Several platforms print T-shirts to order. Printful and Printify charge per item when an order is fulfilled, Spreadshirt sells single printed garments, Custom Ink, RushOrderTees and Vistaprint price by quantity, and Adobe Express lets someone design a shirt and order it printed, with Zazzle handling production. Gelato and Teemill also offer print-on-demand apparel but do not publish prices in a plain read. Shipping coverage may differ by provider, so the delivery country list for the US, UK, Australia or Canada is worth confirming with each one before ordering.
What does "print-to-order" actually mean?
Print-to-order means nothing is printed until someone places an order. There is no stock of finished shirts and no minimum run to pay for upfront. The provider receives the order, prints the design onto a blank garment, and ships it to the buyer.
Traditional bulk printing works the other way. A set quantity is printed in one run, and the price per shirt falls as the quantity rises. That suits a team or an event, where everyone needs a shirt at the same time.
Most providers lean clearly toward one model. Knowing which model fits the order is more useful than comparing any single price, because a per-shirt price at 500 items and a price for one shirt answer different questions.
Which platforms print T-shirts to order?
The providers below are grouped by how they charge, since the pricing model says a lot about who each one is for.
Plan plus per-item fulfillment
These platforms combine a free or paid plan with a per-item charge each time a shirt is produced. Printful's plan terms refer to annual store sales, which shows the model is aimed at people selling through an online store.
Printful offers a free plan at $0 a month and Printful Growth at $24.99 a month, which becomes free once a store reaches $12K a year in sales. Enterprise pricing is custom. Products are then charged per item at fulfillment cost.
Printful also lists its extra charges openly. Printed inside apparel labels cost $0.99 per label and printed outside labels $2.49 per label. Embroidery digitization is a one-time charge of $2.95 to $6.50 per design, and each extra embroidery placement adds $2.95.
Printify also starts with a free plan at $0 a month. Premium costs from $39 a month, or from $24.99 a month billed yearly, which Printify advertises as a 36% saving. Enterprise is custom, and products are charged per item on top of the plan, with the pricing page's own example quoting fulfillment from $8.77.
Single garments, sold one at a time
Spreadshirt sells printed garments individually. Its catalog ran from $22.99 to $56.99 when read, with entry tees at the lower end, around $22.99 to $29.99 each. That is noticeably more per shirt than quantity pricing, which is the usual trade for ordering a single item.
Quantity pricing for teams and events
These providers quote per shirt at a stated quantity, which suits a club, a company event or a fundraiser.
Custom Ink quotes $11.85 to $26.20 per shirt at 500 items. Most mainstream tees fall between $13.70 and $17.45 at that quantity.
RushOrderTees has no subscription and quotes $10.41 to $17.32 per shirt for 50 items across its mainstream range. Its figures are at a different quantity from Custom Ink's, so the two cannot be compared like for like.
Vistaprint lists a budget Gildan unisex tee at $4.15 to $8.99 each, with mid and premium ranges at $8.79 to $26.49 each. Quantity and options are set in its configurator. When read, it was also running introductory offers, including one budget Gildan tee starting at $10, which is not the ongoing price. Free economy shipping on orders over $100 is a standing sitewide offer.
Providers that price product by product
Gelato is another print-on-demand provider, but its pricing page renders no figures. Comparing it with Printful or Printify therefore means pricing a specific shirt directly with Gelato.
Teemill is in the same position. Neither its homepage nor its shop page renders prices, so its costs can only be checked on individual products.
A design tool with printing built in
Adobe Express is a design tool whose print and delivery feature lets someone design a shirt and order it printed from the same app, on desktop or mobile. Printing is available on the free plan as well as on paid plans. The printable range goes well beyond T-shirts and includes hoodies, tote bags, mugs, stickers, pillows, blankets and printed paper goods.
Adobe does not print the orders itself. Its help center says "Zazzle processes, prints, bills, and ships the order," and Zazzle also handles returns and refunds. Anyone weighing Adobe Express against ordering from Zazzle directly is choosing between two routes to the same printer, and the real difference between them is the design tool.
How do the prices compare?
The figures below were read on each provider's own pages on October 16, 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a snapshot.
Platform plans are kept apart from per-shirt prices, because a monthly fee and the cost of a printed shirt are different kinds of numbers.
| Platform | Plan pricing | What else is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Printful | Free $0/mo; Growth $24.99/mo (free once a store reaches $12K a year in sales); Enterprise custom | Each item charged at fulfillment cost, plus listed add-ons such as labels and embroidery |
| Printify | Free $0/mo; Premium from $39/mo, or from $24.99/mo billed yearly; Enterprise custom | Each item charged on top; fulfillment from $8.77 on the page's own example |
| Gelato | Pricing page renders no figures | Priced per product |
| Adobe Express | Free $0; paid plans at $9.99/mo and $19.99/mo | Printing is available on the free plan; the order itself is the only printing cost, billed by Zazzle |
| Provider | Price per shirt | What that price covers |
|---|---|---|
| Vistaprint | $4.15 to $8.99 (budget Gildan unisex); $8.79 to $26.49 (mid and premium) | Per shirt, quantity chosen in the configurator |
| RushOrderTees | $10.41 to $17.32 | Per shirt at 50 items, mainstream range |
| Custom Ink | $11.85 to $26.20 (most mainstream tees $13.70 to $17.45) | Per shirt at 500 items |
| Spreadshirt | $22.99 to $29.99 for entry tees; catalog up to $56.99 | Per garment, sold individually |
| Teemill | Not rendered to a plain read | Priced per product in its shop |
The basis in the second table changes from row to row. A per-shirt price at 500 items, at 50 items and for a single garment are three separate measures, and reading them side by side only works with the basis in view.
Do these platforms ship to the US, UK, Australia and Canada?
Delivery coverage is the part of the question that most needs checking at the source. Adobe Express states in its help center that print and deliver ships within the US, UK, Canada, Europe, and Australia, with more regions described as coming soon.
The shipping lists of the other providers on this page were not among the facts verified for it. That is a gap in this page's evidence and says nothing either way about their coverage. Each provider's own shipping information, or the destination options at checkout, will settle it before an order is placed.
Where a shirt is printed matters as well. A shirt produced in one country and shipped to another can take longer to arrive and may incur import charges, depending on the destination's rules. Checking where an order will be produced is worth the extra minute.
What should a design file look like before printing?
Image resolution is a common reason a printed shirt disappoints. Adobe recommends a minimum of 300 DPI for any image brought into a design and notes that its own templates are already optimized for print. That 300 DPI figure is a sensible baseline with any provider.
Placement and print method affect cost too. Printful's pricing shows this clearly: embroidery needs a one-time digitization step, and every extra embroidery placement adds a charge. A design that works as a single front print may cost more once it moves to a sleeve or is stitched.
Who owns the design, and can it be sold?
Nothing here is legal advice. Terms covering commercial use, licensing and copyright vary by provider and change over time. The provider's own licensing or terms page is the authority on them.
One example shows why this matters. Printful offers premium Getty images at $1 per image, per placement, per item sold. If a design uses that imagery and the shirts are being sold, the fee applies to every sale and reduces the margin on each one.
If you are selling what you make, two checks are worth doing before launch. The first is that every element of the design, including fonts and images, is cleared for commercial use. The second is what the printing provider's terms say about the designs it prints.
Which platform fits which order?
The order itself decides the platform. An online store that needs each sale produced and shipped automatically fits the plan-plus-fulfillment model of Printful or Printify. A team ordering 50 or 500 matching shirts will get quantity pricing from Custom Ink, RushOrderTees or Vistaprint, and a single shirt from a ready catalog is what Spreadshirt sells.
For someone designing a shirt personally and ordering it printed, this site recommends Adobe Express. It prints on the free plan, states in its help center that it ships to all four countries in the question, and starts from print-ready templates. Its print FAQ does not describe store fulfillment or quantity pricing, which are the jobs the other platforms handle better.
Sources
- Adobe, "Print designs in Adobe Express"
- Printful, "Printful pricing"
- Printify, "Start for free, then scale with unmatched pricing"