Printify: Everything You Need to Know Before Starting Your POD Business

If you're looking to start a print-on-demand (POD) business without holding inventory, Printify is one of the biggest names you'll come across. But is it actually good, or just well-marketed? I've dug into the platform's pricing, features, and real user feedback to give you the full picture.

Here's the short version: Printify is a solid choice for most POD sellers, especially beginners. It has a generous free plan, competitive product pricing, and integrates with all the major ecommerce platforms. But it's not perfect—quality can vary by print provider, and customer support gets stretched thin during peak seasons.

Let's break it all down.

What Is Printify?

Printify is a print-on-demand platform that connects your store to a network of over 80 print providers across 110+ locations worldwide. You design products, list them on your store, and when customers order, Printify handles printing, packaging, and shipping through their partner network.

The key difference between Printify and competitors like Printful: Printify doesn't own its own printing facilities. It acts as a middleman, which gives you more choices on price, location, and provider—but it also means quality can be inconsistent depending on which printer fulfills your order.

Printify Pricing: What Does It Actually Cost?

Printify offers three pricing tiers:

Free Plan ($0/month)

The free plan is legitimately usable—not a stripped-down trial. You get access to everything you need to start selling. The catch? You pay regular product prices without any discounts.

Premium Plan ($29/month or $24.99/month billed annually)

The Premium plan makes sense once you're doing 10-20+ sales per month. The math is simple: if you're saving $3-4 per order on product costs, you'll recoup that $29 fee quickly. One experienced seller noted their hoodie costs dropped from $17.09 to $13.74 on Premium—that's $167.50 saved on just 50 sales.

Enterprise Plan (Custom Pricing)

Enterprise is for high-volume sellers doing 10,000+ orders per day. If that's you, you'll negotiate pricing directly with Printify.

For a deeper breakdown of costs and how to calculate your margins, check out our Printify pricing guide.

Product Costs: What You'll Actually Pay

Beyond the subscription, you pay for each product when it sells. Here's what typical costs look like:

Shipping costs vary by provider, product, and destination. For US domestic shipping, expect $3.99-$5+ for the first item on standard shipping. International can run $7.99+ for the first item.

Pro tip: Printify shows you the cheapest provider by default, but the cheapest isn't always the best. Check production times, shipping costs, and reviews before committing to a provider.

Product Selection: What Can You Sell?

Printify offers over 1,000 products across categories including:

This is significantly larger than most competitors. You can experiment with niche products without committing to bulk orders.

Platform Integrations

Printify connects directly with:

The Shopify integration rates particularly well—4.7 out of 5 stars in the app store. WooCommerce users report more friction with a 2.8 rating.

Printify also offers a free "Pop-Up Store" feature—a simple storefront hosted on printify.me if you don't want to manage a full ecommerce site. It's basic but works for testing ideas or building a simple merch page.

If you're still deciding on a platform for your store, our Squarespace vs Shopify comparison or small business website builder guide can help.

Production & Shipping Times

Standard production time is 2-7 business days before shipping. Then add shipping time on top:

Express delivery is available for select products (currently limited to popular t-shirt styles like Bella+Canvas 3001 and Gildan 5000). It includes prioritized production, not just faster shipping—a real advantage during peak seasons.

One thing to watch: Printify's production times depend entirely on which print provider handles your order. Some are fast and reliable; others aren't. Always check provider reviews and consider ordering samples before committing.

The Print Provider Problem

This is Printify's biggest strength and weakness.

The upside: You can choose from 80+ print providers based on price, location, shipping speed, and reviews. Want the cheapest option? Pick that. Want the fastest? Pick that instead. Want a provider close to your European customers? You've got options.

The downside: Quality varies. User reviews consistently mention that print colors can differ slightly across suppliers, and some orders arrive perfect while others have alignment issues. One reviewer mentioned a mug arriving flawless while a hoodie from a different provider came slightly off-center.

How to handle this: Order samples before selling. Stick to providers with high ratings. And be prepared to potentially eat the cost of a reprint if something goes wrong—Printify offers free reprints for quality issues, but it's still your customer waiting.

Design Tools

Printify's built-in design tool lets you upload images, add text, and preview mockups. It's functional but basic—great for simple designs, but if you want advanced text editing or complex graphics, you'll want to create designs externally first.

You can also access Shutterstock images directly through Printify. Free to use until you make a sale, then $0.99-$1.49 per image depending on the collection.

For better design capabilities, check out our Canva review or Canva tutorial to create professional designs before uploading.

What's Good About Printify

What Sucks About Printify

Printify vs Printful: Quick Comparison

The two biggest names in POD compete directly. Key differences:

If you prioritize consistency and don't mind paying more, Printful is safer. If you want flexibility and better margins, Printify wins. Read our full Printify vs Printful comparison for the complete breakdown.

Is Printify Legit?

Yes. Printify has a 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot from thousands of reviews and 4.8 stars on the Shopify App Store from 7,400+ reviews. They've processed nearly 60 million orders across 200+ countries.

For more details on trust and reliability, see our Is Printify Legit deep dive.

Who Should Use Printify?

Good fit for:

Not ideal for:

Getting Started with Printify

Ready to try it? The free plan lets you build products and test the platform without commitment. Here's the quick start:

  1. Create a free account
  2. Browse the product catalog and select items
  3. Upload your designs and preview mockups
  4. Compare print providers for each product
  5. Order samples to check quality
  6. Connect your store and publish listings
  7. Set your retail prices (aim for 40%+ profit margins)

Try Printify Free →

Bottom Line

Printify is one of the best options for starting a print-on-demand business, especially if you're cost-conscious and willing to do the work of vetting print providers. The free plan is genuinely useful, the product selection beats most competitors, and the Premium plan delivers real savings for growing stores.

Just go in with realistic expectations: you'll need to order samples, quality isn't guaranteed across all providers, and support can be slow when you need it most. If you can live with that trade-off for lower costs and more flexibility, Printify is worth trying.

For more details, check out our full Printify review or see what other users are saying. And if you want to save on your subscription, don't miss our Printify coupon codes.