and promote your products. You’ll need either an account on a platform like Etsy, or your own ecommerce platform, built with a tool like Wix or Shopify. Once you have your own “storefront” online, you can use Printify’s integrations to automate the order fulfilment process, and connect with the company’s printing providers.

If you don’t have a storefront of your own, you can use the Printify pop-up service to create a basic online store and start selling straight away. This platform does have a slightly simpler selection of features than most ecommerce website builders, however.

With Teepublic, you just create a storefront within the Teepublic platform when you sign up for your account. Here, you can list all the designs you want, and choose prices for everything you want to sell. That means there’s no need to manage any external stores and marketplaces.

Plus, since you’ll have access to Teepublic’s wide community straight away, you won’t have to work as hard at driving attention to your products. However, it’s still a good idea to invest in a little marketing, as there’s a lot of competition already on Teepublic.

Printify vs Teepublic: Pricing

One of the reasons print on demand is such a popular business model for many companies, is that you don’t necessarily need a lot of startup capital to dive in. Since products are produced “on demand”, there’s very little risk involved, and no need to purchase large amounts of inventory.

However, as Printify and Teepublic show, there are different approaches to consider with print on demand pricing. With Printify, you can sign up to the platform for free and start selling products on as many as five stores straight away. You’ll be able to create unlimited designs, use all of Printify’s creative tools (such as the mockup generator), and you get 24/7 support.

There’s also a “Premium” version of the Printify service available, for $29 per month, which includes all of the features of the free plan, but also gives you a handy 20% discount on your products, and an order management tool (Printify Connect).

You can also opt for the “Enterprise” plan, designed for companies with more than 10,000 orders per day. This plan includes support for unlimited stores, as well as all of the features of the Premium plan, for a custom price.

Of course, there are some extra costs to consider too. When you make a sale with Printify, you need to pay for the base cost of the product you produce, the cost of customization, and there’s the cost of running your ecommerce store to consider too.

With Teepublic, there are absolutely no upfront costs. You don’t pay for a monthly subscription, and you don’t even have to pay for the base price of products, or shipping. However, this also means you don’t keep 100% of the money obtained from each order. Instead, companies earn a “royalty” from every purchase. You’ll get between 18-22% of the full price paid for each item.

Since you’re not earning the full income from each sale, the profit margins you get from Teepublic might be a bit lower than those available from Printify.

Printify vs Teepublic: Fulfilment and Shipping Costs

As mentioned above, with many POD providers, there are various costs to consider alongside actually paying for a manufacturer to create your products. Printify attempts to keep shipping costs as affordable and transparent as possible, showing you what you can expect to pay whenever you select a printing partner for a new product.

Printify has also built relationships with some of the top carriers in the world, including FedEx, DPD, DHL, and Royal Mail. It also offers a comprehensive insight into all of the rates offered by providers on its website, so you can make some relatively accurate predictions.

Teepublic doesn’t charge merchants for shipping directly. There are no upfront costs to think about at all. Instead, shipping costs are covered by the money Teepublic keeps from every sale you make.

Printify vs Teepublic: Integrations

Often, when you’re choosing a print on demand service, it’s important to keep integrations in mind. However, not every POD solution comes with integration capabilities. Fortunately, Printify does offer a host of integrations, with a variety of ecommerce platforms and marketplaces.

Printify can connect directly with Prestashop, Walmart, BigCommerce, Wix, Ebay, Etsy, WooCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace, and more. Plus, there’s a custom API solution available if you need a more specific integration.

Teepublic, unfortunately, doesn’t offer any native integrations or APIs at all. This means you won’t be able to connect your Teepublic products with any other platform. However, you can add a “linking button” to a site, to direct people back to your Teepublic storefront.

Printify vs Teepublic: Customer Support

So, what happens if you need a little extra support or guidance when you’re building your print on demand business? Both Printify and Teepublic offer a few options to help you. With Printify, you get access to a comprehensive help center with articles, videos, and other resources to guide you through a range of topics. There’s even a useful “getting started” guide.

Printify also allows users to reach out to its team directly, using chat, email, or social media, although there’s no phone support option available at the moment. Teepublic also offers a variety of blogs and resources to help you get started, including a downloadable “Design guide”.

However, when it comes to direct customer service, Teepublic offers even fewer options than Printify, supporting only direct mail, or email.

Printify vs Teepublic: Products and Design Quality

One last thing you’ll need to consider when choosing between Printify and Teepublic, is the quality of the products produced by your POD manufacturers. Although it’s difficult to know for certain exactly what kind of products you’re going to receive without ordering a sample, both Teepublic and Printify do their best to offer consistent excellence.

Printify offers a huge variety of customizable products to choose from, more than you’ll get from Teepublic. Plus, it has a dedicated “quality promise”, which means it works with its partners to ensure every item lives up to customer and brand expectations. Printify in-house experts review new print providers regularly, and use stringent quality assurance methods.

Teepublic, on the other hand, doesn’t give you as many product options to choose from, but it still strives to deliver a phenomenal experience. The company commits to quality assurance, and even offers a variety of eco-friendly products, with apparel products certified by WRAP.

Printify vs Teepublic: Pros and Cons

Ultimately, all Print on Demand solutions come with their own pros and cons to consider, and both Printify and Teepublic are no exception. Here are the core positives and negatives you’ll need to keep in mind when choosing the right solution for your business.

Printify

Teepublic

Printify vs Teepublic: The Verdict

Both Printify and Teepublic give creators the tools they need to start their own incredible print on demand business. However, both platforms take a very different approach to print on demand selling. If you want a scalable solution that allows you to create your own store and online presence, and connect with a host of global print providers, Printify is likely to be the best choice.

If you’re looking for a solution that makes it easy to get started without having to manage a separate online store, then Teepublic may be the ideal alternative.