Abby B. Thinking of starting a print on demand business but unsure which fulfillment to join? Afraid of making the wrong choice? Here are 11 things to consider when comparing Printify vs Teespring.
Are you new to print on demand? I know it can feel scary to start selling designs you made yourself – in fact it still sounds surreal that you can make money from it. That’s how I felt when I first found out about print on demand. To my surprise, I made my first sale exactly a month after!
After countless research to understand print on demand fulfillments available, I finally figured that Printify is the best choice for beginners out there. Find out why!
*This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you) if you sign up for a program or make a purchase using my link!
Related Posts:
- 5 Things To Compare Printify and Printful pricing
- Which is best? Printify or Printful?
- Printful vs Teespring: 10 Things To Know
What Is The Best Print On Demand Site?
Printify and Printful are some of the best free print on demand sites to join for beginners. The decision depends on whether you’re selling on an ecommerce platform or marketplace, how you bring in traffic and frequency of uploading designs. Some POD sites are better for experts while others are better for beginners.
Printify Vs Teespring: What I Think
Three main reasons why I believe Printify is better than Teespring for beginners.
- Printify offers a wide range of products for sellers to diversify their sales with cross-selling and up-selling
- Right off the bat discount of 20% when sellers subscribe to Printify’s Premium Plan
- There’s an affiliate program for sellers to make extra income for promoting Printify’s platform
Key Features Printify Vs Teespring
1. Signing up for an account
Account sign up is free and fairly easy for both Printify and Teespring. Instead of the classic email sign up, you can connect to Printify via your Google account. Teespring allows for connecting with YouTube, Google and Facebook – even more convenient! It should take a few seconds to create an account then it will redirect to your main account dashboard.
Winner: Teespring – just because you can sign up using different social accounts.
2. How the platforms work
Printify vs Teespring is pretty similar to Printful vs Teespring, because well Printify and Printful are quite the same – read this article I wrote on their key differences (important!). Just like Printful, Printify provides print on demand products to sellers looking to sell on other ecommerce platforms and marketplaces e.g. Shopify or Etsy. Once you sync your shop, orders will come in automatically to your Printify’s dashboard for fulfillment – but you can’t sell directly on Printify.
Teespring (now Spring) on the other hand, focuses greatly on supporting content creators by offering one solution for all. Anyone can start selling POD by creating a Teespring Store within minutes. Dedicated shop URL or domain included and no technical knowledge required, unlike setting up a Shopify store. This makes the process much easier for content creators or influencers to start selling merchandise on some great platforms Teespring integrates with – find out which down below.
Winner: Undecided – both are equally great so it depends on the market you’re targeting for. Are you an entrepreneur or a content creator / influencer?
3. Choice of print on demand products
Printify has over 300 products on their site ranging from apparel, pillowcases to kitchen accessories. They are one of the best POD companies for their wide range of products, superseding Printful. Teespring however, has a limited choice of items for sellers to diversify on. Hence, using Teespring might mean serving a smaller audience or a lost opportunity for sale.
I believe Teespring is best when you’re focusing only on a handful of products, especially true for content creators’ line of merchandise. For the typical business owner, like myself, offering a wider range increases your chances of sale – as long as you stick to your niche direction.
A summary of products offered by Printify and Teespring:
| Catalog | Printify | Teespring |
| Products | Apparel Footwear Face masks Phone cases Bags Socks Underwear Hats Baby accessories Mousepads Car accessories Wall art Notebooks Kitchen accessories Magnets & stickers Towels & blankets Drinkware Pet accessories Home decor | Apparel Footwear Tech accessories Socks Hats Stickers Bags Wall art Drinkware Bath accessories Blankets Phone cases Pillows Home decor |
Winner: Printify – there’s a lot more products offered
4. Generating mockups to impress
Mockups play an important role at convincing potential customers for purchase – especially for products like t-shirts, bags, jewelry and leggings. Both Printify and Teespring have their own mockup generators which work great on their own. A great thing about Printify’s mockup generator is you can import photos from a synced Dropbox or Google Drive account without much hassle. Printify also integrates with Shutterstock where users can instantly use stock photos and come up with a design within the generator itself – find out the fees, you’re only charged when you make a sale.
Few things I like about Spring’s new mockup generator are – you can select the featured image immediately when uploading, see prices if fulfilled in different locations and have the design automatically uploaded to several different products at the end. However, you can’t see how the item looks like on a person (human wearing mockup). Aside from these, there are no real differences for mockups between Printify and Teespring.
If you’re looking to have better mockups, try Placeit – there’s so many real live mockups to choose from. Just remember to pick a mockup that closely resembles the actual product and copy the HEX code of your product’s base color to not go wrong (possible on Printify).
Winner: Printify – there’s a lot more features to easily generate mockups and ‘low resolution alert’ means you’ll never have a poor quality image uploaded
5. Ordering a sample product for yourself
One of the ways to analyze if a product is a good fit for your shop is to order a sample of the product yourself. You get to have a good look and feel of the actual item your customers will get and do your own mini photoshoot at home. Unlike Printful, both Printify and Teespring do not offer discounts on ordering samples. The only way to order samples with discounted base prices from Printify is if you get Printify’s Premium Plan – you’ll also get a one time bonus of $29 that can be used on ordering samples (read more here).
Generally, you will have to pay the full amount on product cost and shipping cost to your address when ordering items for yourself.
Winner: Printify – just because it’s possible to get the discounts if you subscribe to the Premium Plan
6. Shipping services and cost
Typically, shipping charges are not included within the product cost as it varies depending on the buyer’s address and the print provider’s location. As a print on demand seller, you should also charge shipping separately to avoid making any losses or have product prices too high.
Printify offers both domestic and international shipping with a production timeline of 2-7 days, where buyers can also request for expedite shipping. Tracking can be done within your Printify dashboard and shipping estimates are provided for every product based on the provider’s history for the past 30 days. Enabling the Order Routing feature for your store allows Printify to reroute orders to other providers if the initial one is unable to fulfill. You can check Printify’s shipping rates here as they differ based on print providers and their locations across the world.
Aside from standard shipping arrangements, Teespring also offers Rush shipping for faster delivery at an extra cost – find out which products are applicable for Rush shipping. Similar to Printify, Teespring has fulfillments in a few countries, both in the USA and Europe. If your order consists of a few different items, Teespring might fulfill it in two different locations and ship them separately to the customer. This can result in higher shipping fees for an order.
Printify’s reduced shipping rates for 2nd item is only applicable for products of the same type – full shipping fee is applied for any other products. For a standard t-shirt, below are the differences in shipping cost to the USA between Printify and Teespring. Very little difference!
| Shipping charges | Printify | Teespring |
| 1st item | $4.00 | $3.99 |
| 2nd item (additional to the package) | $2.00 | $2.00 |
Winner: Printify – a lot more providers in different locations to meet faster shipping times at better prices
7. Earning potential with each sale
Your earning potential when selling on Printify or Teespring depends on two main factors which are product pricing and discounts.
Product pricing
Prices for a t-shirt differ greatly on Printify depending on the print provider. If you check the unisex Bella short sleeve tee, there’s 25 different providers with 25 different prices ranging from $9-$16 (excluding shipping). Whatever the product cost may be, Printify recommends a minimum margin of 40% to see your shop grow. I too suggest the same in all my print on demand guides.
Teespring provides a Recommended Retail price (RRP) for all their products with an estimated profit margin in this table.
For both platforms, you’re free to set your own prices. Although applying the 40% margin rule is best, it doesn’t hurt to look around at others’ prices so you stay competitive. Your margin should be able to cover any fees on sales (varies with platforms) and advertising expenses, while leaving you some profit. You may afford smaller profits while building reviews but just don’t lose money.
Winner: Printify – looking at the classic tee, Printify’s pricing is much lower compared to Teespring
Monthly product discounts
Printify doesn’t offer discounts with unlocking higher sales. However, if you’re making a lot of sales every month, it makes sense to subscribe to Printify’s Premium Plan. For a yearly subscription of $299.88 or monthly of $29, you immediately get 20% off on all products – which is far better than what other PODs are offering. Note: it only makes sense to do this if the amount of savings supersedes the subscription price.
Teespring on the other hand, offers a tiered monthly discount based on the number of units sold within a month. All sales count toward overall monthly sales but not all products have discounts applied – check out a list of items that do. Selling less the next month will only push you down one tier but consistently getting ranked will land you faster sale payouts, regardless of history. Find out how Teespring’s monthly sales discount works here.
Comparing discounts for the two, Printify’s Premium Plan has a more straightforward discount of 20% to all products which is much more feasible for growing sellers. Teespring capping discounts at a maximum of $3.00 (tier 10,000-19,999) makes varying discount percentages – some products are more favorable than others.
Winner: Printify – with the 20% discounts, prices are just much lower than Teespring, providing sellers a higher profit margin
8. Integration with ecommerce websites for sales
As I explained above, Printify runs solely as a print provider and all sales are made out of the platform. It may be an entrepreneur’s preference as one can easily scale to multiple marketplaces.
Aside from Etsy, Printify integrates with a handful of ecommerce sites and marketplaces (find more here):
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- eBay (marketplace)
- Wix
- PrestaShop
- BigCommerce
- Squarespace
- Printify API
With the goal of creating a thriving creator community, Teespring mainly focuses on integration with social platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Discord, Linktree and streaming channels on Streamlabs. Your fans can also be redirected to a Teespring Store connected to a personal domain. If you’re still keen on selling on marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy and eBay, apply for Teespring’s Boosted Network. However, products sold through Boosted are not applicable for discounts I’ve explained above.
Winner: Printify – selling with Teespring can be challenging for beginners without a ready social audience to market to. With Printify’s Premium Plan, you also get the 20% discount for every sale made on marketplaces, unlike Boosted
9. Customer support when you face issues
There’s ample of resources online to learn from if you face any issues on both Printify and Teespring. Need help? Below are some things you can find directly from Printify without needing to ask:
- Guides on how to start selling on marketplaces like Etsy and Shopify
- How to set up automatic payments
- Printify’s shipping options and rates (domestic and international)
- How to manage products and orders
Of course, there is a live chat feature to immediately chat with merchant support agents and a messaging feature if it’s less urgent.
Teespring also offers live chat for anyone to reach out for help. There are tons of resources online both on Teespring Community and Spring (new blog updated for newer content). Some things you can find on Spring’s new blog are:
- How to protect your intellectual property and make a claim
- Guides on how to integrate account to social platforms
- Details on pricing, discounts and payouts
- Guide on how to sell digital products and NFT with Mint-On-Demand (NEW)
Winner: Printify – just because these resources can easily be found when you visit Printify’s website compared to Teespring (took some time to find the pages) and there are a lot more questions answered.
10. Affiliate opportunity to earn on products
Printify has an affiliate program for sellers to earn from promoting a product or referring the platform to new sellers looking to make money. For every new seller you refer, you are able to make 5% commission for their sales in the first 12 months. It may sound like an expiry date but will you reject free money? So, if you have friends interested in designing and building a POD merchandise business, refer them away!
Teespring does not have any affiliate program for sellers to earn from.
Winner: Printify – obviously!
11. Expert print on demand program to join
Small progress leads to big changes. If you’re serious with print on demand, you can become an expert one day selling with Printify. Printify’s Expert Program recruits experts from various lines of work that could help other sellers run their store e.g. digital marketing, graphic designing, finance and even customer support.
Have skills in these fields? You don’t actually have to sell with Printify to be able to offer your skills – apply here.
Teespring does not offer similar services on their platform.
Winner: Printify – any new seller can benefit from hiring experts!
Printify Vs Teespring: Summary Of Differences In Features
| Features | Printify | Teespring |
| Free sign up | ✓ | ✓ |
| Etsy integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shopify integration | ✓ | 🗴 |
| Streamlabs integration | 🗴 | ✓ |
| Social Platforms integration | 🗴 | ✓ |
| Discounts on samples | 🗴 | 🗴 |
| Customized label for your brand | ✓ | 🗴 |
| Include business cards and pamphlets in shipments | 🗴 | 🗴 |
| Live chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Educational content | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monthly discounts | 🗴 | ✓ |
| Subscription for greater savings | ✓ | 🗴 |
| Affiliate program | ✓ | 🗴 |
| Expert program | ✓ | 🗴 |
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
Question: Is Printify a dropship supplier or service?
Answer: Print on demand is similar to dropshipping. The only difference is, sellers will upload designs to products they plan to dropship. No inventory is kept as fulfillment companies like Printify or Printful will ship out purchases directly to customers. Hence, sellers pay nothing until they make a sale.
Question: Should I use Teespring for print on demand?
Answer: Teespring is a great print on demand fulfillment, similar to Redbubble and Society6. It is best for content creators with a great social media following and aiming to sell merchandise to a ready audience on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook. With Teespring Store, your POD shop can be created in minutes.
Question: How can I drive traffic to a Teespring Store?
Answer: You can bring in traffic to your Teespring Store by using paid advertising or promoting organically on social media. This includes having a dedicated Instagram account for your brand and regularly posting quality content using hashtags. When using Facebook ads, track progress by installing Facebook Pixel to your shop.
Bottom Line
If you want to know the most important factors to me when deciding between POD fulfillment sites, I’ve explained three factors here! Eager to start but still unsure what product to sell? Check out my compact guides for some of the best selling print on demand products out there. Pick one based on your level of expertise but you can’t go wrong with them!
Which fulfillment are you more inclined to? Let me know down below how your print on demand journey is going so far.
- Tote bags for print on demand
- Tumblers for print on demand
- Phone cases for print on demand
- Posters for print on demand
- Leggings for print on demand
- Jewelry for print on demand
- Candles for print on demand
- Doormats for print on demand
- Hoodies for print on demand
- Pet products for print on demand
- Socks for print on demand
- Pajamas for print on demand
- Blankets for print on demand
- Baby clothes for print on demand
- Wrapping paper for print on demand
- Puzzles for print on demand
- Stickers for print on demand
- Athletic wear for print on demand
- Hats for print on demand
- Journals for print on demand
- Greeting cards for print on demand
- Mugs for print on demand
Photo by Никита Сайф
