Print on demand is a kind of ecommerce business model that is similar to dropshipping.
With print on demand, you create your own logos, designs, and labels. You then have these designs placed on t-shirts, coffee mugs, sweaters, hats, keychains, books, or anything else.
Like dropshipping, this method does not require you to store or stock any inventory. If you have artistic tendencies, it’s a great way to use your creativity to make money at the same time.
Print on demand sites like Society6 allow artists to use their designs to start a full-time or part-time business. Here are some other popular sites you can use.
1. Printful
Printful allows you to create designs and upload them to be sold on t-shirts, swimwear, backpacks, and much more.
It’s entirely free to sign up for an account, and there are no monthly fees. After you sign up, create a store and fill it with your designs.
With Printful, there is no minimum number of items required for your orders. You don’t have to stock or own any inventory.
When a customer orders one of your designs, Printful will print it on the t-shirt (or product of their choice) themselves. They will even ship it in a package that is branded with your logo, which will make it seem as if it was sent from you.
Printful has three locations around the world, allowing for quick shipping options regardless of the customer’s location. Most items in the United States arrive within three days.
You can use Printful with Woocommerce (for WordPress), Wix, eBay, Amazon, or your own site or app on many other platforms.
What Makes Printful Great?
Despite not having a huge product selection compared to its rivals. Printful is the go-to POD site for most users with the great reviews it receives over its quality products.
The printing won’t wash off quickly owing to the sturdy shirts, and your customers will be elated at the timely deliveries.
No print and/or dropship company is perfect, but the positive reviews about Printful outweighs the negative from a large majority of merchants.
This however depends on the kind of product you print on, your supplier, and the quality of graphics uploaded.
While one shirt may look great on Printful, other products like tote bags may not come out exactly the way you expected.
You can upload some designs and order samples on Printful to compare quality, pricing, and the speed of shipping over similar companies.
Printful Pricing
With Printful, there are no upfront costs. Also, you can set high profit margins for your products.
Simply sign up for a free account, design your products, and list them at no charge on your website.
Printful only makes money when you make sales.
If you’re purchasing from a supplier, pick a product you want to sell and
Printful will list its starting retail price based on colors, shipping location, and reviews.
You can also create your own pricing and get to see the possible profits you can make before you publish to your site.
Their prices are fair if you compare the quality of printing and shipping to the competition.
Printful’s sample orders are also reasonable with a 20 percent discount on the list price, plus free shipping to specific locations.
Printful Design And Selling
To create a new order, Printful has a dashboard from which you can choose a size, upload your unique designs to the products, and see mockups of the products.
You can also show these mockups to your customers in a real-world setting.
Once done, place your custom order, or save to your ecommerce platform.
This can be synced to your store automatically if connected to Printful.
Printful works quite well on WooCommerce, and has high reviews on Shopify, Squarespace, BigCartel, Ecwid, Amazon, Weebly, Etsy, Bigcommerce, and more apps and extensions for similar platforms.
Also Read: Printful Vs Society6
Customer Support
Printful lists a blog and FAQ page on its site, with resources like fabric facts, printing tips, and embroidery files.
Its shipping service is quite fast, with a respectable return policy that covers most situations where they’re at fault.
Support is available via phone on weekdays, or live chat and email.
Is Printful Better Than Society6?
Well, based on the features offered by both POD platforms we can come to a solid conclusion. When we compare the pricing, free account creation, white label solution, third party integrations, and delivery time, it becomes clear that Printful is better than Society6.
2. Zazzle
Here is a print on demand marketplace like Society6 to sell custom products.
Zazzle has many kinds of products you can work with, including t-shirts, flip flops, caps, business cards, iPhone cases, rubber stamps, tumblers, water bottles, coffee mugs, teapots, tote bags, wine bags, luggage tags, binders, wooden art, hoodies, and much more!
With their wide range of items, you can create an entire wardrobe or product line with your own design, brand, or logo. All this is without having to own any product stock.
When joining as a designer, you don’t have to pay any fees for joining; simply upload your designs and start selling.
The standard royalty rate is five percent at Zazzle. However, you have the option of choosing your own royalty rate. You can actually set it at up to 99 percent.
You can also join Zazzle as a maker (someone who produces the actual products).
Unlike other print on demand online marketplaces, Zazzle claims to have a network of over 30 million customers each month.
Explore: Zazzle Review
Template Selection, Quality and Services
Zazzle offers a wide selection of templates for any occasion or holiday.
However, its photo card service is somewhat limited.
The service excels in paper and holiday template options, and is a solid photo card service with great designs and card selection.
Cards can be ordered individually instead of a minimum packet number, which means you can get the exact number you need.
It also offers 12 different paper options based on your choice of card design.
If you want wedding and save-the-date cards, however, you’re spoilt for choice, compared to other cards.
While you may get nice cards that do well for any occasion
Zazzle outsources its print jobs to various companies so the final quality depends on the printer handling your job.
Convenience
Zazzle doesn’t have custom photo card design options, even with its extensive template offering.
So you can’t work with designers to create your own design from scratch or alter existing ones.
It also doesn’t warn you about your print quality on areas like resolution or sizing.
And while you get to enjoy an assortment of paper options, you can only order white envelopes that feel fancy and thicker than other services’ envelopes.
Zazzle doesn’t offer decorative linings for envelopes either.
Also Read: Gooten Vs Zazzle
However, personalized rubber stamps or return address labels for mailing are available on order especially for invitation cards.
Pricing
Zazzle scores highly on its templates’ design and its pricing is decent considering it includes tax and shipping.
You can order a card at a time and ensure it’s what you want before purchasing in bulk.
Individual cards are pricey though, as shipping will double the cost overall.
Zazzle Support
A Zazzle representative is available via phone or email to answer your queries or concerns, or you can visit the FAQ section online.
Zazzle also offers a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the final product.
Is Zazzle Better Than Society6?
The leverage for Zazzle here would be the wide range of products it has to offer as a print on demand marketplace. You can fit everything into your home directly from Zazzle. Its flexible markup pricing and high profit margin are other reasons we would rate it above Society6.
3. Teespring
Teespring is known for being a t-shirt print on demand service, but they also let you create designs for other products, such as stickers, beach towels, and mugs.
Teespring has a simple online tool that anyone can use to create simple but cool designs.
As with other print on demand sites, you don’t actually have to store any inventory.
On the other hand, you have to market your t-shirts yourself. You get a special link that you can promote to friends or followers.
Is Teespring Better Than Society6?
On this, we can agree that the specialized nature of its offers makes Teespring kind of limited. Teespring focuses more on T-shirt printing and production. Society6’s offers are wider, and its POD products are vast.
4. CafePress
CafePress has over 250 products you can create designs for.
Setting up an account and store is pretty easy. You don’t have to pay any monthly or yearly fees upfront if you don’t want to; you can pay 10 percent of your earnings instead.
All products have a base price on CafePress. On top of the base price, you choose the markup you set, which goes to you.
Is CafePress Better Than Society6?
A little. That is the answer. They both charge base fees. Whatever comes on top of that is left for you. Free account? Well, you can make your deductions already.
5. TeeFury
TeeFury works a little differently than most print on demand sites. Their goal is to offer new pop culture t-shirts every day.
Anyone can submit a design, but only the best designs will be picked and sold. The chosen t-shirts will only be sold for 24 hours, after which they will be sent to the “gallery.”
The t-shirts sell for $12, and artists receive a $1 commission per sale.
Once a design is sent to the gallery, customers can vote to have it sold again. This time, it will cost around $18, and artists will receive a $2 commission per sale.
TeeFury claims to have over 1 million visitors a day, and successful artists have made hundreds of dollars from a single design.
Is TeeFury Better Than Society6?
Maybe not. First, as an artist, you are going in knowing fully well that the competition is stiff. Only what is determined to be the best are sold in the first place. Then you only get to be in the limelight for 24 hours before being moved to the gallery. Society6 ranks above TeeFury based on these grounds.
6. Printify
Printify is a great print on demand site, and you can easily use it to sell different products on your Shopify store with their Shopify app. They also integrate with Woocommerce and Etsy.
It’s a great way to set up an ecommerce business selling t-shirts on your own site without having to invest in any inventory.
You can also order a sample of a product before you sell it to make sure it looks great.
Is Printify Better Than Society6?
Based on product variety, we would not agree that Printify is better. However, Printify integrates with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Prestashop, BigCommerce, etc. That way, you can easily sell your customized printed products on diverse platforms.
Give shape to your dropshipping dream. Printify gives you the liberty to create, design and sell your custom prints using 3000 plus products. What's more, it is absolutely free!
7. SunFrog
SunFrog allows you to upload designs and create your own personal catalog that you can market through ads or on social media.
There are plenty of templates you can use to create a customized design so that you don’t have to start from scratch.
You can also make money by marketing other designs that are already on the site.
You earn a 30 percent commission on each sale you bring them, plus another 10 percent if the design is one of your own.
SunFrog even promotes your designs and products for you in their email campaigns.
Is Sunfrog Better Than Society6?
Sunfrog will take the shine here. Its attractive remuneration package implies that artists get to benefit greatly in terms of product volume and profit margin. Yes, it’s Sunfrog here.
8. RedBubble
RedBubble is a very popular print on demand site. It allows you to create designs not just for apparel, but for things like postcards, posters, home decor art, and stickers.
RedBubble gives you access to a supportive online community of artists and designers, and you can even attend networking events and workshops.
Their journal feature allows you to share thoughts on art, bringing you more exposure by reaching new readers and art fans.
RedBubble doesn’t limit you to a fixed commission. Base prices for products are set, but you get to choose how much of a markup you place on each product.
Is Redbubble Better Than Society6?
We will go for a ‘yes’ here. It offers a range of products just like Society6. In addition to this, its online community is regarded as highly supportive. You can also get a shot in its publications. The avenue for expression is quite encouraging. We will go for Redbubble here.
9. Spreadshirt
Spreadshirt is a print on demand company that claims to be dedicated to freedom of expression, allowing artists from all backgrounds to realize their creativity.
You can create logos and designs for over 200 products, including t-shirts, aprons, bags, and sweaters.
You can use Spreadshirt to sell on your own online store or have your products listed on the Spreadshirt marketplace. Spreadshirt claims to receive over 100,000 visitors every day.
Is Spreadshirt Better Than Society6?
Well, we do not quite agree. We will put the score at a tie. Spreadshirt prides itself on monthly traffic volume and its around 200 product offers. Society6 also does the same, just with more product offerings. Society6 slightly edges Spreadshirt here, but not with a significant margin.
10. FineArtAmerica
FineArtAmerica is yet another print on demand site, but it focuses on more than just apparel and bags. With this POD website, independent artists can effortlessly sell their fine art prints and merchandise without issues.
Whether you are an artist, a photographer, or you own an art gallery, you can use their print on demand platform to sell your pictures and art to anyone without having to store any inventory.
You can sell canvas prints, metal prints, wood prints, posters, greeting cards, phone cases, battery charges, beach towels, bath towels, pillows, bed covers, shower curtains, coffee mugs, tote bags, home decor, and much more.
FineArtAmerica also lets you sell digital downloads. You get to set your own licenses for each photo or design that you upload and sell.
FineArtAmerica also lets you sell original paintings commission-free, but you have to take care of the shipping and handling.
Is FineArtAmerica Better Than Society6?
If there is one feature that will make us choose FineArtAmerica, then it would be its digital download feature. As a buyer, you really do not have to wait for days to receive your art. With just one click you can have it printed, and that’s it.
What Is The Best Print On Demand Site Like Society6?
From our list above, it is obvious that out of all similar POD platforms like Society6, Printful stands out above the rest.
Printful is the best print on demand platform overall. Its wide range of custom products, its support for third party integrations, intuitive user dashboard, and ultimately its pricing and reward makes it the best print on demand website like Society6 that you should choose.
Final Words
Using print on demand sites is a great way to get started with dropshipping, especially those sites that allow you to sell products on their own marketplace.
Even if you aren’t a great designer, you can outsource a design or create a simple yet catchy slogan that will look great on a t-shirt.
