Printful vs Printify UK 2024: The Ultimate Guide for UK-Based Sellers

Are you a UK-based entrepreneur looking to start a print-on-demand (POD) business?

If so, working with a POD platform that aligns with your business needs is essential. If you've done any research into this already, your Google searches will have shown there are quite a few of these platforms to choose from. 

But why print on demand?

POD can be a profitable income source. While there are no UK-specific statistics to show you, I can tell you that in the 2024-32 period, the POD market was valued at $48.4 billion globally, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7%. 

With all that said, this review focuses on two of the most popular and best-known POD platforms: Printful and Printify. 

Here, I’ll compare both solutions, including their differences, prices, key features, product range, quality, integrations, and more. 

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s crack on!

Key Takeaways

If you don’t have time to read through my entire Printful vs Printify UK comparison, here’s a quick summary:

• Printful and Printify both offer 24/7 customer service via live chat.
• Printify offers 900+ products, compared to Printful’s 333+, and both require an account to be set up free of charge.
• Both offer various products in various categories, including men’s, women’s, and kid’s clothing, accessories, home and living, and much more.
• Printify has three price plans, one of which is free, whereas Printful has two price plans, one of which is free.
• Printify permits you to choose from various print providers, including seven UK-based ones, whereas Printful doesn't.
• Printify has 13 integrations, including Shopify, Wix, and Shutterstock, whereas Printful has 24, including Shopify, TikTok Shop, and BigCommerce.

Pros and Cons

We've covered a lot of ground, so let’s condense some of what we've learned into a pro-cons list:

Printful Pros

• Branded products are available.
• It’s free and easy to sign up for an account.
• The design tool is easy to use and accepts PNG and JPEG files.
• A helpful logo maker and promo maker are available
• It offers bulk order discounts.

Printful Cons

• There are fewer products to choose from than Printify
• Some customers complain about poor customer service.
• It doesn’t offer phone support.

Printify Pros

• A 900+ product catalog
• The mockup generator tool is easy to use
• There are lots of integrations. 
• It’s free and easy to sign up to 

Printify Cons

• Print partners determine prices, and you have to check each individually to find product shipping prices, order fulfillment times, etc. 
• There are no discounts unless you sign up for a paid plan.
• Some customers complain that shipping takes a long time.

Overview of Printful

Printful is a global print-on-demand order fulfillment service founded in 2013. It started as a company selling posters from the founder’s living room and has since grown into a POD platform with more than 200,000 customers, fulfilling 1 million+ orders each month worldwide. 

Printful serves the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

Signing up for Printful is free and quick. You can set up an account using your Google or Facebook account or email address.

Once signed up, you can then integrate your eCommerce store via one of Printful’s integrations. 

Printful partners with a range of fulfillment centers, including a UK-based fulfillment center in Wolverhampton, near Birmingham. Other fulfillment centers are located in Spain (Barcelona), Latvia (Riga), and the US (Texas and Ohio).

Printful will print, pack, and ship each order on your behalf to your customers, and there's no order minimum.

At the time of writing, Printful offers 330+ customizable products (I’ll tell you more about those later in my review). 

It's also worth highlighting that Printful's customization features are offered to all Printful customers regardless of location. This includes 

• Embroidery
• Direct-to-garment (DTG) printing
• All-over printing
• Sublimation
• Engraving

In addition, all Printful users benefit from the following tools:

• Design Maker
• Logo Maker
• Mockup Generator

Overview of Printify

Printify was founded in 2015, and to date, 8 million+ merchants have used it to produce products worth $500 million+. 

At the time of writing, Printify offers 900+ customizable products to choose from (again, I’ll discuss those later in my review). 

Like Printful, Printify prints, packs, and ships products to customers on your behalf.

Printify has 110+ print locations worldwide, with 7 print providers based in the UK.

Printify's print partners are ranked by customer ratings, quality, production time, and stock reliability.

Printify is also free to sign up for, and you can create an account via Gmail or any other email address.

Once you’re signed in, you can manage all aspects of your Printify account from an easy-to-use dashboard. This includes access to Printify's ‘Product Creator,' which allows you to upload text, images, graphics, and so on to create your POD designs. 

In addition, you can access Printify's AI image generator, which empowers you to create 15 AI-generated images a day.

Printify integrates with various eCommerce platforms and marketplaces, including eBay, Squarespace, Wix, WooCommerce, Walmart, and more.

Once integrated, you can then monitor your Printify sales, orders, and inventory from your eCommerce platform’s dashboard. 

Product Range Comparison

As I've already hinted at, Printful and Printify both offer a range of products to customize and sell.

Let’s take a look at each platform in turn:

Printful: 900+ Products

Printful's POD product catalog boasts 900+ items organized into the following categories:

• Men’s clothing: including t-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, embroidered shirts, and more.
• Women’s clothing: including t-shirts, polo shirts, crop tops, long-sleeve shirts, and more.
• Kid's and youth clothing: including t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, all-over shirts, and more. 
• Hats: including bucket hats, trucker hats, beanies, dad hats, and more. 
• Accessories: including hair accessories, bags, footwear, phone cases, laptop cases and more.
• Home and living: including wall art, drinkware, pillows and pillowcases, tableware, and aprons.

Printify: 330+ Products

Printify's POD product catalog comprises 330+ items arranged into the following categories:

• Men’s clothing: including t-shirts, sportswear, hoodies, tank tops and more.
• Women’s clothing: including t-shirts, skirts, dresses, swimwear, bottoms and more. 
• Kid's clothing: including sportswear, baby clothes, sweatshirts, and more. 
• Food, health, beauty: White-label skincare products, including skin toner, body cream, Hyaluronic acid, and a range of coffee grains.
• Accessories: including phone cases, bags, jewelry, stationery, tech accessories, and more.
• Home and living: including canvases, mugs, glassware, bottles, tumblers, towels, blankets, journals, and more. 

The main difference between Printfy and Printful's product range is the number of customizable items available. Both offer a wide selection of product categories and individual product items within each category.

You can filter which country individual products are available in with Printify, whereas you can’t with Printful.

Pricing Comparison

Printful and Printify both have their own pricing structures, which are as follows:

Printful

There are three plans. Below, we've listed what each one includes:

Printful's Free Plan

This includes:  

• Automatic order fulfillment via Printful's free eCommerce integrations
• Global fulfillment and shipping
• Access to Printful's Design Maker and Mockup Generator
• Access to Printful's Logo Maker with 100+ templates
• White-label packing slips (you can include a custom message or logo)
• Around-the-clock customer support
• Access to Printful's resource hub—free educational blogs, videos, lessons, etc.

Printful Growth Membership

You get free access to this membership if you generate $12K within 12 months. Alternatively, you can pay a fee of $24.99 a month (after a 14-day free trial).

The Printful Growth Membership includes all the above, plus:

• Up to 20% off DTG products
• Up to 30% off other categories
• Product branding discounts of 7%
• Free digitization for sample orders
• Personalized product transfer assistance
• You can integrate unlimited stores per account

Printful Business

If you generate $60K within 12 months, you'll unlock the following additional discounts:

• Up to 22% off DTG products
• Up to 33% off other categories
• Product branding discounts of 9%
• Sample order discounts increased to 25%
• Free digitization for all embroidered products
• Large front print for select products
• Priority support

Printify

There are three Printify plans to choose from: 

Free

This includes:

• Five stores per account
• Unlimited product designs

Premium

This costs $24.99/mo paid yearly or $29/mo and includes everything in the Free plan, plus:

• Ten stores per account
• Up to 20% discount on all products

Enterprise

This is based on custom pricing and includes everything above, plus:

• Unlimited stores per account
• Additional discounts on all products

Example prices for both

There are so many products available that the simplest way to give you a feel of price is to choose a standard white men’s t-shirt and a tote bag and give you prices for both:

• Printful Men’s Classic Tee: £8.10 incl. VAT 
• Printify Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee: £6.60 
• Printful Canvas Tote Bag: £15.30 incl. VAT
• Printify Tote Bag: £10.64 

It wasn’t immediately clear if Printify prices include VAT; there's no mention in the product catalog. Eventually, I found a guide to VAT that suggests it should be added at checkout.

Printify also offers branding options like neck labels and packaging inserts, which are priced separately. For example, branded neck labels start at $0.55c.

Printful offers custom branding, too. For example, custom neck label prices start at $2.49 per t-shirt. Prices weren't available in Sterling.

Please note: The prices above don't include shipping (which I cover separately below).  

Quality of Products

Printful and Printify product descriptions offer a good insight into the quality of items. 

For example, a Printful Women’s Cropped Hoodie has a 4.5 out of 5-star rating on the Printful site. Ratings are based on product quality, print quality, fit, and embroidery quality.

Each product description also includes information about fabric thickness, softness, style, and fit.

It's also worth mentioning that Trustpilot reviewers give Printful 4.6 out of 5 stars, with several praising its high product quality. 

Lastly, Printful’s website states that it may not be “the cheapest” but that it’s important to “choose quality” and that “price isn’t the only variable.” Printful products also undergo three checks: graphics quality, during printing, and after printing before an item is despatched. 

Printify's product descriptions also offer some insight into product quality. For example, the Printify Girlie College Hoodie description includes information about fabric weight, composition, softness, and so on.

Unlike Printful products, there aren't individual customer reviews, so I turned to Trustpilot. There, I found a 4.8 out of 5-star rating, with several references to quality products. 

Unlike Printful, Printify’s website has a direct link from its homepage to its “Print Quality Promise,” and this includes: 

• Products printed to the highest standard
• Complete transparency
• Delightful service
• Continuous improvement

Every Printify product passes three checks: upon arrival, before, and after printing. Plus, all print providers are closely monitored. 

Shipping and Fulfillment in the UK

I looked at Printful's and Printify's shipping and fulfillment in the UK, and here’s what I found:

Printful 

Printful UK shipping times average between two and four business days, and prices depend on what you’re shipping. For example, the cost of shipping a single t-shirt starts at £3.59, and there's an additional £1.20 for each additional t-shirt. 

Printful states that shipping times are estimates, not guarantees, and the time quoted doesn't include the time it takes to create your products. Each product listing shows estimated order fulfillment and delivery times. For example, when looking to design an iPhone case on 3rd June 2024, the estimated delivery time was shown as 7-10 June 2024. 

Printful also has a shipping calculator, which I used to calculate the shipping cost for single or bulk products. 

Lastly, order fulfillment fees pay for the work involved in processing your customer’s order, such as picking, printing, and packing the order for shipping.

Please note: The fee for orders with custom packaging is $0.50 per mailer.

Printify

Printify UK shipping times and prices depend on which print provider you choose. For example, when looking at the UK print providers for a Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee, I found that each print provider (UK and elsewhere) had different shipping prices, starting from £3.19. 

Each print provider offers an estimated length of time it takes to fulfill an order. For my t-shirt, this ranged from 1.7 to 2 days. Printify stresses that “production time may vary from case to case” and that the times shown are based on averages over the past 30 days. 

Printify also has a web page dedicated to shipping times per print provider, including those based in the UK.

Furthermore, from your Printify account, you can go to your store settings and enable the Printify Shipping Calculator. However, you can only do this once you connect your eCommerce store to Printify.

Integrations and Compatibility

As I already stated, Printful and Printify offer a variety of eCommerce integrations. Let’s take a look:

Printful

Printful integrates with the following:

• Shopify
• Etsy
• WooCommerce
• Wix
• Squarespace
• Square Online
• Walmart
• Ecwid
• Prestashop
• Amazon
• TikTok
• eBay
• Big Cartel
• Weebly
• Adobe Commerce
• Storenvy
• Gumroad
• Nuvemshop
• Shift4Shop
• Launch Cart 
• Printful API

In each instance, Printful’s integrations page shows information about set-up time (slow, moderate, or fast), who it’s best for (e.g., small businesses, large brands, etc.), and so on.

To integrate, I simply clicked the “learn more” button. I chose BigCommerce. This took me to a separate page where I could click “Connect now.” I was then taken to my Printful dashboard, where I could progress the integration. 

Printify

Printify integrates with the following:

• Shopify
• Etsy
• Walmart
• eBay
• TikTok Shop
• Wix
• Squarespace
• WooCommerce
• Prestashop
• Big Commerce
• Printify API

In each instance, from the integrations page, I clicked on the integration I was interested in and was taken to its specific page on the Printify website, where I could click “connect.”

For example, I chose Shopify. Once I clicked “connect,” I was taken to my dashboard, where I could connect any of the integrations mentioned above. 

Customer Support and Service

Having help on hand when you have an issue is essential. So, here’s how Printful and Printify fare in this arena:

Printful

You can access help via your Printful dashboard or the website's homepage.

Customer support is available via the following:

• Help center: FAQs, video tutorials, and a search bar where you can type questions
• Live chat
• Email ([email protected])
• A contact form on Printful's website

Printful’s UK-focused web page refers to support as “around the clock.”

You can also learn about marketing tips, product updates, tutorials, and more via Printful’s Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok accounts. 

Printify

Again, you can access help via your Printify dashboard or the website homepage.

From the Printify Help Center, you can access the following:

• Featured articles on a range of topics, including getting started, payment and billing, fulfillment and shipping, and more
• A search bar where you can type in your questions
• 1:1 chat support (available 24/7)
• A link to send Printify a message 

In addition, Printify’s UK-focused web page includes a reference to the Printify Blog and YouTube Channel.

The website also provides access to Printify webinars and a helpful POD glossary.

Which is Better for the UK Market?

As a UK seller, you want to find a POD partner best suited to your location.

Based on my comparison, Printful and Printify are pretty much even; it’s hard to choose between them. 

Prices are very similar, although Printify doesn't add VAT to product prices, whereas Printful does. In addition, shipping prices are roughly the same.

Product quality (based on the reviews I read) is also similar and largely favorable.

The one stand-out difference is that Printify offers more products in more categories. However, both offer interesting options, including white-label beauty items, although the choice is limited.  

I do like that it’s easier to find and filter UK-based products in Printfy’s product catalog, whereas you can’t do that with Printful.

However, with Printful, you can see where products ship from on each product listing. For example, this Unisex Eco Sweatshirt ships from the UK and Latvia. 

It's also worth highlighting that Printify's print providers have fulfillment centers worldwide, including the UK, which control the fulfillment process. In contrast, Printful has its own fulfillment centers. 

Based on product offers alone, I’d go for Printify, but ultimately, the choice is yours. I’d suggest signing up for free for both and playing around with the design tools to see which suits you best. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Before wrapping up, I'll endeavor to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Printful and Printify:

Printful vs Printify UK: My Final Thoughts

Hopefully, my Printful vs Printify UK review has given you a good idea of what each offers. 

Both offer similar products in similar/the same categories, with Printify standing out for its sheer quantity.

Printify’s pricing is easier to navigate, but both are easy to set up and get going with.

It’s excellent that Printify offers UK-specific product filters, whereas Printful doesn’t. That said, Printful enables you to see where products are shipped from on each product listing, which is a help.

In addition, both have UK-focused order fulfillment. Printify is via its Wolverhampton site, and Printful has seven UK-based print partners, so the choice is yours!

If I had to choose, I’d select Printify because of its extensive product selection and because I personally found its design tool easier to use. 

Are you ready to try Printful and/or Printful? Or are you already using one or both? Let us know what you think in the comments below.