Gooten vs Printful (2023): The Battle of the POD Companies

Which Platform Will You Use?

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Gooten vs Printful: The battle of the print on demand companies (POD). If you're unsure which to use, you're in the right place. Here in this review, we're exploring which fares better. So, hopefully, by the end, you should have a better feel for which best suits your business needs.

You don't need us to tell you that it's an exciting time to cash in on the POD dropshipping business model. If you're here, you most likely know there are literally thousands of products you can adapt to your audience's interests and sell for a healthy profit. All that's left is to find a reputable and reliable POD service to ensure your new ecommerce business venture gets off on the right foot.

So, with that in mind, let's jump straight into this review!

How Printful Works

printful homepage - gooten vs printful

First things first, just like Gooten, you'll need to create a Printful account and then integrate it with your online store. Also, just like its competitor, you can adopt the traditional POD business model., i.e., you customize one of Printful's products and list it on your store, a customer buys your product, your order is automatically sent to a fulfillment center (either in-house or third-party), Printful ships the product directly to your customer.

It's also worth noting that, like Gooten, it's also easy to order sample products. Once you've successfully linked Printful with your online store, you can start creating product ‘mockups' using Printful's mockup generator. In simple terms, this is an easy-to-use design tool that enables you to create custom prints for your products using customizable templates virtually.  Best of all, all your finished designs are high-resolution.

Please note: you can also create mock-ups using Gooten. However, compared to Printful, it doesn't seem to be one of Gooten's major selling points.

There are over 200 Printful products you can pick, customize, upload, and sell on your online store. Plus, if you're selling to an international audience, you're in luck because Printful has production houses scattered across the USA, Mexico, and Europe. That said, Printful doesn't ship to Cuba, Iran, Crimea, Syria, and North Korea.

Below we've listed a few of Printful's available product categories:

  • Men’s clothing (t-shirts, hoodies, etc.)
  • Women’s clothing
  • Kids apparel
  • Hats
  • Accessories like bags, flip flops, phone cases, etc.
  • Home and living products like pillows, towels, wall art, etc.

For more information about Printful, check out our full review here.

How Gooten Works

gooten homepage - gooten vs printful

Gooten is pretty simple to use; like most other POD platforms, you just:

  • Select the products you like the look of
  • Place your custom designs on them
  • Publish custom products to sell on your eCommerce store

If you're looking to integrate your Gooten account with your Shopify store, you'll be pleased to hear that it's as simple as installing and using any other app. Just head to the Shopify app store, search for Gooten, and away you go!

Once you’ve installed Gooten's plugin, you can start adding products to sell. To do this, launch Gooten from inside your Shopify dashboard and head to your “Product catalog” and “Add a new product.”

From here, just select the product you’d like to sell. To help find exactly what you're after, use the product filters to populate the right brands, sizes, styles, etc. Then you can upload your design and see what it looks like on each product variant. Next, you'll have to write a product title and description. Finally, save your work, and voila, your product is automatically listed on your online store.

Simple right?

But hold your horses; before you start selling anything, you can order a sample product first. Needless to say, this comes in handy for quality control. To order a sample, head to your Gooten dashboard, click “Orders,” followed by “Order a sample,” then follow the on-page instructions.

With over 140 high-quality products to choose from and an international network of vendors and shipping carriers, you're sure to make an entrance onto the global business stage in next-to-no time.

Here are just a few of the product categories available:

  • Journals and notebooks
  • Travel and leisure
  • Ornaments
  • Totes and bags
  • Wearables
  • Home and living (kitchen, bath, mugs, living room, holiday decor, bedroom, outdoor space
  • Office supplies and tech
  • Wall Art
  • Apparel

Printful's Pros and Cons

The Pros 👍

  • Printful has a decent array of trending products on offer.
  • Printful integrates with lots of major eCommerce platforms and marketplaces.
  • Printful has warehouses in LA, North Carolina, Latvia, and Mexico, and they plan to add to that list. This helps to ensure they fulfill international orders relatively promptly.
  • Printful's incredibly easy to use

The Cons 👎

  • The starting price for some of Printful's products is on the pricey side, making it challenging to generate a decent profit margin.
  • Printful only issues refunds if the item is lost or damaged; no other reasons are acceptable.
  • Some products, like Printful's framed posters and canvases, aren't shipped everywhere.

Gooten's Pros and Cons

First, let's start with the perks:

The Pros 👍

  • Gooten’s catalog is full of unique products, so if you want to offer your customers something they haven't seen before, Gooten's a good choice.
  • Gooten’s product prices are very competitive.
  • Gooten seamlessly integrates with Shopify. For instance, there's a great out of stock functionality, which automatically updates your store if a Gooten product is out of stock.
  • Many Gooten customers praise the platform for its ease of use.

The Cons 👎

  • Compared to Printful, Gooten's interface isn't as intuitive.
  • One user complained that Gooten shipped the wrong products…items that the merchant didn't even have listed on their store!
  • You can’t choose your printing houses, which can result in inconsistent quality.
  • Gooten only integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and Etsy, so if you're using a different eCommerce platform and want a native integration to connect with Gooten…you'll have to look elsewhere.

Gooten vs Printful: Pricing

How much will these POD companies set you back? Let's take a look…

Printful

If you're after white-labeled products for a reasonable price, Printful‘s got you covered. You can have all the inside labels of any Printful POD product tagged with your branding (alongside the garment’s size and material info). Printful charges $2.49 per label. If this appeals to you, rest assured, customizing Printful product labels is pretty simple. Just pick one of Printful's label templates and modify it however you wish to reflect your brand.

Of course, there are other charges to consider, so below, we've compiled a quick list:

  • Outside labels: $2.49 per label
  • A long-sleeve print: $ 5.95 per sleeve
  • A short-sleeve print: $ 2.49 per sleeve
  • An embroidered logo: $2.95 each

What about packing slips? You can customize your packing slips with your logo for free! However, to add extra pack-ins like flyers, business cards, stickers, etc., will set you back $0.75 per order.

Listed above are lots of costs, so if you're worried about whether you'll still turn a profit, look to Printful's proven pricing strategies to guide you – as a general rule, they suggest charging a markup that guarantees you (at least) a 30% profit margin

There’s also a profit calculator that will break down what to expect in net profit for every product sold. Needless to say, Printful provides all the resources you need to ensure you sell POD products with your eyes wide open to their money-making potential.

Gooten

Gooten doesn't charge any setup or monthly fees. You're only billed when a customer of yours places an order and Gooten manufactures and ships the related products.

The prices listed on Gooten's product catalog comprise the cost of both the item and the printing of your custom design. That said, Pro and Elite VIM merchants may be eligible for discounts on products. You can work your way towards VIM status based on your quarterly performance. There are four bands you could fall into (the more money you generate, the more perks you're entitled to):

  • Insider: You generate between $1 – $6,249
  • Plus: You generate between $6,250 – $24,999
  • Pro: You generate between $25,000 – $99,999
  • Elite: You generate $100,000+

You can also opt for their white label support package. Its monthly cost hinges on your VIM status, order volume, and support requests. Aside from that, you can add custom neck labels for $2.

Gooten vs Printful: Integrations

What about plugins? What do Gooten and Printful have to offer on this score?

Printful

printful integrations - gooten vs printful

If you're lucky enough to have some coding smarts, great! Printful offers an API that enables you to create your own integrations. Alternatively, if you want to stick to Printful's native integrations, there's plenty to choose from, most notably:

  • Shopify
  • WooCommerce
  • Squarespace
  • BigCommerce
  • Weebly
  • Ecwid
  • Amazon
  • PrestaShop
  • Big Cartel
  • eBay
  • Gumroad
  • Magneto
  • 3rdcart
  • Launch Cart
  • Wix

…To name a few!

Gooten

Gooten offers a JSON-friendly and well-documented API, so if you're a developer, you'll be able to code away to your heart's content. Other than that, Gooten offers a sparse collection of native integrations:

  • Shopify
  • WooCommerce
  • Etsy

…That's it.

Gooten vs Printful: Fulfillment and Shipping Costs

Printful

Gooten vs Printful

Printful‘s order fulfillment process kickstart immediately after a customer places an order. In fact, Printful guarantees same-day fulfillment for orders made before noon.

On average, Printful reckons it takes anywhere between two and seven business days to create apparel products and two to five working days for non-apparel products.

Where shipping times are concerned, that fluctuates depending on the destination. But, typically, it takes around four business days to ship customer orders. Printful enlists the following shipping carriers to ensure orders are sent in a timely fashion: FedEx, DHL, USPS.com, and DPD.

In terms of shipping costs, this is what you'll have to charge customers for their first product:

  • USA: $3.99
  • Europe: $4.39
  • Canada: $6.49
  • Australia: $6.99
  • New Zealand: $6.99
  • Other: $5.99

If a customer adds an extra product into the mix, they can expect to pay the following add-on:

  • USA: $1.25
  • Europe: $1.09
  • Canada: $1.25
  • Australia: $1.25
  • New Zealand: $1.25
  • Other: $1.25

It's up to you whether these shipping costs appear as an extra cost at checkout or whether you include these expenses into your product's retail price.

Gooten

Gooten vs Printful

Gooten adopts a ‘network approach' that enables them to manufacture and ship products closer to your shoppers. Not only does this speed up the lead time, but it also cuts down shipping costs too!

Gooten also enables you to opt for flat shipping rates. These include fulfillment costs and apply to domestic orders. Alternatively, you can calculate shipping prices based on the customer's location and your chosen shipping method. To get a more accurate feel for what this could equate to, you can estimate shipping costs per product and location using Gooten's Shipping Calculator.

In terms of fulfillment, when a customer makes a purchase, Gooten accepts the order and holds it for a two-hour wait period. Then it's automatically routed for production, which can take up to four business days. Tracking is added when one of Gooten's vendor's prints a shipping label and the shipping carrier scans it.

US deliveries can take up to 12 business days and up to 21 working days if you’re shipping internationally. That said, expedited deliveries only take between two and four business days and
overnight shipping just one business day.

Gooten partners with a variety of carriers to ensure your products get to your customers safely, for instance:

  • UPS
  • USPS
  • FedEx
  • Royal Mail
  • DHL
  • DPD
  • India Mail

Gooten vs Printful: Customer Support

Printful

One of Printful‘s customer service crown gems is their free onboarding session to all their new users. After that, you can contact Printful's customer support team via telephone, live web chat, or ping them an email.

Printful also offers a pretty informative blog on their website, where you'll get a pretty decent insight into how to run a successful print-on-demand business.

Gooten

You can contact Gooten's customer support team via live web chat from Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4 pm EST. Or, if you prefer, you can send Gooten a message to their email support, and they'll aim to get back to you within 72 hours. Alternatively, you could opt to take the self-help route using Gooten's comprehensive online knowledgebase and blog.

Gooten vs Printful: Product Designs and Quality

According to the user reviews that we found online, there are mixed reactions about the print quality produced by Gooten and Printful. That said, there seemed to be a few issues surrounding inconsistency in Gooten's quality. This is probably because their product creation is outsourced to lots of different manufacturers.

Printful and Gooten Alternatives

Printful and Gooten are two highly popular choices for print on demand businesses. However, they’re far from your only options. There are many excellent alternatives out there that give you all the freedom you need to sell online.

Printful vs. Gooten vs. Printify

Printify is similar to Printful and Gooten in many ways. Firstly, it has an advanced 3D mockup generator with intuitive drag-and-drop capability for personalizing and designing POD products. In addition, Printify has over 600 unique products to choose from and various customization options, including embroidery, color variations, and all-over-print.

Printify also boasts a wide range of native integrations, including Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay, and Etsy. This makes listing Printify POD products on your eCommerce platform much more straightforward.

You have a high degree of control over your fulfillment, including being able to choose your supplier and printer. Where suppliers are concerned, you can choose from various brands, such as American Apparel, Arctic Zone, and many more. Then simply select a print house of choice within the region you want to fulfill from.

As for shipping, on average, Printify delivers within three to five days. Although Printify lists fulfillment centers in Europe, Asia, and Australia, the shipping status in these regions varies. However, their quickest services are said to be predominantly domestic for US-based customers.

As for pricing, Printify is much cheaper than Printful. Even on Printify’s free plan, there aren’t any limits on how many product designs you can upload. However, unlike Gooten, Printify requires you to pay a subscription to unlock more advanced features like API Integrations, white labeling, and early access to new features.

Printful vs. Gooten vs. Redbubble

Redbubble is a popular option for POD sellers with unique designs they want to bring to an existing marketplace.

Redbubble offers an extensive range of POD products, with over 70 to choose from, including household goods, wearables, accessories, stationery, etc.,

But unfortunately, Redbubblle doesn’t provide any built-in marketing tools or integrations. So, where promoting your Redbubble POD products is concerned, you’ll have to get a bit creative!

Fulfillment and shipping are handled entirely by Redbubble. Generally, they aim to ship within seven days, though this can vary from country to country. Unfortunately, you can’t choose your preferred Redbubble fulfillment center or shipping method. However, they have centers across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia, so delivery is reasonably standardized.

When it comes to pricing, for designers and sellers, it's free to create an account. There aren’t any subscription fees. As a creator, you’re paid based on the markup you add to your products. For instance, if a product costs $125 to produce and you set a markup of 20%, your profit margin is the remaining $25.

Printful vs. Gooten vs. Sellfy

Sellfy is another excellent POD option with shipping and customization options to rival Gooten and Printful. On average, Sellfy’s POD items go from print to delivery in five business days.

Although you can't specify which fulfillment center your products are processed in, all centers are managed by Sellfy, so the quality is reasonably consistent.

You can customize products with labeling, embroidery, and different color variations. In addition, they have 40 POD items, from wearables to accessories which can be viewed on a decent 3D mockup generator. Sellfy also enables you to upload designs using its graphics editor.

Sellfy’s pricing is also very competitive for what they offer. Unlike other POD platforms, Sellfy empowers you to create an entire online store and comes with in-built marketing and multichannel selling features.

Where Sellfy falls a bit short is its lack of integrations. Although you can embed products from other sites, you have to sell from Sellfy directly; you can’t use third-party fulfillment providers or integrations.

Printful vs Gooten: Which Comes Out on Top?

In short, Printful and Gooten have lots in common:

  • Both have products starting at around $7
  • Both platforms are newbie-friendly
  • Both offer similar time frames for printing and sending your products.

The biggest difference between Printful and Gooten is the way they fulfill their orders. All Printful products are manufactured in Printful's factories or from a reliable third-party like Gildan and American Apparel.

In contrast, Gooten outsources your orders to a network comprising hundreds of global manufacturers. The only downside to this is that quality can vary. Also, say, if your customer were to order two different products, one could arrive before the other, leaving customers confused.

So, there you have it, our Gooten vs Printful review – which (if either) will you opt for? Or, are you considering other print-on-demand services like Printify, Teelaunch, or Storenvy? Either way, let us know in the comments box below!

Rosie Greaves

Rosie Greaves is a professional content strategist who specializes in all things digital marketing, B2B, and lifestyle. She has over three years of experience crafting high-quality content. Check out her website Blog with Rosie for more information.

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