Printify vs Teelaunch – Which Is Better?

Ever dreamed about selling items with your original artwork printed on them? It can be anything from statement smartphone cases or coffee mugs with an incredible tagline that’ll make an instant hit in the office.

The internet is awash with these custom products selling across the world. If you’re wondering whether there’s room for more creativity, the good news is there’s plenty of opportunity to showcase yours too. After all, they are completely unique and they’ll let you make money on your best ones.

However, some of the challenges online sellers have encountered include designing, sourcing, fulfillment, and billing.

This is where print on demand (POD) services come in: to seal these loopholes and take care of these for you.

Through dropshipping, you can hire out production of your custom products to a reputable fulfillment center, which will in turn ship the item directly to your customer.

This way you’ll still create the products for your online store, but you’re not physically producing them.

In dropshipping, manufacturers ship the finished goods directly to customers, without you (the middleman) ever seeing or handling them by yourself. In this process, your customers pay for the product, while you pay the fulfillment provider to create it.

POD services allow you to sell custom products ranging from mugs, yoga mats, t-shirts, phone covers, and a lot more without maintaining or managing any inventory.

All you do is upload your custom designs and once a customer makes an order, the service fulfills and ships it, and you make a sale.

Most newcomers to the dropshipping space want to know which POD service providers offer the best services to help them start out with their own POD stores.

We’ll compare two of the best POD services – Printify and Teelaunch – which can help you build your brand and get them directly to your customers.

We’re going to review each provider, looking at the features, pros and cons of each, and give our recommendation.

What Is Printify?

This is an all-in-one POD provider that lets you create custom products using your original designs. It also syncs the products and their corresponding descriptions to your online stores, processes customer orders, and handles all printing processes before shipping goods directly to your customers.

Printify is renowned for its wide product selection, competitive product prices, extensive printing partner network in over 90 locations globally, and it’s easy-to-use mockup generator.

The 80-person startup based in Latvia was founded in 2015, and is reimagining the POD business such that online store owners don’t have to create customized products to sell on different platforms. They can simply create and sell directly from their own online stores.

As a merchant, you can benefit from Printify’s low-cost, high-quality, fast-printing platform and create your own micro-brand.

This print on demand service connects manufacturers and ecommerce stores, taking away the hassle of having to handle mundane tasks like manufacturing requests, order fulfillment, billing, and shipping.

Printify integrates with reliable eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, eBay, Prestashop, BigCommerce, and Etsy. Also, you can connect Printify with your custom online store by using its API tool.

Store owners can thus focus more on building their brands while Printify does the rest, unlike other platforms that only allow you to sell your products.

Printify is designed to cater mostly to artists and designers, “hustlers”, political campaign employees, influencers, and/or self-made pros in digital management of sales.

The platform offers a fixed pricing scheme so you know what you’re paying to Printify, but the pricing is flexible.

Other first-wave platforms don’t give store owners the freedom to set their own profit margins and opt to give them a small portion of revenue share instead.

How Printify Works

Printify does things differently. The complex processes involved from creating products to finally delivering them to the customer are made simpler. Here’s what it involves:

Setting up your account

· Click the “Get” button and “Install app” to create an account on Printify. It’s free to sign up for the service, so pick a name for your store, add your details, and you’re all set. You can also sign in if you already have an account with them.

· Next, select a product from their huge collection of apparel, homeware, accessories, and other categories from the Printify catalog, where you can choose from hundreds of items you want to sell online.

· Select a print provider. Each offers different print areas, print type, sizes, colors, price, and quality, so find one that’s suitable to your needs.

· In the Mockup Generator, upload your design file and then customize the selected products with your art, design, or logos.

· Publish the product and it’ll sync with your Shopify store.

· Next, test the product and order a sample from the platform. If you like the print fabric, quality, and everything else, you can start selling.

· Add the customized creations to your store and sell them. Printify will handle fulfillment, billing, manufacturing requests, and dropshipping, while you handle branding, marketing, business growth, and rake in the revenues.

While merchants pay a small fee to Printify, they eventually get to realize high profit margins. The platform also integrates with WooCommerce and Etsy, and syncs automatically with your online store.

Printify Products

Printify boasts a huge product collection ranging from accessories to wearables and everything in between.

The products offered are of high quality and different products are found in different categories from clothing with different fabrics, styles, and colors, to mugs, phone cases, posters, and more.

Here are its popular product categories:

• Men’s Clothing: T-shirts, Hoodies, Long Sleeves, Tank Tops, Bottoms, Sportswears, Sweatshirts, Shoes, etc.
• Women’s Clothing: T-shirts, Hoodies, Skirts & Dresses, Bottoms, Long Sleeves, Sweatshirts, Sportswear, Tank Tops, Swimwear, Shoes, etc.
• Kids’ Clothing: Baby Clothing, T-shirts, Sweatshirts, Long Sleeves, etc.
• Accessories: Face Masks, Phone Cases, Bags, Socks, Underwear, Hats, Baby Accessories, Mouse Pads, etc.
• Home & Living: Mugs, Bottles & Tumblers, Canvas, Ornaments, Postcards, Posters, Journals & Notebooks, Home Decors, Magnets & Stickers, Towels, Blankers, Pillows, etc.

The platform makes it easy to integrate your store, which can be Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, eBay, or even Etsy, and start selling your custom products. Let’s look at how you can sell on Shopify or WooCommerce with Printify.

Shopify and Printify

You can integrate your Shopify store with Printify and start selling in minutes. In a few steps, you can connect both platforms by doing the following:

· Once you have your custom product creations, you can go to your Printify account and click the three dots at the upper right side.

· Select My Stores

· Next to your store’s name, click Connect.

· From the list of platforms, choose Shopify.

· Add your Shopify store’s URL or link. You’ll get a prompt to install the Printify app on Shopify.

· Once installed, you can find Printify in your Shopify dashboard.

· Create new products or edit others that were already in the store.

WooCommerce and Printify

WooCommerce is an ecommerce platform available for WordPress, which is highly customizable and can be used in place of Shopify if you want more control over your store.

There are many plugins you can use for WooCommerce that help you customize and tailor the platform to what you want it to be. However, most of these are paid, while Shopify offers many such plugins for free.

Printify integrates directly with WooCommerce and you can use the steps below to install and set it up in a few minutes:

· On WooCommerce, enable the REST API by going to WordPress dashboard>WooCommerce>Settings.

· Find the API tab and check Enable the REST API box.

· Save your settings.

· In Printify, click the three dots at the upper right side.

· Select My Stores.

· Next to your store name, click Connect.

· Choose WooCommerce from the platforms list.

· Insert the WooCommerce store URL or link.

· Finish the integration process.

Printify is now integrated and set up so you can go ahead and use it in your WooCommerce store.

Printify Shipping

If you’re looking for great rates, Printify has competitive shipping rates for U.S., UK, Canada, and other global locations, with reasonable delivery times.

However, the rates and times may vary depending on your preferred print provider, as some offer different rates and times for shipping.

On average, the shipping times take anything between 5-30 days depending on the location you’re shipping to and the service provider.

For users on the Advanced Shopify plan, you get access to Printify’s shipping calculator that you can use to get the right shipping rates each time and charge your customers accordingly.

It automatically adds Printify’s flat rates to the shopping cart so you don’t have to do it manually.

You can enable the shipping calculator by going to Store Settings and check the Enable Printify shipping calculation for Shopify checkout option.

Printify Support

Printify’s customer support is efficient, quick, and highly responsive. The team is always quick to help customers out with any query or technical issue, which is one of their strongest points.

They thrive on offering the best support to their customers any time of day, besides offering cheaper overall pricing and faster shipping times.

Printify Pricing

Printify offers the following pricing plans:

• Free – $0 per month
• Premium – $29 per month when billed every month, or $24.99 per month when billed every month
• Enterprise – Custom pricing

The latter two cost $29 per month with 10 stores on one account and custom pricing with unlimited stores per account respectively.

The free plan offers five stores per account and is great for newcomers starting their business, while the Premium and Enterprise plans are for merchants growing sales and with more than 10,000 orders per day, respectively.

Printify Pros

• Huge product catalog/collection
• Large printing network
• Automatic order fulfillment

Printify Cons

• Limited integrations and limited branding options

What Is Teelaunch?

Teelaunch is another leading POD fulfilment company that takes your designs and orders and fulfills them from start to finish.

Once a customer orders a product from your online store, Teelaunch takes the order, prints the product, ships it, and acts as a liaison in case of any issues.

This process eliminates the need for inventory, large investments, or storage facilities, plus shipping for products. All you do is pay for the printed items when they’re sold.

The benefit of this is you get to focus on what you’re good at and the core of your business, while Teelaunch handles the rest.

With Teelaunch, you can sell customized products on integrated third-party platforms such as Etsy and Shopify.

How Teelaunch Works

Teelaunch leverages the power of Shopify to create your mockups, products, and set up automatic order fulfillment in just minutes thanks to its easy-to-use app.

Once you download the app, you can start creating your own customized products in one click and get them live on your store.

Once a customer places an order, Teelaunch creates a fulfillment order automatically within its system and tracks and updates them in your Shopify store instantly.

Tracking numbers are displayed on your Orders dashboard with an updated status on shipping.

The automated system in Shopify’s platform delivers direct updates on shipping to your customers as well.

To build a store on Teelaunch, here are the steps you can take:

· Go to your Shopify dashboard.

· Click Apps in the left pane.

· Go to Shopify app store and type Teelaunch in the search bar.

· Click Add app and install the app.

· Teelaunch will be available in the Shopify dashboard under the Apps section.

· Click Account at the upper right side.

· Enter your contact and payment details, shipping label details, special messages for customers, and packaging logo for branding orders.

· You can now select your first custom printed product and create the design by going to Shopify dashboard>Apps>Teelaunch and click New product.

· You’ll get options to create custom products, so choose your preferred item and click Start Designing.

· Upload a custom logo, design, image, or artwork you want on the product.

· Customize sizes, colors, or image placement, and Teelaunch will show a preview of the sample.

· Start selling it on your online store. Teelaunch also integrates with Etsy if you have an account there or want to sell on that platform. In fact, you can make Teelaunch your production partner for Etsy orders.

· Click Publish to your Store and the product will be live and ready to sell on your store.

Teelaunch Products

Teelaunch offers a wide variety of products you can print on demand. From mousepads, mugs, stickers, tote bags, and laser-engraved tumblers, you can’t run out of fresh ideas for your store.

Some of their popular product categories include:

• Accessories: Phone Cases, Power Banks, Wireless Charging Stands, Wireless Car Chargers, Luggage Tags, Jewelry Boxes, etc.
• Apparel: Hoodies & Tanks, T-Shirts, Kids & Youth Apparel, Baby Bodysuits, Long Sleeves, V-necks, etc.
• Wall Art: Posters, Wall Flags, Tapestries, Canvas, Framed Art Prints, etc.
• Drinkware: Water Bottles, Tumbler, Mugs, Beer Steins, etc.
• Home Goods: Bath Mats, Rugs, Garden Flags, Pillows, Beach Towels, Doormats, Blankets, Shower Curtains, etc.
• Pets: Crate Mats, Dog Bowls, Pet Pillows, Pet Bandanas, etc.
• Office: Journals, Mousepads, Spiral Notebooks, Flat & Folded Cards, etc.
• Lifestyle: Bluetooth Speakers, Headphones, Backpacks, etc.
• Kitchenware: Plate & Platters, Cutting Boards, Bowl, etc.

Interestingly, Teelaunch adds new products to its catalogue every month. So, you can be assured of getting high quality customizable products to sell to customers.

Teelaunch Shipping

Teelaunch offers varying shipping costs depending on the products and location. However, if you want to offer free shipping, you can set the rate at which shipping is free, and enable this from your Shopify dashboard. To do this:

· Go to the Shopify dashboard>Settings>Shipping>Zones & Rates.

· Click Edit next to Domestic and International shipping.

· Find Price Based Rate.

· Click Add Rate.

· Set up the minimum or maximum order costs.

· Check the box for Free shipping rate.

· Click Done and save the pricing settings.

Now every order that meets or exceeds the minimum limit will be eligible for free shipping.

Teelaunch Support

The POD service prides itself in giving customers the best service, which is why they hire great people for their support team, and invest in the best machinery and products for high quality outputs. Support is available via email, a Help menu, FAQ page, or submitting a support ticket.

Teelaunch Pricing

The pricing model is simple but profit varies with different products. There are no subscriptions or hidden fees, so you only pay a commission when a sale is made.

Teelaunch Pros

• Easy to use
• Great customization options
• Affordable
• Newbie friendly
• Competitive profit margins
• No hidden costs or subscription fees/ no contracts
• Availability of free shipping option

Teelaunch Cons

• Limited integration
• Fulfillment is outsourced so less control over process
• Longer lead time on shipping

Similarities & Differences

Similarities

• Both Printify and Teelaunch enable you to customize POD products.
• Both POD services are ideal for independent artists or online entrepreneurs.
• With either Teelaunch or Printify, you are provided with a robust catalogue of customizable products.
• They both facilitate production across several countries.

Differences

• Teelaunch does not have an API tool for custom online stores, whereas Printify has an API for custom integrations.
• Unlike Printify that has a wide selection of POD items, Teelaunch has fewer customizable products.
• Teelaunch only integrates with Etsy and Shopify, whereas Printful integrates with top e-commerce platforms and marketplaces such as Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay, PrestaShop, Wix, and BigCommerce.
• Unlike Teelaunch, Printify allows businesses to register as a print provider.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Printify Good Quality?

Although Printify utilizes several print providers with varying product qualities; however, their fulfilment team ensures that only quality products are shipped to the final customers. In my opinion, Printify quality check is more reliable than other print on demand platforms.

Is TeeLaunch Good Quality?

There were several complaints regarding Teelaunch’s product quality in the past. However, Teelaunch has improved in that aspect by ensuring good product quality and responsive customer service.

Printify vs Teelaunch: Who Takes The Crown?

Printify lets you sell your brilliant designs online without investing a lot of money or worrying about inventory management.

All you do is focus on design and selling, while Printify handles shipping, order fulfillment, manufacturing requests, and billing.

It’s an excellent POD that makes it easy for you to get your custom products online and into the hands of paying customers.

Not only do you get a huge collection of products to select from, but you also get the best printing providers for every product.

Teelaunch is a great service especially for newcomers setting out in the POD business. It’s easy to use, offers great customization options, and is affordable.

It also offers more competitive profit margins, giving you more to spend on promotion and marketing, and ploughing back to your business for faster growth.

Plus, it doesn’t have hidden costs or contracts; you only pay a commission when you make a sale.

Both services offer great features, but Printify is a winner here. It has a stronger grasp over what designers and sellers need to grow their online stores fast, plus it’s newbie friendly.

It also has more integrations with popular ecommerce providers like Etsy, WooCommerce, Shopify, and eBay. which is coming soon to the platform.

Final Thoughts

The booming print on demand market has seen many people make money on the internet by selling custom designs and products.

In fact, Globe Newswire estimates that the custom t-shirt market is expected to hit $10 billion by 2025 in the global market, so it’s about time you started your POD business.

Best of all, the POD providers like Printify and Teelaunch handle the usual hassles of order fulfillment, shipping, and printing.

However, if you had to make a choice between the two, Printify is your best bet.