Great comparison video. Thanks for the time to make it. It never occurred to me to check out RU-vid as I was shopping a month ago. Doh! Funny enough that today, I just received my first purchase from Print Aura. It is a red Gildan Sweatshirt with my image and it turned out beautiful. It's quite possible that they've amped up their customer service and product quality since the airing of this video. Great job on revealing the pros/cons of customer service, too. Companies need to know when they're failing customers.
So Print Aura says you have to specify that you want the printing centered on the shirt? Well you didn't specify that you wanted it printed off center by an inch or two and yet they did it. Thank you for being our guinea pig and doing this video. I had already chosen Printful, but after that response you got from Print Aura I'm sure I made the right choice. Poor customer service is a really fast way to get rid of a potential customer.
I have been pretty damn happy with Printful. Haven't tried Print Aura yet but print quality and consistentency is pretty much a deal break or maker. Especially since you never see the shirt, it goes straight to your customer. Once printful expands their catalog a little more and adds inside neck branding on more hoodies they are going to be pretty untouchable.
Except they charge sales tax in 36 States when I only pay sales tax in one State. Another hit to the profit margin unless I pass through to my customer making my garments more expensive.
I just wanted to say thank you guys at The Bomb Diggity for this review. I'm in the process of building my e-commerce store and information like this helps a ton! I'm a stickler on details, so I'd prefer not to short change my customers when it comes to quality. Everything you said about the pros and cons of each company seems spot on from my experience. I will more than likely use both companies. However, I get that I may have to be more involved in the direction of how I'd like each t-shirt printed when it comes to Print Aura. I will make notes that way they must be accountable for the final delivery of the product. Thanks again you guys!
Awesome. We've had a great deal of frustration using Print Aura. Their back end is super slow and hard to use. And one other thing you didn't mention is that Printful includes the printing price in the shirt cost itself!
Recently used Printful, ordered a sample tee; 12"Wx16'H back print was printed crooked, badly, AND came out "V" shaped, 11'W at the top, 10"W at the bottom.
thanks alot for that, i compared the 2 as well, and decided to try printful, but this is pretty comprehensive so you covered much more than i was just able to research online. i'm eagerly awaiting my printful first samples ! ;)
Glad that it was a help! Very nice to see that the value of the content is appreciated by so many people. I really did try to answer a lot of the questions that I had when researching in one video :) Hope you love your samples!!
Most people will pay about $15 for a logo shirt. Keep this in mind when selecting a printer. I have been using printful, and found the quality lacking on a few test runs. Shirts were being sent out with my logo cutoff on the shipping label. Nobody in the shipping dept. checking the label printer unless you complain. One shirt was not pre-soaked for long enough time, causing the printing to rub off. Another shirt, the colors were mis-aligned. Again, it is nobody's job to check quality. Also, their terms of service say that they will not refund any of their mistakes. You pay for their mistakes. I had to send several emails to follow and and get corrective action for each mistake. But, no refund for their mistakes. Which means they have zero incentive to do a quality job. Very disappointed. Instead, I will print small lots and store them in my garage or at fulfillment service that will store and ship my stuff. There are companies like Allied Shirts that will print 2 shirts of each of 7 sizes for $7.56 per shirt, or about $100 per order. I haven't tried them yet. But, their reviews are 4.3/5. And, they have an online tool just like Printful/Print Aura. Selling more than a few shirts per month and a woocommerce fulfillment service might be better and still be much less than $15 per shirt. The woocommerce fulfillment plugin can work for those fulfillment services that lack woocommerce integration. I will probably use the woocommerce amazon fulfillment plugin. Storage cost is $0.64 per cubic foot, or $2.35 during Oct/Dec. Pick/Pack/Ship/return cost is 2.41 for 1 LB or less per item. This is the way I will do it from now on. Print at least 2 shirts per size, store at Amazon.
Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated. I'm trying a different supplier right now that does screen printing on demand. Horrible communication and quality so far. Will keep everyone posted if I find a better company. Let me know if you try allied shirts......Only issue I've had with getting ones done in bulk was the minimums and I tend to find that certain colours and sizes sell better, so you have some that just sit. You really have to streamline your options to be cost effective.
I used to design T-shirts for a small business and they used Print Aura. I used their templates and they would always email back that they designs were not to specs. I even sent screen shots of the sizing and they still said I was mistaken and it was my fault. I hated contacting Print Aura!!
How can we run a business with this? The cost price of the shirt can go up to $22, shipping is $8, if you sell the shirt at $40 you basically earn about $10 per sale. What do you guys think?
Hey Sean. I would use it more for starting out and seeing how sales go or if you want to be totally hands off from the process. We charged $24-$25 for the shirt and made about $10 per sale.......The thing that hurst the most is the inability for giving discounts or offering affiliate fees for influencers to promote your product. I'm working with lining up a new supplier who does on demand screen printing (I had never heard of this before). There was some upfront cost per design, but ongoing it is even better pricing than buying in bulk and screen printing.
The Bomb diggity thank you for the reply. i see it as a good thing as after everything is set up, i have to do almost nothing, just a few clicks to fulfil others and upload tracking number and i earn $10 per sale. From what i understand the cost price of a shirt averages about $15, shipping and handling is $8 with tracking. That’s already $23, how do you sell at that price and still earn $10 per sale? I have to price my shirts at $40 to earn that and i dont think anybody would pay that much money for shirts made in bangladesh. Let me know what you think.
I don't include shipping in the pricing and neither do most. Printful has a shipping integration. Shipping with tracking in the USA runs about $4.50-$5.50. To Canada its a bit of a pain. Have to select the "include duties and freight" option only which makes the shirt a tough purchase for anyone outside the USA. So on average $30 with shipping per customer.......I try to stick with the shirts that are around $15 or less. I agree with the fact that it pretty much runs itself, but its a bit of a hard sell. We are going to try to up the standard pricing and then offer 40% off sales to make it look like you're getting a deal at $22-$25 for the shirt. So price the shirt at $39 and offer a huge discount on a promo code.
this was really helpful. i'm setting up with Printful (and Printify for a few better quality items) and i was considering Printaura but now i can eliminate them altogether. another reason to stay away is: their interface is awful - thanks for the review! :)
the pink ink is most likely different because one is printed on white where it soaks into the fabric and on the dark garment it is printed on an underbase. i wouldn't blame the printer for that its just different processes.
It wouldn't affect it that bad. The second pink was almost a faded red. The customer service with printful was awesome. I asked if it may be because its on a light colour and they said that it wouldn't make much of a difference as their is a white underbase applied to the dark garments before the coloured ink goes on. They looked into it and attributed the problem to the settings on the printer it had been printed on. The replacement turned out perfect. Thank you for the feedback though Shawn. Much appreciated :)
Thanks for the video. I've just started with Print Auro. I'm not happy because their API is not working with my WooCommerce site, and I'm not getting the support as expected. I think I will try Printful.
No info on costs and profit margins. I looked into Printful and landed cost for a T-shirt is $20.60. What do you price your T-shirts for so you can actually make some money?
All depends on the shirt.....We use Anvil for the ladies T's....Not as cost effective as Gildan, but a better feeling shirt.....We sell at $25 per shirt, so there is still room for profit. I usually try to stick to a profit of $10 per shirt for any type, so long sleeve T's are $29. Sweatshirts are great for profit as you can sell them for $40 and make a ton. I do eat the cost of the extra $1.00 for plus sizes when selling most T-Shirts. If you are looking for a cheap T that is still ok with quality, Gildan 2000 is the standard across the T-Shirt world and they sell for about $13 (any Color)......If you check out print Aura the whites sell for $10.25 and the coloured ones go for $13.25, so Printful is actually cheaper by $0.25. I recommend to spend the extra $2 for Anvil and you'll be happy with the Quality. If you are printing 2 sided DTG is not the option for you, you'll have to find someone else who can supply you to be more cost effective. I would also recommend to charge more than the standard $20 per shirt. Give yourself room to have some sales or offer affiliate marketing to people to help spread the word. If you want more profit margin than what Printful/Print Aura offer you're best to get stock in bulk and screen print (cost about $5-$6 per shirt full color)......but if you don't do enough volume the overhead would kill you.....Been there and done it, and DTG is the less risky option. Thank you for the comment Lauren! That was a great question :)
A present day update: Printful seems like the better choice. They've become a much bigger company and everything is more user friendly and professional. Very easy to use, a dashboard telling you your recent sales and profit and how much it increased or decreased.
Printful has American Apparel products. They do charge sales tax in 36 States now which hits my margins again since I only pay sales tax in one State. I either have to take a margin hit or pass it to my customer which makes garments even more expensive.
With Bella you have to be careful. The only bella we use is for Long sleeve t-shirts because there seems to be no rib at all. If you get into a 1x1 rib or more the quality of print is horrible as the ink will separate as it stretches on a ladies body. We had screen printers in Canada that would stretch the shirt and then screen it to make sure the ink would separate. We currently love the Anvil brand (880 ringspun). It has an extremely soft and professional feel. The print quality is amazing on them.
Did you record that video after a Maple Leafs loss, dude? Printful has changed their mockups now, they use people. I'm gonna try Printful too, print quality is too important to ignore.
LOL......I can't remember. Leafs were losing a lot when I recorded this one :) The video was made at least a year ago......The mockups have changed along with products offered, the shipping tool and some other features. Print quality is still great though. Hope you have a great experience with them :)
What about print area? If I'm remembering right, printful is pretty small while print aura covers way more length of the shirts. Have you had issues with this?
You mentioned transfers, Is there a company that makes transfers. I may want to purchase my own transfers and heat press them on shirts, in the future. I know this is an older video. If anyone else knows the answer to this. Please pop on and let me know. thanks so much for sharing. Great video. I love your art work. =)
Here is the best company from my research transferexpress.com/ You'll most likely want to use the goof proof ones. I had a 3'x3' back logo done for my print aura shirts in this video. They are the only things that have held up on the shirts. Great quality.
Its now a year later, do you feel better or worse about using Printful. For the record I have used printful and I was impressed with their quality, the Woo Commerce plugin sucked for a while but, they re-developed the whole thing and its seems to be pretty great now.
This is an excellent Question!!! Thank you for asking!! I haven't used the Woo Commerce plugin. My wife and I have been looking for other suppliers as we have bigger plans to build her brand that requires a little more of a profit margin.....This year we ended up defaulting back to Printful for the time being. They still put out quality product that is predictable which gives us piece of mind. The one thing I was upset about was that they pulled Bella and Canvas long sleeve women's T-Shirts (which are probably the most popular in the T-Shirt industry) That eliminated one of our best selling products.......In my opinion, once you stock it you should keep carrying the product unless that supplier stops manufacturing. I shouldn't be forced to pick a different product to replace it (ie. Anvil or American Apparel)
Probably should have mentioned it's DTG printing. I used to do screen printing and don't anymore because of the minimums. Not being paid from printful for reviewing, but do have affiliate links below so mentioned that in the comments at the end.
Hi, Are you still using Printful? Three years have past and I do not see any updates. I'm just looking for a trustworthy company to produce multi colored mugs (not just white).
Thanks a lot for this video! Definetely not choosing Printaura.. I can't believe that in that case you needed to tell them you wanted that design to be centered on the shirt... I mean.. Really??? PIty that Printful doesnt have so many shirts to choose from (as I live in Europe).
UniQAzWeAre thanks for the comment. Yeah, I wish printful had more selection. They also seem to be dropping items which I carry in my store that are still being manufactured, but they just decided not to use them. A bit frustrating. They did open up a division in Europe, so that should make it easier if your customer base is in Europe. Cheers!!
Thank you for your reply! Already checked the European models, that's what I meant with the more narrow range of models in Europe. But I didn't write that clear enough I see now. Quite a hassle for me (as a newbie anyway) to find a good facturer with nice models closeby - I'm picky :).
haven't tried them myself. Apparently there are some negative reviews on the all over printing too. like white patches in between creases in the armpits.
When I did a Google search on Print Aura - and when I clicked on the link - my Panda Anti-virus program DELETED A VIRUS IMMEDIATELY. Why ? What's going on ?
I used wordpress and a PayPal gateway. Printful will charge whatever payment option you have set up or you can fill your wallet with funds and it will be deducted from there. I would suggest to fill up the wallet with a balance to avoid being double charged any processing fees. I operate from Canada, so my credit card would be nailed for exchange rate too. The actual payment from the customer goes directly into my PayPal account at the time of purchase (minus their fees).
The Bomb diggity Did you open a business PayPal account for that? I haven't opened the store yet, but already inquired PayPal and they told me that they would withhold money from me for like 3 weeks as my account was new. Did you experience that as well? How much do you need to cover those withholds for first time? I don't really want to start and have PayPal screw my whole business.
Yes. I did the same and the money was withheld for the first $100 or so. Now they don't hold my funds. They best way would be to fill your Printful wallet with some funds at the beginning and then you don't really have to worry about the holds.
Great info, can you tell me what's the turn around from purchase to receiving product? I heard printful is slow? Around 3 wks? Heard better reviews about Redbubble...what are your thoughts? Aloha
For most of the USA it's about 3 days for pick and print and then a few days for shipping. For Canada can take up to 3 weeks depending on customs........can't comment on red bubble. Cheers :)
Thank you for making this video! So glad I went with Printful before trying any one else! On another note, what Print Aura told you about everything is just horrible! What's the point of a mock generator if it's not going to look at least similar or even close to it? lol
Not a problem! Thank you for the feedback! I definitely agree with you on the mockup generator...what is the point in having it if it's not used as a guideline.
Thank you sincerely for your advice. By any chance have you submitted photo like work to print aura, instead of vector type images? I'm trying to find a way to save photos for print. I have some imagery of paintings id like to put on shirts, but all tutorials are how to alter the colors for solid colored imagery, like something originally made in illustrator.
Any idea which one of these services are best for hats? Printful limits the size of the embroidery on the hat quite a bit and you only end up with a small area to use which means you can't have very large lettering
We ordered 2 hats. They were horrible as far as sizing went, but the sticking was flawless. I've seen some other reviews where the finished product on the hat looked much bigger. Those designs weren't too complex, so I think thats why they looked better and were able to go bigger. If you have a long design it will limit the height you can go.
Haven't really looked for one. My focus wasn't on the hats. Not much margin for profit with embroidery on demand. Do you mostly do hats or are you doing shirts as well? What is the company/ website?
I live in Canada and the delivery is relatively slow to clear customs. Still trying to work out the best options to not get charged on the other end as well (duties, etc.) There is an option for International shipping with duties paid, but I've tried others first.......I would assume that Europe would be slower. I believe they are working on fulfillment out of Europe in the near future, so you may want to sign up for an account just to get those updates.
Haven't tried Customcat, so cannot comment on that one. Heard mixed reviews on Teespring, but a lot of that was on the type of Garment and not so much about the print quality. If you are doing a stand alone product Teespring is a fantastic option. There interface doesn't make it great for a shop on your own website with a lot of products though. If I remember correctly, you can set up your a shop on Teespring itself.
Still the same quality. I get prints done a few times a month. No issues. The only negative thing I have to say is that they discontinued carrying products from my shop and I don't like their alternative products for me. Going from Bella&Canvas to Anvil is not a great trade off.
Can my shipping integration and my "back end" information be done through Shopify? I want to mainly Use print aura, but my shipping prices have to be 120% accurate for my future customers. Thanks
Shipping for printful is done with live shipping rates for both woo commerce and shopify The only thing that I have found difficult is shipping outside the USA. Make sure that your only option set for international is the option with duties paid...Its a little more expensive, but no surprises for the customer when it reaches their door.
Denis Ashton last time I checked there is no option for shipping integration for print aura. I believe you can use a shipping table. It's tough to set the correct shipping for multiple items as well. Print Aura charges a base for the first item and then an additional fee for each additional item. The base rate for a shirt is different than a hat and sweatshirt. I'm not 100% clear on how they would charge for shipping if you if you ordered 2 shirts and a hat.
The Bomb diggity thanks so much for all your help and n information! So basically you're saying that printful has better and easier shipping for me and my future customers right?
Thanks for the feedback 4C Print Shop. They both definitely have flaws. Just looked into your company it seems fairly reasonable on pricing. My only issue is the shipping calculated on each shirt. (3.09 per shirt)...Pricing other than that is great and allows me to drop my shirts to a better price.....Would be interested in seeing the quality and doing a review.
This post was not meant to bad mouth those guys. Our shipping price is a lot cheaper that their's and 9 out of 10 times quantity is usually 1 for order going to the same address. We would be happy to to send you a shirt on us and you pay the shipping.
I hear you on that. Normally they are orders of just 1 item, so it definitely makes it more affordable and allows the user to offer the shirt at a better price or get more profit (whatever they choose). Would love to see a sample. Can I send you an email with details?
The Printful quality is bad too. All my samples come back like Print Aura in this video with cracking and spotty on white base layer. It also has outlines of white base layer surrounding the texts. They do not use high quality dtg printer. I don't understand how some ppl praise Printful. It's only good for printing special event one-time shirts like family reunions or bachelor parties, not to start a brand.
@@dandrevs I was going to try Apliiq before I went with a local DTG POD shop. I suggest going on your local Yelp and call around to see if they provide this kind of fulfillment service. Some actually do and order samples from them. If they check out, then I would go with them. But even this method was a crapshoot too. I had to go to couple of different shops before I came across one that does a great job. If you insist on Printful way, then I would get in touch with Apliiq to ask some questions. I believe they're based in DTLA.
@@scruffysamurai thanks for the tip. Yes, I would need a fulfillment like Printful since I'm based in Europe and would like to target US. Does teespring offer interconnect with e-commerce solutions like WooCommerce?
