Gelato Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

• Gelato is an Oslo, Norway-based software company that was founded in 2012.
• It has quickly become one of the most popular print-on-demand solutions because of its ease of use, large product catalog and production network that helps support local communities and increase sustainability.
• In addition to its print-on-demand services, Gelato also offers a variety of selling tools to help retailers run their business, such as a product mockup generator, white-label payment solutions, customized packaging options and live order tracking.
• The experts at Forbes Advisor rank Gelato as one of the best print-on-demand services for small businesses.

Pros

The advantages of Gelato are its large production network with over 100 printing businesses to choose from across 32 countries. This uniquely supports its focus on sustainability, as businesses are able to choose to work with printers that are in the countries they sell to. It also offers a product quality guarantee, which is a major selling point in an industry where product quality can be difficult to gauge and manage. Last but not least, all of its plans include more than one user, complete with the ability to set up custom user permissions, making it a good choice for businesses with multiple staff managing their accounts.

Cons

The downside of Gelato is that while it’s touted as beginner friendly, it does lack a number of direct connections, which can make it more difficult to link to your website or online marketplaces. Additionally, Gelato claims to have 24/7 support; however, in our experience, it’s not live support but rather a support chatbot. It also does not offer support by phone, so there’s no option of live support, unlike most of its competitors.

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Gelato

Pricing

Free (No upfront fees) 24/7

Offers

50% off on your first purchase

Integrations

Shopify, Etsy, Woocommerce, Squarespace, Wix, BigCommerce

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Gelato

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On Gelato's Website

While Gelato is best known as a print-on-demand service, it is actually a software company that seamlessly connects businesses looking to sell custom print-on-demand goods and local printing companies. Along with other print-on-demand services, it enables users to easily select and customize products, and connect and sync products to their online store, and when a customer places an order, Gelato automatically prints and ships the product directly to the customer. It’s a form of dropshipping, but with goods that have custom designs, images and graphics, such as clothing, home goods and photo books.

The core features of Gelato give users the tools to build and manage profitable print-on-demand businesses. This includes the ability to connect to online stores and marketplaces, a large product catalog, a user-friendly product editor where users can customize products, a large network of high-quality printing companies, packaging options and automated shipping.

Connections

No print-on-demand service would be complete without providing users with the ability to connect their website to on-demand printing service providers. To do this easily and without any technical expertise, Gelato offers direct connections that effortlessly sync your custom products to your content management system, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace or BigCommerce. To do so, you will simply need to input your login credentials for the site you are looking to connect Gelato to. In our experience, we found its direct connections easy to set up.

It also connects to a variety of other website builders, social media platforms and online marketplaces to help businesses gain more exposure and land more sales via Etsy, Amazon, Instagram, TikTok Shop, YouTube and more. However, not all of the marketplaces are available via a direct connection, so the setup process is not as straightforward, which we find to be a downfall of Gelato.

Product Catalog

Gelato has a large product catalog with hundreds of products to choose from. To give users even more choice, users not only choose the product they wish to customize and sell, but also which printing service they wish to use. This gives businesses more control over factors, such as product quality and shipping distance, which can help businesses be more efficient and therefore sustainable.

Here are the product categories available with Gelato:

• Men’s clothing
• Women’s clothing
• Kids and baby clothing
• Tote bags
• Wall art
• Phone cases
• Mugs
• Photo books
• Custom calendars
• Cards
• Stationery and business

Another nice thing is that users can also create their own product templates, which helps save time—especially for businesses that frequently use the same products.

Custom Packaging Options and Shipping

As with any print-on-demand service, Gelato automatically packages and ships products when an order is placed. However, what’s unique about Gelato is that it offers more customized packaging options than many of its leading competitors. For example, businesses can add a branded label to product packaging or create a custom packaging insert. While there are no minimums for these, there is an additional fee of around 70 cents per label or insert.

Gelato boasts a number of helpful features, but it really stands out for its personalized custom print-on-demand products. For example, with Gelato, businesses can sell products that are personalized, say, with a name printed onto an item. This gives businesses a lot more opportunity to sell more products to customers—without ever having to handle products or manage inventory in-person. This is especially helpful for businesses that plan to sell on platforms, such as Etsy where personalization is very popular. However, there is an additional fee (in Euros) for personalization based on the number of orders you receive, starting at around $30 per month plus 50 cents, depending on the current exchange rate.

	Free	Gelato+	Gelato Gold
Pricing	$0	$24 per month or $239 per year	$119 per month or $1185 per year
Number of Stores	Up to two	Up to 10	Up to 25
Maximum Users	Two	Five
Maximum Product Designs	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Access to Full Product Catalog	Yes	Yes	Yes
Product Mockups	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct Integrations	Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix and Gelato API	Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix and Gelato API	Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix and Gelato API
Shipping Discounts	No	Yes, up to 30%	Yes, up to 30%
Premium Stock Photos	No	Yes	Yes
Set Shipping Profit Margins	No	No	No
Support	24/7 support via live chat	24/7 support via live chat	24/7 support via live chat

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Free

Gelato’s free plan enables up to two users to connect up to two stores. It includes unlimited product designs, access to its standard product catalog with hundreds of items to choose from and free product mockups, so you can easily add images of your custom print-on-demand products to your online store. However, it does not offer direct connections with many of the most popular online marketplaces, such as eBay or Amazon, and the free plan does not include the ability to set shipping profit margins or access to its premium stock photo library.

Gelato+

The Gelato+ plan is its entry-level premium subscription that gives businesses more flexibility in terms of which sites and platforms they can sell their print-on-demand products. It also includes discounts on shipping (up to 30% off) and access to its premium stock photo library. It’s a good choice for businesses that have outgrown the free plan and need the ability to connect to more stores.

Gelato Gold

The Gelato Gold plan includes a number of extra features, such as additional custom packaging options, premium stock photos and the ability to set a shipping profit margin. It could be a good choice for large online retailers looking to expand to sell across a large number of platforms.

We found getting started with Gelato to be pretty quick and easy. To start, you’ll need to register for an account and answer a few prompts (i.e., what your goal is with using Gelato, which types of products you’re interested in and how you heard about Gelato). From there, new users are redirected to their new user dashboard where they can then create a sample order to test product quality, connect their store, browse its product catalog and create custom products.

We found Gelato to be a very easy-to-use print-on-demand solution. The process of setting up a new account and connecting Gelato to a store took less than five minutes. Its product editor is very intuitive and beginner-friendly as well. Before choosing a product, the editor provides insightful information about the product. So while most print-on-demand services include the basics, such as colors and print locations, Gelato includes insights around unique features, such as material thickness and softness for clothing. This helps businesses make more informed decisions as to which products sell and how to effectively market them.

Gelato has all the standard built-in security features that one would expect, but it also gives users the ability to add users for an additional layer of security for businesses with multiple team members managing their products, orders and online store. This gives users the ability to create custom user permissions, which is not necessarily a standard feature across other print-on-demand solutions.

One of Gelato’s biggest downfalls is its customer support. While it claims to offer 24/7 customer support via live chat, we would characterize it instead as a chatbot. And worse, it’s not even a particularly helpful chatbot, as it simply refers users to different articles from its help center.

	Gelato	Printful	Printify	Redbubble
Starting Price	Free	Free	Free	Free
Number of Products	100-plus	230-plus	850-plus	70-plus
Maximum Designs	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Up to 30 design uploads per day
Direct Website Integrations	Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace and Wix	Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Square, Weebly, Webflow, Ecwid, Shift4Shop, Big Cartel, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce and PrestaShop	Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and PrestaShop	None, sell via Redbubble only
Marketplace Integrations	Etsy	Etsy, Amazon, TikTok Shop, eBay, Storenvy, Gumroad and more	Etsy, Amazon FBA, Walmart and eBay	None
Order Management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct Shipping	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Global Network	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Packaging	Yes	No, it offers custom packing slips	No, custom sender address only	No
Customer Support	24/7 via live chat	24/7 via live chat and contact forms	24/7 via live chat and contact forms	Live chatbot and support via a contact form
Read Reviews	—	Read Printful Review	Read Printify Review	Read Redbubble Review

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Gelato vs. Printful

Gelato and Printful are two very similar print-on-demand services that both offer a free plan with unlimited products, an easy-to-use product editor and a sizable product catalog. However, the two are not without their differences. While Gelato offers custom packaging options, such as custom product labels and packing inserts, Printful does not. However, Printful offers far more direct connections, making it an easier print-on-demand service to connect your online stores and marketplace profiles to.

Gelato vs. Printify

When comparing Gelato to Printify, the two have a few key differences. Printify has a much larger product catalog, giving users more choice. It also has far more direct connections, making the setup process easier. On the other hand, Gelato offers more custom packing options, giving users more opportunity to build a brand name. Additionally, Printify’s customer support is superior to Gelato’s, which simply operates as a chatbot.

Gelato vs. Redbubble

Gelato and Redbubble are two different kinds of print-on-demand service providers. While Gelato connects to businesses’ online stores and marketplaces, Redbubble is a print-on-demand service and an online marketplace in one. Because Redbubble has an existing audience, it can help businesses gain exposure and land more sales. However, it does not enable businesses to sell directly on their own online store or other marketplaces, which can be limiting for businesses looking to build a brand.

Featured Partner

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1

Gelato

Pricing

Free (No upfront fees) 24/7

Offers

50% off on your first purchase

Integrations

Shopify, Etsy, Woocommerce, Squarespace, Wix, BigCommerce

1

Gelato

Learn More

On Gelato's Website

Gelato is best for businesses that are building brands around sustainability, given its vast printing network that enables businesses to choose local providers. It’s also a good choice for those who are looking to build a brand, as it offers more custom product packaging options than some of its competitors.

Though Gelato is best known as a beginner-friendly print-on-demand service, that’s not its only selling point. From our perspective, it offers a number of necessary features that many of its competitors do not, such as custom packaging and the unique ability to sell personalized products. However, Gelato does not have the largest product catalog, the most connections or quality support, so it’s worth weighing the pros and the cons before getting started with Gelato.