Abby B. Wondering if you’re making the right choice signing up to a print on demand site? Unsure how to compare Spreadshirt vs Teespring? Here are 11 things you should know.
There’s just so many POD sites you can join and most are free! However, it can really make a difference between signing up to one against another. They are all built differently with different features and I wish someone told me this earlier!
In this article, I’ll be explaining 11 key things to know about Spreadshirt vs Teespring. These tiny details should help you make the decision on which site to join!
*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!
Spreadshirt vs Teespring: 11 Ways To Compare
1. Signing up for an account
A seller account is free to create on both Spreadshirt and Teespring.
On Spreadshirt, you have two options to choose from when creating a seller account.
- Join Spreadshirt Marketplace – listing your products with everyone else on the platform so it looks something like Amazon or Etsy
- Free of charge
- Your designs are uploaded to products and listed on a marketplace
- Your designs are also sold for others to use via paid graphic elements
- You benefit from the traffic that Spreadshirt brings
- Great for busy side-hustlers looking to make extra income just by adding designs
- Create a Spreadshop – listing your products in your own dedicated shop
- Free of charge
- You create your own store with a dedicated URL (subdomain under Spreadshop)
- Able to customize your shop’s look and feel
- Full control of shop’s product line
- Great for brands, influencers and business owners looking to create their own line of merchandise
- Shop name can be changed anytime (unlike Redbubble or Zazzle)
Signing up to both uses the classic email and you can’t connect to a social account. It should take less than a minute to get you to your seller dashboard. If you’re not famous like me and prefer to just generate passive income, creating a Spreadshirt account is enough.
Process is much easier on Teespring as it lets you sign up with YouTube, Google or Facebook. One way not to remember credentials and passwords. There’s only one type of account to sign up to.
Winner: Teespring – signing up is easier and less complicated for the average person. I need to understand all this info beforehand (there wasn’t enough)!
2. How the platforms work
If you’ve heard of Redbubble, these two sites work just like it. Artists and sellers get to upload designs, make products and sell all within the same platform. There’s no need to look elsewhere or set up a shop on a different site.
Assuming you signed up for Spreadshirt and not Spreadshop, you can monetize your designs on assorted products within a few easy clicks and publish them to the marketplace. Spreadshirt will bring in the traffic for you based on the description you’ve provided. Like I mentioned above, this is perfect for solopreneurs and individuals looking to build a side hustle.
Teespring (Spring) on the other hand, is geared greatly towards brands, influencers and content creators to earn with their own line of merchandise. For this purpose, unlike other sites, they offer integrations with social platforms instead of ecommerce websites – I’ve shared their integrations down below.
If you’re not someone with a great following online, you can still sell within Spring itself by creating a Teespring Store with your own dedicated URL.
Are you a brand or an online creator looking to sell with Spreadshirt? Create a Spreadshop account instead. They offer YouTube Merch Shelf integration too!
Winner: Undecided – they’re both great and I think are similar in a lot of ways. So it’s completely up to you what you prefer.
3. Choice of print on demand products
Both Spreadshirt and Teespring offer quite a wide range of print on demand products. However, Spreadshirt has a lot more items for sellers to benefit from. Trust me, increasing the types of products you sell increases your chances of making a sale. Win-win!
Here’s a summary of products offered by Spreadshirt vs Teespring:
| Catalog | Spreadshirt | Teespring |
| Products | Clothing Loungewear Sportswear Baby clothing Maternity Hats Bags Phone cases Bandanas Stickers Face masks Pillow cases Aprons Mugs Water bottles Mouse pads Magnets | Apparel (hoodies, leggings, socks, tees, etc.) Beach towels Canvas prints Flags Mugs Phone cases Pillows Posters Tote bags |
Winner: Spreadshirt – greater choice of products to choose from. Not limited to merchandise kind only, items are great for personal use and gifting.
4. Generating mockups to impress
Who doesn’t love beautiful mockups? It’s the first thing your customer sees that convinces them to make that purchase. If you’re selling with Spreadshirt (marketplace), there’s no option to change mockups as it is controlled by Spreadshirt. Your customers will still see mockup images when viewing your product – just like this tote bag sample here.
This goes the same for Teespring, you can’t view the mockups from the seller dashboard. However, you do get to choose the primary image of the listing when uploading designs – it is fairly important!
Winner: Teespring – there’s some level of control for product images.
5. User experience when uploading designs
Creating a product design on Spreadshirt is very easy and smooth. I like that we are able to create using designs from Spreadshirt’s library using their Customize Tool. There is a choice of free graphics and paid ones which were $3.00 each as they’re made by independent artists (including yourself!).
You can add a paid design as many times to a product and only be charged once for it. Alternatively, you can directly upload any design you have already created on Canva, Photoshop etc.
Teespring’s user interface is very clean and simple compared to Spreadshirt (at least for me) as everything can be accessed within a single dashboard. It’s clear how many steps you’ll have to go through to upload a design and have it ready for sales. Much like Spreadshirt, you can view the designed product from multiple angles.
Winner: Undecided – both are great on its own! I personally favor Teespring as I am more used to the simple process (compared to adding elements here & there).
6. Ordering a sample product for yourself
There are ways to enjoy discounts when ordering samples for yourself on POD sites like Printful and Printify. Too bad, both Spreadshirt and Teespring do not offer any product discounts for you to sample your own creations.
However, it’s good to know that Spreadshirt has a 30-day return policy if you’re unhappy with your purchase. So, as a seller, you should be able to purchase your own designs, test the items yourself and maybe return it within 30 days if you decide not to keep it. Limited to only 20 items per delivery!
Teespring lets you order samples at product base cost and actually encourages you to do so! Read how to order samples on Teespring here.
Winner: Undecided – I like the no questions asked flexibility to return samples on Spreadshirt and love that I can buy at base cost from Teespring.
7. Shipping services and cost
As a seller, you won’t need to worry about shipping charges as these fees are added automatically by the POD site. However, as a consumer myself, I can’t help but to think twice when it comes to paying shipping for just one item. Hence, it’s always good to know what’s the average shipping fee your customers are being charged.
Both Spreadshirt and Teespring have international shipping and express shipping to countries all around the world. There is no worry of how far your products can go on both platforms. Express shipping (or known as Rush shipping on Teespring) can bring down delivery time to 2 days for the USA and 2-4 days for international shipping, which is pretty great!
For a standard t-shirt, below are the differences in shipping cost to the USA between Spreadshirt and Teespring. Quite a difference!
| Shipping charges | Spreadshirt ($) | Teespring ($) |
| 1st item | 5.99 | 3.99 |
| 2nd item (additional to the package) | 2.00 | 2.00 |
Winner: Teespring – cheaper shipping charges for a single item. Can really affect the buyer’s decision-making and your sales!
8. Earning potential with each sale
For every online business you go into, you should know the margin you’re making on each sale made. There are two main things that affect your profit with POD, which are product prices and discounts you can get for making higher sales.
Product pricing
On Spreadshirt, you earn based on commissions when your design is sold on a marketplace (on a product) or when it’s used by another individual (paid design). Although you earn a fixed commission of $2.00 every time someone uses your design, commission on sales is nothing beyond $6.00 and varies depending on product sold (check here).
Teespring lets you price your own products hence earning potential isn’t capped at a certain amount. You’re free to set a higher price to get a higher margin – of course, customers might be less willing to purchase.
Winner: Undecided – both earning schemes have its own pros and cons. If you like to be on the safer side of things, Spreadshirt’s uniform commissions may work for you.
Monthly product discounts
Marketplaces like Spreadshirt offer site-wide discounts to customers at the benefit/expense of sellers. You can read how Spreadshirt’s discounts work here, but essentially artists bear the cost of volume discounts and promotions by equal proportions – except for free shipping campaigns. If a discount is 15%, your earnings are reduced by 15% as well.
Teespring on the other hand, lets you determine discounts for your own store. You can create your own promo codes and run your own campaigns. More details on how Teespring’s promotions works here.
Winner: Teespring – better control and I can decide how much discount to give as it directly impacts my earnings.
9. Integration with other websites for sales
Spreadshirt does not offer any integration options and all sales happen on a single marketplace. If you want to sell Spreadshirt’s products on Shopify, consider using SPOD instead – a white label POD brand under the same group.
While Teespring does not integrate with ecommerce platforms or websites, you can use it to sell merchandise on social media. This includes sites like Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Linktree and Discord. Each social media platform has different requirements especially YouTube’s Merchandise Shelf – so better to find out these details before starting.
Winner: Teespring – they offer various social media integrations unlike other print on demand sites.
10. Payment schedules to cash out earnings
Spreadshirt pays artists by the 15th of the month for earnings made in the month before. If you’ve selected USD as your main currency, the minimum balance for a payout is just $10.00 – great that it’s low! You can receive earnings via direct deposit or PayPal transfer – more details on it here.
There are no thresholds you need to achieve to receive payouts on Teespring. You can request for it anytime as long as you meet these simple requirements, via PayPal or Payoneer. Teespring gives faster payments if you optimize your seller account e.g. achieve higher sales and set up two-factor authentication.
Winner: Teespring – better payment methods, no threshold needed to meet and I can work towards getting faster payouts!
11. Referral programs to earn extra
Referral or affiliate programs are a great way to earn extra income as a print on demand seller. A lot more POD fulfillments are creating these reward schemes so real users can naturally promote their sites.
Spreadshirt has an affiliate program for you to sign up to. However, they are only available for a few markets – Germany, UK, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Netherlands. You can earn 15% commission on all orders made via your link i.e. when someone purchases a product on Spreadshirt.
With an average basket value of €40, you can make about €6 on each purchase. More details about Spreadshirt’s affiliate program here.
Teespring does not have any referral or affiliate programs to offer.
Winner: Spreadshirt – would love to earn that 15% commission while promoting a site I’m already using!
Spreadshirt vs Teespring: Summary of Differences
| Features | Spreadshirt | Teespring |
| Free sign up | 🗸 | 🗸 |
| Ecommerce integration | 🗴 | 🗸 |
| Selling at platform store | 🗸 | 🗸 |
| Discounts on samples | 🗴 | 🗴 |
| Flexibility to price products | 🗴 | 🗸 |
| Custom label your products | 🗴 | 🗴 |
| Sell on your own domain | 🗴 | 🗸 |
| Live chat for buyers | 🗴 | 🗸 |
| Referral program | 🗴 | 🗴 |
| Affiliate program | 🗸 | 🗴 |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The difference between Spreadshirt and Spreadshop is where your designs will be sold. On Spreadshirt, your designs are sold among others’ in a single marketplace. If you would like to operate your own standalone website, you should open an account on Spreadshop instead.
Teespring is a better option compared to Spreadshirt for a serious print on demand business. It allows sellers to price products and set promotions on their own, instead of getting a fixed commission with Spreadshirt. Teespring also integrates with other platforms for you to expand with.
YouTubers should use Spring to sell merchandise with a YouTube channel. It is more professional looking and does not require your audience to open another website to view your products. They can view via the Merchandise Shelf and focus on watching your videos at the same time.
Bottom Line
Here are 11 things you should know when deciding between Spreadshirt and Teespring for print on demand:
- Signing up for an account
- How the platforms work
- Choice of products
- Generating mockups
- User experience when uploading designs
- Ordering a sample product for yourself
- Shipping services and cost
- Earning potential with each sale
- Integration with other websites for sales
- Payment schedules to cash out earnings
- Referral programs to earn extra
Decided on a fulfillment site for your business? It’s time to choose a product to sell, check out my product guides!
- 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 Ketut Subiyanto
