It is beyond doubt, Printful is one of the most prominent print-on-demand platforms available for selling custom merchandise. But, is this really suitable for you? In this review of Printful we will discuss its features, pricing, advantages, and limitations. This will help you to decide if it is the best print-on-demand company for you.
Review of Printful
- What is Printful?
- Who can use Printful
- Mockup Generator
- Warehouse and Fulfillment
- Product Quality
- Pricing
- Fees
- Shipping Time
- Branding and Customization
- Integrations
- Value Added Services
- Product Catalog
- Advantages of Printful
- Limitations of Printful
- Summary
What is Printful?
Printful is a print-on-demand platform that helps you to sell white-label custom products. With its fulfillment centers in Europe and North America, Printful can ship your custom products worldwide.
In short, unlike selling ready products from dropshipping platforms like Spocket, you can sell your own custom designs with Printful.
All you have to do is to upload your own design in Printful in digital file format.
After you upload your design, Printful can manufacture a product based on your custom design as soon as you place the order. It also ships the custom merchandise to your customers under your own brand.
You do not have to order products in bulk and stock them in your inventory. Instead, Printful is happy to ship even a single order for your product. Moreover, it has no monthly fees as subscription price. Printful charges you per order.
But, does this mean Printful has no limitations? Not really. Let us dive deep into the features of Printful and check them ourselves.
Printful for Print-On-Demand Dropshipping
When you place an order at Printful, it replicates your design and creates a physical product. It checks the product quality and ships it to your customer on your behalf.
In short, Printful lies between a bulk manufacturer and a generic dropshipping platform.
Like dropshipping, you order only after you sell a product. But unlike dropshipping, you sell your own designs.
Who can use Printful?
Anyone. If you want to sell unique designs but cannot invest in bulk production, platforms like Printful is the way.
Using Printful is simple. In fact, you can create a free Printful account and explore Printful right now!
All you need is just a custom design in digital file format. If you do not have the necessary skills, you can hire freelancers.
Printful supports most of the leading eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. So, it is easy to integrate your storefront with Printful.
If you integrate your store, Printful can automatically pull in the relevant order details from your store. After manufacturing, it ships the product to your customer as a white-label shipment.
Printful Mockup Generator
Printful offers you a powerful Mockup Generator to create instant product mockups. It is a free utility that can help you generate attractive product photographs for displaying them on your storefront.
You do not need an account to use the Printful Mockup generator. You can play around with the tool without even signing up.
Warehouse and Fulfillment Services of Printful
Printful is a print-on-demand platform. But it also has a very powerful fulfillment service.
Note that this is a paid and value-added service available to all its customers.
Its customers can store even their non-Printful products in its warehouses subject to Printful’s approval. When your customer places an order, Printful receives order details using integrations. It fulfills the order and charges you the required fees.
In short, Printful handles the packing and shipping in such cases. It keeps track of your inventory and notifies you if stock runs low.
Quality of Products
Printful has an impressive review of its product quality. The general user feedback and testimonials suggest that most Printful customers are satisfied with its product quality and services.
We encourage you to read the user feedback and product ratings on its website.
In fact, product quality is one of those parameters in which Printful really leads the race.
Printful Pricing
You need not pay any monthly fee or upfront investment to use Printful. You can signup for free and start using the platform right away.
Printful charges you only when you order a product.
To make it clearer, there are two transactions for every order that uses Printful for fulfillment:
- Your customer pays you for the order on your storefront.
- Printful charges you for fulfillment.
The difference between these two amounts is your profit.
Printful Fees
Though you do not pay any regular monthly subscription, you pay fees to Printful for each order.
Here, we are going to see the base fees you need to pay for the services.
- Product cost – This is the base charge that you need to pay to Printful for a product. The product charge varies on the product and variant.
- Shipping cost – The shipping cost varies depending on the product and destination. We will discuss more on shipping and handling in the next section of this review.
- If you opt for any value-added service, it will be charged extra.
Printful Shipping Time
Printful processes every order on demand and fulfills it.
In general, Printful needs the following processing time:
- 2–7 days for apparels and related products
- 2–5 business days for non-apparel products.
After Printful manufactures the product, it ships the product to your customers via fulfillment centers that can fulfill in the least time.
This ensures that your customers receive the product in the fastest time.
The shipping time and shipping cost depend on the destination of the shipment. The following table indicates an estimated delivery time depending on the geography.
| Geography | Shipping Time |
|---|---|
| Canada | 6-10 days |
| The United States | 3-4 days |
| Europe | 3-5 days |
| Australia | 12-14 days |
| India | 6-10 days |
Printful Shipping Costs
Printful shipping charges vary depending on the destination and product category. You can always refer to the updated shipping charges on the Printful website.
Moreover, Printful ships products with trusted delivery partners like:
- FedEx
- DHL
- USPS
- DPD
This ensures that your customers will have a pleasant delivery experience.
Live Shipping Rates
If your store runs on any of the Printful supported platforms, you can even show live shipping rates on your storefront.
Branding
Let us look at the features that make Branding so easy with Printful.
Printful lets you add custom labels on apparel and other related categories. As you can realize, labels can add a huge brand value to your products.
Printful supports labeling in the form of:
- Inside Label
- Outside Label
- Short-Sleeve Print
- Long Sleeve Print
- Embroidered Logo
Note that labels are an optional and chargeable feature. But, custom packing slips are free.
Printful lets you send custom packing slips with your shipments for free.
Moreover, you can include pack-ins like flyers, business cards, or stickers with the shipments. You have to mail these pack-in items to Printful for storage. Printful will include your flyers inside the packaging box during shipment. This is again a chargeable service though.
To summarize, Printful has several amazing features to promote your brand.
Printful Integrations
Theoretically, you can accept an order on your storefront and process them manually. But, integrating Printful with your storefront makes it easier.
The platform has smooth integrations with most of the major eCommerce platforms. For example, you can connect Printful with:
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- BigCommerce
- Prestashop
- Ecwid
Note that this is not the full list. Printful also integrates with platforms like Gumroad and Webflow. If your eCommerce platform is not listed here, do check out the Printful website.
Moreover, Printful supports integrations with online marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and others.
This makes it easy to sell Printful products even without owning your own online store.
If you do not find a ready integration for your platform you can utilize the Printful API as well.
Printful – Value-Added Services
Apart from its quality product and fulfillment services, Printful also offers several significant value-added services. These optional Printful services are usually paid offerings.
A Printful customer can avail of value-added services like:
- Graphic Design
- eCommerce Photography
- Video Production
- Store Setup Services
- Warehousing and Fulfillment
In short, you get several solid eCommerce services under one umbrella.
Printful’s Product Catalog
Let us now look into the type of products you can sell with Printful.
Printful caters to almost all major print-on-demand product niches. For example, you can create and sell products from the following categories:
- Clothing: T-shirts, Hoodies, Sweatshirts, Leggings, Shorts, Tank tops, Polo shirts, Long sleeve shirts.
- Accessories: Stickers, Phone cases, Bracelets, Necklaces.
- Bags: Tote bags, Laptop cases, Drawstring bags, Backpacks, Fanny packs.
- Home & Living: Coffee mugs, Blankets, Pillows, Posters, Canvas prints, Bean bags, Beach towels, Embroidered aprons.
- Collections: Sportswear, Streetwear, Workwear, Beachwear.
Recently, Printful has also introduced face masks in its catalog.
These products are available in different variants and the price of your product will depend on the variant ordered.
In short, Printful has an impressive collection of products in its catalog. Most of the common categories of print-on-demand merchandise are available as Printful products.
Note that Printful keeps adding products to its catalog and you can download the latest catalog from its website.
Advantages of Printful
As we are nearing the end of this review of Printful, let us look at some of its advantages.
- Printful products have superior quality.
- Paid Printful services are value for money.
- Printful has a white-labeled fulfillment process.
- Printful has seamless integrations with major eCommerce platforms.
- You will get awesome support.
Limitations of Printful
Though Printful is a solid print-on-demand dropshipping platform, it has its own set of limitations. In fact, platforms like Printify has a better edge in some parameters. For example,
- Printful has a higher base price of products than its competitors.
- Though reliable, Printful has pricier shipping options.
- Printful has an adequate but smaller catalog. For example, Printful products do not include journals or shower curtains.
Final Thoughts
In this review of Printful, we have discussed the key features of the Printful platform.
In short, we found Printful to be a powerful, versatile, and professional print-on-demand platform. With its seamless integrations with several eCommerce platforms, Printful can really be a good option for your business.
You may find the Printful price is sometimes higher. But the quality and services are simply impeccable.