# Endless Quest for Online Designer



## mfreund (Sep 12, 2005)

I have been in the screen printing embroidery thing for almost 15 years. Today I decided to write thus cause for more than half that time I have been looking for an online shirt designer system that is turnkey since I do not have the $$$ or time to dedicate to finding programmers or dealing with some of the thieves online that sell thus type of software.

I am familiar with deconetwork, inksoft and shirtools. There seems to be MANY pro and cons to each. Here is what I notice. Deconetwork.....has a fair price and some good features but crap clip art and from the posts on this forum ALOT of downtime.

What I notice about inksoft....seems to pretty much have it together. Good clip art and pretty good interface. But when I see a HUGE setup fee that is a big red flag. They do have good sakes people though. Then u read posts on here of people disappointed by support and another guy saying he spent 100 hrs reading...who wants to spend that kind of time reading about a so called TURNKEY SOLUTION. 

As far as shirt tools it just seems to be a system for people that do DTG printing. So I don't really have a use for their software.

Is there any fair solution? That offers a good system with good support and a fair price? I mean to me it's simple...I have been in this business for quite sometime so why should I pay a company 1k or 2k up front? If you have a good system and it is stable and works then you have a LIFELONG CUSTOMER. There is no big setup that a company does. They just authorize your domain or copy a website to a directory and that's pretty much that.


Is there any real solution? If so please message me. Or even reply. If a customer can't use it without going nuts then it's useless. That is what I notice with a lot of these platforms. They all have their issues.

I don't want to spend 100 hours reading anything. My ability is selling shirts and I am looking for a good way to in a sense automate some online ales and capture the impulse buyer.


If there is any realistic insight I would appreciate it cause all I see it seems is thread after thread about online designers and no real answers.


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## juncboi (Jul 17, 2011)

Have you found anything for your situation yet?


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## baz ent (Dec 19, 2010)

I would be interested also.


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## rconard131 (Mar 20, 2013)

I've found a solution with a twist. Like many screen printers looking for a robust design tool for integration on a website, I've talked to, tried out, and had lengthy discussions with all the firms mentioned earlier, plus several others. The option with the best layout, service, and attention to detail was ShirtTools. One of the owners, Dean, is a great guy, was beyond helpful, and had a reasonable price point. The only problem with Shirt Tools is they're currently set-up only for DTG and Vinyl (though its been mentioned that one day they may have a screen-printing version). There were no sub-$1000 (one-time cost) software offerings with features that would compare to RushOrderTees or Custom Ink, which I think is what most screen-printers are looking for. My own wish list included a responsive design (for both desktop and mobile), so no flash-based offerings. I also needed ecommerce capabilities and an integrated design tool that determined the number of colors in an uploaded-design (or ability to add or delete colors from the software's "best guess" pallete result) and could factor number of ink colors into the final price (as well as quantities, product type, etc.). Ultimately, after a lot of research, I approached (2) capable firms for a quote on a custom build, with legal rights to all U.S. distribution. Why distribution rights? Both firms quoted $7000, and $8000 to build a fully featured system, with website, backend dashboard, etc., with reasonable on-going support costs. What I did not want was to spend $8k, and a lot of time, subsidizing and designing a software only to have it sold on a larger scale for a lower price point to all my competitors. So, there is a solution, albeit an expensive one. To lower the cost of investment, I'm considering sharing the build out expense with 7 other shops, if anyone's interested. That would reduce the cost to a more reasonable $1000 each, and the 8 partner shops equally would own the software's distribution rights and could discuss selling it to others to recoup the investment if that appealed to all involved. Otherwise, I'd consider taking on a larger portion of the investment in exchange for those rights. If anyone would be interested in discussing, I can be reached at: [email protected]


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## TPrintDesigner (Sep 16, 2007)

rconard131 - Thanks for the kind words 

Trust me, 7-8k will just be the beginning of your expense. Web application software is not build and forget, you need a full-time team behind it to keep on top of browsers changes, server config, security, bug fixing and a ton of other stuff. If you're not tech then you will constantly be spending money to get things done.

When something serious goes down (which it will) then will the developers be prepared to drop everything to fix? What if key members of the team who built the software have moved on? This happens a lot.

I'm not trying to put you off. I'm speaking from 9 years of experience building this product. It never stops.

BTW. ShirtTools screen-print and embroidery launch later this year.


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## rconard131 (Mar 20, 2013)

Yes, very aware of the ongoing cost factors. Development of an integrative software with an array of tools is a big challenge. And I might demure if it weren't for the interest recently from a systems engineer who has quite a bit experience at one of the top platforms in this space. This would be his first venture and If he commits then who knows. If not then the search for other options will continue. I've talked to several companies over the last 2 years that keep making assurances that they're about to launch a responsive, no flash, screen-print version. Several months, will go by and either they say they're still working on it, or have abandoned the idea, or other reasons. At the end of the day though all options must be explored. A product of this type for screen-printing, at a workable price point would be well received, especially by smaller shops wanting to modernize and in need of expanding to online markets.


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## DonR (May 6, 2011)

Developing the system you are looking for is much more involved than you might think. It will cost you way more than you are planning. Trying to get several companies to share the cost may sound good but it will be difficult if not impossible to get several companies to agree on the design and function.

I speak from experience. Not sharing the cost but developing a online design system for screen printing, DTG, and embroidery. I would take a WAG and estimate that hiring a firm to develop it for you, would be more in the $50,000 to $75,000 area. That's just to get to version 1.

Yes, you will find lots of developers that will take the job for $7,000 but you will not be happy with the end results.


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## rconard131 (Mar 20, 2013)

My friend (our engineer candidate) is stateside and relocating close to us, and is used to working with outsourced teams. He's already built code for another similar player in this field. As you know, many U.S. firms utilize off shore developers that they have an established history with and can trust. One of our first websites was entirely foreign built with all source code being migrated over to our developer (stateside)a year or so later. He continued to maintain it for years afterward. Opinions on price will of course always vary depending on who you ask (not to say that your estimates are unlikely by any mean). In house development with less expensive off shore labor has worked for many other companies in other industries. That's why it almost a cliche' now. At any rate, if this venture is eventually workable, then even the higher estimate you tendered earlier would not be wasted money considering the demand for a great screen-printing saas product with a reasonable price point. If it were not worth pursuing then others would not have done so themselves already. Though perhaps someone in this forum can shed more light as to profitability of companies operating in this space now? Are any actually bleeding money?


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## Quartier (Apr 29, 2014)

mfreund said:


> What I notice about inksoft....seems to pretty much have it together. Good clip art and pretty good interface. But when I see a HUGE setup fee that is a big red flag. They do have good sakes people though. Then u read posts on here of people disappointed by support and another guy saying he spent 100 hrs reading...who wants to spend that kind of time reading about a so called TURNKEY SOLUTION.


All softwares will have people complain about it. Be sure to check their ratings on industry magazines or something like Consumer Reports for an accurate picture on which one is truly the best.


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