Printful vs Printify vs Gelato: 2026 Cost Comparison for Shopify Sellers

Your print-on-demand provider is your biggest per-sale cost. Bigger than Shopify’s fees. Bigger than shipping. The base price your provider charges determines whether your margin lands at 25% or 40%, and that difference changes everything downstream — your pricing, your ad budget, your break-even ROAS.

Most new Shopify sellers pick a provider based on a YouTube recommendation or because someone in a Facebook group said “Printify is cheaper.” Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on what you’re selling, where your customers are, and which print provider within Printify’s network you actually use.

This article compares the three providers that most Shopify POD sellers consider: Printful, Printify, and Gelato. Real catalog prices, checked April 2026, for the three most common POD apparel products. No affiliate links. No rankings. Just numbers in tables so you can pick the provider that fits your cost structure.

The products compared

Every provider charges differently depending on the blank garment and print method. To keep this comparison useful, I’m using three products that cover the most common POD apparel categories:

• Bella+Canvas 3001 — the standard mid-range T-shirt. Soft, fitted, the most popular blank for Shopify POD sellers.
• Gildan 18500 — a heavy blend hoodie. The go-to for sellers adding a cold-weather product.
• Gildan 18000 — a crewneck sweatshirt. Sits between the T-shirt and hoodie in both price and warmth.

All prices below are for a single front print on a size M, shipping to a US address. These are the numbers you’ll plug into your pricing formula to figure out what to charge.

Printful costs

Printful owns its own fulfillment centers. You don’t pick a print provider — Printful handles everything in-house. The trade-off is that Printful’s base prices tend to run higher than the cheapest options on Printify or Gelato.

Prices from Printful’s product catalog and shipping rates, checked April 2026. Shipping for additional items: +$2.20 per extra T-shirt, +$2.50 per extra hoodie or sweatshirt.

Printful charges no per-order fees. The base price covers the blank garment, printing, and fulfillment. What you see is what you pay every time an order comes in.

If you’ve read the full cost breakdown from earlier in this series, the $11.69 Bella+Canvas 3001 and $4.75 shipping are the same numbers we used to calculate the $19.97 all-in cost per sale. That’s the Printful number.

Printify costs

Printify works differently. It’s a network of independent print providers. You pick a product from Printify’s catalog, and the order gets routed to a print shop. The price depends on which provider fulfills the order.

This is where things get tricky.

Printify’s catalog shows the lowest available price across all providers. For the Bella+Canvas 3001, that minimum is around $10.98. But that minimum may come from a provider or fulfillment setup you would not choose for a US-focused store. US-based providers typically charge $0.50 to $2.00 more per item than the catalog minimum.

Here are Printify’s catalog minimums:

Prices from Printify’s catalog, checked April 2026. These are the lowest available prices across Printify’s provider network.

The US provider caveat. If your customers are in the US and you want consistent 3–5 day fulfillment from a domestic shop, expect to pay $0.50 to $2.00 above these catalog minimums. The actual price depends on which provider you select in Printify’s dashboard, and you need a Printify account to see provider-specific pricing. Printify doesn’t publish provider-level prices publicly. The numbers above are starting points, not what you’ll actually pay from a US-based shop.

Printify charges no per-order fees on top of the provider’s price. Shipping rates vary by provider, which is why the table shows a range for T-shirts and “varies” for hoodies and sweatshirts.

If you’re comparing Printify to Printful, don’t compare Printify’s catalog minimum to Printful’s price. Compare the price from the specific US provider you’d actually use. That number is usually closer to Printful than the catalog minimum suggests.

Gelato costs

Gelato operates a global network of print partners, similar to Printify, but with more standardized pricing across regions. Gelato’s prices often land between Printful and Printify’s catalog minimums, though some products may come in lower depending on the item and region.

Prices from Gelato’s product catalog, checked April 2026 while logged in. Gelato charges no per-order fees.

Gelato’s T-shirt base price is the lowest of the three providers at $10.12. Shipping at $4.66 is close to Printful’s $4.75. The all-in cost of $14.78 is $1.66 less than Printful’s $16.44 for the same shirt.

For hoodies and sweatshirts, the gap widens. Gelato’s hoodie all-in is $26.43 versus Printful’s $30.68 — a $4.25 difference per unit. On sweatshirts, it’s $23.63 versus $27.28, a $3.65 gap. Those numbers add up when you’re selling volume.

Side-by-side: all three providers, all three products

Here’s the full picture. Base price plus shipping equals all-in cost per unit, before Shopify fees and your other costs.

The gap between providers is smallest on T-shirts ($1.66 from Gelato to Printful) and largest on hoodies ($4.25). If you’re selling hoodies, the provider choice has a bigger impact on your margin.

Printify’s catalog minimum for sweatshirts looks low at ~$21, but that price may come from a provider or fulfillment setup you would not choose for a US-focused store. A US-based Printify provider for the same sweatshirt would probably land closer to $23 to $24.

Subscription plans compared

All three providers offer free tiers. You can sign up and start selling without paying a monthly fee. The paid plans give you discounts on product base prices.

Printful’s Growth plan at $24.99 per month offers the steepest potential discount at up to 33% off. That discount varies by product. Not every item gets the full 33%. For a Bella+Canvas 3001 at $11.69 base, a 20% discount brings it to about $9.35. A 33% discount brings it to about $7.83. The actual discount depends on the specific product.

Printify Premium at $39 per month (or $299 per year) gives up to 20% off. On a $10.98 base price, that’s about $8.78. The annual plan brings the monthly cost to about $24.92, competitive with Printful’s Growth plan.

Gelato+ currently lists $23.99 per month, or $19.99 per month when billed yearly, with up to 25% off products. On a $10.12 base price, a 25% discount brings it to about $7.59. Gelato also notes that the annual plan may temporarily offer a higher discount until December 31, then return to up to 25%, so check the current plan page before subscribing. At the current annual rate, Gelato+ is the cheapest paid option of the three on a monthly-equivalent basis.

Whether a paid plan makes sense depends on your volume. At 30 sales a month, a $23.99 monthly fee adds about $0.80 per sale, while a $39 monthly fee adds $1.30 per sale. If the product discount saves you more than the subscription cost per order, the plan pays for itself. Don’t sign up for a paid plan until you’re consistently hitting the volume where the discount covers the subscription cost.

What matters besides base price

Base price is the biggest cost driver, but it’s not the only factor in choosing a provider.

Shipping consistency. Printful’s shipping rates are published and predictable. Printify’s shipping varies by provider. Gelato’s rates are standardized but differ from Printful’s. If you offer flat-rate or free shipping, you need to know your shipping cost in advance. Variability makes that harder.

No hidden fees. For a basic apparel order, none of the three providers adds a separate platform fee on top of the product base price and shipping. Branding, premium features, taxes, or optional services may still add cost, so confirm the exact checkout math when you sign up.

Fulfillment speed. Printful typically ships within 2–5 business days from its own facilities. Printify’s fulfillment speed depends on the provider you select — some are fast, some aren’t. Gelato routes to the nearest partner facility, which can mean faster delivery to international customers but doesn’t guarantee faster US domestic fulfillment than Printful.

Product range. All three providers cover the basics: T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, mugs, posters. If you plan to expand into niche products (all-over prints, embroidery, cut-and-sew), check each provider’s catalog before committing. Switching providers later means re-uploading designs and adjusting prices.

How provider choice affects your pricing

In the pricing formula article, we walked through this:

Price = Total Costs / (1 - Desired Margin)

Your provider’s base price and shipping cost are the first two numbers in that formula. Change the provider, and the whole calculation shifts.

Here’s what that looks like for a Bella+Canvas 3001 T-shirt with a 30% target margin, Shopify Payments, and 30 sales per month:

Switching from Printful to Gelato on this one product drops your all-in cost by $1.66 per sale. At a 30% margin target, you can price $2.37 lower and keep the same margin — or keep the same price and pocket an extra $1.66 per sale.

At 50 sales a month, that’s $83 in extra profit. At 200 sales, it’s $332. Not life-changing for a small store, but it’s money you get by picking a different provider, not by working harder.

The break-even ROAS shifts too. A lower cost per sale means a higher margin at the same price, which means a lower break-even ROAS. If you’re running ads, that difference matters.

Run your own numbers

This comparison uses three products and three providers. Your store might use different products, different shipping destinations, or a different Shopify plan. The numbers above are a starting point, not a final answer.

If you want to plug in your own provider costs, selling prices, and ad budgets across multiple scenarios, the Shopify POD Profit Planner does that for you. It calculates profit margins, break-even ROAS, and scenario comparisons across five apparel types — with whichever provider you choose.

Get the Shopify POD Profit Planner for $12