Printify vs Redbubble – Which Is Better?

Are you creative? Do you have designs you’ve always wished to see on a phone case, bag, t-shirt, cushions, and other stuff?

Maybe you even have a really cool tagline you feel would be an instant hit if it was printed on a t-shirt and shared with the world?

Well, most people with such wishes have a way of making them come true: print on demand.

The print on demand (POD) market is chock full of people who are making tons of cash selling custom designs and products online.

This booming global market is expected to hit the $10 billion mark by 2025, so if you’re planning on starting out with POD, now’s the time.

But that’s not the only exciting news about POD. Unlike the hassles that physical stores have to face like fulfillment, shipping, storage, and printing, POD business takes care of all these for you.

There are several POD service providers available on the market today, and selecting one can be quite a challenge, especially for newbies.

This post looks at a couple of the most popular POD service options – Printify and Redbubble. We give our comparison of the two so you can make an informed decision based on your needs.

Without further ado, let’s get started with the Printify vs Redbubble comparison.

Printify

This is an all-in-one, print on demand service that gives sellers the opportunity to make more money at lower costs.

The transparent network connects merchants instantly to top print providers across the globe. You can create your products, sync them with your online store on WooCommerce, Shopify, or Etsy, process orders, and ship them out to customers directly.

What’s more, you don’t need a huge investment upfront, and the service gives you access to top printing companies in markets like the UK, US, Australia, Germany, and China. You get Direct-to-garment and All-over printing (AOP) which are more reliable than the regular screen printing.

The company enables designers, artists, and other merchants to generate and sell their designs on online stores. They offer a wide product range from phone cases, posters, mugs, art print, hoodies, and more.

Since its incorporation in 2013, Printify, which was first integrated through Shopify, has grown to become a profitable service, and is growing at a rapid pace.

The service is preferred by its clients owing to reasons such as:

• Extensive printing partner network in over 90 locations across 5 countries
• Wide product selection of over 250 items
• Competitive product pricing
• Easy to use mockup generator
• Automatic syncing with online stores (Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce)

Printify Products & Suppliers

Printify stands out for its wide range of products in different categories, sizes, materials, colors, and cuts in each category. They also have segmentation for male, female, or kids, so you can find what you need easily.

There are over 250+ product items in categories such as:

• T-shirts: long sleeve, sleeveless, V-neck, scoop neck, polo, all-over-print, fitted cut, box cut, crewneck, tank, and much more
• Clothing: jackets, hoodies, dresses, bikinis, socks, leggings, hats, and more
• Shoes: sneakers, high-heels, flip flops, boots, high-tops
• Accessories: bags (tote, shopping), backpacks, phone cases, pouches, and more
• Home décor: wall decals and art, blankets, bath mats, towels, cushions, mugs, and more
• Jewelry: bracelets, dog tags, necklaces, and more
• Stationery: stickers, notebooks, and so much more
• Wearables

A handy mockup generator is available so you can see each product as it would look after customization and choose where you want your designs printed. You can also add product descriptions and adjust prices.

All these products are sourced from a large pool of suppliers most of whom are from countries like US, UK, Australia, Germany, and China.

Printify gives detailed information on the suppliers so you can find the right one, including their location, pricing, size options, and more.

How Printify Works

Printify works using a simple, four-step process:

• Sign up for Printify by installing the app using the “Get” button from Shopify’s App store. Enter your details to create and set up your account.
• Select the product you want to sell from the Product Selection page. This can be anything from a mug, hoodie, phone case, t-shirt, tote bag, and more. This is what you’ll place your design on.
• Place the design on the product. If you have the design, you can use Printify’s design tools to upload images, logos, or designs and drop on the product. Once done, adjust for size and other preferences. You do get to see mockups and set descriptions and prices, which will be dropped automatically to your online store.
• Select a supplier. There are several options for providers, most of whom let you request samples before selling the items on your site. Printify offers details on suppliers including minimum pricing, average time of production, printing areas like back and front, and much more. This makes it easier for you to compare providers and pick the best for your products.
• Upload the products on your site. You can use Shopify, WooCommerce, and Etsy integrations as Printify works fast with these online stores.
• Start making sales. Printify handles everything else for you going forward like fulfilment, billing, manufacturing requests, and shipping.

Shipping With Printify

Printify handles fulfilment, manufacturing requests, billing, and shipping, so you can relax and make sales.

All you need to do is select a supplier from the large list of service providers.

Each provider has varying shipping rates based on location, so you get to cherry pick the one you want.

You also get to set up flat rates, weight base, and express shipping based on the provider and destination. However, the average rates are anything from $8 to about $15, but you can check the shipping rates on Printify for exact amounts.

Also, the shipping times will vary, but on average, it takes anything from 5 days up to about 30 days, depending on the location. For example, US takes 5 days, while international locations take 10 to 30 days.

If you’re an advanced plan holder, you can also use the Printify Shipping Calculator to make sure you get the correct shipping rates. However, the calculator applies a flat shipping fee automatically for each purchase in the shopping cart and you can set it up for your account.

Printify Pricing

Printify offers three flexible pricing plans: Free, Premium, and Enterprise (Custom pricing).

Notably, the Premium plan is billed $29 every month, and $24.99 per month for an annual subscription. The Premium plan is designed to help merchants with growing sales that may require extra support and space.

Merchants get a 20 percent discount off all products, and a one-time bonus credit for joining that is applied to their Printify balance automatically. This bonus is also applied when they place orders, whether it’s for requesting samples or customers’ orders.

Printify doesn’t charge any hidden fees like transaction or commission charges. It’s a pay as you sell basis, and your profit margins are dependent on printing and shipping costs.

Printify Support

The company offers fast, efficient, and very responsive customer service, helping customers with technical and non-technical issues. It is one of the service’s strengths, with support offered at any time of day.

Printify Pros and Cons

Pros

• Wide product selection
• Large global printing network
• Automatic order fulfilment

Cons

• Limited branding options
• Limited integrations (only 3 – Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy)

Redbubble

Redbubble is one of the popular POD fulfilment services with a diverse, creative community and marketplace.

The service offers high-quality printing services with a wide selection of products to pick from as artists and designers from across the globe converge on the platform.

So you’re sure to find all forms of creativity, skill, talent, passion, and enthusiasm on Redbubble, on many items.

The company was born in 2006 with a simple dream: to give independent artists a meaningful way to sell their designs or creations.

Today, there are thousands of artists and designers across the world connecting and selling their creations with their passionate fans.

Whatever your thing may be, you can get artwork that you’ll love on well-designed and made, high-quality products that are personalized and original.

You can get anything from duvets, mugs, stationary, bags, phone cases, pillow cases, stickers, and so much more.

If you’re not happy with your order, Redbubble is ready to help you out through its customer success team.

Why Redbubble

When customers purchase from you, Redbubble prints the artwork to the product, and ships to the customer. You, on the other hand, get royalties of about 10 to 20 percent of the purchase price.

The platform is free and easy to join and open to anyone, so you spend nothing to sign up, upload your work, and start earning.

A large audience of potential customers awaits you on the other side of your store. And being a well-ranked site on Google, it boosts your chances of being seen and found, and selling too.

If you have great ideas and designs, just let Redbubble do the work and in no time, you should start to see sales and royalties build up.

Redbubble helps you make passive income, learn new skills as you see others’ designs, learn what sells or not from customer feedback, learn SEO, and find new clients.

Redbubble Products

There’s a wide variety of products to choose from on Redbubble, with the highest quality standards placed on them.

Printing quality is also way better than that of its rivals.

You can choose from a slew of items from categories such as:

• Men/Women/Kids & Babies
• Stickers and Wall Art, Home Décor
• Bags, Gifts
• Stationery
• Device cases and more

Pick as many categories and products as you like, and your designs will be printed on each. You however get to select different image sizes based on the product sizes for your designs.

How Redbubble Works

Unlike other POD platforms, Redbubble doesn’t offer apps or support for ecommerce store sites like WooCommerce and Shopify, among others.

This means you can’t install it on your Shopify store and sell items through it, but you can upload designs on Redbubble, and sell directly from there.

This makes it easier to manage your collection, but you won’t be able to control the branding for your space, or make a name for your brand.

If you intend to sell on your own store and use your own branding, you won’t get this on Redbubble. You can try it on Printify instead or other POD apps.

Redbubble works simply though, in the following easy steps:

• Sign up for an account using your email address, and create a username and password for it. Confirm your email address to complete registration.
• Create your domain or store name, upload your avatar and cover image.
• Enter payment preferences.
• Upload your custom logos and designs.
• Place the designs on your desired items.
• Promote your work. You can self-promote on Redbubble’s journal and your own profile. Any other platform outside this is forbidden and can get you banned. Make sure your financial details, like pricing, are included as you promote your work.
• Engage your customers and clients.

Note: your images or artwork have to comply with Redbubble’s strict requirements for quality control. There are specific formatting and dimension rules to print artworks on each product, to ensure they print well.

Redbubble doesn’t accept images that promote nudity, defamation, porn, violence, racism, vilification, baiting, and drug abuse.

Make sure your creations have neutral content suitable to all age groups, and you’re not infringing any copyright laws.

You get to set profit margins for every product and Redbubble charges you on base price for each item, then you keep the extra cash.

The company accepts anyone from anywhere in the world and there’s no vetting process or other strict application rules. You just need to be over 16 years to sign up and join.

Once clients make purchases on any of your artworks, Redbubble alerts you that “You’ve made a sale” via email. The email will include details on the sale, products sold, selling price, and commissions.

Sales are only deemed final once items are shipped to clients.

Redbubble Pricing

If you are wondering whether Redbubble is free or not, then you should know that it is free.

Redbubble’s pricing policy is clear as each product has a base price that’s made clear to everyone. You set your markup margins for every item as a percentage that’s applied to all categories or products.

You can also set up a markup percentage on single categories instead, or a number-based markup on all products or a few items and categories.

Redbubble will only charge for the base price of products and you keep the extra cash.

The platform ensures you get paid in each payment cycle. This starts from the 15^th of each month to the 15^th of the next month, and money is paid via PayPal or direct deposit to your bank account (for select countries).

Shipping With Redbubble

Redbubble does the manufacturing and printing for you when a buyer places an order and ships it individually to them.

The process takes some time as they do it for every order placed on Redbubble; on average about 1-3 days to manufacture and print. This depends on the product and design, and once complete, it is shipped to your buyer.

Shipping times also vary based on location shipped from and where it is being shipped to, but you get to track orders anywhere in the world.

The shipping may not be free, but it is of high-quality, and the estimates can be found on the checkout page. Customers thus get to see shipping costs as they add products to their cart.

Redbubble Customer Support

The support team is highly responsive, guaranteeing replies within 4 hours. Once you submit your request through their Contact Us page, the team works on it and gets back to you in the given time.

They also offer avenues like live chat, call, or Twitter, plus a knowledge base in their help center that answers the frequently asked questions.

Redbubble Pros and Cons

Pros

• You set your prices
• You retain copyrights
• Free to join
• Unique revenue stream
• No payout threshold
• Fast payment processing
• Support for PayPal and bank deposit

Cons

• Follows payment cycle
• Shipping fees
• Low commissions

What Are The Best Printify Alternatives And Competitors?

The best Printify alternatives and competitors are Printful and CustomCat.

Printful is a POD platform where you can create and sell custom products online. It is very similar to Printify and you can sell a variety of POD products. It doesn’t function as a print on demand marketplace.

You have to connect it to third-party ecommerce platforms. Some of the supported integrations where you can set up your online marketplace include Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, SquareSpace, and Shipstation to name a few.

The Printful platform is free to use. You only pay the base price of products and then the shipping cost. Like Printify, there is a variety of print on demand suppliers to work with.

With CustomCat, you can launch a POD site on any third-party eCommerce platform of your choice. Although you can sell different products, the main products available are apparel. All you need to do is to upload your designs, choose products, connect your store, and start selling.

Once your customers pay for orders, CustomCat will print and ship the products to them. Just like Printify, CustomCat allows you to order product samples to test their print quality.

Notably, you can run a variety of print on demand businesses with CustomCat. This includes POD for merchandise, High Volume Business, POD for individuals, and POD for Promo Products.

Print Aura and Bella Canva are other Printify alternatives worth mentioning.

What Are The Best Redbubble Alternatives And Competitors?

The best Redbubble alternatives and competitors are Zazzle and Spreadshirt.

Both of these print on demand companies double as a print on demand platform and as an online marketplace. They are ideal if you want to open an artist shop. With Zazzle, you can create unlimited product designs to sell on various products.

Zazzle products include clothing, shoes, accessories, electronics, home and personal stuff, and business supplies amongst others.

Notably, Zazzle makes it easy for you to create design for products. You can create designs from any of the featured templates or use the design tool. As an upcoming designer, Zazzle will help you grow by connecting you to professional designers that’ll assist you in creating your design.

For SpreadShirt, you can sell customized products but it’s limited to clothing. You can sell your designs on custom products like t-shirts, corporate wear, hoodies, sweatshirts, tank tops, baby clothes, and aprons. The only non-clothing product on Spreadshirt is the Photo Gifts.

However, on the Spreadshirt pod marketplace, you can find other products like accessories, posters, stickers, and gift items. On their marketplace, you’ll find more than 3.3 million designs. Also, Spreadshirt delivers almost worldwide so you can order from the shop from almost anywhere you are.

Which Is Best: Printify Or Redbubble?

It’s a tough call, but there’s always something to gain from one over the other. Printify offers a large pool of products, just like Redbubble, and great printing providers for every product.

Both services are big on features that are appealing to artists and designers, but Printify seems to take the crown knowing what sellers are looking for: fast growth.

While Printify handles everything from fulfilment, requests, billing, and shipping, Redbubble offers the same, except it charges for shipping to maintain quality.

Redbubble also lets you showcase your creativity while making good income from it, even though it may charge higher service fees.

By far, Printify is a great solution if you want to get your products online for sale quickly. You just worry about design and selling, while Printify does the rest.

Redbubble, on the other hand, allows you to sign up for free, and has no pricing plans so everyone has a level playing ground. Printify offers different pricing plans with different features based on the plan you choose, so you don’t enjoy access to all features.

Ultimately, the decision lies with you, based on your needs. Having looked at the features, how each service works, and what each can do, your needs and budget will determine the service you choose.