Top 10 Print-On-Demand Platforms for Selling Customized Products

A lot has changed in the printing industry, and now there is a trend of print-on-demand businesses, where custom products are printed on demand, unlike traditional printing plants, where printing happens in bulk.

Global print-on-demand platforms can produce tricky designs on a wide range of products, such as clothing and accessories.

What Is Print-On-Demand?

Millennials today don’t settle for anything that they come across. Since the customization feature appeared in the print industry, people have switched more towards print-on-demand products than traditional ones. As it allows them to get products printed based on their requirements.

As the word explains, print-on-demand is printing done based on the order. Everything from printing books, clothes, mugs, mobile cases, and home décor can be customized and printed as per requirement, unlike old-school printing companies where bulk printing happens.

Thus, it’s a great way to save time, money, and resources spent on bulk printing as products are customized as per needs, so nothing gets wasted.

The Trend of Custom Products

People love customized products like t-shirts, mugs, and shoes. They can alter text, color, design, and size. Print-on-demand services give them this freedom. That’s why it’s trending, making it a great start-up idea.

Start a print-on-demand business to sell your own designed products or let customers create custom items. It also helps designers worldwide earn money and recognition by selling their work through your store.

If you’re still unsure about the **print-on-demand** business and need more convincing, here are the top 10 print-on-demand sites that design, sell, and ship custom products, and are now thriving.

1. Printful

Printful, a veteran in the printing business since 2013, serves entrepreneurs with a platform to customize various products. It’s free with no minimums, printing on demand and pricing per item.

You pay only for what you sell. Their products are high-quality with excellent packaging, and you get up to 30% off for bulk buys. Printful covers all printing options, including direct-to-garment, embroidery, and sublimation printing. It also offers services like mockup generation, logo design, and photography.

Printful enables easy integration with more than 14 platforms including but not limited to: Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and BigCommerce. They ship worldwide offering reliable and affordable shipping. Printful is also serving customers via their mobile app to help customers manage their store on the go and last but not least, their support team is the best of all.

2. SPOD

Known for its fastest fulfillment i.e. within 48 hours, SPOD owned by Spreadshirt has gained the title of one of the best print-on-demand companies. The product catalog of SPOD includes classic and organic t-shirts, baseball caps, camper mugs, 7-inch crew socks, adjustable aprons, women’s longer-length fitted tank top, and much more.

What makes SPOD stand out is, of course, its super-fast fulfillment time as well as competitive prices and easy-to-use product design software. SPOD gives a whopping discount of 20% on its sample orders. Its printing options range from digital direct, thermal sublimation, digital transfer/laser transfer, to special flex, depending on the product you want to create. Thus, SPOD works best for those looking for speedy fulfillment, simplified shipping, and competitive prices.

3. Printify

Another player – Printify too is a veteran of print-on-demand services. Offering a wide variety of custom-designed apparel, homeware, and accessories, covering all classic print-on-demand products, Printify allows customization along with ownership of your designs.

Having a network of print providers in over 90 locations, Printify offers some of the best margins and the largest selection of products available. From product creation to final delivery to the customer, Printify takes care of all with finesse. They are cost-effective, flexible, and beneficial for business-minded designers and artists.

It offers seamless integration and automatic syncing with online store platforms and marketplaces and allows you to start for free, facilitating up to 5 online stores per account with unlimited designs and no minimums.

4. Apliiq Dropship

Next on our list, Apliiq Print-On-Demand based in downtown LA is a great partner for anyone who wants to start a clothing line and sell through a mix of online and offline retail channels. Its product catalog ranges from pocket tees, premium joggers, hoodies with print on the interior lining, premium snapback hats, denim jackets, eco-friendly clothing, and more.

It ships internationally to over 150 countries worldwide; and offers printing options like digital print, screenprint (for bulk orders), cut and sew, appliqué, and embroidery.

5. Teelaunch

Another versatile print-on-demand provider, Teelaunch gives you excellent and quality mockups; including professional-looking product images to use in marketing materials and even lifestyle photos for some of its items.

Its competitively priced catalog of quality products includes t-shirts, 3-piece canvas sets, color-changing mugs, monogram handbags, balloons, Bluetooth speakers, dog bowls, jewelry, iPhone cases, journals, and the list goes on.

Other than that, Teelaunch is familiar for reasonable fulfillment times, a responsive customer support team, a product personalization tool, and high-quality professional product mockups.

6. CustomCat

With more than 550 product options like shirts, jackets, hats, and bags, CustomCat is noticeably cheaper than other POD companies yet high in quality. CustomCat is a great option for those looking for an all-around partner with competitive prices and fast fulfillment times.

Their printing options include Direct-to-garment, sublimation, 3D dye diffusion, and embroidery printing and they take care of printing, packaging, and shipping of the orders on your behalf, allowing you to make a profit each time a customer buys your product. It only supports Shopify and WooCommerce at present but may expand to others in the future.

7. Zazzle

Zazzle, another popular print-on-demand site; sets itself apart with its outstanding customization options. Its sign-up is free and has 3 options – designer, maker, or associate to create a storefront. It gives individual benefits like:

• Designers can upload their designs on the platform, select the products, and post them for sale while Zazzle handles its manufacture, printing, and shipping.
• Makers can manufacture their products and put them for sale, but Zazzle is not responsible for its manufacturing and shipping.
• While Affiliate can earn commissions on every product sold, whether or not it is their product.

It has about 30 million visitors each month due to its huge array of different product options for its 1300+ product offerings. Other than the above, Zazzle guarantees high traffic than other POD marketplaces.

It allows you to earn royalties for your work, provides a large repository of tutorials and tips to improve your product, offers a dedicated support team, and helpful promotional tools, plus useful tracking reports.

8. Lulu Xpress

Lulu xPress is a print-on-demand platform apt for self-publishers like writers, photographers, educators, and creatives, who want to monetize their talent or their established audience with their customized product.

It allows you to effortlessly convert your digital content into a physical item, such as coffee table books, novels, photobooks, cookbooks, journals, art books, workbooks, textbooks, calendars, comic books, and other print products.

It ships to over 150 countries at competitive pricing with no hidden fees and offers digital printing with over 3,000 format options choosing paper type, size, print quality, and color, to its binding type and finish. Lulu gives you wide distribution channels for your printed products with more reach and scale; such as retail book stores and Amazon.

9. JetPrint: Print On Demand

JetPrint’s USP is its unique product category which includes mainly watches with different styles, straps, and colors like genuine leather strap watches, steel strap watches, magnetic steel strap watches, perpetual calendar watches, and also hard phone cases, t-shirts, wall tapestries, etc.

It allows you to design your watches, and then automatically generates a variety of high-quality mockups and detailed specs to use on your product page and even process orders, setting a timeframe that allows you to make changes or corrections if needed.

10. Threadless

Threadless works differently than its fellow POD competitors. Each design submitted undergoes a stringent selection process by the threadless community before it is made available to the consumer. Once approved, the benefits of selling on this platform are many.

You can design t-shirts, stickers, phone cases, blankets, bags, shoes, notebooks, and much more on Threadless in quality much higher than other platforms. They ship worldwide, have great customer service without any minimums, and even manage pricing and promotions for you.

Final Thoughts

To create your custom merchandise, choose your print-on-demand service wisely. Your success depends on this choice. We hope the ten options we introduced help you understand print-on-demand services better. With this knowledge, you might feel inspired to start your project without any confusion or delays.