Best Print-on-Demand Sites (2026): Providers vs Marketplaces

The best print-on-demand sites fall into two groups. Providers (Printify, Printful, Gelato, Prodigi) print products that you sell in your own shop, such as Etsy or Shopify, so you set prices and keep the margin. Marketplaces (Amazon’s Merch on Demand, Redbubble, TeePublic, Spreadshirt, Zazzle) sell your designs on their own sites and pay you a royalty or a small margin. For most beginners, the best start is Printify plus an Etsy shop, with one marketplace as a low-effort extra.

For each of the best print-on-demand companies in both groups, you’ll see how it pays you, what it costs, who it suits and what to watch out for, as of September 2026. Then come quick picks by goal and a starter setup for sellers with 5–10 hours a week. New to the model itself? Start with what print-on-demand is and how it works.

Providers vs marketplaces: the difference that decides your margin

With a provider, you run the shop. You create the product, write the listing, set the price and answer customers; the provider prints and ships each order and charges you its cost. Your profit is your price minus the provider’s cost and your sales platform’s fees.

With a marketplace, you upload a design and the site does everything else: product pages, pricing, checkout, production, shipping, returns and much of the marketing. You earn a royalty or a margin on each sale, and you usually never talk to the buyer.

Neither is better in general. Providers pay far more per sale; marketplaces cost far less time per design. Many sellers end up using one of each.

The best print-on-demand providers (for your own shop)

These companies print and ship products you sell on Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop and other channels. All four are free to start; you pay per order.

Printify: best for low costs and choice

A marketplace of 90+ independent print partners with 1,300+ customizable products, where you pick the partner for each product. Premium costs $39 a month, or $24.99 a month billed yearly, for up to 20% off products. It publishes to 11 sales channels, including Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop US, Amazon US and eBay US, and adds free personalization with live previews on Etsy. The trade-off: quality depends on the partner, so order samples. Read our Printify review.

Printful: best for consistent quality and branding

Printful makes orders in its own facilities (562 products at the time of writing) and offers labels, branded packaging and inserts. Growth costs $24.99 a month and becomes free once you reach $12,000 a year in sales. Base prices are higher: about $12.25 for a Bella+Canvas 3001 tee versus about $8.80 from a low-cost Printify partner. Our Printify vs Printful comparison runs the numbers.

Gelato: best for international buyers and wall art

Gelato routes each order to a production partner near the buyer, in 32 countries, and is especially strong in posters, framed prints and canvas. The free plan allows two connected stores; Gelato+ costs $29.99 a month, or $19.99 a month billed yearly, for up to 33% off products. See our Gelato review and Printify vs Gelato comparison.

Prodigi: best for premium fine-art prints

A UK-based wall art specialist and Fine Art Trade Guild approved printer, with its own facilities in the UK, EU and US plus a partner network in more than 10 countries. There’s no subscription, and it connects to Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix and BigCommerce. It’s built for premium prints, so check your margin at the price you plan to charge. Our Prodigi review goes deeper.

Others worth knowing

Spreadconnect (from Spreadshirt), CustomCat and teelaunch are among the other providers sellers use. Before you switch to a smaller provider, check that it integrates with your store, where it produces, how it handles misprints and what a sample looks like in your hands.

For a side-by-side of the big three on plans, catalogs and order routing, read our Printify vs Printful vs Gelato comparison.

The best print-on-demand marketplaces (they sell for you)

These sites host your designs on their own storefronts. They’re a good way to earn from designs you’ve already made, with little extra work per upload.

Amazon Merch on Demand: best for Amazon’s shoppers

You apply, then upload designs; Amazon lists them, prints, ships and handles customer service, and pays a royalty that depends on your list price. New accounts typically start with a limited number of upload slots (Amazon calls these tiers) that grow as designs sell. Amazon’s FAQ says scripted bulk uploads aren’t allowed. Our Merch on Demand guide covers the application and tiers, and print-on-demand on Amazon compares it with selling through Printify’s Amazon integration.

Redbubble: best for zero shop management

Free to join. You set a markup on Redbubble’s base price (it defaults to 10%), and Redbubble keeps a platform fee from your earnings based on your account tier: 20% for Premium, 50% for Standard and none for the invite-only Pro tier, capped at $150 per monthly pay period at the time of writing. Your shop goes public once you’ve uploaded at least five designs and been classified. Uploads are limited to 30 works a day, and bots aren’t allowed. See Redbubble’s account fees page and our Redbubble vs Etsy comparison.

TeePublic: best for simple fixed earnings

Owned by the same parent company as Redbubble (Articore). TeePublic sets retail prices and pays you a fixed amount per item, which is lower when items sell during its frequent sales. Check its current earnings chart before estimating income.

Spreadshirt and Spreadshop: best for European buyers

Germany-based Spreadshirt runs a marketplace plus Spreadshop, a free branded shop you can set up on its platform. You earn from each sale, and it’s a natural fit if many of your buyers are in Europe.

Zazzle: best for customizable gifts

Zazzle lets you choose your own royalty percentage for each product (royalty changes are applied once a month) and is known for products buyers customize, such as invitations and personalized gifts.

Society6: closed to new artists for now

At the time of writing, Society6’s help center says it isn’t accepting new artist applications, and markups are 5–10% set by Society6. Keep an eye on it if you make art prints, but plan around the others.

Where to sell with a provider: the main channels

• Etsy: the best first channel for most POD sellers, because buyers search there for specific, giftable designs. Our guide to starting print-on-demand on Etsy walks through setup.
• Shopify: your own store, lower fees per order and no built-in traffic. See our Etsy vs Shopify comparison and Shopify print-on-demand guide.
• TikTok Shop (US): sales driven by video and creators, with strict shipping deadlines. Read our TikTok Shop print-on-demand guide.
• Amazon, eBay and others: Printify connects to Amazon US and eBay US; Gelato lists Amazon in beta at the time of writing.

What one t-shirt design earns on each route

Here’s the same design sold as a basic tee through the main routes, using the illustrative numbers from our detailed guides. It’s the clearest way to see what each site really pays for the work it does.

The pattern is simple: the more of the selling you do, the more you keep per sale. But the per-sale number leaves out time and traffic. A Shopify sale looks best on paper until you count what it cost to bring that buyer, and a Redbubble sale looks worst until you notice it took ten minutes of your time and no customer service. That’s why a good setup for most side hustlers combines one high-margin shop with one low-effort marketplace.

Quick picks: the best site for each goal

How to choose in five questions

1. Do you want to run a shop, or just upload designs? Running a shop means providers; uploading means marketplaces.
2. Where do your buyers live? Mostly US points to Printify or Printful; spread worldwide points to Gelato.
3. What will you sell most? Apparel favors Printify or Printful; wall art favors Gelato or Prodigi.
4. How much do you need to earn per sale? A few dollars per sale only works at volume, so marketplaces suit big design catalogs.
5. How many hours a week do you have? With under five, one shop plus one marketplace is plenty.

A starter stack for 5–10 hours a week

If you’re building around a day job, this setup keeps things simple:

1. Core (most of your time): an Etsy shop with Printify. Publish focused listings in one niche and learn what sells.
2. Extra reach (an hour a week): upload your best original designs to one marketplace, such as Redbubble, or apply to Merch on Demand.
3. Second provider (when needed): add Gelato or Printful for products where local production or consistency matters.
4. New channel (once something sells): Shopify or TikTok Shop, when you have an audience or the time to make videos.

The hidden cost of this stack is repetition: each site wants files at different sizes and its own titles, tags and descriptions. That’s the part to systematize early.

Whatever you choose, start with one provider and one channel, get to your first sales, then expand. The best print-on-demand site is the one you’ll keep publishing to every week.