What actually separates print on demand companies once you get past the homepage: where they print, what they charge, and the costs that only show up later.
Every print on demand company says the same four things on its homepage: no minimums, no stock, your brand, fast shipping. All of it is usually true, and none of it tells you which one to use. Here is what actually differs, including the parts that only become obvious after you have shipped a hundred orders.
Where the printing physically happens
This is the one that changes the most and gets asked about the least. A UK buyer ordering from a UK-printed supplier gets a domestic parcel: a few days, tracked, no customs, and a return address they recognise. The same order printed abroad can take a fortnight, arrive with a customs charge, and land your customer with a returns process that costs more than the shirt. If your buyers are in the UK, printing in the UK is not a patriotic preference, it is a materially different delivery experience and a materially lower refund rate.
Ask where a supplier prints for UK addresses specifically, not where it has facilities. Plenty of companies list a UK site and still route your order elsewhere.
The total cost, not the unit price
Compare the landed cost of one real order rather than the headline garment price. Four things move it:
- The blank itself, which varies far more by brand and weight than by supplier.
- Decoration, charged per print area. A front and back design costs two areas almost everywhere, so a quote for a single-side print is not comparable.
- Shipping, which is where overseas pricing quietly catches up with itself.
- Subscriptions and platform fees. Some suppliers discount the garment and charge monthly for the privilege, which only pays back above a volume you may not hit.
For reference, allthe is free to join with no monthly fee and no platform cut. You pay the product, the decoration and the shipping, and UK prices include VAT at 20%.
Which print methods they actually run
A supplier that only runs DTG will struggle on dark polyester. One that only runs DTF will not give you a stitched logo. On demand we print DTG, DTF and sublimation, and we embroider, which covers most of what apparel needs. Screen printing is a different economic shape wherever you go: the setup only pays for itself across a large run of one design, so treat it as a quote conversation rather than something you order one of.
How it connects to where you sell
An integration that only pushes products is half an integration. You want orders pulled in automatically and tracking written back, or you will be copying numbers between tabs forever. Check the channel you actually sell on is live rather than listed, and check whether tracking returns to it.
The only test that settles it
Order one sample from each shortlisted supplier, to your own address, and compare what turns up: the print, the garment weight, the packaging, and how long it took. It costs the price of two or three shirts and it will tell you more than any comparison article, including this one. Most of our orders are printed and dispatched within one to three business days, and our sample packs ship at cost so you can see exactly what a customer receives.