9 Best Shopify Print on Demand Apps To Sell Custom Products
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By
Omar Deryan - Updated on
Print-on-demand businesses have become prevalent in the ecommerce industry as more entrepreneurs use this business model to sell products online.
A print-on-demand business model allows you to sell white-label products on Shopify, like t-shirts, mugs, wall art, phone cases, books, calendars, posters, and more, without upfront costs associated with store inventory or shipping products to your customers.
Your print-on-demand supplier can take care of fulfillment for your online store. All you have to do is market your products to your target audience and create high-quality products.
Anyone can start an apparel or merchandise business with a few designs, a Shopify store, and the right Shopify print-on-demand apps.
In this article, I’ve reviewed and ranked the best print-on-demand apps for Shopify, including my top five picks.
This app is excellent for beginners who want everything they need in a print-on-demand service.
This app gets all things right for large-scale custom-design POD businesses.
This print-on-demand app is ideal for starting an online apparel business.
If you’re looking to scale and scale fast, Gooten is a superb option.
With Teelaunch, you can create a t-shirt or merchandise brand and start selling ASAP.
Table of Contents
What Are the 9 Best Shopify Print-on-Demand Apps?
Wondering what Shopify print-on-demand apps you can use to start a print-on-demand business?
Here are my picks for the best print-on-demand apps on Shopify.
Omar's Take
Printful is at the top of my list of Shopify print-on-demand apps. This app lets beginners can quickly start building a print-on-demand store on Shopify.
Over 13 million users have used this app to create, sell, and ship Shopify print-on-demand products to millions of customers worldwide.
and calculating Etsy fees.
- Best For Print-on-demand beginners
- Price Starts at $9 monthly
- Annual Billing $99 annually
- Promotion Free Plan
Printful is the best print-on-demand site for Shopify. The app gives you access to over 250 products with all sorts of design ideas. Even if you don’t have a design background, you can still do print-on-demand on your own online store.
Printful also works with the following ecommerce platforms.
- Wix
- Etsy
- Woocommerce
- eBay
- Magento
- Square
- Squarespace
- Webflow
- Ecwid
- Amazon
Features
Here are Printful’s top features.
Printing and Embroidery Products
Printful offers various Shopify on-demand printing techniques for an extensive product range.
With Printful’s direct-to-garment printing, you can sell printed versions of your design that can go anywhere on your merchandise. There is also embroidery and all-over print for various garments.
Warehouses in the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia
With warehouses in various locations worldwide, you can send your Shopify print-on-demand products to your customers faster. If your customers are in the US or Europe, they can receive their orders within the same day.
Access a Test Product
You can order a test product at 20% off to create beautiful marketing collaterals if you want to get test products for photo shoots.
Extensive Video Tutorials and Guides
Access excellent resources for beginners through tutorial videos that teach you all you need to know about Shopify print-on-demand.
Cons
Using Printful has a free plan, but they will charge you per order, a high variable cost over time. Having the pay-per-order setup when you’re starting helps you taper fixed costs and scale faster.
Pricing
Here are Printful’s pricing plans.
- Printful Free – $0
- Printful Plus – $9 monthly
- Printful Pro – $49 monthly
Omar's Take
Printify is a free print-on-demand app that lets you start selling products and helps you scale a business fast with automation and reliable print-on-demand services.
This scalability allows business owners to distribute more products to customers while lowering costs using their platform.
- Best For Large-scale custom designs
- Price Starts at $29 monthly
- Annual Billing Starts at $24.99 monthly
- Promotion Free plan
Among Shopify print-on-demand stores, Printify has one of the most extensive product ranges.
Printify lets you create custom designs for over 750 products. You can use the site’s mockup generator to finalize products and start selling immediately.
Features
Here are Printify’s features.
Mockup Generator
Design your product by using their free mockup generator tool. Simply drag and drop your design and see your creation come to life with their realistic 3D setting previews in just a few seconds.
Risk-free money-making promise
You can protect your money by only paying fulfillment once you make a sale, reducing costs and ensuring you can manage business risk better.
Fulfill orders even on peak days
Printify’s wide range of networks can handle your products from creation to fulfillment, given their connections and partners.
Printify can manage the high demand for your business, allowing you to gain maximum profit.
Cons
Printify has a wide range of fulfillment partners that can help with orders on peak days. However, the site needs to improve tech and client support to allow clients to focus on selling rather than site user experience.
Pricing
Here are Printify’s pricing plans.
- Free – $0
- Premium – $29 monthly
- Enterprise – Custom Pricing
Omar's Take
Printy6 is the perfect partner for businesses specializing in custom apparel. They can use this platform to source pieces they can sell on their own Shopify stores.
- Best For Apparel print-on-demand
- Price Price varies depending on apparel type.
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion N/A
Over 500,000 merchants trust Printy6, giving you the platform to source and sell your products everywhere. You can access fantastic international shipping services, various printing techniques, and quality direct-to-garment printing.
Features
Here are Printy6’s features.
No Minimum Order Quantity
No minimum order quantity means you can reduce inventory, cut costs, optimize sales, and grow your business.
Fast Delivery Services
Printy6 allows you to fulfill your customer’s orders faster. Within two to four business days, the tracking number will be available for your items.
Quality Guarantee
Printy6 guarantees they use the best materials. They ensure their products’ quality using AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) and ISO standard fabric.
Cons
While Printy6 boasts a fast delivery service, some items have a longer production time than promised due to the increased demand.
Pricing
Printy6’s price varies depending on the item.
- Women’s Clothing – Starts at $8.70
- Men’s Clothing – Starts at $7.20
- Kid’s & Babies – Starts at $9.70
- Accessories – Starts at $6
- Home and Living – Starts at $5
Omar's Take
Gooten allows you to scale your Shopify business by providing reliable fulfillment and management systems for your company.
This app can help you outsource non-core functions, letting you focus on essential aspects needed for your business growth.
- Best For Scaling businesses
- Price Price varies depending on the product.
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion N/A
Having processed and shipped over 4 Million products, Gooten gained the trust of their clients with an error rate of only 2% and with their ship-on-time rate of 95%.
Features
Here are Gooten’s features.
Centralized Order Management System
Gooten helps manage your business by allowing you and your teams to see your products and order history in all your stores. The platform provides business owners access to real-time product data to efficiently manage their business using a centralized platform.
Team Competence
You can reduce costs by working with highly qualified employees that can handle operations, billing, quality control, and more.
Opportunities for Expansion
Sell globally to scale your business. The app’s vast network of partner manufacturers gives you access to quality equipment to bring your products to a broader audience.
Cons
Gooten doesn’t charge monthly, but the platform’s products tend to be more expensive than other apps.
Pricing
Gooten’s pricing varies per product.
Omar's Take
Teelaunch helps you build a t-shirt line with your own branding. The custom t-shirts POD site helps you sell t-shirts with custom designs and build a strong community and fan base around your own brand.
- Best For Selling t-shirts
- Price Varies depending on the product.
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion N/A
Teelaunch enables you to start a business that sells t-shirts relatively quickly. They help you keep your product line fresh as they offer different types of products.
Features
Here are Teelaunch’s features.
Worldwide Production
Produce quality goods and fulfill customer orders faster by sourcing from their global partners from the US, the UK, and more. Teelaunch keeps customers happy by fulfilling orders quicker and decreasing the distance between factories and customers.
Wide variety of product offers
They offer an extensive range of products to keep your customers engaged and happy with your brand. You can keep your brand fresh and unique with its many product offerings.
Content Resources
Teelaunch shares industry secrets by providing resources that build strong brands. They feature free and paid resources proving that Teelaunch wants to build your brand with you.
Cons
Teelaunch offers a wide range of products that have served clients and their customers well, but a recent system update caused some difficulty with user migration as some users reported they lost their products and accounts.
Pricing
Teelaunch’s pricing varies per product.
Omar's Take
Creative Hub bridges the gap between the demand of client needs and the supply of creative services. It is an app to help creatives launch their own store by seamlessly integrating Shopify into their platform.
- Best For Creative entrepreneurs
- Price Starts at £8 monthly (approximately $9.85 monthly)
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion Free plans
Creative Hub allows creatives to showcase and sell their work through their powerful e-commerce platforms.
Creative Hub can help boost income as they automate selling your art from your platform through dropshipping.
Features
Here are Creative Hub’s features.
Find Freelance Creative Work
One unique aspect of this platform is that creatives can post their portfolio to connect with clients and get paid to do creative work.
Project Collaboration Tools
Collaborate and connect with clients through their platform. Clients can provide comments and instantly share feedback to help creatives adjust accordingly.
Selling your art online
You cab fulfill online orders. The platform enables you to manage your products by connecting you to a third-party online store such as Shopify.
Cons
Creative Hub’s customer service needs improvement because some users report it can be slow.
Pricing
Here is Creative Hub’s pricing plans.
- Free – £0
- Pro – Starts at £8 monthly
Omar's Take
Spod is the sustainable option for entrepreneurs. They support clients who sell and market print-on-demand products while caring for the environment.
- Best For Sustainable production
- Price Free
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion Free Forever
Spod gives your company a sustainable option by making products using greener options such as vegan ink and organic cotton.
Features
Here are Spod’s features.
48-Hour Production Guarantee
Produce your products in under 48 hours with the help of their in-house partners in the United States and Europe.
Discounted Samples
Spod understands that you want to check the quality of your products. Get 20% off sample items when you partner with SPOD.
Learning Resources
Gain insight and knowledge through numerous resources, such as newsletters and articles, to gain e-commerce growth tips and tricks. Build your brand the right way with their featured blog posts.
Cons
Due to increased customer demand, it may take some time for some items to be fulfilled by SPOD, making it hard for their clients to ship their customer’s orders on time.
Pricing
Here are Spod’s pricing plans.
- Men’s apparel – Starts at $8.18
- Women’s apparel– Starts at $9.09
- Kid’s and babies – Starts at $9.33
- Accessories – Starts at $6.56
Omar's Take
JetPrint app aims to fulfill your print-on-demand brand creations on Shopify. Their services allow you to customize clothing, bags, accessories, and more.
- Best For Custom brands
- Price Varies depending on product type.
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion N/A
With over 400 print-on-demand products, JetPrint seeks to be the top business service provider for companies. They have helped 30,000 merchants with their products, and they seek to benefit more as they offer more than just POD services.
Features
Here are JetPrint’s features.
24/7 Customer and Technical Support
JetPrint’s stable and steady support proves that this company will be there for you every step of the way.
Partners with Delivery Companies
To ensure JetPrint can keep up with demand, they partnered with delivery companies to provide a better customer experience. JetPrint delivers over 120,000 orders to their happy customers monthly.
Customized Services
JetPrint is developing a new service that enables customers to customize products on your print-on-demand sites. Custom embroidery options are also available to appeal to your clientele.
Cons
With increased demand, some items on the site might not have customization options.
Pricing
Prices vary depending on the product.
Omar's Take
If you’re an aspiring or existing author, Lulu Direct is the ultimate choice to sell books with a Shopify store print-on-demand model.
As one of the best print-on-demand companies for paper-based products, this Shopify store extension lets you sell books with all sorts of materials, finishes, sizes, and designs.
- Best For Authors
- Price Starts at $5.34 per unit.
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion N/A
Lulu is the best print-on-demand app for Shopify if you intend to sell books and paperback products.
This print-on-demand app lets you dropship books, planners, magazines, calendars, notebooks, and virtually any other paper-based product on your Shopify website.
A tool like Lulu helps authors self-publish without spending thousands of dollars to bulk print books. You can launch your book in a few days by connecting Lulu with e-commerce platforms like Shopify.
Features
Here are Lulu Direct’s features.
Easy-to-Use Publishing Dashboard
Lulu’s backend dashboard is straightforward, making it convenient for anyone to upload softcopy files of your material for publishing and sell it online.
You can upload as many custom products as you want and edit and change them as needed. The Shopify print-on-demand app also has design suggestions for anyone who doesn’t want to lay out a print project from scratch.
Order Management System
On top of managing custom products, you can easily manage orders from your customers on the Lulu backend. It also connects seamlessly with your Shopify store, so orders instantly sync.
Integration with Shopify
The deep integration that Lulu has with Shopify enables you to print and deliver products fully automatedly. That way, your print-on-demand site runs even when you’re not managing it hands-on.
Cons
Lulu doesn’t cover the legal aspects of your book printing, such as the ISBN, which is only available if you qualify for global distribution.
Pricing
Lulu doesn’t follow a subscription model and charges you per piece. You can check out their book printing calculator to see how much your material might cost to publish, print, and send.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Are the Benefits of Using a Print-on-Demand Service?
Here are some benefits of using a Shopify print-on-demand app for your ecommerce business.
- Print-on-demand Shopify apps allow you to sell products without keeping inventory. Thus, you avoid inventory losses such as damage, losses from slow-moving products, and theft.
- You no longer need to spend capital on pre-purchase inventory, meaning you can significantly lower upfront costs and scale with time.
- You get more comprehensive product offerings since most print-on-demand companies let you access different products to print and dropship.
- When working with a print-on-demand company, you no longer have to handle shipping.
- You can create custom products for your brand and start selling online in minutes. No more waiting for several days to stock up, set inventory systems, hire fulfillment staff, and so on.
- A print-on-demand solution gives you a way to scale your business. Print-on-demand providers have automated processes, letting you focus on other things as the fulfillment system sends orders.
You also get to enjoy many other adjacent benefits. The bottom line is that a lot of good comes from using a print-on-demand service for your ecommerce business, online shop, or even offline retail channels.
How Much Can I Earn From a Print-on-Demand Business?
Here are several factors that affect your income from selling print-on-demand products.
- The industry or niche of products you choose to sell
- Your product quality
- Customer service
- The quality of your designs
- Your marketing and advertising strategies to reach your target customers
- The volume and quality of marketing materials you put out
There are some dropshipping businesses that can earn a full-time income from print-on-demand products. Others might make a decent side income for their businesses.
The amount of time and effort you put into marketing your products online also plays a prominent role in how well your print-on-demand business will do.
Do a sales forecast analysis by looking at how many products you sell on average and what volume you’ll attain, given your future marketing plans.
Try and invest more time and resources into proven strategies and test other marketing and sales apps from Shopify App Store and which ones help you convert sales.
Also, try selling different products on your Shopify store and see which ones convert better. Run promotions and incentives to drive sales, like better wholesale discounts, free shipping, bundles, and more.
You can also add your products to other major ecommerce platforms you acquire customers on other marketplaces.
How Much Does a Print-on-Demand Business Cost?
Costs to start and run a print-on-demand business vary widely depending on factors like the number of products you offer, how many products you send out, suppliers you use, marketing expenses, and platform fees.
Here are the most common costs you’ll have to absorb when running a print-on-demand company.
Printing Costs
Print-on-demand companies charge different fees for their customized products. So, compare the price points on a varied product range you want to offer on your site and choose the supplier that provides the most competitive prices.
Website Costs
The platform you use to sell your products will have specific costs. For Shopify sites, you will have to pay a fixed monthly cost, depending on your plan.
- Basic Shopify – $19 monthly
- Shopify – $49 monthly
- Advanced Shopify – $299 monthly
Marketing Costs
Marketing and sales are a necessary investment to get eyeballs on your print-on-demand store, so you’ll have to spend on a few things.
While you don’t have to run all strategies, trying various ways to promote your Shopify store is essential.
Here are some standard marketing costs.
- Creatives to design posters and edit videos
- Writers to write compelling copies
- Ads on platforms like Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, and more
- SEO consultants
- Email marketing tools (most tools charge monthly fees depending on how many people are on your email lists)
- Chatbot usage
- Customer relationship management tools
- Shopify marketing apps
- Influencer deals
Shipping Costs
Studies show that surprise shipping costs added to a product will deter people from buying from a store.
So I recommend covering shipping costs. That means finding cost-effective shipping options or looking for ways to save when shipping products.
Shipping costs depend on your recipient’s distance from a POD warehouse. Some print-on-demand suppliers cover shipping costs for domestic shipping, but you might need to pay extra for international shipping.
When running any print-on-demand company, the way you manage your finances plays a crucial role in the success of an online store or business. So keep track of your costs and see the returns on investment.
When you deem some costs unnecessary, stop paying for those services and channel those costs to more effective strategies or keep them as liquid cash. Taper costs to keep your profit margins as high as possible.
The Bottom Line
Running a print-on-demand system on your Shopify store can be a promising business opportunity. Using one of these fantastic tools increases your chances of success.
You should also learn how to add social share buttons to your Shopify store, allowing customers to share your business on social media and driving traffic to your ecommerce site.
Omar Deryan Founder of OJ Digital Solutions
