Choosing between Shopify vs Printify can be a challenging choice to make. While these platforms may appear alike, they each serve unique purposes. Shopify is not just an eCommerce tool; it is a robust platform for establishing online businesses. On the contrary, Printify specializes in print-on-demand services, guiding you from design to delivery.
So, which platform is the right choice for you? Let’s delve into the post with the topic “Detail Comparison and Analysis of Shopify vs Printify,” compiled by BSS Commerce Shopify in the section below.
Contents
- 1 Shopify vs Printify: At a Glance
- 2 Key Difference Between Shopify vs Printify
- 3 Shopify vs Printify: Full Comparison
- 3.1 #1. Shopify vs Printify: Easy to Use
- 3.2 #2. Shopify vs Printify: Building an Online Store
- 3.3 #3. Shopify vs Printify: Sourcing Products
- 3.4 #4. Shopify vs Printify: Pricing
- 3.5 #5. Shopify vs Printify: Apps and Integrations
- 3.6 #6. Shopify vs Printify: SEO Features
- 3.7 #7. Shopify vs Printify: Shipping
- 3.8 #8. Shopify vs Printify: Customer Support
- 4 Ending Words – Shopify vs Printify
- 5 FAQs – Shopify vs Printify
Shopify vs Printify: At a Glance
To obtain a deeper understanding of Shopify and Printify, read a detailed definition of both platforms, the best use case, and their pros and cons:
Shopify – eCommerce Platform for Online stores
Shopify is an all-in-one platform that allows you to easily create your own online store and sell products. It’s user-friendly and doesn’t require any coding knowledge. You can design your store, add products, accept payments, and track inventory – all from one place. Shopify also integrates with social media and other marketplaces so you can sell your products wherever your customers are.
Who Should Use Shopify?
- Small businesses with no coding experience
- Businesses that want to sell internationally
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Accept a variety of payment methods to cater to your customers’ preferences
- User-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, making it accessible even for beginners with no coding knowledge
- Shopify offers tiered plans that adapt to your needs
- Create a beautiful and responsive online store that looks great on all devices
- Shopify offers tiered plans that adapt to your needs
Cons
- Shopify charges transaction fees unless you use their own payment processing service
- Shopify doesn’t offer built-in email hosting, so you’ll need a separate provider for email marketing
Printify – Dropshipping and Printing Service
Printify is a print-on-demand dropshipping service. This means you can design and sell custom products like t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases without holding any inventory. When a customer buys something from your store, Printify prints it and ships it directly to the customer. This allows you to start an online business with minimal upfront costs and focus on marketing and design.
Who Should Use Printify?
- New online business owners focusing on print-on-demand businesses
- Creative people with an entrepreneurial spirit
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Printify offers a large variety of products to customize: clothing, mugs, phone cases, home decor and more
- Printify integrates with major eCommerce platforms like Shopify to add their service to your existing store
- Choose between different printing partners based on factors like price, location, and printing quality
- You can focus on creating great designs and marketing your store, while Printify handles the printing and fulfillment
Cons
- Printify doesn’t offer much customization for packaging, so your branding might be limited
- Since Printify uses multiple printers, product quality can vary depending on the chosen provider
Therefore, Shopify vs Printify can be used separately, but if your goal is to sell print-on-demand products on the Shopify platform, it is highly recommended to use both platforms. By doing so, you can benefit from Printify’s huge POD catalog of print-on-demand items and leverage Shopify’s robust selling capabilities, resulting in a more successful and efficient selling experience.
Key Difference Between Shopify vs Printify
Printify and Shopify are two popular eCommerce platforms on the market. While both platforms can be used to create an online store, they differ in various aspects.
Printify is a renowned print-on-demand (POD) solution that enables users to design products. Whenever a customer places an order for one of these products, Printify takes care of the printing and shipping process, ensuring seamless delivery to the customers.
To sell these products you can:
- You have the option to showcase these products by creating a basic storefront through Printify’s ‘Pop-Up Store’ feature.
- Connect Printify to a different eCommerce platform (such as Shopify, Wix, etc.) to display your products on an online store.
- Alternatively, you can list them on an online marketplace like Etsy.
In contrast, Shopify is a specialized platform for building online stores, providing a comprehensive set of tools to create and manage various types of stores. It is not limited to selling print-on-demand items but can be used for selling various other products, including:
- Physical products
- Digital products
- Subscriptions and services
- Dropshipping items
In the upcoming section, we’ll compare the main features of both platforms and discuss their best use cases. By the end, you will have a better understanding of which platform is a better fit for your needs. Now, let’s delve into:
Shopify vs Printify: Full Comparison
| Elements to Compare | Shopify | Printify |
| Easy-to-use | The Shopify interface is designed with intuitiveness in mind, ensuring that essential tasks are always just a few steps or clicks away. | Printify is user-friendly, with a lower learning curve for its key features. However, the time-consuming process of identifying a suitable print supplier from its large network can be a challenge. |
| Building an Online Store | Shopify offers a powerful store builder with extensive design control, along with features for managing and growing your business. | Fast and easy to get started, but it lacks customization and can’t create a professional-looking store. |
| Sourcing Products | Product sourcing in Shopify typically requires linking to a dropshipping or POD app from the Shopify app store. | Printify lets you source considerably more products than the vast majority of POD platforms. |
| Pricing |
|
|
| Themes and Design | Multiple high-quality themes, both paid and free, offer numerous customization possibilities. | Options for pop-up stores, a generator for mockups and tools for design. |
| Apps and Integrations | Shopify offers over 8,000 apps for all the different ways you want to customize your store. | You can integrate Printify with platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Squarespace, and WixStores. |
| SEO Features |
|
|
| Shipping |
|
In Printify, the available shipping company options are determined by the shipping partners. The majority of Printify suppliers collaborate with well-known carriers such as UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx. |
| Customer Support | Shopify offers an assistance center along with round-the-clock customer support through email, phone, and chat. | Resources for self-help, online forms for inquiries, interactive forum for community engagement, and live chat support. |
#1. Shopify vs Printify: Easy to Use
Shopify easy to use
The Shopify interface is designed with intuitiveness in mind, ensuring that essential tasks are always just a few steps or clicks away.
When it comes to managing products on Shopify, the platform simplifies the process of adding descriptions, pricing, handling shipping, and organizing collections.
One challenge you could face is managing product images with varying aspect ratios. Shopify does not automatically standardize the ratio of product images, which leads to some untidiness in how your products display in collections. To address this issue, resize all images to a uniform ratio using a photo-editing tool like Canva or Photoshop before uploading them.
Printify easy to use
Printify is a platform that is streamlined and easy to navigate. Users can access key settings through the left-side menu on the account dashboard and make adjustments in the main window on the right.
In addition, the Printify product catalog is thoughtfully designed with an advanced filtering system that allows users to search for products based on market, features, and shipping options. However, sourcing products and selecting suppliers on Printify may require some time and effort.
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify is user-friendly, with a lower learning curve for its key features. However, the time-consuming process of identifying a suitable print supplier from its large network can be a challenge. Shopify also offers an intuitive interface, but the absence of a drag-and-drop page builder and its handling of product images leave room for improvement. Despite these, it remains an easy-to-use platform overall.
#2. Shopify vs Printify: Building an Online Store
Building an online store with Shopify
The Shopify eCommerce platform is renowned for its robust online store builder, which provides users with control over all aspects of the business’s online presence. Shopify offers a variety of essential features for building and managing your eCommerce store:
- Store themes: You can select over 180 pre-designed theme templates that cater to various product sectors.
- User-friendly store design interface: This interface enables you to easily modify and customize the layout and design of your store pages using a drag-and-drop editor.
- International selling: Shopify offers robust features for presenting localized versions of your store to international customers, including multi-currency and multilingual features.
- Multiple payment options: Shopify offers its built-in payment system called ‘Shopify Payments’ for processing transactions on your store. Or, you can choose from over 100 third-party payment gateways to suit your needs.
- Point-of-sale (POS) tools: All Shopify stores come equipped with POS features that enable you to make in-person sales, track product inventory, offer discounts, and manage your POS floor staff efficiently.
On the other hand, you can consult Shopify website development services, developed by a leading development agency with over 10 years of expertise that can assist you in creating intuitive, sales-driven, and robust online stores.
Building an online store with Printify
Printify offers an easy-to-use online store-building tool known as the ‘Pop-Up Store’ feature, allowing you to showcase your products on a website that is hosted on Printify’s servers. With Printify, you can publish a new product on your online storefront, easily design the product, and your product will be instantly showcased in your store.
On the other hand, when it comes to modifying the design and layout of your store, the available options are limited. You can add your brand logo and social media links and choose from five background colors. However, standard editing tasks such as altering fonts, embedding videos, blogging, or creating static pages are not supported.
One of the drawbacks of Printify’s online store builder is its inability to allow users to publish their stores on their own custom domain names (such as yourstorename.com). Instead, users are required to utilize a ‘mystorename.printify.me’ URL format for their website addresses.
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify Store Builder is a fast and easy way to get started, but it lacks customization and can’t create a professional-looking store. On the other hand, Shopify offers a powerful store builder with extensive design control, along with features for managing and growing your business. Therefore, if you want to build an online store based on your preferences and customize your capabilities, Shopify is a better option.
#3. Shopify vs Printify: Sourcing Products
Sourcing products in Shopify
Almost all merchants use Shopify to establish their online stores for self-developed products. However, the platform also offers various options for sourcing products from third-party suppliers.
To begin with, you have the option to use the Shopify App Store, which provides access to numerous dropshipping suppliers. Through this, you can source products from these suppliers and sell them through your store.
There are more than 530 dropshipping apps currently available in Shopify, with options such as DSers, Spocket, and more.
Read more: How to Start Dropshipping for Free: The Complete Guides [2024]
Sourcing products in Printify
Finding POD items to sell on Printify is quite simple. The platform includes a ‘product catalog’ that grants you immediate access to more than 900 high-quality products. Printify’s product selection is categorized into 5 main groups: Men’s clothing, Women’s clothing, Kids’ clothing, Accessories, Home & Living.
Therefore, conducting thorough research to select a Printify supplier that aligns with your needs and budget is crucial to competitive pricing within the POD industry. Investing time in finding the ideal Printify supplier is worthy.
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify lets you source considerably more products than the vast majority of POD platforms. It allows for cost-effective sourcing of many POD products, provided users carefully compare each supplier’s pricing and shipping options.
On the other hand, product sourcing in Shopify typically requires linking to a dropshipping or POD app from the Shopify app store, which may involve additional subscription fees.
#4. Shopify vs Printify: Pricing
Shopify pricing plans
Shopify offers four pricing plans to choose from, including:
- Basic Plan: $25 per month (for solo entrepreneurs)
- Shopify Plan costs $65 per month (for small teams)
- Advanced Plan costs $399 per month (As your business scales)
- Plus plan starts at $2,300 per month (For more complex businesses)
In addition, Shopify offers some alternative solutions for your business:
- Starter: 5$ USD per month
- Retail: 89$ USD per month
- Enterprise commerce: Custom pricing
Printify pricing plans
There are three pricing options for Printify:
- Printify Free – $0 (for merchants starting a business)
- Printify Premium – $24.99 per month (for merchants with growing sales)
- Printify Enterprise – custom pricing (for merchants with significant daily sales)
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify has a free version that provides access to most features and its full catalog of 900+ products. However, a $29 per month paid plan is required for the lowest product prices, offering up to 20% discounts on all products. Shopify’s cheapest plan is the $5 per month ‘Starter’ plan. However, a fully customizable online store with access to key features like a store designer, international selling tools, and an email marketing app requires the $25 per month ‘Basic’ plan.
#5. Shopify vs Printify: Apps and Integrations
Integrations for Shopify
Shopify is one of the most extensive app and integration libraries in the eCommerce industry, with over 8,000 apps for all the different ways you want to customize your store.
Shopify offers a wide range of options for enhancing your store. These apps allow you to improve your store’s SEO, enable product review options, and provide discounting features, among other features. Also, when it comes to print-on-demand apps, Shopify goes above and beyond by offering direct integrations with nearly 500 POD apps.
It is incredibly easy to connect these apps to your Shopify store, and you have the freedom to link your store to multiple POD apps simultaneously. This enables you to maximize the benefits of their diverse catalogs and price points while creating your store’s product offering.
Discover Apps to Boost Conversion Rate!
Integrations for Printify
As a main provider of POD products and services, Printify offers various integration options that focus on linking your account with store builders and online marketplaces to facilitate the sale of your items. You can integrate Printify with platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Squarespace, and WixStores.
Furthermore, Printify offers API solutions that cater to the needs of advanced users and businesses.
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify offers integrations with various eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. However, Shopify provides a vast array of apps and integrations through its extensive app store. Thanks to connecting your Printify store with Shopify, you can leverage the wide range of apps and integrations available on the Shopify platform to enhance the functionality of your Printify products.
#6. Shopify vs Printify: SEO Features
Shopify SEO foundations
Shopify offers a comprehensive SEO toolkit. Its themes are designed to be SEO-friendly, aligning your store’s structure and content with search engine best practices.
Main SEO Features for Shopify
- Themes designed for SEO to improve search engine visibility
- Optimizing URLs for clear and relevant product links
- Using meta tags and alt text for optimizing images and content
- Using analytics and reports to gain valuable insights on SEO performance
Printify SEO foundations
Printify focuses on SEO by providing a robust foundation for your online print store and optimizing product listings for search engines. It allows the strategic incorporation of keywords through customizable product titles, descriptions, and tags.
Main SEO Features for Printify
- Integrating with renowned eCommerce platforms to capitalize on existing traffic
- Customizing product titles, descriptions, and tags to seamlessly integrate with targeted keywords
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify and Shopify offer full SEO features for attracting organic traffic and customers. However, Shopify has more features for SEO.
Discover now: Best Shopify SEO Apps To Boost Ranking & Traffic
#7. Shopify vs Printify: Shipping
Ensuring prompt and secure delivery of your products to customers is a crucial element for eCommerce businesses.
Shopify shipping
Shopify offers a wide range of shipping options that can be customized to fit your specific needs, including:
- Free shipping rates
- Flat rates
- Price-based rates
- Weight-based rates
- Local delivery/pickup rates
- Calculated (real-time) shipping rates
In addition, Shopify offers users in select countries the ability to use its ‘Shopify Shipping’ service, which includes real-time shipping quotes from local carriers, the ability to print shipping labels, and access to discounted rates.
Printify shipping
In Printify, the pricing of products is determined by the print supplier you choose, which also affects the shipping costs. The majority of Printify suppliers collaborate with well-known carriers such as UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx.
Printify showcases the standard shipping rates of all suppliers on its product pages, yet the catalog lacks a feature to filter suppliers based on these rates. Therefore, you will have to manually browse through the suppliers to compare their shipping options.
It can be concluded that the shipping fees for each Printify print provider vary, so depending on your choice, the shipping costs for a product can differ significantly.
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify and Shopify both provide shipping and fulfillment services. Setting up shipping options on both platforms is easy, and adding shipping costs to product listings is a straightforward process.
However, there is a slight difference between the two. In Printify, the available shipping company options are determined by the shipping partners of your selected Printify print supplier. On the other hand, Shopify gives you the freedom to choose any shipping company you prefer to handle the delivery of your goods.
#8. Shopify vs Printify: Customer Support
Shopify support
Shopify offers a comprehensive customer support system that allows you to reach out to the company through email, 24/7 live chat, or phone.
The customer support service is available round the clock and is primarily used in English. However, the availability of support in other languages may vary depending on your country. The Shopify help center provides support materials in a total of 21 languages to cater to a diverse range of users.
On the other hand, Shopify support documentation is generally very clear, although it heavily relies on textual content and could potentially enhance its effectiveness by incorporating more visual aids such as screenshots and videos.
Printify support
Printify offers customer support 24/7 through two communication channels: chat and contact form. Here’s how the two options work:
- Chat
Start a conversation with Snappy, Printify’s virtual assistant. Simply input your message or select a topic you require assistance with. If desired, you have the option to request to speak with one of the team support representatives at any point during the conversation.
- Contact form
You have the option to submit an inquiry to the support team by using the contact form. This form enables us to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issue you are facing and allows the support team to resolve it more efficiently than ever before.
>>> The Final Verdict: Printify and Shopify both offer excellent customer support through email and live chat. However, Shopify stands out by providing phone support on their ‘Basic’ plan and above, which Printify does not offer. Printify’s support is limited to English, whereas Shopify offers support in 21 different languages. Also, both platforms have extensive help centers and valuable eCommerce resources such as blogs and YouTube videos.
Ending Words – Shopify vs Printify
In a nutshell, both Shopify vs Printify offer unique advantages in the eCommerce industry. Printify stands out with its extensive product catalog and cost-effective sourcing. In contrast, Shopify offers a range of plans to suit different needs, from a basic starter plan to a fully customizable online store.
- Choose Printify if:
If you’re a creative entrepreneur with a focus on design and want a quick, low-cost way to test product ideas, Printify’s free store builder and wide product range are perfect for getting started.
- Choose Shopify if:
If you’re serious about building a long-term online business, Shopify is an ideal option. It offers a powerful and scalable platform with extensive design control, marketing tools, and a vast app store to manage and grow your business.
BSS Commerce Shopify hopes that these suggestions in this post are helpful to you.
FAQs – Shopify vs Printify
1. Is it possible to migrate from Printify to Shopify without losing my product data?
Yes. You can migrate your products from Printify to Shopify Plus without any loss. Shopify provides assistance and tools for data migration to guarantee a seamless switch.
2. Does Printify have integration limitations compared to Shopify’s App Store?
Printify integrations are primarily focused on printing, but they seamlessly collaborate with Shopify’s app store to offer a comprehensive range of integrations that meet the majority of business requirements.
3. What factors should I consider when deciding between Printify and Shopify for my print store startup?
Here are the key factors to consider when deciding between Printify vs Shopify for your print store startup:
- Business goals
- Technical skills and budget
- Product range and customization
- Sales and marketing
- Your business’s needs and vision
