# My POD Comparison (Printful, Print Aura, and more...)



## aestheticdress

Hey guys, I'd like to preface this post by saying this is by no means a comprehensive review. It is basically a summary of my experiences with the following companies so far: Spreadshirt, Printful, and Print Aura. I've been vetting these companies to see which would be the best to use for the t-shirt store I am starting with shopify. So this is my evaluation of the samples that I ordered from them, their support/customer service, as well as the interface of their website. 

Before I talk about my experience, also let me explain the images I've attached to this post. I used my scanner to scan the t-shirts because I didn't want anyone to attribute the quality to a bad camera, bad photography, or bad lighting. I also did not adjust the photos or even downsize them because I want you to be able to see the quality of the print close up (as if you were holding it in front of your face). The only thing I did to the images was crop them to focus on the areas where I felt you could tell the difference in quality between each sample. Also I cropped them to protect my image from being knocked-off (not by you members but by anonymous people passing through the forum or people using image search).

On all of the comparison images it goes from left to right (Spreadshirt | Printful | Print Aura) except the tags since Spreadshirt doesn't do custom labels (as of the last time I checked which was around 7/20/2016).

Note also, all of these samples were front and back DTG on American Apparel. Also, the sample I ordered from Spreadshirt I used a different color variant of my artwork but it is the same piece.

*Spreadshirt:*

(https://www.spreadshirt.com/)

Ok, so first of all my first experience with a POD was with Spreadshirt starting back in 2011. I actually have ordered 7 sample t-shirts from them. Originally I was going to use them because at first I never intended for this to be a major thing and I didn't have my own website back then. So I looked to them because they offered storefront. But coming back to the idea later on I decided to look elsewhere due to the fact that they do not offer custom labeling (or much custom branding at all) and they only offer Shopify integration to large volume clients and with a very high fee attached. 

Some strong points for them are their mockup generator/t-shirt designer. I feel like it's one of the most intuitive to use and produces a reasonably realistic image of your t-shirt. Also if you look at *image l.* in my attachments (the very last attachment called spreadshirtsleeve.jpg -- you can see that they do print on sleeves/sleeve caps using flex which is pretty nice to put your logo.

As you can see in *images a., d., and g.* it looks like they tend to push a high saturation color palette. This is especially apparent in *g.* -- in my original artwork that area is more subdued and the most color accurate in that particular line-up was *h. (Printful)*.

*My bottom line for Spreadshirt* is that if they offered custom size labels and free or low cost Shopify integration (without meeting volume requirements as well) then I definitely would not mind using them. I also have to say that their DTG print area is a decent size, in fact when I measured on the actual t-shirt it was larger than the area they advertised as max.

*Printful:*

(https://www.theprintful.com)

I originally ruled out Printful because they would only do custom labels on tear-away t-shirts. But recently they got a limited run of American Apparel with tear-away so they suddenly jumped to become a high potential option. First thing I have to mention is customer service/support because in each of these cases I corresponded with the company before moving forward. I have to say their support is excellent-- helpful, courteous, and most importantly responsive. They even responded on weekends and one time I was up working on things at 3AM. I needed help and I was surprised to see that their chat was online-- and they did actually respond!

I would say the strongest part of my Printful experience was their interface. Their interface feels very easy to set up, easy to navigate, and it just has that Web 2.0 look and feel that you expect in 2016. Syncing my products with my shopify store was easy and if I had any questions their service was always available.

As far as customization/branding, they have the most important option in my opinion which is custom size labeling. They do printed labels for an extra $3 to your cost. I don't think they offer sewn labels (last I checked anyway). They do the labels in-house and I have to say the quality is good *(you can see it in image j.)* But remember that they only offer this with tear-away specific t-shirts. 

They offer a free black-and-white custom branding sticker too. That's not super important to me but again it's a nice touch and it's free. 

No hang-tags but they do offer the option for pack-ins (business cards, flyers, etc.). The only thing is that they do charge you to inventory these items ($0.85 cents/day per storage bin). So it does drive up your costs.

*Images b., e., and h.* are shots of the sample I got from Printful. One thing I noticed about them versus most of the POD's that I looked into is that they ask for the artwork in RGB instead of CMYK. Also, as you can see they pushed a warmer, more-yellow palette which is evident in the pink flowers (which turned more peach) and the skin tone (which turned more cream). But I have to say, I wouldn't complain about it because the pallete looks good _overall._ It balances out nicely. 

*However, what's stopping me from going with Printful,* is the small maximum area for DTG printing. At 12"x16" even if your graphic fills up that entire area, it will look pretty small on most t-shirts large and up (on men's/unisex). I got this sample printed on an American Apparel 2001 Unisex size medium, and even on the medium the artwork doesn't quite fill enough area. If it weren't for that my search for a good POD option would have been over.

*Print Aura:*

(https://printaura.com)

After deciding not to use Spreadshirt, Print Aura was my number one prospect due to them having nearly all the features that I was looking for in a POD service (custom labels, Shopify integration). Let me begin again with the support/customer service. The best way for me to sum it up is 4/5 stars. They were reasonably responsive (responses within two business days but normally faster), informative, and courteous. The loss of a star is because of what happened towards the end of my experience (which I will explain at the end).

I would say they best thing about Print Aura is that they offer many options. 

As I mentioned the most important customization option for me was custom labeling. Print Aura offers neck tag removal at an extra $0.50 cents per shirt and they offer this on any brand of shirt. However, I have to mention that this is not the type of removal where the seam is opened and the label is completely removed. They simply cut the tag as you can see in *image k. in my attachment tagcomparison.jpg*, which I suppose wouldn't be bad if it were done cleanly. But in the two samples that I ordered it was not very close cut and there were strands sticking out. 

They also offer custom labeling although you do have to order the heat transfers yourself and have them shipped to Print Aura. I had a label company send some free samples to Print Aura and as you can see the application isn't bad. They also store the labels and any pack-ins free of charge.

If you provide them with hang tags, they will also attach them for you for $0.50 cents per shirt.

The first sample I ordered with them (not pictured in the comparison images I attached) was simply to test the heat transfer labels. I ordered the cheapest tee possible (Gildan) and had a standard DTG print done. The print was not bad at all, it was comparable to Spreadshirt or Printful. But again I was not too pleased with the label removal.

After I got my sample from Printful, I decided to order another sample from Print Aura using the same graphic for a fairer comparison. However, I decided to take advantage of Print Aura's "jumbo print" option which costs extra but increases the max print size to 14"x18" instead of 12"x16". I also decided to have them use an American Apparel base as well (although they don't have the tear-away tag version at this time). 

*This is where my experience with Print Aura went bad.* First of all, I opted to make this a rush order for an extra fee of $2.00. They gave me an estimated shipping date 2 days out from the order. It did not ship on that day and was flagged. The next day I noticed it was still flagged and so I contacted customer service. They said they would look into it and try to get it shipping that day. It didn't ship. It shipped the next day and since that was just before the weekend, it arrived the next week. I could have overlooked the missed rush date if the product was good, but I was very dissatisfied with what I received.

*Images c., f., and i.* show the sample that I got from Print Aura. As you can see, the black areas were very spotty. If you open the images in full size you can see it even better. It looks worse in person because of the way the natural light hits it from different angles, giving it a "cracked" appearance. Also the color palette came in an odd way, the yellow-green got brighter and more saturated but the oranges became extremely dull. I have to be honest and say that while I look at the images now, it is not as strikingly bad as when I first received it. But the fact that it came late after I paid extra to have it rushed made it even worse. Like why did it take longer AND come out in unacceptable quality? 

On top of that, again, sloppy tag removal.

Lastly, I emailed customer service about what happened and so far they have been silent for the past two days. I don't even expect a refund or reprint. Even an apology is not _necessary._ But at the very least there should be _ACKNOWLEDGMENT_ that there was a shortcoming on their part. Hell, you can even argue about the print quality but just the fact that they took my rush fee and just send it out late is unacceptable. 

EDIT: Forgot to talk about Print Aura's website. I didn't get a chance to test out their Shopify syncing but overall their website was functional and responsive, although it felt just a bit dated.

*Update:* My rush fee was refunded to my Print Aura account.

Anyway, I hope my summary will help other people in making their decisions. I am also open to hearing any other opinions/experiences on these companies. 

Currently, I am looking into First Amendment/Contract DTG and Inkthreadable. If I order samples from them I will tell you guys about my experiences with them as well. Please don't hesitate to discuss!


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## treefox2118

Nice review!

Fulfillment and POD can be a nightmare during summer and Christmas seasons. I can't imagine how slammed these big boys are.

Neck tag removal for POD is labor intensive. I've been looking for a clean and cheap way to do it for 3 years and still don't have any process I'd stand by.

12x16 is a fine size. 14x18 takes a long time.

Can you share what prices you paid at each?


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## aestheticdress

treefox2118 said:


> Nice review!
> 
> Fulfillment and POD can be a nightmare during summer and Christmas seasons. I can't imagine how slammed these big boys are.
> 
> Neck tag removal for POD is labor intensive. I've been looking for a clean and cheap way to do it for 3 years and still don't have any process I'd stand by.
> 
> 12x16 is a fine size. 14x18 takes a long time.
> 
> Can you share what prices you paid at each?


Sure, these prices are without shipping:

Spreadshirt: $26.20
Printful: $23.95 ($22.76 after sample discount and sales tax)
Printaura: $25.00 (I didn't take advantage of their one-time sample discount).

An update btw (and I will change this in my main post), they DID refund my rush fee but I didn't notice it because it was refunded to my account with them and not directly to me. 

12"x16" would be fine for me if I were just doing logo graphics or text. But I do large artwork and I've seen some places offer as large as 16"x29" or 13"x20". I may order samples from those places and see how it comes out.

Yeah, I have seen the videos of "proper" removal and I can see how it wouldn't be cost efficient for some operations without dedicated staff that are skilled enough to do it right and do it fast. 

Oh, I am sure they ARE busy. But I never see that as a justification for putting out bad work. At every job I've ever worked, I was never able to use the excuse of being "too busy" to do good work. 

I am constantly thinking about going the non-POD route but right now I have done everything with just my own resources. Going with bulk and handling my own fulfillment I'd probably need to borrow money or withdraw from my retirement fund or something. Or take on a partner.

Thanks for replying to my thread treefox! I'm glad you took the time to read it and I hope it gave you some useful information.


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## treefox2118

Wow those are pretty extreme prices. I'm working with a few other operators in my area to release a new fulfillment system in January -- I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay that much although maybe your designs and shirt branding add-ons are extreme, too.

How much are you retailing those prints for?


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## aestheticdress

treefox2118 said:


> Wow those are pretty extreme prices. I'm working with a few other operators in my area to release a new fulfillment system in January -- I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay that much although maybe your designs and shirt branding add-ons are extreme, too.
> 
> How much are you retailing those prints for?


I'll PM you my intended retail prices.


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## AAAABBBBCCCC

That artwork is beautiful. Good luck!


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## aestheticdress

AAAABBBBCCCC said:


> That artwork is beautiful. Good luck!


Thanks ABC! I just saw your post regarding Printful too. Hopefully the inconsistency gets resolved and you are able to get the results you desire. I just got in touch with a company called Clockwise (clockwise.io) and I'm going to order a sample and go over my results here once it comes in.


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## mrdiscobiscuits

Informative post. Thank u!


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## aestheticdress

mrdiscobiscuits said:


> Informative post. Thank u!


Thanks, I hope the information helps you in your own business decisions. 

Quick update on my own situation, it seems clockwise.io was taking awhile because they had to order the blanks for my t-shirt. They just received them today and said my sample should ship out by the end of this week. So hopefully next week I'll be able to review them and more importantly I hope their work is up to snuff so I can finally get my business running and open to the public...


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## vizualbyte

treefox2118 said:


> Wow those are pretty extreme prices. I'm working with a few other operators in my area to release a new fulfillment system in January -- I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay that much although maybe your designs and shirt branding add-ons are extreme, too.
> 
> How much are you retailing those prints for?


Arent you printing DTG work too? How much would you charge for a full front and full back design 1 sample? I think that is perfectly reasonable for 1 sample shirt. With everything that is needed to get this printed and shipped out, i don't think its that high myself. DTG is labour intensive. Unless I am misunderstanding that these are 2 separate full front designs...


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## treefox2118

It costs us $50-100 to land a wholesale account (marketing costs, sales compensation, etc). If a new wholesale customer wants a sample, I'm definitely not charging full retail for it. For some new inquiries, I'll throw the sample in for free -- a lot depends on the brand inquiring, though.

I'd say that 90% of "wholesale" inquiries are just knuckledraggers with their crappy MS Paint "garment lines" so for those we just send them to whatever local competition we don't like, but for brands that show an actual investment into their future, I'm not going to charge them $25 to show off our process and quality.


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## steve8004

Hello

I am brand new to the site. My inquiry pertains to any feedback members of the forum can provide regarding customcat.com ?

I am considering signing up with them, but need to know if they are the best option?

Many thanks,
Steve


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## nzingagreetings

Just based on customer reviews on shopify..I'd say No, Nope and Don't do it!


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