Printful Vs Teespring – What’s The Better POD Supplier In 2022
Print On Demand has become big business in the past 5 years and it is easy to see why, it take the risk completely away from the entrepreneur and mitigates it through partners like Printful and Teespring who will happily create the physical product for you and ship it to the customer once you make a sale.
The main distinction between Teespring and Printful is the platform on which you market and sell your goods. With Teespring, you can create a product and be selling it through their online platform the very same way but it is a little bit more limited than Printful. While Teespring is limited to their own platform and a few others, Printful is a service provider that gives you a lot more control and allows you to create a large brand by connecting to Shopify, WordPress/Woocommerce, Amazon, Etsy and plenty more.
It also must be said that Teespring is increasing it’s market position with new offers all thime.
A Closer Look At Teespring
If you are not very tech savvy when it comes to making your own website and just want to quickest way to get to the market, Teespring is probably your best option.
Teespring allows you to sell your products on their platform so you don’t need to worry about creating your own website.
It has also started to integrate with Shopify through their app and you can add your products underneath you Youtube videos as well.
Teespring started doing just Tshirts but they now have a large and impressive collection to choose from in POD that can rival Printful’s wide range.
A Closer Look At Printful
Printful has grown to worldwide dominance of the Print On Demand game in the past few years and it is easy to see why. Printful is a much more complex and feature rich system with a wide range of quality products and market leading mockups, with your design to place on your store.
The first step with Printful is to sign up with your email address and then you will be asked to create your store and hook it up with your platform of choice.
Popular Platforms included: Shopify, Printful, Merch By Amazon, Wix, Magento, Big Commerce and Etsy.
Check Them All Out Here:
To connect with Shopify or WordPress, you already need to have your website set up on either of those platforms.
Shopify is the easier of the two to set up but it is also more costly. A good theme can cost a couple of hundred dollars and a custom domain will cost $14 and Shopify itself will cost $29 per month when the 14 day trial period expires.
WordPress
WordPress is a lot cheaper than Shopify but it takes a lot more technical knowledge to get it firing correctly on all cylinders. You need to get your own hosting account with Blacknight, Bluehost or Hostgator, buy your domain name through them, install wordpress, buy a theme from envato market place, create your perfect website and buy an SSL certificate. The whole process may only cost you $100 and maybe $20 per year in hosting fees so it is a lot cheaper but you need to be technically astute.
Shopify
Shopify will also connect with your Google Analytics and set up all of your key metrics which you would also have to do yourself with a WordPress and Woocommerce site.
The only risk with Shopify is a high initial outlay if you don’t make any sales.
You avoid all of these initial head aches with Teespring but if you want to scale and not have business dependent on the platform, you will need to create your own website.
A good initial option can be to start with Teespring as there is absolutely no cost to start selling and see how your sales go and then when you have proof of concept you can then move ahead and set your store up on your own domain and take complete control.
The thing is that you are never dependant on Printful, if they are not meeting your standards, you can simply move to another provider and there are plenty of good ones.
So, if you want to build a proper business and a brand, you need to be looking at a solution like Printful.
Who Has Better Integrations
Integrations is another place that these Print On Demand Giants collide and they both offer unique and valuable solutions in their own way.
Printfuls Integrations
As we have mentioned, Printful connects with both Shopify and Worpdress which is going to be the most important and Teespring has also stepped up to allow you to import your products into Shopify through the TeeSpring Shopify App but that is not a full integration with live shipping and automatic fulfillmet. Printful is the best option for scaling because of this.
Merch By Amazon
Amazon is the biggest online retailer in the US by a mile and if you can get your merch onto Amazon and generate sales, you can quickly scale to the moon.
Amazon also have a Paid Ads element so you can get your target customers seeing your products from the very first day and if you create your product pages correctly, you can easily move up the organic ranks quickly and start generating a ton of sales for free.
Etsy
Etsy has become a very popular online marketplace in the USA for T-shirts, clothes and all types of niche products.
The two best things about getting your products on Etsy are:
- People come to the platform and they are willing to buy.
- Etsy enjoys its name as a premium marketplace and you can charge a fair price for your products.
Etsy is another top notch integration that is available to Printful.
The thing you need to remember is that the products only need to be designed once and then you can sync them to all of the other market places and increase your opportunities for success tenfold with only a little extra work.
Check Them All Out Here:
TeeSpring
TeeSpirng also has a trick up it’s sleeve when it comes to integrations and that is Youtube. Once you get to a certain number of subscribers, you can place your top designs under each of your videos and give you audience a chance to buy right there and then.
You can even point your audience in the direction of the products at the end of your video and if people like your content, they will buy from you just to support your channel and share the love.
That is of course assuming that the products are appealing, well designed and have good feedback
Printful Vs Teespring Product Choice
Teespring started out doing only t-shirts but they have really upped their game in recent times a boast a selection that may have already surpassed Printfuls broad and ever expanding range in terms of the variety of different products.
Printful:
- T-Shirts
- Hoodies
- Tanks
- Long Sleeve Shirts
- Jumpers
- Shorts
- Women’s Shirts
- Bathing Suits
- Coffee Mugs
- Canvas Art
- Baby Clothes
- Jewellery
And Much More –
Check Them All Out Here:
Teespring Product Range:
- T-shirts
- Hoodies
- Long Sleeves
- Tanks
- Women’s Tees
- Mugs
- Face Masks
- Tote Bags
- Towels
- Key Chains
- Posters
- Bathing Suits
- Bath Towels
And Much More – Check Out The Full Catalogue Here
I would say comparing this two on product range is going to be a tie at the moment.
Printful vs Teespring Pricing
We found the pricing to very similar between these two and they are both leaning towards the premium side of the price range when you take the profit that you want to make into account.
The Gildan T Shirt on Printful is around $9 and the cheapest T-shirt option with TeeSpring is around $10.
It must be said the some of Printfuls pricing can be prohibitively high lie $40 for a hoodie before shipping and profit means you would need to sell it for $60 but there is nothing wrong with having a premium brand.
Indeed with Print on demand, it is probably better to have your products listed at more high end prices to make your brand look strong.
When it comes to pricing, Teepspring is going to be more favourable overall.
Printful Vs Teespring Customer Service & Fulfilment Times
Both of these companies offer 1-3 day fulfilment and the product should be with your US customers within 5-7 days usually and maybe 5 – 10 days for European orders and about 12 days for the rest of the world.
Everything was going good with Printful for well over 2 years of selling and the Boom, the Corona Virus hit and everything went out the window.
The things that really affected Printful:
- Huge increase in demand with everybody stuck at home and ordering products online
- Most of their competitors shut up shop
Printful got all of the orders and I was really grateful because there would have been a ton of returns other wise.
3 Months later and orders are still taking over a month to fulfil while the companies that took a break have come back and are offering 3 day shipping.
I am sure Printful will get back on top of things soon but it is worth bearing in mind right now with the Covid situation of 2020.
When it comes to customer service, I have never had a problem with either provider until the Covid came along and the live chat ws showing crazy numbers like you are 56th in line to speak to a rep.
I totally understand it is not their fault but if you are coming into the game right now, you may be wondering how they are charging so much for long fulfilment times but trust me, 99.9% of the time, everything from Printful has been spot on.
Printful v Teespring Quality
Both providers excel when it comes to quality. I rarely if ever get complaints about the print being off or dodgey products being sent out.
On the odd occasion there have been issues, Printful and Teespring have sent out replacements for free, immediately once they have seen a screenshot.
You can trust both of these providers to send your customers the high quality products the price they pay demands.
Printful Vs Teespring Mockup Generator
Another of the key selling points offered by Printful is the quality of the mockup they provide for your store.
Once you create the product in the generate it will then be rendered with various people wearing it or in various environmental situations.
These mockups can also be used straight in Facebook Ads and on your website and you don’t need to actually order the clothes to your house and get a professional photographer.
Don’t get me wrong, Teesping’s mockup are good. They show their products in the best light but it is just on a blank background.
You can certainly sell straight from Teesprings mockups but the advantage on Mockup quality definitely goes to Printful.
Printful’s mock up generator is so good that some people use it to create the mockups and then source through different companies, which is something we would never do.
Overall
Printful and Teespring are different companies catering to different markets.
There used to be a huge difference in product selection and integrations but that gap is closing rapidly as Teepsring expands it’s position in the market.
Overall: Teespring is great is you don’t want to create your own website yet
Printful is perfect for expansion and taking full control of your business and website.
Printful is probably the best option to create a serious brand and business and its our recommendation for 2020: Sign Up here for free: