Who are the 10 best custom t-shirt printing companies in 2019?
This custom t-shirt printing company review list will help.
Let’s preface this by saying yes, we are a custom t-shirt printing and embroidering company, and yes, we are proud of our work. But we’re not perfect for everyone and neither is anyone else! I’ll explain..
As both a manufacturer and long-time consumer of custom apparel, we’ve gained useful insight as to what to look for in custom t-shirt screen printing and embroidery shops.
Depending on your needs, you’ll need to decide whether to use a large custom apparel shop, a small one, or someone in the middle.
Larger Shops:
Larger t-shirt printing companies can usually provide a more robust product line with faster turnaround times but normally have a hard time budging on price due to huge advertising expenses, rapid expansion, and strict pricing guidelines.
Smaller Shops:
Smaller/botique custom t-shirt printing companies can offer lower prices because of their overall lower overhead – less advertising, cheaper manual equipment, and less experienced employees. While this may be beneficial for smaller custom t-shirt orders with tight budgets, big orders are usually problematic for mom and pop shops. From past experiences, we’ve noticed small shops tend to have more production errors and delays for a variety of reasons. The most common include: lack of organization, hobby-grade manual screen presses, inadequate quality control, and sometimes just plain cutting corners because they failed to charge enough to cover costs.
Before we go any further let me just say we have seen some great work from smaller custom t-shirt printing companies. Some of them have 100% dedication to quality and love their craft as much as we do. The problem is there are so many custom t-shirt companies that it’s hard to know which ones are reliable and which aren’t until after you’ve ordered and spent your hard-earned money.
Quick Tips:
- For the budget conscious – consider white shirts with 1-2 color print, ordering in bulk, and affordable-yet-comfortable styles. Our top picks: Gildan G500, Gildan Softstyle, American Apparel 2001W
- For the ultimate in softness – consider triblend t-shirts which feel like cashmere but wash like a regular shirt. Our top picks: Bella Canvas 3415C V-Neck, Next Level 6010 Crew, Bella Canvas 8435 Ladies’ V-Neck
- For smaller custom t-shirt orders (under 24 shirts) I’d consider using a smaller, local print shop especially if you need your shirts ASAP.
- For larger custom t-shirt orders, from 50-1,000,000+ shirts, we consider Bulk Custom Shirts the best custom t-shirt print shop. Here’s why…
1. Bulk Custom Shirts
Website: https://bulkcustomshirts.com
Turnaround Time: 3 – 14 days
100 Black Gildan T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $6.29 each
Pros of Bulk Custom Shirts
- Best value for larger orders (50+ shirts)
- Free 1-2 week delivery
- Cheapest bulk prices
- Free design touch-up and review
- High-quality, commercial-grade production facilities and brands
- Expert customer support 7 days/week – call, text, or email
- Bestselling custom apparel on website with 1000’s more in catalogs (Custom t-shirts, polos, jackets, hats, tote bags, pens, water bottles & other custom promotional products)
Cons of Bulk Custom Shirts
- 48+ order minimum
- No online t-shirt designer – just send your artwork and they’ll send you a free mock-up and quote.
Summary:
Bulk Custom Shirts is the best custom t-shirt printing company for you if your order is over 50 shirts, you’re going for the best value, and quality is important to you & your organization. Since Bulk Custom Shirts is specialized in bulk orders and b2b production, their clients get high quality t-shirt screen printing and embroidery at a fraction of the cost of “no-minimum” facilities. Their centralized Austin and Dallas, TX facilities allow them to deliver orders quickly nationwide. Bulk Custom Shirts also has friendly, helpful graphic designers and product specialists ready to help you every step of the way – 7 days a week.
2. Café Press
Website: https://www.cafepress.com
Turnaround Time: 4 – 12 days
100 Black Generic T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $14 each
Pros of Café Press
- Good place to get custom t-shirt design ideas
- Great for presents and single item/small orders
- Cool pre-designed and custom baby clothes, kitchenware, and home accessories to buy as gifts
Cons of Café Press
- Expensive for larger orders
- Very limited selection of custom t-shirts – didn’t see brands just generic options
Summary: We’ve ordered some cool t-shirts, mugs and a wall clock from here as one does late at night. However, between the limited apparel options, the extra $100+ shipping fee for 100 shirts, and overall high price, we felt like it wasn’t the right fit for larger orders. It’s still a great place to browse through their designs and for gift ideas!
3. Custom Ink
Website: https://customink.com
Turnaround Time: 3 – 14 days
100 Black Gildan T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $8.29 each
Pros of Custom Ink
- Huge selection of custom t-shirts and custom promo products
- Free 2-week delivery
- Online custom t-shirt designer great for creating design ideas
- No-minimums on some custom t-shirts and products
- You can start a fundraiser and sell t-shirts through their website
Cons of Custom Ink
- Expensive for larger orders
Summary:
Custom Ink has one of the best t-shirt designers online. Despite their higher prices, they are a solid choice for small orders or if you want to use their designer to create a design. Furthermore, if you’re a non-profit trying to raise funds by selling custom t-shirts, you can upload your design and put it on their website – similar to Teespring or Printful.
4. Icon Creativ
Website: https://iconcreativ.com
Turnaround Time: 3 – 14 days
100 Black Gildan T-Shirts with 3-color print would cost $6.49 each
Pros of Icon Creativ:
- In-house design team
- High quality
- Competitively priced
- Handles medium-large orders
Cons of Icon Creativ
- Limited promotional products to choose from online
- No online designer
- Minimum order 24 t-shirts
Summary:
Icon Creativ is similar to Bulk Custom Shirts except with slightly lower minimum orders. Their online catalog of products isn’t as refined as Bulk Custom Shirts, but the team knows a lot about their custom products and can quickly help with design and product selection. Therefore, if you need at least 24 t-shirts and want help producing your order quickly, Icon Creativ is a great, affordable choice.
5. Vistaprint
Website: https://www.vistaprint.com
Turnaround Time: 3 – 10 days
100 Black Gildan T Shirts* with 3-color print would cost $9.87 each
Pros of Vistaprint
- Great for business cards, mugs, and business signs
- Good quality – even the cheap business cards came out nice
Cons of Vistaprint
- Expensive custom apparel
- Could only enter 20 shirts per size online – so if you need 25 mediums you’ll have to order twice or contact them
- T-shirt designer not as useful as competitors
Summary: We love Vistaprint and always get our business cards – and usually a mousepad or other sweet personalized upsell – from there. It’s hard to beat their quality and price on paper products, period. However, it feels like their custom t-shirt department is more of a squeezed-in service than a specialty they’re proud of offering. Regardless, we appreciate their business and their customer service. *The Gildan G500 we use for price comparison wasn’t available here so we used a comparable model.
6. Designhill
Website: https://www.designhill.com
Turnaround Time: 5 – 15 days
100 Black Gildan T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $12.96 each
Pros of Designhill
- The have designers that’ll design your logo for around $149
- Get multiple designers to create logos and designs for custom t-shirts, signs, and even car wraps.
Cons of Designhill
- They’re more of a design studio like Fiverr than a t-shirt print shop
- Expensive for producing t-shirts
- Shipping extra
- Delivery date unspecified “3-5 days after fulfillment”
Summary:
If you haven’t created your logo or design yet, Designhill can make you several via their network of independent graphic designers. Think Fiverr.com style designer without having to reach out to designers one by one. However, if you just need some touch-ups to your current design or something really simple your best bet is to reach out to a custom t-shirt printing company directly to avoid the $149 design fee.
7. Printful
Website: https://www.printful.com
Turnaround Time: 5 – 12 days
100 Black Premium T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $9.29 each
Pros of Printful
- Great drop-shipping custom t-shirt fulfillment service
- Connects to your ecommerce site
- Good for testing out new product designs before bulk ordering
- Multi-national printing locations
Cons of Printful
- Expensive, but worth it if drop-shippers
- Not ideal for ordering custom t-shirts for yourself or your organization
Summary: If you’re planning on selling custom t-shirts online and haven’t grown enough to stock items at a fulfillment center, or would rather it be super automated, Printful is a great option. You upload your design, connect your website to their platform, and they’ll handle collecting payments, printing, and shipping to your customers. Certainly, a pretty sweet gig if you don’t plan on selling in person. The downside – if you’re planning on ordering custom t-shirts for yourself or your company, expect to pay a premium.
8. Big Frog
Website: https://www.bigfrog.com
Turnaround Time: 2 – 14 days depending on franchise location and schedule
100 Black Gildan T Shirts with 3-color print would cost ?
Pros of Big Frog
- No minimums on some products
- Fast turnaround for small local orders
Cons of Big Frog
- No prices online
- No online t-shirt designer
- Limited selection of peripheral custom products listed
Summary:
The Big Frog franchise has locations throughout central US capable of DTG printing, screen printing, embroidery and vinyl printing for banners. If you need an order under 24 custom t-shirts quickly, and price isn’t a big deciding factor, Big Frog or some mall kiosks can be a great option for you.
9. Teespring
Website: https://teespring.com
Turnaround Time: 3 – 14 days
100 Black Basic T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $10 each
Pros of Teespring
- Designed for selling your shirts on their platform and dropshipping
- Their fulfillment handles printing, shipping, and invoicing your customers
- They hold your items and advertise them for you
Cons of Teespring
- Print costs are high because they handle fulfillment for custom t-shirt reselling
Summary:
Similar to Printful and Shopify in that you create a design, upload it, and list your custom t-shirt on their website to sell to their clients. Therefor, orders are processed and shipped by Teespring and profits are sent to you. While this is another great platform for an online t-shirt dropshipping business, it’s not an affordable option for you to order custom t-shirts for your company or next event.
10. Printify
Website: https://printify.com
Turnaround Time: 6 days after order placement
100 Black Gildan T Shirts with 3-color print would cost $9.50 each
Pros of Printify
- No minimums
- Connects to your e-commerce store
- Handles fulfillment for dropshippers
- You choose the subcontractors who print your orders
- Can design shirts, mugs, pillows, and other cool products
Cons of Printify
- Expensive, but on par for dropshipping
- Made mainly for custom t-shirt resellers
- Not as many products as competitors
Summary:
Like Teespring and Printful, this custom t-shirt print shop allows you to sell t-shirts on your eCommerce site while they handle the fulfillment. From experience, the range of quality between custom t-shirt print shops varies greatly. Hence, that’s why I really like that they list the 90+ subcontractors they work with and allow you to choose who fulfills your orders. If you’re sick of getting returns and orders messed up, you have the freedom to change your subcontractor with them. If you want even more control, maybe it’s time to switch from drop-shipping to in-house fulfillment. That allows you to do quality control, brand yourself further by adding stickers and notes, plus you can afford to give extra goodies to clients when you save on bulk orders with a company like Bulk Custom Shirts.
