01
Who actually prints the order
Printful uses its own facilities. Printify and Gelato send the job to a partner. That single difference explains most quality and price gaps.
Affiliate disclosure: tracked links may pay us a commission. Untracked buttons earn nothing. Read the full disclosure.
Print-on-demand · Shopify · Wall art
The practical guide to print-on-demand and custom wall art.
Choose a printer before you choose a theme. This page compares Printful, Printify, and Gelato on who prints, who the store is for, and what an affiliate would be paid — then points at metal and canvas prints if you want a finished piece instead of a store.
02
The price of one real product
A platform’s “from” price is not your margin. Open the same poster, shirt, or canvas in each catalog, in the country you ship to, and subtract it from the retail price you can defend.
03
What would have to happen for us to get paid
A click is not a sale. Printful pays when a referred order ships. Printify pays a percentage of product price on later orders. Gelato’s percentage is a ceiling until they approve a contract.
Printful vs Printify vs Gelato
Built for someone connecting a printer to Shopify, Etsy, or WooCommerce. Shopify itself sells the store, not the print. Its affiliate program pays a one-time bounty when a new merchant buys a full-price plan ($150 in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and most of Europe; $25 in India, Latin America, and much of Asia). That is a different decision, and it is not the button on this page.
The highlighted card matches that priority. It is a fit label, not a measured profit margin. Price one product, such as a 16×20 poster, inside each catalog before you treat a margin as real.
| Platform | Who prints | Check before you trust a margin | Paid to us when tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrintfulMatch | Printful prints in its own facilities and offers branded packing. | Stores that will pay more per unit for consistent quality and unboxing. | A shipped order (or a first paid Growth subscription). Signups alone pay nothing. Refunds reverse the commission. |
| Printify | Printify routes orders to a network of independent print providers. | Sellers comparing base cost, who will check the provider before they publish a product. | Referred orders of catalog product price. A free account does not pay. |
| Gelato | Gelato produces close to the buyer through a local print network (Gelato says 32 countries). | Stores shipping to more than one country that care about delivery distance. | Print revenue from merchants you refer. The contracted percentage is not public until approval. |
Printful
Start here10% of the product fulfillment price after discounts, excluding tax and shipping, for 12 months after the referred customer’s first order. Growth plan subscriptions pay a one-time $25. Official page: printful.com/affiliates.
Pros
- In-house production and branded inserts, packing slips, and labels
- Shopify, Etsy, and WooCommerce integrations are first-party
- Published affiliate rate is a flat 10%, so the bias is easy to see
Cons
- Base fulfillment prices are usually higher than a Printify provider quote
- Your margin is whatever you charge above that higher base
- Commission starts when the order ships, not when someone creates an account
Public site. We earn nothing on this click.
Printify
5% of the catalog product price (not shipping) for 12 months, paid monthly to PayPal, on orders that are not refunded. Official page: printify.com/affiliate.
Pros
- Multiple providers on the same product, which is how sellers hunt a lower base cost
- Large catalog and a free merchant account
- Shopify connection is a standard part of the product
Cons
- Quality and ship time vary by the provider you pick
- You have to audit that provider; the network does not make them identical
- The published affiliate rate is half of Printful’s, on product price only
Public site. We earn nothing on this click.
Gelato
Up to 12% of print revenue for 12 months via PartnerStack. “Up to” means the contract rate can be lower. Official page: gelato.com/affiliates.
Pros
- Local production is the point: shorter international routes
- Shopify and other store connections are part of the platform
- The ceiling rate (12%) is the highest published percentage of the three
Cons
- The rate you actually receive is unpublished until Gelato approves the account
- Gelato asks for an active site and an audience before approval
- Local partners still differ; a sample order is the check
Public site. We earn nothing on this click.
Custom wall art, two ways
Buy a finished piece, or sell your own. The buy links below are public pages. They are not paid placements.
Displate
Magnet-mounted metal posters. Displate’s Share & Earn terms pay influencers up to 25% of the net USD product price, with a $50 minimum and reversals on returns. A third-party tracker listed the Impact and FlexOffers programs as removed by August 2026. This button is not a paid link.
Open DisplateCanvasPop
Photo-to-canvas printing. Awin’s advertiser profile 88035 displays a 5% commission. The same profile conflicts on cookie length (30 days in the summary, 180 days in the highlights), so the cookie is unpublished until the contract. This button is not a paid link.
Open CanvasPopYour design, their press
Posters, canvas, and framed prints inside Printful are the same decision as the comparison above: you upload the art, they print after someone buys.
Open PrintfulQuestions worth answering first
- Does a link on this page cost more?
- No. A commission comes out of the company’s side. Using a link does not add a fee at checkout.
- Are you the original LTL Prints?
- No. An earlier business sold wall graphics on this domain. That company, its reviews, and its customers are not ours.
- Which platform pays you the most?
- On published percentages, Gelato’s ceiling is 12% and Printful’s rate is 10%, against Printify’s 5%. Gelato’s “up to” is not a promised rate. We still point first-time stores that care about consistency at Printful, and we say so here so the incentive is visible.
- What should I order before I commit?
- One sample of the exact product you plan to sell, from the exact provider the live order will use. Compare color, crop, and the box your customer will open.