If you’re thinking about starting a new business with print on demand, few things are more important than choosing the right company to work with. Printful, Printify, and Gelato are three of the best-known options in the industry for a reason.
All of these companies have an excellent reputation for offering a wide range of high-quality products, excellent fulfillment services, and convenient integration options for sales channels. The question is – which is best?
For me, Printful and Printify both have an edge over Gelato – and now that the two companies are merging, I have no doubt they’ll create the best Print on Demand experience out there.
Still, Gelato has its benefits too, particularly if you’re looking for low prices, quick delivery, and sustainability.
Here’s my complete comparison guide of all three platforms, to help you make the right choice.
The Quick Verdict, Pros and Cons
Since Printful and Printify decided to merge, this is really a two-way comparison, as Printful and Printify will combine their benefits.
Still, I wanted to give a quick overview of the best platforms for different use cases as they stand today.
- Printful: Is one of the best print on demand platforms all around, it’s ideal if you’re looking for a huge range of integration options, and consistently excellent product quality.
- Printify: Is the most versatile platform in terms of product options, advanced design tools, and merchant options, making it great for scaling companies.
- Gelato: Is ideal if you’re looking for lots of design resources, high-quality products, and sustainable supply chains, it also has some very affordable product options.
The Pros and Cons
Printful Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fantastic product ranges with lots of printing options.
- Dozens of integrations with sales channels.
- Convenient quick stores for US merchants.
- Exceptional global fulfillment services.
- Various add-on services.
- Consistently excellent product quality.
Cons
- Limitations on customer support.
- Fewer products than some alternatives.
Printify Pros and Cons
Pros
- Huge selection of products, including unique options.
- Excellent personalization and customization tools.
- High-quality AI design tools
- Integrations with dozens of sales channels.
- Fantastic global manufacturing network.
- Free pop-up store creator.
Cons
- Product quality and delivery times can vary.
- Some customer support limitations.
Gelato Pros and Cons
Pros
- Global fulfillment network with local production.
- Fast production and delivery times.
- Good range of integration options.
- Excellent product quality.
- Impressive low-price products.
- Lots of design resources and unique editing tools.
Cons
- Fewer sales channels than some alternatives.
- Not as many unique products and features.
Printful vs Printify vs Gelato: Core Features
Printful, Printify, and Gelato are all pretty similar platforms at a glance. They’re all print on demand solutions that give you access to a wide range of products you can customize with integrated design tools, and sell on various sales channels.
They also all offer global fulfillment, sustainable product options, and excellent subscription plans, with extra benefits for users who want to go beyond the free tier.
Here’s a quick look at the key features of each platform.
Product Options and Customization
Overall, if you’re looking for variety, Printify gives you the best range of products to choose from. Not only are there more than 1,000 products on the platform, but you get a ton of unique options you won’t find elsewhere, like supplements, scented candles, and games.
Printful offers slightly fewer products (more than 370), but there are some great unique options here too, including shoes, eco-friendly items, and premium products.
Gelato’s product catalog is a little more basic, focusing on popular items like clothing, calendars, wall art, and phone cases.
The good news is all three companies offer various high-quality printing options, including all-over print and embroidery.
They also all give you fantastic design tools, for customizing whatever you want to sell.
I think Printify’s design tools are particularly excellent, thanks to the built-in AI art generator that can create unique images for you.
However, Printful has a brilliant mockup generator, and gives you a ton of great resources for optimizing design files, like an AI “upscaler”.
Gelato really excels at giving users free tools to edit and enhance their products too. You can choose from thousands of free graphics and assets, including Shutterstock images.
On a broad scale, Printful and Printify definitely offer the biggest collection of products, customization options, and advanced design tools.
When they merge, their offering is going to be even more impressive, helping them to maintain an edge over Gelato.
Product Quality and Profitability
From a product quality perspective, all three companies have a fantastic reputation. Printful and Gelato are a lot more consistent when it comes to quality, however.
Both of these companies are known for producing amazing, vibrant prints, and using high-quality materials for each product.
They also both follow strict quality assurance standards, to ensure there are no issues with the product by the time it reaches your customers.
While Printify is also committed to creating fantastic products, the fact that they don’t produce items in-house, but instead partner with a range of worldwide manufacturers means that print and item quality can sometimes vary.
Still, for the most part, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about quality issues with any of these companies.
From a profitability perspective, all three platforms are excellent too. Printify used to offer the most affordable products all around (which meant higher potential profit margins).
However, Printful and Gelato have both recently reduced the base prices for their items, which means all three companies offer similar prices for most products.
Notably though, Printify and Printful’s premium plans do give you access to more discounts, when you’re scaling your business.
Fulfillment and Sales Channels
The more sales channels you can choose from with a print on demand provider, the more money you can potentially make.
For me, Printful wins in terms of overall integration options, with dozens of channels to choose from, including social media channels, marketplaces, and ecommerce platforms.
Printify follows closely behind with lots of options ranging from Shopify to Amazon, Etsy, and beyond.
One area where Printify does stand out is with it’s “Pop-up Store” option, which allows you to create a simple store and start selling without any integrations at all.
While Printful also offers a similar service, it’s currently only available to US merchants. However, that could change now that Printful and Printify are joining forces.
Gelato falls behind a little in terms of sales channels, with absolutely no “pop-up store” option, and fewer integrations overall.
Still, there are still one-click connection options for various social media channels, marketplaces like Etsy, and platforms like Shopify.
Plus, it’s worth noting that all three vendors do support APIs, so you can create your own custom workflows.
On a broad scale, Printful and Printify will give you more scope to scale your business, in my opinion, but Gelato is still a great choice all around.
Ease of Use and Customer Support
I’ve used dozens of print on demand platforms over the years, and I’ve yet to find one that isn’t user-friendly or intuitive.
Printful, Printify, and Gelato are all exceptionally straightforward solutions that make it easy to create an account, design products, and start selling online.
Printful and Printify might have a slightly higher learning curve, simply because they offer more features to explore.
For instance, Printify has it’s AI art generator, and Printful gives you access to advanced design tools, reports, and even tools for creating online promotions.
Gelato offers fewer features, which means you might spend less time getting everything up and running, but you’ll also have a slightly harder time scaling your business.
Still, all three platforms are very simple and great for beginners.
From a customer support perspective, all three platforms come with some fantastic self-help resources, such as guides, FAQs, and videos.
I think Printful and Printify’s resources are a little more in-depth, but you can still find plenty of guidance from Gelato.
Printful, Printify, and Gelato all offer 24/7 live chat and email options, though I couldn’t find any options for getting in touch over the phone.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that all of these companies do offer premium plans which can come with extra support.
Plus, they all allow users to access additional services and assistance with things like design, branding, and marketing.
Printful vs Printify vs Gelato: Plans and Pricing
Finally, like most print on demand platforms, Printful, Printify, and Gelato all give companies an opportunity to start creating and selling products for free.
You don’t need a subscription plan on any of these platforms – you can simply pay the base cost for creating each product you want to sell.
However, if you do want more benefits and features, all of the companies also offer “premium” subscription plans.
Printful’s Growth plan, starting at $24.99 per month, is the best value. It gives you a ton of extras like discounts on a range of products, and access to more branding options and unique design capabilities. It’s also available to access for free for users earning more than $12k per year.
Printify offers a Premium plan for $29 per month with an up to 20% discount on all products, and order management with Printify Connect. There’s also an enterprise plan for high-scale companies, with additional discounts.
Gelato gives you the biggest range of plans to choose from, starting with Gelato+ for $24 per month with up to 20% of products, branded labels and packaging inserts, and premium mockups.
The Gold plan for $119 per month gives you up to 25% off products, 30% off packaging and branded labels, and advanced price setting features.
Finally, the Platinum plan, with custom pricing comes with bespoke discounts, a dedicated customer success manager, implementation services, and access to premium community events.
Printful vs Printify vs Gelato: The Verdict
So, which platform is best overall? Personally, I think Printful and Printify are the best overall, Printful has a slight edge over Printify in terms of product quality, but Printify does have better design tools, and a wider range of products to choose from.
When these two companies join forces, they’re probably going to create the best print on demand platform I’ve ever seen – miles ahead of anything you can use right now.
Gelato is excellent, but it does have some limitations in terms of integrations and overall product options.
I think if you’re looking for the most scalability, and the best overall experience, you should choose either Printful or Printify – or simply wait for the two to merge, so you can get the best of both worlds from these world-leading POD brands.
Still, if you want a simple, straightforward, and affordable POD company, Gelato is a worthy choice.
