You’ve learned all about print on demand dropshipping and your eyes have turned into dollar signs. Ka-ching you’re thinking. But now you’re stood in front of the classic dilemma: who is going to be my production partner: Teelaunch or Printful?
You’ve heard amazing things about Printful and they seem like the obvious choice, but… Printful is expensive. Really expensive.
So how about Teelaunch? They are known for their extensive product catalog that stretches far beyond just t-shirts. And their profit-rates are looking a lot better than Printful’s but is that enough to choose them as your production partner?
Well.. You came to the right place.
This article will provide you with an in-depth review of both Teelaunch and Printful and put the two together in the boxing ring.
May the best print on demand win.
What is Printful?
Printful is one of the leading print on demand platforms with over 14 million orders delivered worldwide. Printful was founded in 2013 and has seen rapid growth since. They do all of their printing jobs in-house and have multiple locations around the globe.
Despite their high pricing, they have been dominating the print on demand market for years. This is due to their snappy website and app-design, live chat customer service, and the possibility of integrating with just about any eCommerce platform out there, creating a seamless experience.
What is Teelaunch?
Teelaunch is a made-for-Shopify print on demand app. They are relatively new, having started in 2015. But they have since set up a competitive pricing system that beats Printful’s and rivals many of the other platforms out there. Teelaunch outsources their printing jobs to a network of print on demand suppliers. Being a Shopify app, they have no other integrations possible besides Etsy.
Who’s better at…
We’re going to compare Teelaunch vs Printful by checking how they perform in the following categories:
- Product Selection
- Print Quality
- Pricing
- Customer Service
- Shipping Times
- Integrations
- Branding
Teelaunch vs Printful: Product Catalog
Printful
Printful has more than 230 products available in their catalog. These range from apparel to home decor and accessories.
Printful also has an “eco-friendly” collection of 16 products. Among those are apparel products, tote bags, and even bio-degradable phone cases.
Teelaunch
Teelaunch has a total of 88 products. They have a selection of apparel products and venture in some highly original products such as personalized crystals, bluetooth speakers, dog bowls, and more.
Who wins? Printful
While Teelaunch has some nice and original products for sure, Printful has a far larger product catalog and the cherry on top of the cake is definitely the fact that you can sell eco-friendly products through Printful.
Teelaunch vs Printful: Print Quality
Printful
Printful is known for its print quality. They have millions of dollars invested in printing equipment and it truly shows.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Printful print quality, you don’t just have to take my word for it, I recommend you check out some of the many print quality videos on youtube, here’s a list:
As you can see, if you’re looking for a provider with excellent print quality, you cannot go wrong with Printful.
Teelaunch
Now what about Teelaunch? Teelaunch actually has pretty decent print quality, especially when compared to other POD providers within the same price range.
I don’t think they can match up to Printful but I also don’t see any customer returning a product from Teelaunch due to print quality.
Who wins? Printful
I don’t think any print on demand provider can match Printful and it will probably be like that for a while. However, Teelaunch has amazing print quality as well and I definitely don’t think you should write them off solely on the fact that their print quality is slightly worse than Printful’s.
Teelaunch vs Printful: Pricing
Printful
Printful is known to be expensive, which is why many sellers start looking for printful alternatives such as Teelaunch in the first place.
T-shirt Pricing
The cheapest T-shirt you can find on Printful is the Gildan 64000 Softstyle for $8.55.
Shipping for this T-shirt will be $3.99 (US), $4.39 (EU) or $5.99 (Worldwide).
This means the total price is: $12.54 for US orders and $14.54 for international orders.
If we consider a retail price of $25 with shipping included, you’ll be left with a profit of $12.46 on US orders and $10.46 on international orders.
Mug Pricing
The cheapest mug you can find on Printful is the White Glossy Mug for $8.20.
Shipping for this mug will be $6.99 (US), $5.49 (EU) or $8.99 (Worldwide).
Total price: $15.19 (US) and $17.19 (International)
Profit from $25 retail: $9.81 (US) and $7.81 (International).
Teelaunch
T-shirt Pricing
The cheapest T-shirt you can find on Teelaunch is the District Unisex Shirt for $8.50.
Shipping for this T-shirt will be $5.00 (US) or $10.00(Worldwide).
This means the toal price is $13.50 for US orders and $18.50 for international orders.
If we consider a retail price of $25 with shipping included, you’ll be left with a profit of $11.5 on US orders and $6.5 on international orders.
Mug Pricing
The cheapest mug you can find on Teelaunch is the White Mug for $3.50.
Shipping for this mug will be $5.00 (US) or $10.00 (Worldwide)
Total price: $8.50 (US), $13.50 (Worldwide)
Profit from $25 retail: $16.50 (US) and $11.50 (International).
Who wins? Teelaunch
While T-shirts are slightly cheaper on Printful, most items (like the mug) end up being a lot more expensive when bought from Printful.
Teelaunch vs Printful: Customer Service
Printful
Since all printing is done in-house with Printful, they know exactly why your order is delayed or answer other related questions you may have.
For generic questions, Printful has a built-in help center to help you out with a wide range of questions relating to returns, policies, design tips, taxes and billing, and more.
For questions about specific orders, you can use the live chat function and for questions that don’t require an immediate answer, you can email printful at [email protected].
As one of their extras, Printful has a service where they set up your store for you. They offer this for multiple integration options such as Shopify and WooCommerce.
Teelaunch
Teelaunch on the other hand has a bad reputation when it comes to support. While they do have a help center, they don’t have a live chat like Printful does. So for any immediate order support, you’ll need to email them at [email protected] and you might be waiting a couple of days on an answer.
This is due to the fact that teelaunch outsources their printing jobs, this means that they do not hold information themselves over your specific orders and have to contact the provider after you contact them. This creates delays, delays that are hard to explain to your own customers.
Who wins? Printful.
I do think good communication is important when picking a print on demand provider. The fact that Printful has a live chat and knows exactly what’s going on with orders is a huge advantage of using them as a print provider. Printful definitely takes the cake when it comes to customer service.
Teelaunch vs Printful: Shipping Times
Printful
Order processing on Printful takes anywhere from 2-7 days. Delivery times for the US are 4 days on average when using their US locations.
European orders through their EU locations take anywhere from 2-8 days.
International orders can take up to 14 days to arrive in total.
Printful is a big provider so they can be hit with delays. They are always transparent about this. For example, they were hit pretty badly at the height of the pandemic especially in their US facilities. This caused major delays.
At the time of writing, there are still a couple of shipping delays due to covid-19 to some countries. To see the possible delays, you can check their status page.
Teelaunch
Order processing on Teelaunch takes anywhere from 3-7 days. Delivery times for the US are 4 days on average. International orders can take up to 3 weeks.
This means that actual delivery times range from 7 – 11 days in the US and international orders can take up to 28 days in total.
Who wins? Printful
Teelaunch and Printful have similar shipping times for US orders but when it comes to international orders Printful clearly shows it’s superiority due to their multiple international facilities.
Teelaunch vs Printful: Integrations
Integration means that you can sync products from a POD provider directly to a marketplace (e.g. eBay) or an eCommerce platform (e.g. Shopify).
When someone orders from that marketplace or eCommerce platform, the integrated POD provider will then automatically fulfill the order for you, requiring no attention from yourself.
Another advantage to this is that you can upload products to these platforms directly through your print provider so you don’t have to create them manually and sync them afterwards.
Printful
Printful has nailed integrations, allowing integrations with every main eCommerce platform out there (Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, etc)
They also integrate with marketplaces such as: Etsy, eBay, Amazon and so on.
And if you’re very tech savvy, you can make use of their API.
Teelaunch
Teelaunch on the other hand, is a Shopify app and is limited to exactly that. This means that if you want to use Teelaunch on any other platform, you will have to do so manually.
One thing Teelaunch does provide is Etsy integration support, however this requires you to still have a Shopify store (which costs $29/mo) set up. So it’s not exactly good, at all.
Who wins? Printful
If you only plan on integrating with Shopify, Teelaunch is a perfectly fine option but if you want to make use of any other platform, you should go for Printful.
Teelaunch vs Printful: Branding
Printful
While many print on demand providers only put your store name on the box, Printful goes the extra mile and allows you to upload your logo to the front of the box for free.
Printful allows you to insert custom packaging slips into your package at an additional fee.
This can be amazing for handing out coupons to your store and increasing your return customer rate but the option is on the pricey side for an already very pricey provider.
If your marketing game is strong and you know what you’re doing this is worth the money but if you’re still new, I would stay away from spending extra money in favor of higher profit margins.
Next to package inserts, they also have a wide range of products that you can add your own label to. For an extra $2.49 you can add your label to t-shirts, hoodies, leggings, swimwear, and more.
Teelaunch
Teelaunch doesn’t offer custom packaging slips however they do provide a piece of paper with every order that you can add one customized line for.
This line can say whatever you want and is completely free to do so. You can use this line to hand out coupons and increase customer retention.
Who wins? Printful
Printful clearly wins in brand-ability due to their many options available. Just having a logo on the box (which they do completely free) is a game-changer. Especially for those looking to create a long-term brand.
All other branding possibilities such as package inserts and product labels are paid and probably not beneficial to your average t-shirt seller.
What Do The People Say?
In this section, we’ll compare Teelaunch vs Printful based on their Shopify app reviews.
Printful scores a 4.4 rating while Teelaunch scores a 4.6 rating. However, we can’t just go off of that since Printful has 3075 reviews compared to Teelaunch’s 566 reviews.
What I noticed when going through the Printful vs Teelaunch reviews, is that the negative Printful reviewer leave very detailed reviews. Whereas the majority of negative Teelaunch reviews are short and to the point.
I found this very interesting and it made me believe that the Printful reviewers have a lot more expectations and are more advanced sellers than the Teelaunch reviewers are.
Which makes sense, because due to the many different integration options and large scale of operations, Printful drives A LOT of sellers to their platform.
Many of the negative reviews on Printful are based on customer service and shipping times, these are sections at which, Printful is superior to Teelaunch.
Most of the negative reviews on Teelaunch are based on customer service, shipping times, and mistakes made on samples or customer orders.
When comparing both reviews, I’m pretty confident Printful is the better service.
Teelaunch vs Printful FAQs
Can you use both Teelaunch and Printful at the same time?
Certainly! You can always combine multiple pod providers.
Why is Printful so expensive?
Printful does everything in-house, has multiple warehouses around the world and has print quality superior to every other provider. All of this costs money and that’s why you’re paying a premium when using their service.
Do you have to pay for Printful or Teelaunch?
No. Both POD providers are free to use and charge no monthly fees.
Does Printful automatically fulfill orders?
Yes. Printful will automatically fulfill all orders for you, no matter what platform you have them integrated with. You don’t have to do anything.
Can I get discounted samples from Teelaunch?
No. There is no way to get discounted samples from teelaunch. If you want to test their products, you’ll have to order them manually and send them to your address.
Final Pick – Teelaunch vs Printful
As a print on demand service, Printful is far superior to Teelaunch. They have been in business for longer, offer in-house printing, have multiple locations worldwide, live-chat customer support, better shipping times, way more integrations, and extra’s.
It seems Teelaunch only beats Printful when it comes to pricing (on anything other than t-shirts).
So if you’re looking to increase profit margins, Teelaunch could be an option for you.
But if I’m being really honest, there are even cheaper Printful alternatives out there than Teelaunch with better shipping times and customer service. Check out my other article on Printful alternatives.
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