Printify vs Printful: Profit Per Shirt Compared (With the Break-Even Volume)
The question is usually asked as though one supplier is cheaper than the other. It is a fair question with an unhelpful answer, because the two are not really priced against each other — one leans on a lower base cost behind a monthly subscription, the other on no subscription and a higher unit price.
Which means the honest answer is it depends on your volume, and that is a number you can calculate exactly rather than guess at.
Full walkthrough of the template used in this guide.
Every figure below is a labelled assumption chosen to be plausible, not a current quoted price. Base costs, shipping charges and subscription tiers change constantly and vary by provider, garment and destination. Pull your own two numbers and drop them into the same structure.
The comparison at the unit level
The same shirt, the same design, sold on the same marketplace at $24.99 with free shipping to the buyer.
Marketplace fees are identical on both sides — 6.5% transaction, 3% + $0.25 processing, $0.20 listing — so they come to $2.82 either way and can never be the reason to prefer one supplier. Only the landed cost differs.
| Line | Supplier A (subscription) | Supplier B (no subscription) |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price | $24.99 | $24.99 |
| Base cost | −$9.50 | −$12.95 |
| Supplier shipping | −$4.75 | −$4.19 |
| Landed cost | $14.25 | $17.14 |
| Marketplace fees | −$2.82 | −$2.82 |
| Profit per shirt | $7.92 | $5.03 |
| Margin | 31.7% | 20.1% |
Supplier A clears $2.89 more per shirt. On margin alone it is not close: 31.7% against 20.1%, which is the difference between a product that can absorb an ad test and one that cannot.
Note where the gap comes from. Base cost differs by $3.45, but shipping differs by $0.56 in the other direction, so the real gap is $2.89 — 19% smaller than the product-page comparison suggests. That is the trap in comparing base costs: the number you can see is not the number you pay.
The subscription changes the shape of the answer
Supplier A’s lower base cost sits behind a $29 a month plan. That is a fixed cost, so it does not belong in the per-shirt maths — it belongs in a break-even calculation of its own:
$29 ÷ $2.89 saved per shirt = 10.03 shirts
Eleven shirts a month and the subscription has paid for itself. Every shirt after that is $2.89 straight to the bottom line.
Which reframes the whole question:
| Monthly volume | A (with $29 plan) | B (no plan) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 shirts | $10.60 | $25.15 | B |
| 10 shirts | $50.20 | $50.30 | tie |
| 30 shirts | $208.60 | $150.90 | A |
| 60 shirts | $446.20 | $301.80 | A |
| 150 shirts | $1,159.00 | $754.50 | A |
At 150 shirts a month the subscription route clears $404 more. At five shirts a month it clears $15 less. Same two suppliers, opposite conclusions — which is exactly why the generic “which is cheaper” comparisons you find never settle anything.
The three things that break this comparison
Provider, not platform. Both companies are networks. The shirt is printed by a specific facility, and two facilities inside the same network can differ by several dollars on the same garment. Comparing “Printify vs Printful” as brands is comparing two averages that neither of you will actually pay. Compare the exact product, from the exact provider, at the garment brand you have chosen.
Garment brand does more work than supplier choice. Moving between a budget blank and a premium retail-fit blank typically shifts base cost more than switching supplier does. If the per-shirt gap you are agonising over is under a dollar, the garment decision is the bigger lever and the one your buyers can actually feel.
Destination. Both networks route to the nearest facility, so the winner for US orders is frequently not the winner for EU or UK orders. If a third of your orders ship internationally, the blended answer is not either column above.
How to hold this in a sheet instead of re-deciding it
Do not run this comparison once and commit. Build it as two rows in a product catalogue rather than one — same design, same retail price, one row per supplier with its own base cost and shipping — and let the sheet return profit per unit and margin on both. Then the comparison is a permanent readout rather than an afternoon’s research that goes stale the next time a provider adjusts pricing.
Three habits make it maintain itself:
- Enter shipping in its own column. The moment it is blended into base cost you have lost the ability to see the comparison above.
- Keep the subscription out of the unit cost and in monthly overheads, then re-check the break-even volume whenever your order count changes materially. A slow quarter can make a plan you have been paying for eighteen months briefly irrational.
- Re-price rather than re-supplier when the gap is small. Moving Supplier B’s shirt from $24.99 to $27.99 adds about $2.72 of net profit per order after the extra percentage fees — which closes almost the entire $2.89 supplier gap without changing anything about your fulfilment.
For the full four-layer cost stack this comparison sits inside — including ad cost and tax reserve, which neither column above touches — see the print on demand profit calculator guide. And if the shirt you are comparing sells on Etsy, the full fee breakdown on a POD t-shirt covers the lines that are identical in both columns here.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Printify always cheaper than Printful?
No — and the comparison is not really between the two companies. Both are networks of print providers, so the price you get depends on which specific provider fulfils your product and which garment brand you picked, not on the logo at the top of the dashboard. Two Printify providers printing the same shirt can differ by several dollars. Compare at the product-and-provider level, on landed cost including shipping, using the exact garment you intend to sell.
Should I include the subscription fee in my per-shirt cost?
Not in the per-shirt cost — it is a fixed monthly overhead, not a variable cost, and burying it in the unit cost makes your margin look wrong at every volume except the one you assumed. Keep it out of the product catalogue and treat it as its own break-even question: divide the monthly fee by the per-shirt saving it unlocks, and that is the number of shirts a month at which it starts paying for itself.
Does supplier shipping really matter that much on a t-shirt?
It is usually the single biggest hidden difference between two suppliers. A shirt with a $2.50 lower base cost but a $1.80 higher shipping charge has only saved you $0.70, and sellers who compare base costs on a product page never see it. On the worked example in this article, shipping is a third of the landed-cost gap. Always compare landed cost — base plus shipping to your buyer's country — never base cost alone.
What happens to the comparison if I sell internationally?
It can reverse entirely. Both networks route orders to the print facility nearest the buyer where they can, so a supplier that is expensive for US orders may be the cheaper one for EU or UK orders, and shipping charges differ far more across borders than base costs do. If a meaningful share of your orders are international, run the comparison twice — once at domestic shipping rates and once at your main export destination — and expect two different answers.