CafePress Alternatives and Competitors - CafePress vs. the Competition

As a long-time user of CafePress I was really surprised when I stumbled onto Printfection.com. The company has only been open since February of 2006, however their service looks very promising. The first main difference is the sheer number of different colors you can customize. The regular T-shirt comes in 13 different colors. Another great benefit is sizes up to 5XL and bulk wholesale pricing for store owners and their customers.

Everyone loves free, right? Premium-style stores are free of charge at Printfection! Actually, Printfection only has one type of store but it's very similar to a CafePress premium store and you don't have to pay $6 per month. You can also open as many stores as you wish under your account. Since Printfection is new they have some really great URLs still available. Furthermore, their shopping mall is relatively empty for popular terms like "golden retriever" so you have a really good chance of showing up on the first page. Since Printfection purchases Google Adwords for these terms, you are very likely to make sales directly from their shopping mall at no cost to you. It really is free advertising. CafePress does the same sort of thing with Google Adwords, however it's really competitive to get your design on the first page at CafePress. There is more opportunity on Printfection.

The quality of printing is always an important factor when choosing a print-on-demand company to work with. After ordering a few T-shirts from Printfection it's very obvious they are printing with top-notch equipment. There is no plastic transfer, it seems like the ink is attached to the fabric directly. It looks just like screen printing. After washing the shirt and comparing it to one of my CafePress shirts I think the Printfection printing process is far superior. The ink is much brighter and faded much less in the wash. If you're conscious of your quality I would highly recommend trying out Printfection and seeing what you think. They have a $2 T-shirt sample for first-time customers. The link is on the Printfection homepage.

In conclusion I would recommend Printfection based on their high quality printing, un-crowded marketplace, free premium stores, and superior selection of apparel items and colors.

After all, the more places you feature your artwork & designs the better chance you have of making a sale. This is especially true given Printfection pays for advertising your designs and also helps you come up higher in Google natural search.

CafePress and Zazzle are the two most well-known print on demand services. I think many people wrongly lump CafePress and Zazzle into the same group. When you look closer, each company is clearly targeting a different market. Zazzle is not really made for store owners.

Zazzle seems to focus on the individual end-customer much more than CafePress and Printfection. For example, they have "gallaries" instead of stores. Galleries are more basic, not as customizable, and not really geared toward someone interested in setting up a professional looking store that is flexible and customizable. On Zazzle you can't remove their HUGE corporate header at the top of your gallery like you can at CafePress and Printfection.

More importantly Zazzle's commission structure is totally different than the other print on demand companies. You earn a fixed markup set by Zazzle. Plain and simple you can earn a maximum of 17% of the sales price. On a $15 T-shirt your Zazzle commission would be approx. $2.55

There is absolutely no way to earn more than $2.55! At CafePress, Printfection, and Spreadshirt you choose how much to earn. I know tons of store owners marking up their products $5 or more at these competing services! Pricing is Zazzle's single biggest flaw.
Their second biggest flaw is their license agreement. Unlike CafePress and Printfection, at Zazzle you cannot remove your products from their gallery unless you e-mail them. This is *highly* annoying and another main reason I won't use Zazzle at all. There is no way I'm going to let them control my artwork. At Printfection and CafePress I control my artwork. I choose how much to make & I can take my artwork down or remove it whenever I want.

Furthermore, the prices at Zazzle are higher than CafePress and Printfection. For example, a plain white single-sided T-shirt is listed at $14.95 at Zazzle, $13.99 at CafePress, and $12.99 at Printfection.

Overall I would only really consider Zazzle if I was printing my own custom products. When setting up a store, I always recommend Printfection, CafePress, or Spreadshirt. In my opinion, these companies are better for store owners.