Level up your online store with Printful
Consistent and reliable quality control
Identical 3-step quality testing across our global in-house facilities
Global network but local production
86% of orders are delivered in the same region they’re fulfilled
374 customizable products under one roof
Diverse range of high-quality products for your online business
Businesses that trust Printful
Sell the same products as world-class brands
Calculate your print-on-demand profit margins
Earn more with Printful’s global network
Comparing both print-on-demand services
What is Printful?
Printful is a print-on-demand and fulfillment company that lets you sell custom products on your online store without dealing with equipment, shipping, or inventory management.
Printful owns the entire production process. This allows for rigorous quality control and consistent printing tech, resulting in a 0.24% reshipment rate.
After acquiring Snow Commerce in 2023, Printful expanded its services for Enterprise customers with data-driven solutions like marketing, business strategy, and others.
What is Gelato?
The Gelato print-on-demand network lets you design and sell custom products made by different partner fulfillment centers around the world.
Gelato doesn’t own the production process or print the products. Instead, the company acts as a middleman between you and different print providers.
All Gelato print-on-demand products are outsourced to other printing companies, each with its own print quality and shipping costs. The fulfillment centers used for each order are assigned automatically by the company.
What’s the main difference?
The main difference between the two print-on-demand companies is their printing network.
Printful has its own global fulfillment centers, while Gelato works with external partners worldwide.
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Go all in with Printful and get:
- Dependable quality and pricing in all markets and categories
- Easier order management and consistent shipping prices
- Better customer experience for multi-item orders
- Streamlined branded labels for your products and packaging
Printful in numbers
374
products to customize
1M+
items fulfilled each month
24
integration partners
98M
items trusted to deliver
Frequently asked questions
Yes, Gelato pricing is slightly lower because instead of offering print-on-demand fulfillment services, they connect users to print providers. The Gelato print-on-demand model enables local production in certain markets, but their pricing is specific for each region and sometimes country.
While profit margins might be bigger in one market, selling the same products in different countries may carry very different costs, making the profit margins less reliable.
It depends. Are you looking for cheaper options or premium products? With Gelato print services, you may get lower product prices but not consistently high quality because all Gelato products are outsourced to third-party suppliers that vary in terms of prices and quality.
Printful prices can be higher for certain products, but Printful’s entire product catalog is fulfilled by in-house professionals or a handful of trusted partners. This means you get reliable quality, predictable fulfillment costs, 24/7 customer support, and consistent branding options like packing slips and tracking pages for all your orders.
It depends. There are many ways to measure the sustainability aspects of a print-on-demand company.
One metric that can be used to compare Printful and Gelato is the number of products fulfilled in the same region. More than 85% of the Gelato print-on-demand products are fulfilled locally, while Printful’s locally fulfilled product share is around 84%.
While there is a difference, it’s not significant enough to consider Printful or Gelato the more eco-friendly print-on-demand company.
Both Gelato and Printful are print-on-demand service providers, but Printful owns and controls the entire production process, while Gelato simply connects sellers to printing partners.
As a result, Printful needs fewer fulfillment centers and prints high-quality products in-house, which creates a consistent customer experience no matter where your buyers are.
Gelato is a network that acts as a middleman between printing partners and the customer. Outsourcing the production to other suppliers allows the company to keep costs low, but it also means there’s little consistency in Gelato print quality control.
Yes, Printful’s product catalog has 374 custom products, while the Gelato print-on-demand catalog assortment includes around 130–150 products.
Printful also has more product categories than Gelato. While both companies fulfill items like wall art and t-shirts, Printful also has an extensive home & living collection, including custom products like blankets, candles, towels, yoga mats, etc.
The Gelato print-on-demand product catalog also doesn’t include hats, footwear, drinkware, or pet products. Even in the most popular categories of customizable products (t-shirts, hoodies, wall art, etc.), Gelato has fewer products than Printful.
Yes and no. There are currently 24 direct Printful integrations, while Gelato only integrates with 6 ecommerce platforms or marketplaces.
At the same time, Gelato works with Order Desk, which allows print-on-demand store owners to streamline their orders and connect with 275+ ecommerce services.
Having an additional step in your order fulfillment flow means additional investment and hassle.
If you want a simpler flow where your orders are fulfilled automatically at no added cost, Printful is the right choice for you. But if you already have a store on a platform that Printful doesn’t connect to, you may have an easier time using Gelato.
Yes, when it comes to things like packing slips and order tracking. When it comes to product branding like inside labels, Printful and Gelato have equivalent options for both DTG and embroidery techniques.
Printful’s packaging customization options are both more varied and more accessible than Gelato’s. All Printful products come in white-label packaging by default, but you can create and arrange for custom packaging or pack-ins as a paid option. But if that’s too difficult, you can put a custom message on your packing slips and add branding to your order tracking page, both free of charge.
Gelato’s custom packaging options are limited to packaging inserts and branded labels, which are both paid options.
Yes, you can use Printful for free—no signup or subscription fees. From there, customize products and sell them without any hidden costs.
Want added benefits like product discounts and personalized product transfer assistance from your current print-on-demand service provider? Try out Printful’s membership for 14 days FOR FREE.
Absolutely! By teaming up with Printful, you get high-quality products printed with one partner, by one team, under one roof.
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