As demand for print on demand services continues to grow, fueling a new era of entrepreneurship, the number of services available to creators is growing. Despite this, Printful and Spreadshirt remain two of the most popular, well-known companies in the industry.

Overall, Printful is one of my favorite, go-to services for POD. It’s easy to use, offers a wide range of high-quality products to customize, and it integrates with dozens of sales channels. But Spreadshirt has its benefits too – it even has a dedicated marketplace that makes it easy to find customers.

So, which option is best? I put both solutions to the test, to help you make the right choice.

The Quick Verdict, Pros and Cons

In my opinion, Printful is the better service overall – particularly for brands looking to scale. It gives you more products to choose from, delivers consistent quality, and makes it easy to use multiple sales channels (there’s even a quick store creator for US merchants).

Still, Spreadshirt might be the easier option for smaller sellers looking for a way to get started in POD with minimal upfront costs, thanks to its convenient marketplace.

Printful Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Huge selection of high-quality products
• Integrations with lots of sales channels
• Free quick store option for US merchants
• Great design tools with integrated AI
• High-value premium plans
• Useful add-on services

Cons:

• Products and shipping can be more expensive
• No marketplace option
• Delivery speeds can vary

Spreadshirt Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Wide selection of product types
• Integrated marketplace
• Lots of printing options (including embroidery)
• T-shirt designer integrations for personalization
• SPOD app for ecommerce integrations
• Worldwide delivery

Cons:

• Limited integration options
• Variable quality and delivery times
• Fewer add-on services

Printful vs Spreadshirt: The Core Features

Although Spreadshirt and Printful might seem similar (they’re both print on demand services), they each have their own unique focus. Printful mostly focuses on giving you the tools you need to sell custom products through an existing storefront (although US companies can create quick stores).

Spreadshirt is more of a simple marketplace solution which allows creators to list their products and designs on an existing marketplace. Here’s a quick run down of the core features of the services.

Product Options and Customization

Both Printful and Spreadshirt give you a lot of unique product options to choose from, although Printful offers more products overall.

Most of Spreadshirt’s products are garments, like t-shirts and sweaters, although you can create a handful of accessories (like bags and umbrellas), and there’s some great home and living items, like cuddly toys and lunch boxes.

Printful also focuses heavily on most of the same categories, although it does give you the option to choose premium and eco-friendly products too. What I love about both services, is that you can customize your items in a host of different ways, experimenting with DTG, DTF, and embroidery.

Although it’s worth noting Printful does offer all-over print too, that doesn’t seem to be an option for Spreadshirt yet. Printful seems to have the better design tools overall, allowing you to access free resources (like clipart) and adjust your designs in dozens of different ways.

You also get a handy AI tool that helps you upscale images to boost product quality, and the mockup generator (ideal for creating lifestyle images for your store), is a lot more powerful.

Product Quality and Profitability

In terms of product quality, Printful definitely has a better reputation. Although I definitely recommend ordering samples of products from any POD service, Printful constantly earns better reviews for it’s luxurious garment materials, and crisp, clean prints.

Both companies have state-of-the-art printing tools, and follow quality assurance processes to keep your customers happy. However, I’ve noticed that Spreadshirt does get more “variable” reviews for product quality. Some people complain that the shirts are too thin, or the prints lack vibrancy.

For the most part though, you can expect high-quality products from both vendors (provided you use the right files and resources in your designs).

Profitability wise, Printful’s products are a little more expensive, but that’s because they’re generally higher in quality.

However, you will need an existing sales channel (such as an ecommerce store or marketplace account), if you’re not in the US. US merchants can launch a store instantly with Printful’s Quick Store service (though the features are a little limited).

This could mean it costs a little more to launch and run a POD business with Printful. However, it’s worth remembering that the profits you get from Spreadshirt might be limited. There’s a lot of competition on the marketplace. Plus, you don’t get full control over your profit margins – you earn commissions based on the products you sell.

Fulfillment and Sales Channels

Again, Printful stands out in my opinion as the better option for sales channels and flexibility. In fact, it offers more integration options than virtually any other platform I’ve used.

You can link Printful to ecommerce stores like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, social media platforms, and marketplaces like Amazon and Ebay. Plus, if you’re in the US, you can create a “Quick store” and start selling products instantly with no set-up costs.

Spreadshirt mostly encourages companies to sell through their existing marketplace. This is ideal if you want to reduce the costs associated with setting up your own ecommerce store, but it means you’re going to have to compete against a lot of sellers for customers.

You can connect your Spreadshirt store to platforms like Shopify through the SPOD app, but there aren’t as many options for omnichannel selling.

On the plus side, you can share your “Showroom” storefront on Spreadshirt on social media with a unique link. Plus, you can add the T-shirt designer app to your store, to allow customers to personalize their orders, which can help to boost your sales.

Ease of Use and Customer Support

In my opinion, both Printful and Spreadshirt are very straightforward. However, Spreadshirt is probably a little easier to use for absolute beginners. You really only need to create an account, choose the products you want to customize, add your designs, and list them on the marketplace.

You can customize your “Showroom” in a few ways, uploading images and links to your social media channels, but this only takes a couple of minutes at most.

Printful has a slightly longer set-up time, because you’ll need to integrate the platform with your chosen sales channels, or create a Quick Store. However, actually designing products and using the platform to track sales or create promotional campaigns is very straightforward.

The Printful platform is highly intuitive, and there are plenty of tool tips to guide you through each stage of the process. You even get a handy onboarding checklist to help you. The only thing that really makes Printful more complex than Spreadshirt is that it has more features to work with.

In terms of customer support, both companies offer a bunch of self-help resources like FAQs, tutorials, and videos – although I think Printful’s are more comprehensive.

If you need direct assistance, you can reach Printful through email or chat 24/7. Spreadshirt also offers email support, but I couldn’t find any live chat or phone options.

Printful vs Spreadshirt: Plans and Pricing

Now we come to pricing. First, Printful’s products are a little more expensive than Spreadshirt’s (although the company recently began reducing the base cost of its products). The company also offers a free profit calculator to help you choose the right price for each item.

Spreadshirt’s products are a little cheaper, but since you only earn commissions, rather than paying for products up-front and getting the full profits from each sale, this won’t impact your profit margins too much. Both companies allow organizations to create an account for free, with absolutely no monthly subscription fees.

However, Printful also offers a premium plan, which I think is excellent value for money. The “Growth” plan costs $24.99 per month, or it’s available for free if you’re earning $12k per year in revenue. The plan comes with fixed discounts on a huge range of products, as well as additional branding options and features to help boost your sales.

You can also access a range of add-on services from Printful, like embroidery digitization, custom packaging and pack-ins, and design support. Spreadshirt does offer some basic design support services, but there aren’t a lot of extra options available if you’re looking to scale.

Overall, Printful might be a bit more expensive upfront, but it also gives you a lot more scope to increase your profit margins and access additional benefits as your business grows.

I’ve noticed that Printful and Spreadshirt give you a lot more functionality to play with if you’re searching for opportunities to grow with your creative business.

In my opinion, Printful is a good option if you want to ship products around the world, while Spreadshirt provides access to more options for capturing audience attention, thanks to Spreadshop.

Top Alternatives to Printful and Spreadshirt

Printful vs Spreadshirt vs Printify

I’ve found that Printify is a solution that’s very similar to Printful, and almost as popular too. With Printify, I can access a wide variety of product options, great shipping discounts and excellent prices for my designs.

Printful vs Spreadshirt vs Teelaunch

From my research, Teelaunch is another great choice for those in search of an alternative to Printful and Spreadshirt.

Printful vs. Spreadshirt vs. Sellfy

In my evaluation, Sellfy has 40 POD products to choose from – from phone cases to hoodies.

I’ve learned that Sellfy’s fulfillment time from printing to shipping averages five business days, putting them on par with the likes of Printful.

Printful vs Spreadshirt vs Print Aura

I find that Print Aura is a simple solution for beginners who want ease of use and convenient shipping times.

In my experience, the Print Aura service is a little limited if you’re looking for incredible scale as a growing business. If you want a bare bones solution for selling print designs, then you might prefer Print Aura to things like Spreadshirt and Printful.

Printful vs Spreadshirt: The Verdict

Ultimately, both Spreadshirt and Printful are great solutions for print on demand. They both make it easy to create and sell a wide range of customized products.

The big difference, to me, is that Printful gives you more room to grow as a business. It integrates with a wider range of sales channels, offers access to higher-quality products, and provides merchants with plenty of voluntary services to choose from. It also has slightly stronger design tools, and better customer support.

Spreadshirt is definitely the easier option for people who want to get started with POD fast, without running their own ecommerce store. However, I think most merchants will want to consider upgrading to Printful (or a similar service) as their business grows.