Art of Where vs Printful – Which Is Better?

Looking for a new way to make money from home? If you are on this page, you probably have been looking into using print on demand as a way to start your own business and earn a part-time or full-time income on the internet.

However, there are so many print on demand companies that it can get really confusing!

In this article, we will be looking at Art Of Where vs Printful to help you decide which one is better for starting your own print on demand business.

What Is Art Of Where? What Is Printful?

Art Of Where and Printful are companies that help artists create their own clothing businesses. Whether you want to sell t-shirts, tote bags, or other products with your unique art on them, it is easy to do so with Art Of Where and Printful.

Both Art Of Where and Printful are print on demand providers. With print on demand, you can start a clothing line without ever buying products in bulk or printing your logos on products yourself.

Instead, all you have to do is take care of the designing part. If you are not an independent artist, you can even get a freelancer to create designs or slogans for you!

Then, upload your design to a print on demand company like Art Of Where or Printful, and they will print that design on a t-shirt, mug, bag, cap, canvas prints, tote bags, art prints, stickers, greeting cards, or any dropshipping products you want to sell.

Ideally, they use their high quality printers or print providers to print your designs on the products.

You can then sell that product on an online marketplace like Amazon or your own Shopify website without even purchasing them in bulk upfront.

Once an order comes in, the print on demand company you are working for, whether that is Printful or Art Of Where, will print your design on the product you are selling (such as a t-shirt or mug) and ship it to your customer.

You may even be able to have your own shipping address printed on the shipping document and have your own custom packaging used, with no reference to the manufacturer (this is known as white label).

Now that we know what print on demand is, let us start looking at Printful vs Art Of Where.

Explore: Printful Review – Is It Worth It?

Where Can You Sell?

Let’s start by comparing the two platforms in terms of where you can sell print on demand products. This is important because perhaps you don’t want to use a print on demand company that will force you to start your own online store or sell on an online marketplace like Amazon.

Art Of Where

Art Of Where has four options, which you will be presented with when you sign up. Let’s go through these four options one by one:

1. Bulk Purchases: This option lets you design products and order them for yourself. If you are looking to sell your t-shirts at trade shows or in your retail store, this is a great option. It can also be used if you are trying to buy customized t-shirts for members of a sports team or club or participants of an event.

2. Sell On Your Own Store: This option lets you integrate your Art Of Where account with eCommerce software such as WooCommerce and Shopify. If you want to sell on your own website, whether you already own an eCommerce clothing website or want to start a new one from scratch, this is a good option.

3. Sell On A Third-Party Marketplace: You can also sell on Etsy, which is an external marketplace that is similar to Amazon and eBay, except that it is designed for custom crafts and clothes.

4. Sell On The Art Of Where Marketplace: This option lets skip all of that and sell directly on the Art Of Where marketplace. Setting up your own store on the Art Of Where marketplace lets you get started with making sales right away. You won’t have to bother with setting up your own website, so it will be easier, and you will also have access to Art Of Where’s customer fan base who are looking for cool t-shirts and other cool products.

Printful

Printful integrates with a lot of platforms where you can sell your stuff. However, the downside is that unlike Art Of Where, there is no Printful marketplace where you can sell your products.

There are basically three options for selling your Printful products:

1. Online marketplaces: These online marketplaces give you access to an existing audience, but they are not specific to people looking for custom-design shirts and accessories. They include Amazon, eBay, Storenvy, Wish, Bonanza, and Etsy.

2. eCommerce platform: Printful lets you sell on your own online store. It integrates with Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Weebly, Magento, BigCommerce, Weebly, Big Cartel, PrestaShop, ShipStation, Gum Road, 3DCart, Webflow, and LaunchCart.

3. Your custom-built store: Unlike other Printful alternatives like Bella Canvas, Society6, and TeeFury, Printful provides a RESTful API which facilitates integration with custom built online stores. That way, your online store development process can be accelerated.

Who wins here: While Art Of Where does not nearly offer as many integrations as Printful, they do give you more options in terms of how you can sell your products. Nevertheless, Printful gives you more options overall.

Also Read: Zazzle vs Printful

How Do You Make Money? How Much Can You Make? How Do You Get Paid?

You are probably wondering how you make money selling on Printful or Art Of Where and how much money you can make. Let’s explore that in this section.

Art Of Where

For Art Of Where, there are two ways you can make money. This will depend on where you are selling your products.

In the previous section, we saw that Art Of Where lets you sell on your own store or on the Art Of Where marketplace.

If you sell on your own website, you will be able to charge your customers whatever you want. You will have to pay for the base price of the product in order for Art Of Where to fulfill your order, but you can add a margin on top of that when charging your customers.

For example, if the product costs $10, you can sell it for $20 to make a $10 profit (not considering shipping costs).

On the other hand, if you are selling on the Art Of Where marketplace, you will earn a 25 percent commission on each sale. For example, if a product costs $20, you will earn a $5 commission.

Obviously, if you sell in your own store, you will have a lot more control over the prices. However, you will also have to put in more work, so it is a trade-off that may or may not be worth it for you.

If you do sell from your artist shop on the Art Of Where marketplace, you will get paid every week via PayPal. For example, if you sold $400 worth of clothing, you will get paid $100 (as long as you sold them by the cutoff date).

On the other hand, if you sell on your own website, you are the one who will be collecting the money from your customers and then paying Art Of Where for the base price of the product. If you sell on Etsy, you will get paid as any other Etsy seller.

Printful

Since Printful does not have its own marketplace, you will always collect money directly from your customers or through an online marketplace such as Amazon. However, like Art Of Where, you can decide on your own prices and add a profit margin that works for you.

Check Out: Gooten vs Printful

Clothing Prices

Another thing you might want to look at is the base prices of the products you will be selling. After all, if you will have to add a margin onto that base price, it is important to know what that is.

For example, if the base price is $15 and you sell it for $20, you will earn a $5 profit. However, if that same product has a base price of $10 on a different print on demand platform, you can sell it for $20 and earn double the revenue.

To compare the two print on demand companies, we will be looking at a few specific types of products and check how much they cost on each platform. For updated prices, make sure to check Art Of Where’s pricing page and Printful’s catalog.

• Unisex T-Shirt:
  • Art Of Where: There are two types of unisex t-shirts. For dropshipping (not including bulk wholesale purchases), one type costs $12 and the other type costs $13.
  • Printful: Printful has many different variations and styles of t-shirts available. However, one classic unisex t-shirt starts at $7.95.
• Leggings:
  • Art Of Where: The dropshipping price for a pair of leggings is $30.
  • Printful: Men’s leggings start at $29.95, which is basically the same as Art Of Where’s prices. However, women’s leggings start at $23.50, though there are quite a few different types of leggings available.
• Pillowcases:
  • Art Of Where: Art Of Where offers pillowcases in several sizes and materials. They start at $16 each.
  • Printful: Printful offers pillowcases starting at $13.95.

Who wins here: As you can see, Printful seems to have lower prices in general. Of course, we would have to compare every single product to determine whether Art Of Where may have lower prices on specific products, but in general, if you will be selling on your own store, Printful seems to give you cheaper options.

Another thing that we can take away from this comparison is that Printful seems to have more variety as well. For example, we saw that Printful offers a few different options for women’s leggings, including shorts, and tons of options for Unisex t-shirts compared to Art Of Where’s two t-shirt options.

Warehousing, Fulfillment, And Wholesale

We’ve talked about dropshipping mostly in this article, but let us take a look at the wholesale and warehousing options offered by each company.

Art Of Where

As mentioned, Art Of Where lets you order custom products in bulk to sell in your store, at an event, in your church, or anywhere else. If you order products in bulk, you will get the special retail price, which is cheaper than the dropshipping price (when you only order one product at a time).

The best part about this is that wholesale “bulk” orders are not what they sound like. Perhaps when you read “bulk orders,” you were thinking that in order to qualify for the cheaper wholesale prices, you would have to buy 100 or maybe even 500 items at once.

Nope! The minimum is actually only six items (of a particular product and size).

Not only that, but whether you order 600 items or six items, you will get the same discounted wholesale price.

The benefit of such a low minimum order requirement is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money upfront investing in stock. You can buy more as your stock sells out.

Bulk orders also qualify for cheaper shipping costs, so there is that benefit as well.

Also Read: Printful vs TeeSpring

Printful

Printful has a warehousing and fulfillment service. If you know what Amazon FBA is, this is pretty similar.

Printful’s warehousing and fulfillment service allows you to store clothing and products that you got from another company, not just those products you got from Printful.

For example, if you worked out a deal with a private company to produce custom caps, you can send them to the Printful warehouse so that they get stored there.

You will pay for the storage costs, and when an order comes in, Printful will ship out the product from their warehouse. Their warehouses are strategically located around the world, so your products will arrive quickly at any destination.

Also, when you make a bulk purchase of custom Printful products (over 25 items at once) you will automatically be given the option of having the products stored at a Printful warehouse until you are ready to ship them out to a customer.

Interesting Comparison: Printful vs Society6

White Label Support

Now that we’ve looked at wholesale options, let’s look at white label/private label options.

White label is when a product carries no mention at all of the manufacturer. Any tags or labels that reference the manufacturer will be removed.

Private label is when you then put on your own tag or label so that it appears as if you were the one who created the product, even when you did not. Private label dropshipping is when a manufacturer creates and ships out a product for you but they print your label on it with no reference to themselves.

With a private label, you may also want to have your shipping address printed on the shipping label so that people think you shipped the custom product out too. If you can get custom packaging that contains your name, that is even better.

Art Of Where

Art Of Where offers three options for those who are looking for a private label experience. You can choose one of these three options or all three of them.

1. Custom Label: If you want, you can design your own label, which Art Of Where will attach to the clothing item they ship out. The only exception is that this label can not be attached to scarves, makeup bags, pencil cases, tote bags, or zipper carry-alls. However, they can be attached to all other products. These will cost $1 per order.
2. Artist Cards: These are little cards that are added into the package. It’s like a business card. You can use this card to advertise yourself or even show other products that you are currently selling. These will also cost $1 per order.
3. Artist Stickers: Finally, you can have a special custom sticker with your logo added to the outside of the packaging. These will also cost $1 per order.

However, Art Of Where will include their own return address. This can not be changed, but most people will not really notice the return address unless they are dissatisfied with the customized product.

In addition, if you do not choose to add a custom label, artist card, or artist sticker, Art Of Where will add their own sticker to the outside of the packaging.

Printful

Printful also offers white label services. There are various places you can have your label printed, depending on the type of product you are selling.

Here are the types of labels available:

• Inside Label: This label is printed on the inside of the garment (such as a t-shirt). It will contain your logo and will make the garment look professionally-made by you.
• Outside Label: These labels are printed on the outside of the garment, such as the back of the t-shirt. They are a bit more visible and will help more for branding.
• Sleeve Prints: These labels are printed on the sleeves of short-sleeved or long-sleeved shirts. They are also more visible and look pretty cool.
• Embroidered Label: You can add embroidered labels to caps and other items.
• Business Cards: These “pack-ins” are like Art Of Where’s artist cards. They are added to your package and contain your logo or business information.
• Shipping Label: You can have your logo and even a custom message printed on the shipping label, which is attached to the outside of the package.

Explore: Printful vs Printify

Labels start at $2.49 per label, though some are more expensive (embroidered labels are $2.95 per label, for example).

Pack-ins start at $0.50 per pack-in. However, you must also pay for storage, as Printful does not actually create those pack-ins; instead, you create them and ship them to Printful.

Printful will store them and add them to your shipments. Storage is a minimum of $25/month.

Printing your logo and custom message on the shipping label is free.

Who wins here: Although Printful has more branding options in terms of where you can have your label printed, it is also more expensive ($2.49 starting price per label vs. Art Of Where’s $1 per label). Although print-ins are cheaper than Art Of Where’s artist cards, there is a huge difference: You have to ship your own print-ins to Printful, but for Art Of Where all you have to do is upload your design and they will take care of the rest.

Ordering Samples

Before you start selling a product, it makes sense to order a sample first to see how it will look in reality and to check the quality of the materials used. That way, you can examine the product quality of your customized products before selling them on your sales channel(s).

Art Of Where

Art Of Where lets you order two types of samples: A real sample that contains your custom image or a sample that is made of different fabrics and which contains different images, which allows you to get a feel for how each fabric will look.

If you want to order a sample that has a custom image, it will cost $30. If you want to order a standard sample, it will be much cheaper, at $10 for clothing and $5 per sample for prints.

Printful

Printful lets you order samples of any products with any design or logo you upload. For some products, you will have to pay the full base rate to get a sample, but for some products, you may be able to get a 20 percent discount, depending on your location.

Customer Support

Art Of Where

To reach the customer support on Art of Where, there are two options you can choose from. You can reach them via a direct phone call. The customer support number is on the company’s Contact Us page.

If for any reason that is not convenient for you, you can choose to send an email by filling out the contact form on their website.

Nevertheless, Art of Where is active on top social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Printful

With Printful, there are four options to get customer support. The first is the help center to get answers to frequently asked questions. Also, you can send an email to Printful’s dedicated support email address.

If that would not work for you, you can have a live chat with Printful’s support team. However, if you are pressed for time, you can just fill out the contact form on the official support web page.

Who wins here: Once again, Printful wins in this Printful vs Art of Where section. Printful provides various support options and resources for their customers, unlike Art of Where.

Art Of Where vs Printful: Similarities And Differences

Similarities

• Both Art of Where and Printful allows you to sell white label products.
• They both have a mockup generator.
• With either Printful or Art of Where, you can make bulk orders.
• Both Art of Where and Printful allows you to sell on your own online store and via Etsy.
• Both Art of Where and Printful enables you to set your own prices for custom printed products. That way, you can determine your profit margin based on preference.

Differences

• Unlike Printful, Art of Where does not offer fulfillment services.
• Art of Where has its own marketplace, while Printful does not. Instead, Printful allows you to sell via marketplace integration options.
• Unlike Art of Where, Printful allows you to sell on both Amazon and eBay.

Wrapping It Up: Printful vs Art Of Where

All in all, Printful is generally a better choice. Art Of Where is still good, but it fades in comparison to Printful for a number of reasons, even though it does have a few advantages over Printful.

First of all, let’s look at prices and product selection. As we saw before, Printful has a much wider range of product varieties, and they also seem to offer them at lower prices.

Although Printful does not have its own marketplace, they integrate with far more third-party marketplaces than Art Of Where does (Art Of Where only integrates with Etsy, while Printful integrates with Amazon, eBay, and various others). Printful also integrates with far more eCommerce platforms like Wix, Webflow, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Magento, etc.

Finally, Printful is a bit better if you want to start a clothing line, as not only do they give you private label options, but they will also store any product you own in their warehouse and fulfill orders for you. This allows you to operate your business entirely remotely, which gives you a lot of freedom.