- Printful: Best for Customization
- Printify: Best for AI Design Features
- Custom Ink: Best for Expert Support
- Underground Printing: Best for Speedy Delivery
- VistaPrint: Best for Fabric Variety
Employees wearing custom T-shirts in-store or at events will promote your brand. You can also give customized T-shirts as promotional merchandise to new and regular customers. To make the search for the best T-shirt design websites easy, we’ve compiled a list for you.
You’ll see which T-shirt design websites stand out for their T-shirt style collection and quality, print quality, design templates and customization options. We’ve also included what to expect when it comes to bulk orders and fulfillment efficiency.
The Best T-Shirt Design Websites of 2024
Forbes Advisor Ratings
Company | Setup fees | Bulk order discounts | Turnaround time | LEARN MORE | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Printful | None | 55% off, free shipping | Five to 16 days | View more | |||
Printify | None | 30% discount on shipping | Varies by print supplier | View more | |||
Custom Ink | Included in price quote | Customized per order | Three to 14 days | View more | |||
Underground Printing | None | Custom-quoted | Two to 12 days | View more | |||
VistaPrint | None | Free shipping on $100-plus orders | Three to 10-plus days | View more |
How To Choose the Best T-Shirt Design Website
When considering which T-shirt design website to use to promote your brand, appreciate your most loyal customers or show up at your next event, here are the things to consider.
Essential Features
Make sure the T-shirt design website offers the following features.
- Variety: There should be several T-shirt styles (V-neck, crew neck, pocket T-shirts and more), colors, materials and brands available for you to choose from.
- Customizations: Besides allowing you to upload images or texts, a good T-shirt design website provides design tools with several elements you can move around and templates you can edit.
- Quality prints and material: Choose a T-shirt design company with a reputation for quality print work and high-quality T-shirt materials or ask for a sample custom T-shirt. Ensure the finish is clean, the design is fade-free and the shirt is not one to be tossed after one use.
- Reasonable fulfillment and delivery turnaround: Confirm a potential design website’s fulfillment schedules and delivery options and make sure they fit your plan.
- Discounts on bulk orders: To save money, consider going for a T-shirt design website that offers discounts on bulk orders.
Cost of Designing T-Shirts
While the price of a customized T-shirt depends on factors, such as the T-shirt style, material, brand, design, color and shipping location, it’s essential to check how much the cost per shirt or total bulk order is to know if it is within your budget. Also, consider extra costs such as return fees and express shipping costs, and look out for discounts on first-time purchases and bulk orders.
Ease of Use
The best T-shirt design websites offer smooth design processes. They also come with flexible built-in design tools that allow you to design from scratch or customize available templates even as a beginner. You should be able to add text and edit photos, fonts, colors, layouts and more without going outside your dashboard. The best websites for designing T-shirts accept images and designs in multiple formats and sometimes give access to stock-free photos, making printing your ideas on T-shirts easy.
Additional Considerations
A few more things to consider are:
- Customer support: Look for T-shirt design websites that support users via multiple channels such as email, chat and phone.
- Social proof: Look for reviews and ratings from businesses that have used the design websites. They will give you firsthand insights into their services and quality.
- Eco-friendly practices: If sustainability is one of your values, ensure the company’s practices are eco-friendly. Find out how it sources its products, produces shirts, prints on them and even packages the shirts.
- Security: You need secure payment gateways when engaging a T-shirt design website, especially since your company data is at stake, so evaluate the company’s data encryption methods and compliance with user privacy policies.
Methodology
To prepare a well-rounded guide, we zeroed in on factors relevant to you as a business engaging another to provide unique T-shirts for your employees or promotional giveaways for new and returning customers. Find out each factor we analyzed below.
- Pricing and Fees: Since you’re buying T-shirts in bulk and spending time and money designing them, we wanted to ensure these T-shirt design websites are worth your money. We evaluated their cost per item alongside additional fees affecting the overall price and considered the presence of discounts that can help reduce your total costs.
- General Features: Here, we examined the core offerings of each T-shirt design website to confirm its suitability for businesses. We looked at their T-shirt range, T-shirt quality, level of customization, brand options, print quality and the efficiency of their order fulfillment.
- Additional Features: We looked for other features and services that make the best T-shirt design website. The unique design and print offerings we watched out for include advanced design tools, multiple printing techniques, expert help, multiple delivery options, group order forms, express delivery, discounts for first-time users, free shipping on bulk orders, custom samples and free returns. Each of the websites we recommended has its unique offering.
- Reviews and Ratings: We examined verified customer reviews to supplement our in-depth research and expertise-based insights. This customer and user feedback, especially from other small and midsized businesses, gave us invaluable insights into these design websites’ performance and reliability.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best website to make a T-shirt?
The best website to design a shirt is one that offers a design tool that is easy to navigate, accepts texts and images in multiple formats and uses high-quality printing techniques to print on T-shirts of high quality. It should also offer functions that make order and fulfillment easier for users and discounts for bulk orders. The T-shirt design websites we recommended fall into that category.
How much does a custom T-shirt cost?
Costs of custom T-shirts vary according to the type of T-shirt you choose, the printing method used and other factors such as T-shirt quality and desired delivery speed. However, expect to pay between $10 and $50 for a customized T-shirt, with the average cost being $20.
What is a good tip for designing the best T-shirts?
A good tip when designing a T-shirt is to engage designer experts from your team or the ones made available by T-shirt design websites so you can come up with the best designs to promote your business. Also, choose a high-quality material to bring out the design properly.