Many online e-commerce sellers rely on Printful for their merchandise. Unlike many other print on demand companies, Printful offers the option to customize tags and packaging. It has a high TrustPilot rating and many Printful sellers praise its quality control and customer service.
Some former Printful clients, however, complain of Printful’s high costs and complain of losing money on sales. Others report shipping delays and unhelpful customer service. This has led to a growing number of people looking for cheaper alternatives to Printful.
We’ve created this guide to the best Printful alternatives so you can make an informed decision. You’ll learn the pros and cons of each, and you’ll also learn about the top alternative to Printful, Diehard Custom.
We offer low minimums, reasonable prices, and world-class customer service. You can choose between blanks from top suppliers like Nike, Carhartt, and New Era. We’ve worked with major corporations and school teams, so we’re able to handle any order large or small.
If you’re looking for custom hats with logo, custom socks with logo, custom scarves with logo, custom towels, and everything in between, look no further. Diehard Custom can supply all your inventory needs. Call us today!
What is Printful?
Printful has come a long way since its 2013 founding in a Latvia startup incubator. Today they have fulfillment centers throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico. In 2024 Printful achieved a gross revenue of $2.26 billion.
Printful’s business model is print on demand (POD). They print orders for customers as they come in, then drop ship the goods. Clients don’t have to worry about maintaining inventory or handling shipping.
Sellers upload their designs, then choose the products they wish to customize. They can put their image on apparel, phone cases, canvases, mugs, water bottles, and more. This setup has helped many small e-commerce merchants and made Printful a major industry player.
But while Printful remains a major player in the POD industry, not all Printful sellers are happy and many are looking for the best Printful alternatives.
One of the biggest recurring complaints concerns high Printful costs. The cost of doing business through Printful has led many POD sellers to search for alternatives to Printful.
Why is Printful So Expensive?
Printful POD sellers complain of elevated shipping rates and outrageous sample order prices. Some former Printful customers say they went with cheaper alternatives to Printful because they couldn’t make money on Printful without pricing their goods out of the market.
The most successful Printful sellers are those who can sell their goods at a premium. If you’re an award-winning artist or a popular influencer, your customers may be willing to pay extra for your products. Smaller sellers may have difficulty turning a profit on Printful.
Fortunately, finding cheaper alternatives to Printful is easy. Since Printful is one of the most expensive custom print suppliers, you’ll find lots of Printful alternatives that offer similar work at more reasonable prices.
More Reasons You Could Be Looking for Alternatives to Printful
Price isn’t the only reason for seeking out better alternatives to Printful. Here are some other issues that have sent customers in search of Printful alternatives.
Desire for More Customization Options
Printful offers a good selection of customizable products. But if you’re looking for niche custom products, you may have to search elsewhere. You won’t find golf accessories or custom soccer scarves at Printful, but you’ll find both at Diehard Custom.
Need for Higher-End, Retail-Quality Products
Many former Printful users have reported sizing issues and DTG print quality as their reason for seeking Printful alternatives. You need sizing and print consistency to run an online POD business, and Printful doesn’t always live up to that expectation.
Better Hands-On Support and Proofing
Customer support at Printful generally receives good marks, but there are ongoing issues with callback times. It can take hours to get a response from Printful after placing a ticket. And many customers find that their onscreen proofs can vary considerably from the final print job.
Faster Turnaround Times for Tight Deadlines
Printful strives to send out orders within 2 to 7 business days. But their deadlines are often delayed by global shipping overload, high order volumes, inventory shortages, or other issues. If you’re running a POD storefront, you shoulder the blame for all those late orders.
What are the Best Printful Alternatives in 2025?
Dissatisfied with Printful? Here’s a selection of the best Printful alternatives. These cheaper alternatives to Printful offer equal or superior service and provide better profit margins.
Diehard Custom
If you’re looking for the best Printful alternatives, look no further than Diehard Custom. We offer all different types of socks, scarves, beanies, hats, golf accessories, T-shirts, towels, and more. And we provide free mockups and revisions on all custom designs and edits.
At Diehard Custom, we craft many of our items from the ground up. For others we rely on trusted top suppliers for our blanks. You never have to worry about shirts that fall apart after a few washings or poorly reproduced designs.
You don’t get an endless runaround when you contact our customer service agents. We give you fast and friendly service, provide immediate price quotes, and keep you informed throughout the entire order process. If any issues arise we make them right, guaranteed!
We offer low MOQs for small buyers. You can order as few as 6 DTF custom T-shirts, or as few as 10 Nike custom hats. We’ll answer any questions you have on your choice of blanks, logo questions, or choosing between a hat vs beanie. Call us today for a free, friendly consultation.
Printify
Printify offers easy integration with website and online storefronts like Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and WooCommerce. Its Product Creator design interface is intuitive and easy to use, and it offers a good selection of product choices for POD sellers.
But while Printify offers slightly lower prices than Printful, it has other issues to keep in mind. Printify outsources its print jobs, so quality can vary between different print runs. And many more advanced designers find the Product Creator’s font and design options limited.
Printify also lacks Printful’s label and package branding options, so anything you ship through Printify will come with the manufacturer tab and Printify shipping label. This makes it harder for your storefront to build a brand image with customers.
Zazzle
Zazzle isn’t just a POD company, it’s a popular online storefront with over 30 million annual visitors. You can buy or sell gifts, apparel, clothing, party supplies, and more.
You have control over your royalty rates and can choose from a wide selection of customizable blank products. Zazzle can be a good source of passive income, but many former Zazzle sellers report that they received few or no sales.
Signing up for Zazzle and selling your items is easy, so it can be a good starting point. But because many other sellers choose Zazzle, you’ll be competing in a crowded market. And Zazzle has no integration with Etsy, Amazon, or other online storefronts.
4Imprint
You’ll find everything from apparel to pens, drinkware, and trade show displays at 4Imprint, America’s biggest supplier of customized goods. But bigger isn’t always better, and many former customers have turned to 4Imprint alternatives for their custom product needs.
4Imprint doesn’t offer POD services, so you’ll have to buy in bulk. But 4Imprint has relatively high minimum orders, so you may find yourself spending more than you can afford for more merch than you need.
Other customers have complained of badly reproduced logos and late deliveries. When they call to report these issues, many receive rude or unhelpful customer service instead of solutions.
Custom Ink
You’ll find a wide variety of customizable apparel, bags, and promotional giveaway products at Custom Ink. Reviewers praise its intuitive and easy-to-use Design Lab, and its team of staff artists who help refine client designs.
Custom Ink doesn’t offer POD services, but it has low minimum orders and can work with your dropshippers. But you’ll pay a significantly higher price on smaller orders, so you need to compare those quotes against your Printful invoices to see if the switch makes financial sense.
The biggest issue with Custom Ink is inconsistent print quality. Custom Ink outsources its print jobs to local print shops. This means the printing can vary widely between orders.
Wrapping Up Our Guide to Picking the Right Printful Alternative
This concludes our guide to the best Printful alternatives. Now you know where to find cheaper alternatives to Printful. And you also know where to find the best custom promotional apparel and products – Diehard Custom.
If you want to take your online storefront to the next level, you need to move away from the uncertainty and quality control issues that come with print on demand sales. When you order in bulk from Diehard Custom, you get the best quality control and the best customer support.
If you’re tired of paying too much money and dealing with too many customer complaints, call Diehard Custom. We’ll provide you with merchandise you can ship proudly and designs that are reproduced perfectly every time. Improve your online e-commerce game; call us today!
