Comparing providers
How do I compare print providers for one product?
Rule providers out on what they cannot do, then compare cost on the ones left. Most of these checks come from Printify's own decision questions.
Open the product in Printify's catalog for shipping rates, the Ship from region and Performance Score. Productify's provider cards show a smaller set of details: location, colors, sizes, print areas, printing method and any production costs Printify shares.
- Set the Ship from region to where most buyers live. Printify recommends a local provider for lower shipping cost and quicker delivery.
- Keep only providers with every color and print area you need. A design planned for front and back rules out a provider with a front print area only.
- Compare production cost for the sizes you will sell. A starting price covers the cheapest variant only.
- Add shipping to your main market. Check the first-item rate and the rate for each additional item.
- Check the Performance Score and the extras you rely on, such as packaging inserts, gift messages or neck labels.
- Order a sample from the provider you pick before you use it for a collection.
Product models
How do I find the exact product I want?
Search by the manufacturer's brand and model, such as Gildan 64000 or Bella+Canvas 3001. Printify's API documentation calls these catalog models blueprints. Your artwork turns one into a product to sell.
Check the model before creating your collection. Printify supports replacing providers in bulk for one model; changing the model itself is a one-product edit.
A product model has no single set of colors or sizes. Those belong to each provider's version of it, as variants: one variant for each color and size combination. Printify caps a product at 100 variants, so 14 colors in six sizes (84) fits and 18 colors in six sizes (108) does not.
Print providers
Why is the same product different at each print provider?
Printify's own list of print provider differences runs to nine items. These are the ones that change what you can sell or what you keep from each sale.
| What differs | What it changes for you |
|---|---|
| Production cost | Your margin at a given retail price. Printify's own example: the Gildan 64000 tee starts at $7.77 through Printify Choice with Printify Premium, and at $9.99 from SwiftPOD (checked September 27, 2026). |
| Colors and sizes | Which variants you can list. A color one provider stocks may not exist at another. |
| Print areas and their sizes | Whether a back, sleeve or neck print is possible, and the pixel size your artwork needs to fill the area. |
| Location | Where orders ship from, which sets shipping cost and delivery time to your buyers. |
| Shipping rates and methods | What your buyer pays at checkout, and whether a faster option exists. |
| Printing method | DTG, DTF or embroidery. Printify notes that each provider tunes its own color output, even on the same garment with the same technology. |
| Performance Score | Printify's rating of the provider for Quality, Production Speed, and Samples & Shipping. |
Printify Choice
Should I pick Printify Choice?
Printify Choice is a network of providers, not one provider. You pay one fixed listed price, and Printify picks the provider for each order, closer to the customer where it can. Printify says it covers 100+ best-selling products and gives the best value when the United States is your target market.
Printify names two trade-offs. A design may be reduced by up to 7% in rare cases with unique colors. A product with several print areas can be marked out of stock at order time if no provider in stock supports all of them.
Pick a named provider instead when you need a color only one provider stocks, or a product outside the Choice range. When a product offers Printify Choice, Productify marks it Recommended and selects it for you; choosing another provider replaces it.
Missing costs
Why does Productify ask for a retail price instead of a profit?
A profit or markup needs a production cost for every chosen color and size. When Printify does not return those costs, Productify asks for a fixed retail price instead. When costs are available, you can choose fixed profit, markup or fixed retail and preview the price range.
Before you set a fixed retail price, look up the production cost for that product and print provider in Printify's catalog. Printify defines production cost as what it charges you to print the product, before shipping. One retail price across every size means a smaller margin on any size that costs more to print.
From choice to setup
How do my product and print provider become a reusable setup?
In Productify, the product, print provider, colors, sizes, placement and price you choose once become the setup for every design in the upload. Save it as a template to reuse with more designs.
New to Productify? Create an account and connect your Printify shop first. Each upload uses one product, one print provider and one print area. All-over print products are not supported.
- Product. Search Printify's live catalog by product, brand or model, choose the product, then choose a provider under Who prints it.
- Colors, sizes and price. Choose colors and sizes; every design gets the same set. Productify counts the variants per product and refuses a selection over Printify's 100. Set the price as a fixed profit, a markup or a fixed retail price.
- Artwork. Add up to 50 PNG or JPEG files. Each file becomes one proposed listing for that product. The placement, meaning width, scale, position and rotation, is set once and applies to every design.
No Printify product is created until you review each product and approve creation. To reuse the setup, open a created product under Products and choose Save as template. A saved product template belongs to the shop it was saved in, so the next upload there needs only artwork.
A new setup places the artwork on the front print area. To print on the back instead, build one product in Printify with its only artwork on the back and clone it in Productify: new designs take that print area and placement. The guide to bulk creating from a past product covers the clone. Each new product carries one design on one print area; artwork on the source's other print areas is not copied.
Where Productify fits
What Productify covers, and what to check in Printify
Productify reads the same live catalog and puts the comparison facts it can get from the API on each provider card. It then carries one product and print provider across up to 50 designs. Printify's dashboard creates products one at a time, as can you bulk upload to Printify sets out with Printify's own sources.
It does not show shipping rates, the Performance Score or the Ship from region, so compare those in Printify's catalog. It does not support all-over print products. To put the same designs on a second product, start a separate upload with that product setup.
For the full walkthrough from product selection to creation, see bulk create Printify products without a template. Productify is independent and is not affiliated with Printify.
Official Printify references
- What are Print Provider differences?
- What is Printify Choice, and how does it work?
- How can I create a product with Printify?
- Replacing the Print Provider for multiple products
- Using multiple Print Providers for a single listing
- Printify API documentation, catalog resource
- Printify print on demand overview
Sources checked September 27, 2026.
Questions
Printify catalog FAQ
How many products are in the Printify catalog?
Printify's print-on-demand page says 2,000+ products, printed across 140+ facilities (checked September 27, 2026).
Why do some colors disappear when I switch providers?
Colors belong to each provider's version of the product, not to the product itself. Printify's API also returns only in-stock variants unless asked otherwise, so a color that is out of stock at a provider does not show for it.
Can one listing use more than one print provider?
Only with manual work, unless the product is eligible for Printify Choice Global Fulfillment. Printify's manual workflow is an unpublished product per provider, one listing on your sales channel, and each order imported against the matching provider's product.
What image size does a print area need?
Printify publishes each print area's size in pixels, per provider. Productify states that size on the artwork step and reports the DPI your file reaches at the size you place it.