- Our pick: Printful is worth using — it's free to install with no required subscription, so most sellers can start with zero software cost.
- The optional Growth plan runs $24.99/month, for sellers who've outgrown the free tier's feature set rather than as a requirement to sell.
- Your real Printful bill is driven by per-product cost and shipping, charged on every order — not the software plan.
- Gelato is Printful's closest priced competitor at $29.99/month for its paid tier; Printify is positioned as a lower-cost, provider-network alternative.
- Price your retail margins off Printful's actual per-product and shipping costs, not off the app being free.
Printful is free to install and has no required monthly subscription — the app itself doesn't charge you to list products or run your store. What you actually pay is Printful's per-item product cost plus shipping, charged only when a customer places an order, which makes Printful's real cost structure closer to a wholesale-goods bill than a software fee. On top of that free base, Printful offers an optional Growth plan at $24.99/month for sellers who want extra features once volume justifies it. There is no forced upgrade — you can run a store entirely on the free plan.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| App cost | Free to install; no required subscription |
| Optional plan | Growth — $24.99/month |
| What you actually pay per sale | Printful's per-item product cost, plus shipping |
01 How much does Printful cost?
Printful is free to install on Shopify, and there's no required monthly fee to keep selling — you only pay for the products you actually sell, at Printful's per-item cost, plus shipping. The one paid tier, Growth, is optional and runs $24.99/month.
02 Printful's plans: Free vs. Growth
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0/month — pay only per-product cost and shipping on each sale |
| Growth | $24.99/month |
Unlike subscription-first software categories, Printful's free tier isn't a stripped-down trial — it's a functioning way to run a print-on-demand store indefinitely. Growth sits on top as an upgrade for sellers who've outgrown what the free tier covers, not a gate you have to pay through to start selling.
03 What's included at each tier
The free plan covers the core Printful workflow: connecting your Shopify store, listing products, and fulfilling orders as they come in. Growth sits on top as the upgrade for sellers who want more out of the app day to day, adding features beyond that core workflow for higher-volume sellers.
04 Hidden costs: product pricing and shipping, not software fees
The biggest line item in your Printful bill was never the software — it's the per-item product cost (which varies by product type: a t-shirt costs less than a hoodie or a framed print) and shipping, both charged on every order. Because the app itself is free, roundups that only compare Printful's "$0" or "$24.99" software price against competitors' subscription fees are comparing the wrong number: your real per-order cost is driven by product and shipping rates, not the monthly plan.
Practical implication: price your retail listings off Printful's actual per-product cost plus shipping and your target margin — not off the software being free. A free app with expensive per-item costs can still be more expensive to run than a paid app with cheaper base products, depending on what you sell.
05 Printful vs. other print-on-demand options
- Gelato — a close competitor with a matching 4.8-star Shopify rating; Printful currently undercuts Gelato's paid plan by $5/month ($24.99 vs $29.99) and has a much larger review base, but Gelato's distributed local-print network is a real advantage for international, high-volume sellers.
- Printify — positioned as a lower-cost, network-based alternative that routes orders across multiple third-party print providers rather than fulfilling in-house, with provider mix and per-product costs varying by provider.
For most merchants, the deciding factor between print-on-demand apps isn't the software's monthly price — since several, including Printful, are free or near-free at the entry tier — it's the underlying per-product costs, catalog breadth, and fulfillment network for the specific products and regions you sell into.
06 Is Printful worth it? Our take
Yes, for most Shopify print-on-demand sellers. Printful's free tier removes the software-cost question entirely — you can list products and start selling without paying Printful anything up front, and your real cost is the per-item product price and shipping you'd owe on any print-on-demand platform. Growth, at $24.99/month, is worth adding once you've outgrown the free tier's feature set, not before.
Bottom line: start on Printful's free plan — there's no required subscription, so there's no reason not to. Upgrade to Growth ($24.99/month) only once you can point to a specific feature it unlocks that your store actually needs. Either way, budget your margins around Printful's per-product and shipping costs, not the software price, since that's where most of your actual spend will land.
07 Frequently asked questions
- Does Printful have a free plan?
- Yes. Printful is free to install on Shopify with no required monthly subscription — you can run a store on the free plan indefinitely, paying only Printful's per-item product cost and shipping on each order.
- How much does Printful cost?
- The app is free, with an optional Growth plan at $24.99/month for sellers who want extra features. The bigger cost driver for most sellers is Printful's per-product cost and shipping, charged on every order regardless of plan.
- What does the Printful Growth plan include?
- Growth is Printful's $24.99/month optional upgrade over the free plan, aimed at sellers who've outgrown the free tier's feature set.
- Are there hidden fees with Printful?
- The main cost that's easy to overlook isn't a fee — it's that per-product cost and shipping, not the software subscription, make up the bulk of what you'll actually pay on each order. Price your margins off those numbers, not off the app being free.
- What's a cheaper alternative to Printful?
- Printify is positioned as a lower-cost, network-based alternative that routes orders across multiple print providers, with per-product costs varying by provider. Gelato is a closer competitor on price and rating, currently $5/month more than Printful's Growth plan.