# DecoNetwork & Inksoft



## TomNJ

I've been combing through this forum for input on DecoNetwork vs InkSoft.

Most of the posts are years old with very little current and/or relevant information.

So in an attempt to gain some current input, comparisons and feedback from ACTUAL users or either of these two products, I'm starting this new thread.

So I would ask those in the community who are or were actually using either of these programs to please share your experiences so we can have a current thread with updated comments.


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## rjjbrick

Did you ever get any feedback or good links to other threads in response? Same question here.


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## TomNJ

Nope: Guess no one on this board uses either.


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## Signature Series

We have used both solutions and as with most things there are pluses and minuses of both. The first thing I would do is clearly outline for yourself the key objectives you are trying to accomplish. Most important is when looking for references is to be speaking with people who are using the same decoration process you use. If I do embroidery I want to be speaking to other people using the system for embroidery. What may be a great product for a vinyl company may be horrible for another decorating method. Next, I would ask Deco and Ink for references based specifically on the decoration method you use. I would check out those websites and eventually contact those that I may have questions for. Both system are full turn key systems and not a simple on-line designer you slap on your website. They take time and are a valuable tool if implemented and maintained properly.


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## teesnow2017

I have tried Deconetworks. I found it too difficult. You need to be an expert at html coding to make that platform looking half decent. Forget SEO, social media integration and the like. It was slow as well.

The value in the Deconetworks platform is the back end. The front end is very average.


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## rjjbrick

Thanks! Did you do anything with affiliate stores? Im looking for an alternative to ordermygear for team stores that has more backend functionality and doesn't come with OMG's up front pricing.



teesnow2017 said:


> I have tried Deconetworks. I found it too difficult. You need to be an expert at html coding to make that platform looking half decent. Forget SEO, social media integration and the like. It was slow as well.
> 
> The value in the Deconetworks platform is the back end. The front end is very average.


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## bakedts

We have been using DecoNetwork for about 7 years. We have never touched the HTML code and find it easy to use. We have over 600 affiliate stores and can set one up for a customer in about 15 mins. They recently came out with a new release that has many interface enhancements to make it easier to use and are working on the next generation which is heavily focused on responsive design and front end user ease of use. We have not used ink soft so I cannot provide any feedback.

I would suggest getting the 30 day trial and play with it to see if it fits your needs. 

We primarily do DTG and Sublimation.


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## TomNJ

Thanks for the input. I did the 30 day demo with DecoNet and was not impressed. Takes a lot of time to get a polished look and even then looks dated. Going to go with Inksoft.


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## rjjbrick

Thanks baked T's that is encouraging to hear. do you do affiliate stores as team stores on a regular basis? 

We did pull the trigger on a trial -- was disappointed to learn that the fundraising feature only allows for fundraising on one product -- really ?
would have been super nice to be able to add the fundraising component to an entire affiliate store, or in my case,
team store. so i suppose i would need to just build affiliate stores for teams and communicate the fundraising aspect and progress outside of the store. 




bakedts said:


> We have been using DecoNetwork for about 7 years. We have never touched the HTML code and find it easy to use. We have over 600 affiliate stores and can set one up for a customer in about 15 mins. They recently came out with a new release that has many interface enhancements to make it easier to use and are working on the next generation which is heavily focused on responsive design and front end user ease of use. We have not used ink soft so I cannot provide any feedback.
> 
> I would suggest getting the 30 day trial and play with it to see if it fits your needs.
> 
> We primarily do DTG and Sublimation.


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## rjjbrick

Thanks TomNJ for sharing your experience. What are you using it for? We are a team uniform / fangear provider . . . 



TomNJ said:


> Thanks for the input. I did the 30 day demo with DecoNet and was not impressed. Takes a lot of time to get a polished look and even then looks dated. Going to go with Inksoft.


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## TomNJ

We do DTG, Embroidery, HTV and Dye Sub.


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## rjjbrick

does inksoft support embroidery now? i've been hesitant because i was told it did not . . .



TomNJ said:


> We do DTG, Embroidery, HTV and Dye Sub.


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## teesnow2017

bakedts said:


> We have been using DecoNetwork for about 7 years. We have never touched the HTML code and find it easy to use. We have over 600 affiliate stores and can set one up for a customer in about 15 mins. They recently came out with a new release that has many interface enhancements to make it easier to use and are working on the next generation which is heavily focused on responsive design and front end user ease of use. We have not used ink soft so I cannot provide any feedback.
> 
> I would suggest getting the 30 day trial and play with it to see if it fits your needs.
> 
> We primarily do DTG and Sublimation.


Your whole website is a custom design, none of which comes from deconetworks.

For those doing research have a look at Home - Baked T's
That is what you get from deconetworks AFTER customising their template. Looks like something from 1999.


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## tshirtsrus

teesnow2017 said:


> Your whole website is a custom design, none of which comes from deconetworks.
> 
> For those doing research have a look at Home - Baked T's
> That is what you get from deconetworks AFTER customising their template. Looks like something from 1999.


After customizing? I don't think so.

This website was customized with some basic html and css The Internet's Most Affordable Custom T-Shirts - The Internet's Most Affordable Custom T-Shirt! (hint, click on the menu) is all Deconetwork. BTW is not my website.


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## bakedts

We did not do any customization. This was using the basic Deco templates. It is very basic but serves our needs as the online store is not our primary source of selling. It is there as a convenience for our customers. 

If this was our primary sales tool we would customize. The biggest value we currently receive is the affiliate stores.


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## freedomshop

bakedts said:


> We have been using DecoNetwork for about 7 years. We have never touched the HTML code and find it easy to use. We have over 600 affiliate stores and can set one up for a customer in about 15 mins. They recently came out with a new release that has many interface enhancements to make it easier to use and are working on the next generation which is heavily focused on responsive design and front end user ease of use. We have not used ink soft so I cannot provide any feedback.
> 
> I would suggest getting the 30 day trial and play with it to see if it fits your needs.
> 
> We primarily do DTG and Sublimation.


I wasn't aware that Deconetwork gives a 30 day trial. When I contacted them, they only offered a "tour" where one of their sales staff takes you through the interface and answers any questions you might have. This is only useful if you know what questions you want to ask. I found more questions popping up as we went through it. One thing they won't show is how data looks when linking to Quickbooks. They couldn't offer me any answers because the "tour" system they use dosen't do that. This is a big question for me as we need it to interface with quickbooks. I know it technically will, but what does it look like on quickbooks end?


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## freedomshop

teesnow2017 said:


> I have tried Deconetworks. I found it too difficult. You need to be an expert at html coding to make that platform looking half decent. Forget SEO, social media integration and the like. It was slow as well.
> 
> The value in the Deconetworks platform is the back end. The front end is very average.


What part did you find difficult. We don't want to use the website portion of it, just the back end. Mostly for managing accounts.


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## freedomshop

rjjbrick said:


> Thanks baked T's that is encouraging to hear. do you do affiliate stores as team stores on a regular basis?
> 
> We did pull the trigger on a trial -- was disappointed to learn that the fundraising feature only allows for fundraising on one product -- really ?
> would have been super nice to be able to add the fundraising component to an entire affiliate store, or in my case,
> team store. so i suppose i would need to just build affiliate stores for teams and communicate the fundraising aspect and progress outside of the store.


Deconetwork offers unlimited Affiliate Stores in their upgraded package, not in the standard. The trial probably only offers the standard.


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## johnchesley

I have been using Inksoft for about 4 years now. I just completed a school spirit wear sale and the total sales were 4495.00. The school profit was 1751.70. My profit will be about 1600.00 after paying for materials but before the printing labor.
I am happy with Inksoft, but it takes time to get proficient with it. I have used their phone support often and it has been extremely helpful.
They have just started a program that, (for a small fee), will set up your store site for you. I would prefer to continue,(with their phone support), to make my own stores.


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## brenden

freedomshop said:


> One thing they won't show is how data looks when linking to Quickbooks. They couldn't offer me any answers because the "tour" system they use dosen't do that.


Hi there,

One issue with 'showing' this is we don't use Quickbooks in our organization. We're Xero users! But in our community forums there are people using QuickBooks and if you have a particular question I can get the info for you.

You may also find this video useful as it outlines the setup process so could help answer some of the data plumbing questions you might have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3QtcRIREzQ

Of course if it is 10pm at night and you're stuck on something you can call our support line which run 24 hours Sunday to Friday.


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## freedomshop

brenden 
I understand that maybe your target audience uses Xero, but most of the companies that I know of in the US use Quickbooks. My frustration is that you advertise that you work with Quickbooks, there needs to be proof in action that it does. I'm not going to invest in a huge subscription without seeing the options available before hand. 
I'm impressed with your product, but that's because a "Salesman" has walked me thorough things. I need first hand experience to see if it will work for our business. We've tried other programs in the past, and they didn't work out. I don't really care about the web end of your program, I care about the functionality of the Project Management area. Can I make more than one "tour" to have questions answered that I didn't know or have time to go over in a previous "tour"?

BTW I don't like this "tour" option. I would much rather have a 30 day trial to really get into it and make sure it's compatible with our business.


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## brenden

Hi Karen,

On I totally agree!  Sorry my point was that we as a company don't own QuickBooks. They don't give you an endless version to use so we can only install temporarily for development and testing as part of their developer program. We use Xero so we could show you exactly how the 'data' looks if it was Xero - Only because it's what we use!

But I was hoping the video would highlight for you the way the data is mapped. I.e.: When a new order is placed into QuickBooks it has a choice to add all the items into a single product such as "Web order" or to import the items AS they are created in DecoNetwork. i.e. "Gildan 2000 Mens Tee".

Perhaps you can shoot me some specific questions and I'll get you the exact answer. For example, do you want to see what an order integrated from DecoNetwork visually looks like in QuickBooks?

Let me know and I'll be glad to assist.


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## Fuji

I tried deconetwork and was not happy at all for a few reason. The site loads pretty slow (I'm on fiber, so I can tell if it's actually the site or not). It seems their objective is to have you purchase the middle price, because most of the useful tools start at this price point. It's a $1499 cost you will lose if you decide to cancel. If you submit a cancel request, it says a salesperson will contact you. All they'll try to do is get you to stay with them, so expect a sales pitch. Their front end templates are horrible. There is ONE responsive design...that's it. This is 2017. If all you have to offer is one responsive theme, it tells me you are not up-to-date. If you get the base package, you really cannot edit the design to anything worth looking at. 

There may be one benefit to the system and that is the ability to import products from the shippers, and order them. Everything else you can do with Wordpress or even Shopify (minus the customizing on Shopify). There are plenty of customizing addons for Wordpress/WooCommerce. 

One of the biggest beefs I have with any of these companies is when you have to pay a monthly fee to remove their "Powered by" logo link. In this case, you have to pay $49/month extra for something that is a few characters long in CSS in order to remove the logo. If I'm already paying that exorbitant price each month, why the hell do I have to pay extra to not promote you? If I buy a car, I don't have to pay a fee to remove the emblems. I should be charging them to advertise on the site I'm paying for or get a discounted price of $49 a month to keep it in place.

The final thing that I had a hard time was that their "Contact" only has phone numbers. You have to search for an email address, and believe me, it's buried. hey have a support ticket system, but it pales in comparison to anything else. I emailed them through it and it's been two weeks and still no reply. The same day I emailed them, I also emailed Inkspot and Inkspot replied within an hour. 

Just my two cents. 
~Fuji


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## freedomshop

Hi Brenden,
Yes I would definitely like to see what an order looks like once imported into Quickbooks Online, also what do the contacts look like once imported. I realize that you have to "push" the data manually, and that I have to setup what goes where, but once that is setup, how does an invoice look like, for example?
-Karen


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## freedomshop

johnchesley said:


> I have been using Inksoft for about 4 years now. I just completed a school spirit wear sale and the total sales were 4495.00. The school profit was 1751.70. My profit will be about 1600.00 after paying for materials but before the printing labor.
> I am happy with Inksoft, but it takes time to get proficient with it. I have used their phone support often and it has been extremely helpful.
> They have just started a program that, (for a small fee), will set up your store site for you. I would prefer to continue,(with their phone support), to make my own stores.


Do you use inksoft strictly for your online presence, or do you also use it for project management?
-Karen


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## johnchesley

I use it for a couple of things. First, I advertise the ability for my customers to make their own designs if they choose to. Secondly, I make stores for schools to use for spirit wear sales and fundraising.


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## decocris

Hello everyone,

Cris from DecoNetwork client services team here to join in on the discussion.

Addressing Fuji's comments, of course there are solutions out there for everyone based on your specific needs. You have to find the one that matches up with your needs most. While there are ways to piece together what DecoNetwork offers with a site from wordpress, designer plugin, production management software, invoicing software etc. We take a holistic approach because when all these systems are built together it provides a much better experience.

The $49/month addon described is not just to remove the DecoNetwork branding from your own site but all your affiliate sites, and the management areas of your affiliate stores. It's a complete white label feature so that your affiliate store owners would not be aware that the platform driving your service to them is DecoNetwork. It allows you to replace all of our branding with your own. If you simply want to hide our branding from your main site it's always possible by adding a snippet of CSS which we provide on our support site.

In regards to support times, I would be interested in getting the ticket number that you experienced such long wait time on. I am in the front lines for support and most tickets are addressed within the first few hours of being submitted I don't recall seeing a single ticket go longer than 24 hours during weekdays without being addressed (We provide support 24/5).

---

Also, regarding Karen's QuickBooks questions, our sync service is provided in order to get your financial data from DecoNetwork over to your accounting software. One would still do their invoicing, payments, inventory tracking etc within DecoNetwork. We have an accounting sync overview article on our free to browse help site which explains what the sync service provides and what data gets sent over. If you're interested in learning more about the sync here's a link to that info article: https://help.deconetwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/217519478-Accounting-Integration-Overview

I've also attached some screenshots showing what an invoice and purchase order look like in QuickBooks online with sample data sent from DecoNetwork.

Cheers and glad to be part of the discussion.


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## tshirtireland

I used Deco while working for another company so I'm pretty proficient at this stage. I wanted to introduce it to my new company but they now charge an incredible €1499 up front!! 
I'm definitely going to give it a miss. No way in hell would I pay that amount of money AND pay a subscription.


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## artip

How are you processing your affiliate store purchases? I am having difficulties with batch production. It batches by order numbers and not product/design. So the production sheet is confusing, and not efficient when it comes to producing. I would have to manually figure out how many t-shirts with logo A, vs Logo B. And then put it thru production so everything with Logo A is produced first and then move on to next logo. So that I am not changing screens multiple times between orders. You states you have 600 stores. Is there an easier way you process your orders from affiliate stores? I would very much appreciate your input!!! 
Thanks


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## barkerw

Artip, I would be very interested in hearing what you have come up with in regards to the problem you described above. We are only about 3 months deep into deco but have run into the same roadblock.


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## alexpk

I think both are good with some great specifications as I know. I have experienced both but currently I using something good one since one month. Let's see how it works for long time.


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