When it comes to print on demand services, it can get a little tough trying to determine what the best service is for your ecommerce business. There are so many endless possibilities and so many products to get creative with.
Today, I want to go through and review the Gooten app and look at its main features, along with its pricing models for some of its products, then move on to talk about three of the best alternatives, if you should choose against Gooten.
So let’s dive right in with the Gooten review!
What Is Gooten?
Gooten, founded in 2012, is a print and drop shipping app that can be added to Shopify. The Gooten Shopify app gives you all the control you need to print, test, and create awesome new products for your customers without having to worry about any of the shipping.
How It Works
It’s very simple and easy to use the Gooten Shopify app. I’ve set up an account so you can see the inside dashboard and we can do some experimenting together so you can see just how easy it is to use.
You can then set all of the normal stuff like the product description, upload images, pricing, and sizing. Once you do that you publish it and it’s done! You’re ready to start taking customer orders.
And the best part is, the Gooten app fulfills your order using one of their other dropshipping partners so that there is no hassle on your part.
So let’s look at the dashboard to begin.
When you first log in to your dashboard, you will notice on the left-hand side, there is a menu with a variety of different options. This is where you will be managing all of your orders, shipments, and viewing reports.
The first thing you are going to want to do is to get your billing information put into your app so that you can place your first orders when you are ready. Once you do that, you can get started creating your first design!
To start your first design, click on the “start creating new products” button, and you will come to a screen that gives you options to choose from over 100+ different products.
In this example, I’m going to click on “apparel,” and I’m going to take a look at the “tank top” category. If you hover your mouse over the category, you can view the “product details” first if you would like and then click on “pick this” to go directly to the design page.
Viewing the product details, we can see that these tank tops prices run from $7.90 to $22.90. If you click on the “Learn More” button underneath the pricing, you can dig deeper into the prices of the different tank top designs.
You can see the colors of each tank top that you can offer to your clients as well.
Clicking onto the “learn more” button, as mentioned above, will take you to the next screen that shows you the various styles of tank tops.
Once you get to the above screen, you can click again on the pricing so you can get a better understanding of the print specs that are required for the artwork on this tank top.
Also housed on this page is all of the important shipping information such as shipping method and expected delivery time, material, brand of tank top, garment care, and sizing.
Creating Your Design
Once you’ve found a product you want to sell, the fun part is coming up with the design for your new item.
The Gooten app has some great support documentation for this when you first get started. You will find everything from file types, to color management, pixel dimensions, and image size best suited to your designs.
To start off, in our tank top case, you will need to choose the options you wish to sell such as where you want to ship to, the gender, which brand of tank top you want, the model of the tank top, colors, sizes, and the area you want to print (such as center back, center front).
Once you’ve done that, you will come to the screen that allows you to upload your design.
At this point, there will be a link on the right-hand side of the screen where you can upload your artwork.
From here you will simply upload your high-resolution JPEG image. Once you get your artwork image uploaded, you will have a chance to review the design and see a product mockup of what it will look like.
Once you continue, you will now want to name your product and input a description.
Once you are done with this, you can click the “Save” button. You have officially created your first product, and you can get it connected with your store!
Features
One of the best features of the Gooten app is that it has an easy-to-read dashboard that lets you monitor all of your orders and the fulfillment of those orders.
There are so many great things about this app including:
- No risk or upfront cost when you are shipping products.
- You can manage everything including shipments, sales, etc. all from one dashboard.
- Over 100 different products to customize from.
- You can automate all of your orders so that it takes all of the heavy lifting off of your shoulders.
- Ship anywhere you need to using Gooten’s network of print manufacturers.
The Gooten Shopify app is nice because it has a few extra products that some of the other print on demand (POD) apps don’t provide, which helps to diversify your product offerings a little bit.
The Gooten app also comes with a mobile app so that you can view everything from your smartphone.
Gooten API
What we really like about the Gooten app is its powerful API. For all of the products, Gooten has libraries for client-side js, Android, and IOS already built in. The API allows you to manage orders for printing and manufacturing within the cloud.
You will be authenticating everything using your API key, which can also be managed through the dashboard to provide the security that you need for your store.
There is an entire API document guide on what is involved with the Gooten API and how it works when it comes to product variants, shipping price estimates, shipping options, submitting orders, and anything related to the technology of running your store.
Use Gooten With Etsy
The Gooten app can also be used with Etsy. The Gooten integration with Etsy makes it very easy if you’re selling products through the Etsy platform instead of a traditional ecommerce platform.
To use Gooten with Etsy, you simply start a free account with Gooten, then select the products you want to display on your Etsy site, then list directly to your account. It’s very nice and easy, and you can review everything from your Gooten dashboard.
Amazon And Gooten Integration
Yes! As you might have wondered, you can also use the Gooten app with the largest retailer on the planet, which is Amazon. The Gooten/Amazon integration allows you to sell your unique designs in your store.
Because of Gooten’s large global print and dropshipping network, you can sell products virtually anywhere from your store. Using the Gooten app is a great way for new Amazon store sellers to add some variety and differentiate themselves from the competition.
Products
The Gooten Shopify app has over 100 different products to choose from, including t-shirts, iPhone products, totes, wall decor, baby stuff, and all kinds of other things. You can find the full list here.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Gooten’s line of products is very reasonable. For each print-on-demand category of products, you can view the pricing by clicking on the list below:
Make sure to check out the Gooten blog as well. There is a lot of really good advice and posts on there to help you with your business.
Overall, the Gooten Shopify app is a great choice for your ecommerce business. Since I know that you will constantly be trying to diversify your product offerings on your store, I wanted to make sure to include three other alternatives for you so that you can have some more options.
Ratings
Ease of use
Gooten is a POD platform that is geared towards both experienced dropshippers and newbies for selling customized products.
In terms of ease of use, Gooten is rated 5 over 5.
Features
Gooten incorporates helpful features for dropshipping customized products. Not to mention, Gooten integrates with Etsy BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce. Also, it has an API tool that facilitates custom Integrations.
In terms of features, Gooten is rated 4.5 over 5.
Pricing
Gooten does not charge membership for access to selling custom printed products. Additionally, the base price for POD products on the Gooten platform are relatively affordable which makes the platform profitable for merchants.
For pricing, Gooten is rated 4.5 over 5.
Customer Service
Several Gooten customers highly recommend it due to excellent customer service and resources. Take, for instance, most of the Gooten reviews on Trustpilot highlights its customer service with good ratings.
For customer service, I give Gooten a 5 over 5 rating.
Three Alternatives To Gooten
Now that you have a good idea about how Gooten measures up, let’s look at the three best alternatives to Gooten and why you should consider them.
1. Printful
Printful is another print on demand app that has a variety of dropshipping partners associated with the company. One thing you might notice is that Printful doesn’t have as much of a selection as the other two on this list.
But what they lack in products, they make up in quality, and that’s why so many people love Printful. I would say you can probably do a little testing, in the beginning, to find out which company is the best.
For example, let’s say you want to print a tote bag. Make sure all four companies reviewed in this blog post offer totes, then upload your graphic, get a mockup, and have samples shipped to you.
Make sure to pay attention to the ease of shipment, delivery time, customer service, etc. This will start to give you an idea of the quality of products you can expect to receive.
Platforms
Printful can be used with a variety of different ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Big Commerce, and Amazon.
Printful helps you design and sell products online with ease. Try it today!
Products and UX
Printful has an easy-to-understand dashboard and tons of support for getting started. The first thing you are going to have to do is set up your store using one of the platforms mentioned above.
Once you’ve done that, you can dive into making products for your store. There are all kinds of products to choose from but no matter what you do, make sure to create a mockup first and test the quality.
If we want to test the ¾ sleeve women’s shirts, you can go to the women’s section and choose the product you want to create a mockup for.
Once you choose the item, you will continue onto the page where you can choose the colors, sizes, and insert the logo or design image that you want to use.
In the next image, I simply changed the color of the t-shirt and uploaded a logo that I wanted to use, and it came out beautifully!
Then from here, you can simply enter in your shipping details and have the mockup sent straight to you.
If you like the item, then you can easily publish it to your store when you are ready! It’s that simple.
Pricing
Printful can be a little pricier in some categories when it comes to pricing on their products. It’s completely free to sign up and you simply upload products to your store and sell.
So essentially you are signing up with no upfront costs, designing your products, then selling them on your website all for no cost.
Printful makes money when you sell your product, and so does the supplier you’re purchasing from. It all makes good sense for everyone.
Printful had a couple of pricing plans earlier but very recently, they made the service free for all, that too with additional features.
So Printful is free. You only need to pay for the products, and shipping. Check out the pricing page for the latest on product and shipping costs.
Printful helps you design and sell products online with ease. Try it today!
2. Printify
Printify is another print on demand company that makes it easy to create your own designs then sell your products through an ecommerce platform such as Shopify, Woocommerce, and Etsy.
They have some great brands of apparel to choose from, like Fruit of The Loom and Hanes. What I like about Printify is that a lot of their suppliers are from the United States and offer really high quality.
You will be able to get samples from the suppliers before you even have to decide on a product to sell.
How Does Printify Work?
Below you will find a quick look into the dashboard and how to place orders with Printify.
Once you’ve got your store set up, in this case I used the WooCommerce integration with the Printify WordPress plugin, you will see the Printify dashboard framed within your Wordpress site.
The first step is to pick a product that you want to create. In this case, let’s pick this cool coffee mug.
What I like about Prinify is that you can choose the supplier that you want to use. And as I mentioned before, there are many suppliers that are here in the United States.
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!
In this case, I have a choice between SPOKE custom products in the US or WPAPS in the UK.
Once you’ve chosen your supplier, then you get to start designing. This is the fun part! All you have to do is upload a design or a logo. In this case, I used a logo and put a black background on it,and I clicked the “preview” button to view my design.
If you like it, then you can select the mockup you want. This will be the image that appears in your storefront.
When you feel comfortable with the image that you want, it’s time to write your description. I like that these descriptions are already premade for you, but I would suggest putting some more work into writing the description for search engine optimization purposes.
The final step is to choose the profit percentage that you want to make. I like this feature because you can easily click on the “+” or “-” button to increase or decrease the profit margins on each product you choose to sell.
Once you are done creating, you will click “publish,” and it will go straight onto your store!
It’s that simple! Printify is another amazing company that offers quality and ease of use. They also have a fantastic help center that makes it easy to find what you are looking for.
You can also check out their blog, which has more useful information and posts for setting up and marketing your store as well.
3. Zazzle
Zazzle is a little different from the other print on demand companies we’ve mentioned because it is its own marketplace. You do not need to have a store on your website. You simply create products and set up your store that is hosted with Zazzle.
Zazzle is a place where you can purchase really cool stuff that was specifically created by specialty designers and artists.
You will even find big corporate companies like Sesame Street on Zazzle with their own store! It’s a really good place for photographers, designers, and artists to earn a passive income.
Purchasing Products
Zazzle has so many unique and interesting products to choose from, such as invitations and cards, clothing and accessories, home, electronics, office, baby and kids, art, wedding, and gifts.
You start by clicking on the category you want to find products, and you can start scrolling through and shopping.
For example, I clicked on the clothing and accessories category, then clicked on the Keep Calm link, and I got to this shirt.
Once you find the item you want, you can click on the store name and see what else the designer offers as well, or continue to personalize your shirt selection.
Each storefront will have its unique header graphics and all of the products that the store owner has designed will be in this store. It’s a fantastic way to find unique gift ideas and a fun way to personalize everything for that special person.
Creating Products
On the other side is the creative side. This side will essentially compete or become your alternative to the Gooten Shopify app. With Zazzle, they have many more products that you can choose from to create designs, but you can’t integrate it with your WordPress site.
As mentioned earlier, Zazzle is a unique marketplace in which you would have a link from your website to your Zazzle storefront.
Zazzle has a design dashboard you can use to start getting your creative juices flowing.
On the left-hand menu bar, you can choose a premade template, you can add layers, upload your images, add icons, texts and shapes, choose the format that you want, and much more. It is a designer’s paradise.
Let’s say that I want to make an extra special birthday gift for a friend. I can go check out the hundreds of premade template designs that Zazzle has.
Once you choose a template design, then you choose the product that you want to combine with your design. In this case, I’m going to have some fun and use the wine bottles.
At this point, you would simply go down to where it says “products” on the left-hand sidebar, and choose your product of choice.
All of the designs that you create will go into the store that you create. And as you keep creating designs, your store will grow bigger and bigger and start attracting more attention.
Marketing your store takes time and effort, but if you can first create some unique products to sell, then market those products through various channels, you can make a great little passive income.
Overall, Zazzle is a fantastic alternative to Gooten, but just know that it’s a completely different store model than Gooten, Printify, or Printful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Gooten Legit?
Gooten is a legitimate print on demand company that was established in the year 2012.
Over the years, Gooten has evolved into becoming one of the dominant POD services in the industry. In fact, one of the Gooten users on Trustpilot described their customer service as excellent due to fast response time.
How Good Is Gooten?
Based on multiple reviews by both past and present Gooten users on reviews sites like Trustpilot, G2, and Shopify App Store, we can conclude that Gooten is an excellent print on demand service.
Is Gooten free to use?
Gooten is a free print on demand company like Printful. It is free to sign up on the Gooten platform. Also, Gooten only charges for the base price of the customized products sold.
Where Is Gooten Located?
Gooten has its headquarters located at New York, USA. Apart from being a US-based company, Gooten facilitates international shipping to other countries across the world.
Does Gooten Automatically Fulfill Orders?
Gooten automatically fulfills orders to your customers once they make an order. In fact, you don’t have to worry about inventory or the customization process which is handled by Gooten on your behalf.
Wrapping Up The Gooten Review
Always remember that no matter what POD app you decide to use, you should constantly be testing various pricing combinations and print designs to find out what makes you the most money.
The print on demand apps that have been mentioned in this article are all great for starting your store, just make sure to choose ones that have good customer service, order fulfillment, and communication.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.