You are probably tired of dropshipping AliExpress items that everybody else sells and looking to sell unique items that will help you avoid the competition. Join me in this detailed Printful Review in order to see if Printful is a legit place to outsource POD products or not.
But before we dive deep into this review, I would like to remind you that selling print on demand products has its benefits of selling unique items with unique design, ability to target more niches, avoiding the competition by having your own custom products that only you promote, dealing with a smaller number of suppliers who are usually more reliable, faster shipping time, …etc.
But also it has its cons such as: higher item prices, and thus, lower margin, higher shipping costs, although you have unique items to sell with unique designs, but you are finally limited with the number of items you can sell, while on AliExpress, there are thousands and thousands of products. And also, you need the time for doing the designs or the budget to hire someone else in order to do them for you.
Note: If you have already tried dropshipping from AliExpress and didn’t achieve success, then you might need a proper training on dropshipping. My top recommendation in this case is Franklin’s Ecom Elites course as it offers the most value at the lowest possible cost.
So, now let’s go deeper into details about Printful Print On Demand Company.
Printful Review Summary
- Name: Printful (Start for FREE here!)
- Website: www.printful.com
- Founders: Davis Siksnans and others.
- Training & Resources: 95 of 100
- Support: 96 of 100
- Pricing: 90 of 100
- Shipping: 92 of 100
- Integration With Platforms: 98 of 100
- Products Variety: 96 of 100
- Success Stories – Testimonials: 95 of 100
- Price: Free to install the App. Prices apply to the products differently. Also, shipping costs apply. Details below.
- Legit/Scam: Legit
Overall OnlinePassiveIncomeGuide.com Rating: 95 of 100
Summary: Printful is one of the top and most reliable print on demand printing companies that integrates with Shopify through an app, and sells a wide variety of products with custom designs such as: t-shirts, leggings, mugs, canvas, …etc.
The Printful Shopify app is one of the most POD apps reviewed on the Shopify App Store, and Printful integrates with many other platfroms other than Shopify, and has print on demand fulfilment services in Europe and America.
What Is Printful?
Printful is one of the best POD companies that have Shopify Apps, which allow you to list their products with your own designs on your store and sell them to your store’s visitors, and then, pay Printful and request them to ship the items on your behalf to your customers.
Printful can also be integrated with other platforms and you can also buy products with your design directly from Printful itself without the need to integrate it with Shopify or any other platform.
Printful also provides resources and training lessons as you will see in this review below.
Printful Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Free to install with no monthly fees through this link.
- One of the best companies in their field, they have the rating of 4.5 stars on Shopify app store from around 2955 reviews. The most reviewed POD App on Shopify App Store.
- Currently, during the pandemic, Printful is one of the few companies that remained reliable in fulfilling and shipping orders, unlike other companies that started falling down. This makes Prinful my #1 recommended POD company to work with.
- Wide variety of products.
- Good shipping rates.
- Five fulfillment houses, two in USA, one in Mexico and one in Europe, Latvia & Barcelona.
- Everything is done by Printful, no outsourcing.
- Printful is a White Label Dropshipper, which is good for branding, you can add your logo to the packaging on the items you sell.
- Free to use App. No monthly fees, you pay only when you order a product.
- Can be integrated with many other platforms other than Shopify, such as Amazon, Woocommerce, Etsy, Squarespace, BigCommerce and others.
- Guaranteed delivery, they cover the costs for lost or damaged packages.
- Free mockup generator.
- 20% Discount and free shipping for the samples.
- Other services are available, like hiring designers, producing actual photos for products with your designs.
- Lots of resources and webinars that you can learn from. In addition to the blog.
Cons:
- The prices are a bit higher than other similar competitors. But taking into consideration the volume of sales done by Printful, reliability, and ability for branding, …etc. The prices are reasonable.
- Many of the negative reviews are about the long fulfillment and shipping times, and some are about the support contact and responses. However, many reviews are also positive regarding the support.
Printful Integration with Platforms & Marketplaces
Printful can be easily integrated with many platforms where you can even leverage the free traffic on Amazon, Etsy and other marketplaces. Or you can integrated with your own store on your domain name using Shopify, BigCommerce or any other similar platform.
Following are the platforms that Printful can be easily integrated with for FREE, the prices mentioned in the table’s second column are the costs associated to the e-commerce platforms themselves (e.g. Shopify, Amazon, …etc.) and not to Printful:
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- Shopify
- Etsy
- WooCommerce
- Squarespace
- Storenvy
- BigCommerce
- Gumroad
- Tictail
- Big Cartel
- Ecwid
- Amazon
- Weebly
- eBay
Printful Products Pricing
Printful’s Shopify POD App is free to install and use. You only pay for the products and shipping after someone orders from you and pays you. You then pay Printful and the customer address will be automatically sent to them and they will fulfill and ship the ordered items.
The prices are different from one item to another. Following screenshots are from the current prices for some of the available products:
1 – Printful Print On Demand Men’s Clothing:
- All Print On Demand Shirts
- T-shirts
- All-over shirts
- Tank tops
- 3/4 sleeve shirts
- Long sleeve shirts
- Embroidered shirts
- Print On Demand Jackets
- All Print On Demand Hoodies & Sweatshirts
- Hoodies
- Sweatshirts
- Print On Demand Bottoms
- Sweatpants and joggers
- Leggings
- Shorts
2 – Printful Print On Demand Women’s Clothing:
- All shirts
- T-shirts
- All-over shirts
- Tank tops
- Crop tops
- Embroidered shirts
- 3/4 sleeve shirts
- Long sleeve shirts
- Print On Demand Jackets
- All hoodies & sweatshirts
- Hoodies
- Sweatshirts
- Print On Demand Bottoms
- Sweatpants and joggers
- Leggings
- Skirts
- Shorts
- Print on demand dresses
- Print on demand Swimwear
- Print on demand Sports bras
- Print on demand Bodysuits
3 – Printful Print On Demand Kids & Youth Clothing:
- All shirts
- T-shirts
- All-over shirts
- Tank tops
- Print on demand kids hoodies
- Print on demand baby bibs
- Leggings
- Print on demand Baby bodysuits
- Print on demand kids swimwear
4 – Printful Print On Demand Accessories:
- Print on demand jewelry
- Necklaces
- Bracelets
- Earrings
- Print on demand Embroidered hats
- Trucker hats
- Snapbacks
- Dad hats
- 5-panel hats
- Mesh hats
- Beanies
- Bucket hats
- Visors
- Print on demand Bags
- Tote bags
- Laptop cases
- Fanny bags
- Drawstring bags
- Backpacks
- Print on demand Phone cases
- iPhone cases
- Samsung cases
- Print on demand Socks
- Print on demand Face Masks
- Print on demand Neck Gaiters
- Print on demand flip flops
5 – Printful Print On Demand Home & Living Items:
- Embroidered aprons
- Print on demand Coffee mugs
- Print on demand Enamel Mugs
- Print on demand Pillows
- Throw pillows
- Pillow cases
- Print on demand Wall art
- Posters
- Framed posters
- Canvas prints
- Print on demand Beach towels
- Print on demand bean bags
- Print on demand Stickers
6 – Prinful Print on Demand Collections:
- Print on demand Sportswear
- Print on demand Workear
- Print on demand Streetwear
- Print on demand Beachwear
- Print on demand Eco-friendly products
- Print on demand Gifts
Printful Shipping Times & Prices
Printful products take about 2-7 business days to create depending on the item. And then, there are the shipping times.
Shipping speed and price depend on product type and destination. There are many tables available for the shipping rates of each item and destination. Following are some examples:
As stated by Printful, 97.66% of their orders are shipped within 5 business days. And more than a half of their orders are shipped within 3 business days or less.
However, the shipping time to the customers are not clearly specified, but many of the reviews on the App store are about the long shipping times that could take 3-4 weeks in some cases.
Printful POD Features, Resources & Training
Printful provide many resources to help you succeed with your print on demand business, which is one of the different ways to make money with Shopify and some other E-Commerce platforms.
Following are some of the FREE resources that you can utilize from Printful:
1 – Printful Mockup & Print File Generator:
As you can see in the following screenshot, you can add your design into any of the products you wish to sell, and then, you can download the file and use it in your advertising campaigns or on your website.
2 – Printful Blog:
The blog has many articles that you can learn from and get tips on POD and marketing in general. These articles are free to read there are new blog posts added continuously.
3 – Printful’s Weekly Webinars:
Weekly live webinars covering different topics that would help you in your Print On Demand business such as design basics and E-mail marketing. All webinars are also recorded and you can watch the replay later.
4 – Printful YouTube Channel:
The YouTube channel provides short lessons on how to use Printful and how to connect it to different E-Commerce platforms such as: Shopify, Amazon, Squarespace, …etc.
5 – Printful Phone Apps:
Printful have phone apps for both, Android and IOS smartphones. You can use their app in order to receive notifications, track orders, hold orders, contact the support, …etc.
6 – Printful Profit Calculator:
You can use this calculator to know the margin on each product you sell at the price you set.
7 – Printful Checklist For POD Stores:
This is a checklist that Printful compiled in order to help you take a systematic approach in creating and managing your Print On Demand Store in order to make sure that your store is ready to make sales and makes the visitors feel the trust in your brand.
8 – Printful Facebook Group:
This group is not a replacement for their customer support, it’s a place where different users of Printful can meet and exchange ideas and helpful information.
9 – Printful API:
Although it’s easy to fulfill orders after you receive them, which you can do in a few clicks on the Printful Shopify App, but you can also use their API in order to automate even this part and let the App send the orders to Printful once a customer pays you without you doing anything!
Printful Additional Services
In addition to fulfilling and shipping orders, Printful can provide you with different paid services that can save you time and effort and help you focus more on the marketing side of your business.
Following are some of these services:
1 – Printful’s Design Services:
Printful has a team of experienced and creative graphic designers that you can hire in order to do different tasks for you from Creating print ready files, to adjusting existing files, to redesigning old logos, to doing artistic works and many other services that would help you get great unique designs by professional designers who are also familiar with the products you want to place the designs on, which makes it even better than hiring people from Upwork or Fiverr.
Following is an example of one of the designs made by their team:
2 – Printful Ecommerce Photography Services:
In addition to free mockup generator that you can use to get standard product photos with your designs, Printful also provides the ability to take actual photos for the actual products after being printed with your designs on them. Then, they will send you the photos formatted and ready to be used on the web and on social media.
3 – Printful Branding Services:
Printful is a white label dropshipper. Meaning that they don’t place their logo on the products you sell to your customers.
On the packaging, they place your brands logo for free. But on the product, you have the option to add your logo on the inside or the outside of the product for an extra of around $2.49.
However, the address, which will be the return address if you offer returns to your customers, will be Printful’s address, which means that you don’t have to deal with the returns by yourself.
You can also request Printful to add Pack-Ins with the products such as your business card, flyer, …etc.
Printful Support
Printful provides you with three ways to request support or ask questions:
1 – Live Chat.
2 – Email Support.
3 – Phone Support (Monday – Friday).
This is in addition to the Facebook Group, YouTube channels, Blog, Live Webinars and other resources mentioned in the resources section above.
The fact that many other POD companies are falling down and getting negative reviews due to shipping delays during the pandemic, while Prinful remained really reliable and trustworthy during this critical time to businesses, this makes me consider Printful the number 1 POD company out there.
On the Shopify App Store, Printful’s rateing is 4.5 stars from around 2955 reviews, which makes it the most popular POD company that can be integrated with Shopify.
How to Connect Printful to Shopify Stores and How it Works
Printful can be used to sell on different platforms, but I will explain here how to easily connect it to your Shopify store.
Following are the steps from installing Printful App into publishing your first POD product:
- Create a free account at Printful.com. Click here to create it now!
- After you signup, scroll down until you reach the “We integrate with these E-commerce platforms” section, and select Shopify and visit the Shopify App Store.
- From the App Store, click on the “Add App” button in order to connect Printful to your Shopify Store. You will be requested to login to your store in order in order to do that.
- After installing the Printful App, you can go to the app from the App section in the left menu in your Shopify dashboard.
- After you select Printful App, click on the “Add Product” button.
- You will get a pop-up, select the product you want to sell.
- Now upload the ready design that you have, or you can do a text design directly from this area and then click “Proceed To Mockups”.
- Choose the mockup you want to use on your store and social media and click “Proceed to description”.
- Write the title and the description if you wish to add anything to the standard description. And then, click “proceed to pricing”.
- Fill in the prices you want to sell the product at, and then choose the collection where you want the product to be in your store. And then, click “Submit to store”.
And that’s how easy it is to use Printful to add custom design products to your Shopify store.
Once you receive an order, you can find it in the “Orders” tab in the main menu of the Printful app, where you can request Printful to fulfill and ship the item to the address of your customer, which will be automatically transferred to Printful.
Printful Alternatives & Competitors
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Update: Currently, and due to the current global situation and shipping delays related issues, it seems that Prinful is one of the most reliable and trustworthy print on demand companies and I don’t recommend going with other companies as most of them had negative reviews due to shipping delays.
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Printful is a great company, and one of the biggest in their field. They have the most reviews on the Shopify App Store among competitors.
However, there are other respectful companies with different products, lower prices, higher overall rating, …etc. that can be considered as Printful competitors.
Following are the main companies that are alternatives to Printful POD:
1 – WC Fulfillment: Sells POD Hooded Blankets, Watches, Wallets, Wallet Phone Cases, and some other unique products. They offer express shipping for many items for low cost and FREE Espress Shipping for some products such as the Hooded Blankets. You can check my full WC Fulfillment review for more details.
2 – Pillow Profits: Another great company with many products similar to Printful and other unique products. The Shopify app costs $29.99/month in addition to the products costs. The first 30 days are a free trial. They provide you with +10,000 designs that are ready to use for free. Free shipping worldwide and express shipping as an upsell.
Many unique products such as Bed Covers, Sneakers, Flip-Flops, Car Seat Covers, …etc. In addition to the T-shirts, tops, …etc.
You can read more in my detailed Pillow Profits Review.
3 – ShineOn Jewelry Fulfillment: High quality and unique jewelry items at low prices. Made in USA. (Shineon POD Review)
And The Best Alternative To Printful Is …
This alternative to Printful POD App is not another POD app, but rather, it is the best training in the Shopify dropshipping industry.
You might have chosen to move into the print on demand world because you couldn’t make money with AliExpress products, and you thought that you need something unique such as print on demand products in order to become profitable.
But that might not be necessary, because you might have not learned dropshipping the right way in the beginning.
And here comes my best alternative, it is the best dropshipping with Shopify training course that is called eCom Elites.
This comprehensive training was created by someone who was really successful with dropshipping himself and his name is Franklin Hatchett.
This training offers loads of helpful video tutorials, and it is being sold at a ridiculously low price at the moment.
This training course will teach you everything about dropshippoing such as:
- How to setup your store to maximize conversions.
- How to choose the right niche products to dropship and make money with.
- How research your audiences and create Paid ads on FB and other platforms that actually bring sales.
- How to use other paid and free traffic methods in order to drive BUYERS to your store.
- And much more.
And even if you want to stick to the POD industry, you still need to learn other skills like how to setup your store the right way, how to research the market, how to create paid advertising campaigns, how to get free traffic and more.
And this all you can learn at this amazing course.
If you are not sure, you can learn about this course before you buy it through my detailed eCom Elites Review, I’m sure you will like it.
Conclusion – Is Printful Legit? And Is it a Reliable POD Company?
Printful is legit and it is definitely one of the best options in their field. The most reviewed POD company on the Shopify store with the overall rating of 4.5 stars, wide variety of products and integration with many platforms, not only Shopify. Also, the features and resources mentioned above are very useful.
- Name: Printful (Start for FREE here!)
- Website: www.printful.com
- Founders: Davis Siksnans and others.
- Price: Free to install the App. Prices apply to the products differently. Also, shipping costs apply. Details above.
- Legit/Scam: Legit
Overall OnlinePassiveIncomeGuide.com Rating: 95 of 100 (#1 Recommended POD Company)
Printful has shown that it is one of the most reliable print on demand companies out there as they are one of the few companies that kept fulfilling and shipping orders on time during the global pandemic.
If you like this Printful Review, then go ahead and create your account for free and follow the steps I mentioned in the “How To Connect Printful To Shopify Stores And How It Works” section above in order to create your first product now!
And if you have any questions or concerns, or if you need my help in anything, please write to me in the comment section below and I will be coming back to you as soon as possible.