Printful allows you to design apparel, accessories, and other products. It also integrates with your online shop platform so customers can purchase products. Printful then prints, packages and ships the products. But how much does Printful cost? You’re here if you have ever wondered about the pricing of Printful.
Continue reading to find out about the basic costs of Printful.com. (hint: most of them are free), as well as the many optional services that can be used for marketing, designing, and storing products.
What Does Printful Cost?
Printful offers almost everything for free, including its design module, ecommerce platform integrations and product mockups. It also provides the infrastructure to process orders and deliver them to customers.
Printful is only charged when an order has been placed and processed in your store. It’s an on-demand printing solution that doesn’t require you to purchase wholesale products.
Printful products can be printed on demand, which means that they are more expensive than shipping 500 units at once. The individual products are therefore more expensive. Printful takes care of all the logistics, including storage, printing and packaging. This allows you to save money. Printful does the majority of the work: you create a website, design products, and market it.
Printful is a great solution for people with low startup capital or ecommerce businesses that are less concerned about overhead costs, but still want to sell high-quality designs.
What do you get for free with Printful?
- You can customize, print and sell more than 275 products. The product list is growing on a regular basis.
- Printful accounts can be integrated with the most popular ecommerce platforms such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Shopify. Printful has an API and integrates with more than 20 platforms.
- Printful Design Maker allows you to add clipart, images, upload your own art, incorporate text and resize designs.
- Make your products professional by using the free product mockups
- You have access to nearly 3,000 clipart images that you can use to enhance your designs.
- Print files can be saved for future use and placed on other products.
- To reuse and expand on existing product templates, create them.
- All pricing details and product variants can be added to the Printful dashboard. Then, you can sync them all with your ecommerce platform.
- Get access to marketing tools, apps, and guides that will help you build a profitable print-on-demand company.
- Integrate with global marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Amazon.
- You can print your branding on the packaging inserts. Include a message for your customers.
This is a lot to be excited about considering that you don’t have to pay anything for it. Printful bills only for the products you sell. Let’s take, for example, a tshirt you create and sell on your ecommerce store. Printful sells the shirt to you at $10 and your retail price is $18. Your merchant bank account is credited $18 by your payment processor, less any processing fees. Next, Printful pricing will be charged to your checking or on-file credit card for the $10 they owe you. The $8 you receive (minus any processing fees) is yours to spend on your business or put into your pocket.
Is there a premium version of Printful?
Yes. Sellers can upgrade to Pro Printful Pricing, although it is not mandatory.
What to Expect from Printful Pro:
- It costs $49 per month.
- You get a month of Printful at $539/year if you pay this up front
- All the benefits of the free plan, including access to over 285 customizable products, product templates and mockups as well as clipart images and integrations with major ecommerce platforms.
- You can use the Promo Maker tool to create professional-looking graphics that include your products. Use templates to create your designs and then use them in emails, social media and other places.
- Keyword Scout for Etsy is a tool that analyzes keywords for every product and finds the most relevant tags for Etsy listings.
- Printful’s Custom Mockup Maker allows you to create custom product images, instead of using the defaults.
- You can use a background removal tool to create sleek product images. This is usually done with a separate program and can often take some time. The Printful background tool can be automated and is great for anyone with any level of experience.
- You have the option of using carrier-based shipping.
- Access to a large premium library of images without paying any additional fees.
- You will find almost 500 clipart images that you won’t find with the free version.
- Free digitization of embroidery files. The free plan includes embroidery files that can be digitalized once only.
Printful offers a 14-day free trial so you can test Printful Pro to see if it is right for you. Printful Pro’s only drawback is the inability to cancel or change your plans. You will need to cancel your Printful Pro account in order to create a new account with the free plan. We hope this is resolved in the near future.
The Printful Pro pricing plan is a good choice for store owners who need more advanced design tools, such as the clipart, premium images and background removal tool. It is possible to save money by avoiding third-party tools to make promos (the Promo Maker looks similar to Canva’s premium version) or to research keywords (The Keyword Scout replaces many of the expensive keyword research tools available on the market).
Is there any hidden fees or additional expenses with Printful
Hidden fees? No.
Extra expenses? Shipping and product costs are the most important. It all comes down to whether you sign up for one of the many Printful services. All of them are optional.
Let’s now look at the main costs, both mandatory and optional.
Product and printing costs
In this article, we highlight the specific costs of each product. Remember that the price of a t-shirt or ball cap on your website does not reflect the amount you are keeping.
All Printful products have a price. Then you mark them up to make a profit for yourself and your marketing efforts.
Printful prices a pair sweatpant joggers at $22.50 (24 when ordered in 2XL). This means that you won’t make any profit from the sweatpants joggers. The joggers may be sold in your store for $31.99, but you still make $9.49. Printful will not get a cut if you spend all of the revenue.
Pricing for products can also be affected by printing. Printful pricing gives you the option to upload a design for a product free of charge. Printful pricing allows you to upload one design for each item so your costs are predictable.
Some products allow multiple designs to be placed in different places on the garment (e.g. on the sleeves or on the back of a shirt). These can increase the cost of the item. We’ll discuss them in the sections below.
Shipping fees
Printful pricing doesn’t charge shipping fees, but it is important to include them in your total retail price.
Plus, every item in Printful’s library comes with its own shipping cost, depending on its dimensions and destination.
Printful pricing is transparent. You can access the Shipping tab and type in your country to see how much shipping costs for any of these products.
For example, a embroidered jacket packable jacket has a $6.50 shipping fee in the USA, and a $2.00 per additional jacket in the same shipment.
Shipping rates can vary from product to product. We recommend that you consult the Printful shipping rates and times page to get an idea of what you can expect for everything, from shirts and bags to phone cases and towels.
Fulfillment and Warehousing (Optional).
Printful may be asking, “Doesn’t Printful already offer fulfillment and warehousing for free?”
If you use its printing-on-demand service, product storage, fulfillment, and fulfillment are included. What if you need to buy a batch of products from a wholesaler? This will help you save money and increase your profit margins. Printful does not have a product you want to sell.
This is a common problem for merchants. This is a problem because you don’t want customers coming to your site, buying multiple items and then receiving them in different packages with different receipts. The customer will be confused and it will appear as though they ordered from several companies.
You will also need to pay for shipping two or three boxes rather than one.
This is where Printful Warehousing and Fulfillment comes in to play.
Printful will accept your non-Printful products and store them in their warehouses. Printful takes the items you sell and sends them off in the same way as they would with their print on-demand service. Printful’s advantage is that all your products, whether they are printed with it or not, are kept in the same place, packaged in the same way, and shipped in one shipment.
How much does it cost?
It depends on where you live, how many people are buying, and how much storage you have.
Here is a summary:
- Order Fulfillment Fee per Order: $2 in USA
- Product Picking Fee for Every Item: $0.95 In the USA
- No charge for any orders with pack-ins
- Packing fee: $0.50 US
- Custom packaging fulfillment: No Charge in the USA
- Custom packaging fee: $0.50
- All packaging materials: Prices vary for different countries
- Processing and receiving: No Charge
- Storage for 1-200 Units in the US: $1.65 Per Cubic Foot of Storage Used. There is a $25 minimum monthly charge.
- Storage for between 201 and 1,000 units in the US: $1.30 a cubic foot. The minimum monthly requirement still applies.
- Storage for 1,001 to 10,000 units: $1/cubic foot. The minimum monthly rent is still applicable.
- Storage for more than 10,000 units in the US: $0.75 a cubic foot. It is still necessary to meet the monthly minimum.
The country determines the rate. Printful offers fulfillment and warehousing in Europe and Canada. Check these rates if you are interested.
The Warehousing and Fulfillment Service also charges shipping fees. These are calculated based upon the package’s weight, size, and location in the warehouse.
Additional product printing locations and label branding
You may wish to enhance the brand of your products by putting a logo on the label or sleeves of shirts. Additional design prints can be added to different parts of the product.
Some items in Printful Library allow you to print multiple locations. Others only allow you one place to upload your design.
First print is free. Any additional charges will increase your overall cost.
We’ll use a Bella + Canvas standard Unisex Tank Top to illustrate this point. For all colors and sizes, the original Printful pricing is $15.95 (except 2XL).
This is a great starting point and could make you a decent profit. It doesn’t cost anything to upload your first design to the tank top (located on the front of shirt).
The original price of $15.95 remains unchanged. It is possible to stick with the design and set your markup. Then, sync your website to sell it.
Some sellers would like to add more designs to spice up their product. You may also decide branding is important for your business. Therefore, you will place a logo either on the label or on the outside.
Not all items, especially apparel, have the same printing area.
The cost of the tank top increases by $2.49 when we upload a logo to the inside label. The shirt’s total cost increases in the lower left-hand corner.
This tank top also has Back and Outside Label areas that can be printed. We’ll upload another design to the back. So, this is the third design that we’ve included on the product. The bottom price will go up once again.
As you can see, at $5.95, the cost of the Back print is higher than that of the inside label.
These additional printing locations can enhance your designs and create great branding opportunities. You must be careful not to cut into your profits.
Custom Packaging Inserts
A custom packaging insert is a piece or paper that promotes your brand. Printful will print receipts for you and place them in your packaging. These receipts are completely free and can be customized with your logo and a message to the customer. Many companies might not need the Printful custom packaging inserts.
The receipts are plain black and white and lack the flair that you would like to represent your brand. You can’t customize the receipts with elements such as QR codes, special coupons, and high-resolution artwork.
The branded packaging inserts let you drop anything, from flyers to business cards that you have created. The unboxing experience is made more enjoyable by the ability to thank customers and prompt them to return with coupons.
Companies are increasingly using branded stickers to allow people to stick them on their water bottles, laptops or anywhere else. This gives you the added benefit of no advertising costs as other people see the stickers.
How the Printful pricing works with branded pack-ins.
- You create the pack-ins, then upload it to Printful.
- You can order more than 25 pack-ins.
- You will need to designate the warehouse where you want them to be stored.
- Printful prints the packs-ins and stores them in a warehouse. When an order is sent out, they are placed inside your packaging.
What is the Printful pricing for custom ins?
- Pack-in Fulfillment per Order: Free In All Countries
- A pack-in pick fee of $0.50
- Processing and receiving the pack-ins is free in all countries.
- Storage of 1-200 packs-ins $1.65 a cubic foot in the US $25 minimum monthly.
- Storage of 201-11,000 pack-ins $1.30 a cubic foot The minimum monthly requirement still applies.
- Storage of 1 – 10 000 pack-ins $1.00 per square foot The minimum monthly requirement still applies.
- Storage of more than 10,000 pack-ins $0.75/cubic foot The minimum monthly requirement still applies.
Although the Printful pricing for pack ins is different by country, it seems that only Europe, the US and Canada are allowed to use pack ins.
Other information about Printful packaging inserts.
- The packaging inserts can be stored in the following warehouses: Toronto (Canada), Charlotte, North Carolina, Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California, Barcelona, Spain, or Riga, Latvia.
- Printful will still send the package out if the warehouse doesn’t have your pack-ins. They do not slow down shipping to hold on to a pack-in.
- Your pack-in designs can’t exceed 6 inches x 8 inches x 1 inch (15.5 cm x 20 cm x 2.5 cm). The individual pack-ins must not weigh more than 2 oz (55 grams).
Embroidery
Printful offers custom embroidery for a nominal fee, but it is available through the free design portal.
The difference between embroidery and printing is that embroidery uses colored stitching. This allows for simpler designs to be created on products such as hats, towels, and shirts. A printer using either direct-to-garment printing or screen printing, which produces vibrant flattened designs using inks, is not possible.
Printful will only process embroidery if the design file is digitized.
These are the payment options for digitization of embroidery files:
- Each file that is digitized requires a $6.50 one-time payment. The digitized file can be used on any product you like.
- You can get digitization free if you order more than 25 embroidery products.
- For $49/month, sign up for Pro Printful pricing to get free digitization for all embroidery designs.
Creative Services such as Graphic Design, Professional Photography and Video Production
Printful provides a variety of professional services to those who want to improve the quality and design of their marketing materials or find a designer for products.
These are the most important services to consider:
- Graphic design: To create your business materials, website, newsletter or product designs, you can get your product designs done by a professional.
- Ecommerce photography Use props to place items on models and enhance your product photography beyond what is already included in the product mockups.
- Video production To display your products on models, and then show them to customers in real life.
Pricing for professional services at Printful depends on the job. Printful offers starting prices so you can get an idea of your budget.
Graphic Design: Printful Pricing
- Custom merchandise design: $60+
- Merchandise pattern designs: $70+
- Vector designs for merchandise: $65+
- Typography designs for merchandise: $50+
- Reformatting print files: $5+
- Reproducing print files at a higher quality: $40+
- Print file Photoshop editing: $20+
- Color adjustments in print designs: $5+
- General print design adjustments: $20+
- Illustrations of characters: $150+
- Digital painting designs: $250+
- Illustrations in color: $150+
- Line art: $125+
- Branding such as logos, stickers and style guides: $60-$600+
- Social media design like Facebook ads and covers: $60 to $150+
These designs can take as long as two weeks to complete.
Printful pricing for Ecommerce Photography
Professional photography doesn’t require you to create your own photos or make default mockups. Printful places your products in real-life situations that are appropriate for your brand. The Printful team then edits your photos for product pages and marketing materials.
This service allows you to wear your yoga pants and pose with a model at a yoga studio. Perhaps you need someone to wear your flat brim cap at a game of baseball or your customized coffee cup at a cafe.
Sending a request to Printful will only allow you to receive a customized quote. Printful can also fulfill all orders for products that have been photographed. This is a 20% discount.
Printful Pricing for Video Production
Video production with Printful looks a lot like photography, but professionals use video cameras to capture models and products in action. You might see a model wearing a custom shirt, spinning in an urban setting, or sitting on a couch with custom-designed pillows.
You will need to submit a request detailing the scope of the project to get a quote.
For Store Setup Services, Printful Pricing
Printful’s last service is to configure your online store using platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify.
It saves time and your website will look professional. This is especially appealing to business owners who have little or no experience in web design.
Printful can:
- Finish your store by branding your entire website or optimizing your shipping.
- Printful allows you to link your existing store to Printful, ensuring the fastest product fulfillment.
- Printful integrates with major platforms so you can build your store from scratch.
Prices for website design and store setup services can vary depending on the project. Here are some guidelines:
- Simple web design tasks: $50+
- Full store setup: 500+
Printify and Other: The Consensus on Printful Prices vs Printify
Comparing Printful and Printify’s bestselling products shows that Printful is cheaper than Printify in some areas, while Printify is more expensive in others. Printful makes it cheaper to buy hats or many of the pants categories. Printful also offers phone cases and a variety of accessories at a fraction of the cost.
Printify offers more suppliers, making it easier to reduce costs, if you are able to sort through the cluttered array of variants, products, and suppliers. Printify also wins in pricing categories such as pillows, mugs and tote bags.
We found apparel items to be significantly less expensive than Printful, despite the fact that Printify appears to offer shirts, sweaters and hoodies at a lower price. Printify is known for selling the lowest-priced supplier. You will soon realize that these suppliers are often not rated well and that you may have to pay more for certain colors or sizes.
Printful, however, only uses fewer trusted suppliers and produces most of its products in-house. Printful maintains consistent pricing across all products. A large or small sized t-shirt in red is likely to be the same price as one in blue.
How to keep printing costs low and printful pricing affordable
Printful can be saved money in many ways, including identifying hidden business costs associated with print-on demand operations.
First, evaluate the aspects of your business that you can handle or give to others in your company. Are you a quality designer? Perhaps it is better to design the designs than pay for them. Are you able to access professional clipart and photos for your designs already? Perhaps you don’t need the Printful Pro version.
Printful offers many other ways to reduce your overall cost.
Keep Quality Control
You can lose control of the quality of your products which can lead to bad news for your company, finances and customers.
You could get:
- High returns.
- People talking about the product can cause sales losses.
- Potential chargebacks.
- You will need to invest time and money in order to reevaluate the quality of your products and designs.
We recommend that you order product samples for any item designed by Printful to solve these problems. Print-on-demand and Dropshipping allow the printer to ship products directly to customers, leaving you free from quality control.
This is a recipe for disaster.
Printful offers samples for all designs at a discount rate.
Reduce Chargebacks and Returns
We have several tips for reducing chargebacks and returns.
Returns can be costly and detract from sales. Chargebacks (when someone disputes a credit card charge) can be more costly as you may lose the entire sale and have to pay the supplier. You also might get charged a fee from your payment processor (often $15 or $20 depending on the processor).
Here are some ways to reduce or eliminate chargebacks and returns.
- Printful can be used as a backup fulfillment center to ensure that products are shipped regardless of whether there is any stock in your main warehouse. Customers who are forced to wait too long may cancel their order or return the item.
- To ensure that customers know when and how to receive their orders, set up shipping and processing notifications in Printerful. These emails provide a sense of security with order confirmation messages, shipping notifications and links to tracking codes.
- Printful offers product alternatives. These are used when an item is out-of-stock but another brand or variant is available. The product alternatives are more effective than losing sales or causing delays in shipping.
- Everything, including pricing, sizing guidelines, shipping times, shipping cost, return policies, and shipping times, should be communicated on all product pages. It is the best way to please a customer before they buy something from you store.
- Your inserts (or receipts) should be branded and include a message to let customers know where the product was made. Because people have limited memories, receiving an item with no logo or message can seem odd to them.
- Choose the products that are most important to you and ship quickly to your chosen locations. Printful has so many suppliers and warehouses in multiple countries that there is no reason to choose a shirt made in America if you plan to ship most of your products to Eastern Europe. It is important to consider the location of your customers when setting up fulfillment centers.
Pass shipping charges to customers
Shipping is a difficult topic for ecommerce shops since it’s an expensive cost. However, many customers don’t want to pay shipping costs, especially when you have 2-day shipping free of charge from larger brands.
These same brands, however, tend to include shipping costs into their products and offer free shipping.
Although this is not the right thing to do, it’s something that you should consider. The simple idea of shipping free makes customers feel more satisfied with their purchase, even though they know the cost of shipping is included in the total price.
Printful allows you to set shipping rates, activate live shipping rates and even include a free shipping method to cut down on shipping costs.
Printful’s shipping costs range from approximately $0-$50 per order, so it is expensive for you to pay all shipping costs for your customers.
We recommend that you include shipping costs in your product markup, or at the very least some of them to reduce your expenses. The customer will see a slightly more expensive item, but it is because they have chosen a custom design. They still love the free shipping, and it creates an environment in which you don’t have to spend too much shipping and your customers remain happy.
Limit Products and Sales to Locations that Require High Shipping Prices
Sometimes, a product may be so large that it needs larger packaging. Printful may also have products that are too large to ship to certain countries.
Printful generally does a good job keeping shipping costs low. However, you need to be aware of shipping details before uploading a design to a product mockup.
Pillows for example tend to be more expensive for shipping, regardless of where they are going.
Canvas art and framed posters require unusually shaped packaging. This makes them one of the most expensive items to ship with Printful. These markups are not uncommon for art buyers.
We have also observed that certain countries have higher shipping costs than others, sometimes because they are far from shipping hubs, and other times because Printful has no shipping warehouses.
In the Printful shipping department, EFTA countries like Iceland and Switzerland are always expensive. The same applies to Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand. You’ll be amazed at how many items ship for very little to certain locations. No matter where it is shipped, jewelry is free. We generally have lower shipping rates for stickers and apparel for all countries.
