← COMPARISONScheapest print on demand

Cheapest Print-on-Demand Companies Compared: Base Prices & Shipping

Which print on demand company is cheapest? We compare published base prices for a plain tee and hoodie, US shipping and the subscriptions that buy discounts, from each platform's own pages.

· 8 MIN

FIGURES CHECKED OCTOBER 2026

Five identical white t-shirts with the same orange and teal sunrise print laid in a row on a wooden table, each with a blank kraft price tag, beside a pocket calculator, a pen and a notebook with a scribbled comparison grid, hands straightening the last shirt.

"Cheapest print on demand" is the most searched and least answered question in this industry, because the honest answer has three parts. There is the base price of the blank with your print on it, the shipping to your customer, and, on several platforms, a subscription that lowers the first number if you pay the second. Compare only the first and you pick wrong.

This comparison takes the figures from each platform's own catalog and pricing pages for the same plain products, and lays the three parts side by side. Prices move, so treat every number here as a snapshot and check the live page before you commit.

The Verdict

On published base prices for a plain Gildan tee, Printify is the cheapest platform that shows its prices without a login, and its Premium plan widens the gap for stores with volume. Printful's base prices run a dollar or so higher but its flat shipping is predictable. Gelato sits a little above both on the tee and is the cheapest route to local production outside the US. Prodigi prices in pounds and wins for UK and EU sellers. Gooten, Teelaunch and CustomCat keep their catalog prices behind a login, so they cannot be ranked from the outside, though CustomCat's Pro plan is built entirely around undercutting on base price.

If you sell mostly to the US and sell more than a handful of items a month, Printify Premium or CustomCat Pro will usually give the lowest cost per shirt. If you sell internationally, Gelato or Prodigi will usually give the lowest cost delivered. If you sell a few items a month, stay on a free plan and let shipping decide.

How We Compared

Three numbers per platform, all from the platform's own pages all for the United States unless stated:

  1. Base price of a plain, single-print tee on common blanks (Gildan 5000, Gildan 64000, Bella+Canvas 3001) and a plain Gildan 18500 hoodie.
  2. Shipping for a single item to a US address.
  3. Subscription, if the platform sells one, and what it claims to take off the base price.

We did not include Printful's or Printify's own blog claims, only catalog and pricing pages. Where a platform does not publish prices, we say so rather than guess.

Base Prices for a Plain Tee

Hands fanning out three folded t-shirts, black, heather grey and white, each with the same small embroidered magenta and yellow cube mark and a blank neck label, a tape measure and a kitchen scale on the bench by the window.

Printify's t-shirt catalog lists the Gildan 64000 from $8.11, the Gildan 5000 from $8.55 and the Bella+Canvas 3001 from $11.29, with Premium prices of $6.04, $6.33 and $8.95 respectively. Printful's men's t-shirt catalog lists the Gildan 5000 at $9.44, the Gildan 64000 at $9.63 and the Bella+Canvas 3001 at $11.92. Gelato's Bella+Canvas 3001 page lists it at $10.69 excluding VAT, or $8.55 with Gelato+, delivered to the US in 4 to 6 business days. Prodigi's Gildan 5000 page lists it from £6.70 excluding tax and shipping, produced in the UK, EU, US and Australia in 72 to 120 hours, with 10% off for Pro members.

PlatformGildan 5000Gildan 64000Bella+Canvas 3001
Printify (free)$8.55$8.11$11.29
Printify Premium$6.33$6.04$8.95
Printful$9.44$9.63$11.92
Gelato (free)not listednot listed$10.69
Gelato+not listednot listed$8.55
Prodigi£6.70see pagesee page

The pattern holds across the three blanks: Printify under Printful by roughly a dollar on the free plans, and Printify Premium under everyone. Gelato is the odd one out because it prices in the country of production, so a US seller sees one number and a German seller another.

Hoodies

Hoodies are where the gaps widen in cash terms. Printify's hoodie catalog lists the Gildan 18500 from $19.86, or $14.99 with Premium, and Printful's men's hoodie catalog lists the same Gildan 18500 at $22.63. The same two or three dollars per unit that looks minor on a tee becomes the margin on a hoodie, which is why volume sellers of hoodies are the first to pay for a discount plan.

Shipping to the US

Three delivered parcels on a hallway mat: a white poly mailer with a blue and yellow printed tee showing, a small box holding a colourful geometric mug, and a larger box with a green hoodie with a red print, all with blank labels and tags.

Base price without shipping is half a price. Printful's shipping page lists flat US rates of $4.95 for one t-shirt plus $2.20 for each additional, $8.79 plus $2.50 for hoodies and sweatshirts, and $4.69 plus $2.00 for hats, with a $0.40 surcharge on all US orders from 15 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. Printify's shipping varies by print provider; its Bella+Canvas 3001 page quotes shipping from $3.99 on its Printify Choice routing. Gelato's page for the same shirt quotes shipping from $4.99 to the US.

Put together for one US tee on the free plans, as an illustration from the figures above: Printify's Gildan 5000 plus its cheapest quoted shipping lands around $12.54; Printful's Gildan 5000 plus its flat rate lands around $14.39, before the seasonal surcharge; Gelato's 3001 plus its quoted shipping lands around $15.68. Different blanks and providers will move those figures, which is why our profit calculator exists: put your product and your market in and it does this sum properly.

Subscriptions That Buy Cheaper Prices

A tall stack of folded grey t-shirts with a coral and teal wave print on one side of a wooden table, a single matching tee on the other, hands holding a calculator between them beside a notebook with two sketched crossing lines and a mug of coffee.

Four platforms sell a plan whose main purpose is a lower base price.

  • Printify Premium. Printify's pricing page lists it from $39 a month, or from $24.99 a month billed yearly, with up to 20% off all products in its comparison table and up to 33% on new products in the plan card.
  • Printful Growth. Printful's pricing page lists Growth at $24.99 a month with a 14-day trial, free once a store passes $12,000 a year in sales, with up to 33% off product pricing.
  • Gelato+. Gelato's subscription plans page lists Gelato+ at $29.99 a month, or $19.99 a month billed annually, with product discounts of up to 33%.
  • CustomCat Pro. The CustomCat Shopify listing lists Pro at $30 a month or $300 a year with a 60-day free trial, and CustomCat's Pro help article puts the discount at 20 to 40 percent off standard wholesale prices.
  • Prodigi Pro takes 10% off, per Prodigi's Gildan 5000 page, which does not state the plan's fee.

The break-even is the same sum every time: the per-unit saving on your real products, times your monthly units, against the fee. A Printify Premium saving of about two dollars on a Gildan tee pays for the annual-rate plan in a little over a dozen shirts a month; the monthly rate needs closer to twenty. Our margins comparison runs these numbers across more products.

The Platforms That Do Not Publish Prices

Three well-known suppliers keep their catalog behind a login, which is their right and your inconvenience.

  • Gooten. Its pricing help page says there are no membership fees and that prices are visible in the product hub once you have an account. Our Gooten review covers the rest.
  • Teelaunch. Its getting started article points to a product and shipping cost sheet rather than a public catalog. See our Teelaunch review.
  • CustomCat. Prices depend on whether your account is Lite or Pro, so the catalog shows different numbers to different sellers; our CustomCat review explains the plan arithmetic.
  • Spreadconnect. Its order price article gives the formula, base price plus print cost plus shipping plus tax, with the first print area free, $5 for each extra print area and a $2.50 per-order fee for flex or flock printing, and links to separate EU and North America base price lists.

For these four, the only honest comparison is to open an account, price your three core products, and put the figures next to the public ones above. It takes an hour and it is the hour that matters.

Free Print-on-Demand Sites: What "Free" Means

Every platform in this article is free to join and free to list on. "Free print on demand" therefore means something narrower than it sounds: no monthly fee until you choose one. You still pay the base price and shipping on every order, your storefront may charge its own fees, and samples cost money. The free plans are complete products, not trials; the paid plans are volume discounts. Start free, measure your monthly units, and upgrade when the sum says so, not before.

Cheapest Is Not Lowest Cost

Hands holding two white t-shirts with the same purple and orange sunset print up to a window, one crisp and vivid, the other faded and cracked after washing, a wire basket and a blank tag on the counter.

Three things a base price table cannot show.

  • Reprints and quality. A platform that saves a dollar and sends one bad shirt in twenty has not saved you anything. Order samples from your two cheapest options before you list.
  • Where your customers are. Local production avoids international shipping and customs, which can be worth more than any base price gap. Our shipping times comparison and our European print-on-demand guide cover the geography.
  • Returns and support. Cheap plus slow support in December is expensive. Our holiday deadlines guide is the reminder.

Conclusion

On the numbers each platform publishes, Printify is the cheapest print-on-demand company for a plain US tee, more so on Premium, with Printful close behind and more predictable on shipping, Gelato and Prodigi winning once the customer is outside the US, and CustomCat's Pro plan the one to test if base price is all you care about. Gooten, Teelaunch and Spreadconnect make you log in to find out. Whatever the table says, the decision is the all-in cost of your product to your market at your volume, and our PODbase record for each platform is where to start the next check when these prices move, which they will.

FAQ

What is the cheapest print-on-demand company?

On published base prices for a plain Gildan tee, Printify is the cheapest of the platforms that show prices publicly, and cheaper still on its paid Premium plan. But base price is one line of three: add shipping to the customer's country and any subscription, and the gap narrows or flips depending on where you sell and how much.

Are there free print-on-demand sites?

Nearly all of them are free to join and free to list products on: Printful, Printify, Gelato, Gooten, Teelaunch, CustomCat's Lite plan, Spreadconnect and Prodigi all charge you only when an order is placed. The paid plans are optional and exist to lower the per-item price for stores with volume.

Is a cheaper base price always better?

No. A reprint, a slow international parcel or a garment that fades costs more than a dollar saved on the blank. Compare the all-in cost for your main product to your main market, order samples from your two cheapest options, and pick the one whose quality you would put your name on.

Keep reading