CustomHub vs Printful
Printful prints your products for you. CustomHub lets you print them yourself — and run a fulfillment business while you're at it.
They're not competitors. They solve completely different problems. Here's how to know which one you need.
A fulfillment service
You design products. Printful prints them, packs them, and ships them to your customers. You never touch the product. They handle production, and you pay per item.
The platform to run your own fulfillment
You own the production. You own the margins. CustomHub gives you the software to manage orders, generate gang sheets, run a dealer network, route to suppliers, and ship — all from your own operation.
The Printful graduation
A lot of POD businesses start with Printful. It makes sense — you don't need equipment, you don't need a warehouse, you don't need to figure out shipping. You upload designs, connect your Etsy shop, and Printful does the rest.
But at some point, the math stops working. Printful charges $10-15 per shirt to print. If you own a DTF printer, your cost is $2-3. That's $8-12 per shirt you're giving away.
At 100 orders a month, that's $800-1,200 in margin you're leaving on the table. At 1,000 orders, it's $8,000-12,000. Every month.
That's when POD businesses "graduate" from Printful and bring production in-house. The problem? Printful was handling everything for you. Now you need software to manage all of it yourself.
That's CustomHub.
The Full Comparison
Different tools for different stages. Here's what each one actually does.
| Feature | CustomHub | Printful |
|---|---|---|
| Prints and ships products for youPrintful is a fulfillment service | ||
| No upfront inventory neededPrintful handles production | ||
| You control your own production | ||
| You keep 100% of your marginsPrintful takes a cut per item | ||
| DTF gang sheet generation | ||
| Pick list with sequential fulfillment | ||
| Run a dealer / dropship networkBe the Printful for your sellers | ||
| White-label portals per dealer | ||
| Custom price lists per account | ||
| Prepaid wallet system | ||
| Multi-supplier routing | ||
| Etsy / Amazon / Shopify integration | ||
| Branded storefront with custom domainPrintful has basic storefront | ||
| Built-in product designer | ||
| Mockup generation | ||
| Shipping label printingPrintful handles shipping for you | ||
| Order management dashboard | ||
| 200+ product catalog (apparel, mugs, etc.)You bring your own production | ||
| Warehousing & inventory storagePrintful stores your inventory |
When to Pick Which
Stick with Printful if...
- You don't own printing equipment
- You want zero involvement in production
- You're just starting and testing product-market fit
- Your volume is low enough that per-item pricing makes sense
- You prefer hands-off fulfillment even if margins are thinner
Move to CustomHub if...
- You own your own printing equipment (DTF, DTG, screen, etc.)
- You want to keep 100% of your production margins
- You're ready to run your own fulfillment operation
- You want to be the Printful for other sellers
- You're outgrowing per-item pricing at 500+ orders/month
- You need gang sheets, pick lists, and sequential fulfillment
You used to send orders to Printful.
Now other businesses send orders to you.
CustomHub's dealer portal lets you onboard other sellers, give them their own branded portal, and fulfill their orders — exactly like Printful does for you today. Except you keep the margins.
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