Printful is the only one of the three that publishes base prices and shipping openly, so it is the one you can cost before signing up: a Bella + Canvas 3001 T-shirt (Black, M) is 12.25 USD with the standard front print, plus 4.69 EUR shipping to the US for one shirt and 2.10 EUR for each additional one. Printify shows product and shipping prices only inside its product editor, and Gelato’s product pages could not be read. All three are free to start and sell a paid plan for up to 33 percent off products: Printful Growth 24.99 USD a month, Printify Premium 39 USD (24.99 billed yearly), Gelato+ 29.99 USD (19.99 billed yearly). Pick Printful if you want prices you can check in advance, Printify if you want to compare several print providers on base cost for each product, and Gelato if production near the customer matters most. The worksheet below costs your own order on all three.
The order we costed
One unisex Bella + Canvas 3001 T-shirt (Black, size M), one front print, shipped to a US customer. Figures are checked on 29 Sept 2026.
| Attribute | Printful | Printify | Gelato |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base product price | 12.25 USD, standard front (DTG) print included | Set by the print provider you choose; visible in the product editor only | Not retrievable: its product pages returned an access error |
| Extra print areas | DTF front, large front and back prints +5.95 USD each, sleeve +2.49 USD | Depends on provider | Not retrievable |
| Shipping, US, one shirt | 4.69 EUR, +2.10 EUR per additional shirt (euro view of the shipping page) | Depends on provider | Depends on the production location closest to the customer |
| Plan | Free | Free, or Premium from 39 USD a month (24.99 USD billed yearly) | Free, or Gelato+ 29.99 USD a month (19.99 USD billed yearly), 14-day trial, per its Shopify App Store listing |
| Discount from paid plan | Growth plan: up to 33 percent off products for 24.99 USD a month, per its Shopify App Store listing (not on the catalog pages read) | Up to 33 percent on new products, per Printify’s pricing page | Gelato+: up to 33 percent off products, per its Shopify App Store listing |
Sources: Printful catalog API, Printful shipping, Printify plans, all checked 29 Sept 2026; Gelato on the Shopify App Store, checked 28 Sept 2026 for our app cost dataset. The two Printful figures are in different currencies because the catalog is quoted in dollars and the shipping page displayed euros for the visitor’s location; we have not converted them into one total. Printful shipping rates are for the shirts category; other product types differ.
Four products, Printful base prices, 2 Oct 2026
These are the lowest-variant “starting at” prices in each Printful product page’s structured data, before shipping and tax. They do not say whether the Growth discount is already applied, and they are for the cheapest size and colour; larger sizes and darker colours cost more.
| Product | Printful base from | Printify base from |
|---|---|---|
| Unisex tee, Bella + Canvas 3001 | 12.25 USD | Not read |
| Unisex hoodie, Gildan 18500 | 22.75 USD | Not read |
| White glossy mug | 6.75 USD | Not read |
| Enhanced matte poster | 6.75 USD | Not read |
The Printify column is empty because printify.com returned a 403 and a bot check on 2 Oct 2026; no base cost came from a first-party page, and Printify’s price depends on the print provider you choose anyway. We do not fill it from third-party articles.
Does Printful’s Growth plan pay for itself? The Shopify listing gives Growth as 24.99 USD a month for up to 33 percent off products. Break-even product spend is 24.99 / 0.33 = 75.73 USD a month. At 12.25 USD a tee that is 75.73 / 12.25 = 6.18, so 7 tees a month (6 tees give 73.50 x 0.33 = 24.26, just under the fee; 7 give 85.75 x 0.33 = 28.30). That assumes the full 33 percent applies to the starting-at price, which Printful’s pages do not confirm; at a lower discount the break-even rises in proportion. Growth is also stated as free once yearly sales reach 12K.
What the Printful numbers do
Two shirts in one order cost 24.50 USD in product plus 6.79 EUR shipping (4.69 plus 2.10), against 9.38 EUR if each shipped as its own order. That additional-item rate is why bundles and multi-quantity orders improve POD margin: a shirt added to the same order carries less than half the first shirt’s shipping. Arithmetic ours.
When does Printify Premium pay for itself?
Printify’s pricing page says Premium gives up to 33 percent off new products (some other pages and older sources quote 20 percent). Where you sell N orders a month with a total product cost of C, Premium saves at most 33 percent of C against a 39 USD monthly fee (24.99 on annual billing). Break-even product spend is 39 / 0.33, about 118 USD a month, or 24.99 / 0.33, about 76 USD, on annual billing. At a product cost of 10 USD a shirt, that is roughly 12 shirts a month (monthly billing) or 8 shirts (annual billing). The 33 percent is the maximum stated; if your discount is lower, break-even moves up (at 20 percent it would be 195 and 125 USD). Printify’s own pricing page uses a 8.77 USD fulfilment cost tee sold at 19.99 USD as its example, without naming the provider or plan behind that cost.
Gelato+ works the same way: 29.99 / 0.33 is about 91 USD of product a month on monthly billing, or 19.99 / 0.33, about 61 USD, billed yearly, if the full 33 percent applies. Of the three paid plans, Gelato+ billed yearly has the lowest break-even and Printify Premium billed monthly the highest. Arithmetic ours, from the listed maximum discounts.
How to cost the same order on all three in 10 minutes
- Create a free account on each, add the same blank (Bella + Canvas 3001, Black, M) and one front print.
- Write down the base price shown for the provider you would actually use. On Printify pick the provider that ships from your customers’ region.
- Add each provider’s shipping to your customer’s country for one and for two items.
- Include your plan cost divided by monthly orders.
- Put the total into the break-even ROAS worked example to see what your ads must return.
Pick by situation
- You want published prices and consistent handling and can accept a higher base cost: Printful, start via Printful.
- You want to compare base costs across several print providers: Printify, start via Printify. Quality varies by provider, so order a sample first.
- Your customers are outside the US and delivery speed matters: Gelato produces near the customer according to its own description; compare its landed cost yourself.
For the monthly app stack around POD see the Shopify app cost calculator, and for store setup print on demand on Shopify.
To see how many orders a month make Printify Premium worth its fee, use the table in the Printify review.
What we could not verify
Printify base prices per provider and shipping (also unreadable again on 2 Oct 2026), and Gelato product and shipping prices, were behind logins, scripts or access errors on 29 Sept 2026. Gelato’s plan price and discount come from its Shopify listing, not its own site. Third-party articles quote numbers for them, but those are undated or unsourced, so we did not use them. If you have those numbers from your own account, the worksheet above is where they go.
Method: researched from Printful’s public catalog, shipping and product pages, Printify’s pricing page, and the Printful and Gelato Shopify App Store listings; checked 28 Sept to 2 Oct 2026. Break-even arithmetic is ours.