Get the inside scoop from 17 leading marketplaces at our 3-day virtual event, Meet the Marketplace.
Redbubble is an online marketplace that allows independent artists to create and sell custom merchandise for a variety of products and platforms.
The platform has been around since 2006 and as a testament to its credibility, it is now the most popular online marketplace for print-on-demand (POD) products worldwide.
Redbubble allows users to create a wide variety of customized products, including:
Artists can create designs in a wide range of styles and upload them to the site to be sold.
However, other print-on-demand services often offer better terms and more features than Redbubble. Plus, you may want to distribute your designs to different platforms or focus on niches.
In this post, we'll go over some of the best Redbubble alternatives for creating custom products in 2023.
Here's what you'll learn by the end of this post:
Let's get started.
If you're looking for alternatives to Redbubble, here is a list of the best options available in 2023.
Society6 is an online marketplace that features apparel, art prints, bed and bath, home decor and tech accessories designed by global artists.
It's one of the best Redbubble alternatives for designers that want to sell modern home decor and wall art. It offers a wide selection of products, including mugs, canvas prints, photography, blankets, pillows and more.
The platform does lack useful shop insights and metrics, though, making it difficult for designers to gain valuable information about their products or customers.
There is no monthly fee to use Society6. Every purchase earns an artist 10% on their products, with the exception of art prints, framed prints and canvas prints.
Printify is the largest global print network and print-on-demand service. Like other print-on-demand platforms, Printify offers seamless integrations with the most popular online store platforms, like Shopify or WooCommerce.
Printify offers a limited free subscription that lets you open up to five stores per account. For merchants with growing businesses, there is a Pro Plus subscription for $24.99/month (billed annually) that provides additional features such as more stores per account and unlimited product designs.
Zazzle is the go-to Redbubble alternative for designers and artists looking to expand their product catalog.
Zazzle is also one of the largest print-on-demand marketplaces in the world, with around three million web visitors every month. That means if your designs are top-notch, you'll have the potential to make some serious cash.
Zazzle offers a tiered commission structure for each product: 15% per sale and 17% for volume bonuses.
What makes Sellfy special is that it's an online store builder with print-on-demand functionality.
Basically, it combines the store builder element of Shopify with the print-on-demand element of sites like Redbubble or Printify.
If you're looking for a way to get a great-looking print-on-demand site up and running fast, Sellfy is an excellent choice.
The feature-rich platform lets users create marketing campaigns, track sales and more. From marketing to payment processing, Sellfy has all the tools necessary to get started and make a living selling custom ecommerce products.
Creators like Sellfy because it gives them a great deal of control of their POD store. You can sell digital and physical products of all types from one place, including Photoshop or Illustrator assets, custom t-shirts, posters, stickers and more.
Sellfy offers a 14-day free trial and plans are tiered at $29, $79 and $159 per month. They give discounts for longer subscriptions and you can elect to pay plans annually and even biannually.
Additionally, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. They accept Stripe and PayPal payment processing (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction).
Founded in 1999, CafePress was one of the first POD sites (before POD was cool). The well-established company has been featured in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Better Homes & Gardens and Time Magazine.
CafePress offers a wide variety of customization options for all types of products, from apparel to home decor to office supplies and more.
You can customize 250+ products with different designs, text and images. Print technologies they use include Direct-to-Garment (DTG), sublimation, digital printing and embroidery.
However, CafePress does not integrate with any online marketplaces. If you want to sell your products on sites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon, you’ll need to choose another platform.
This lack of integration is a disappointing head-scratcher, but CafePress is probably not incentivized to connect with other storefronts because of the size of its proprietary marketplace.
CafePress offers two service plans: Option A and Option B. Both plans are reasonably priced.
Printful is a print-on-demand (POD) provider that helps you turn the creative ideas in your head into gorgeous custom products you can sell online. It allows business owners to create any design they’d like on t-shirts and other clothing items.
Additionally, you’ll have the option to import designs and create quick designs using the platform. Although Printful doesn’t have the name recognition of similar platforms, it makes up for this through its integration with much larger ecommerce sites, including Shopify or BigCommerce.
Sign up for free and you’ll be ready to offer up to 300 products. Printful Plus costs $9 monthly, which includes more marketing features and access to special designs. Printful Pro is $49 per month and it includes access to major shipping companies.
Fine Art America offers photographers and other artists the opportunity to sell original art or reproductions. From there, consumers can choose to have this art printed on everything from wall art to a Yoga mat.
As an artist, Fine Art America offers some prestige simply by its name and website layout. You might say that this is the more "highbrow" option for selling art and photography.
You can start your shop with a free account and upload up to 25 pieces. Alternatively, you can upload an unlimited number of pieces for only $30 per month. Be aware that Fine Art America sets the base rate for everything you upload.
Merch by Amazon is an on-demand printing service that allows creators to upload designs, set prices and sell their products directly through Amazon's website.
Unlike Redbubble, Merch by Amazon offers a built-in audience and seamless integration with Amazon's marketplace, making it a great alternative for those looking to tap into Amazon's massive customer base.
Additionally, Merch by Amazon offers a variety of products to customize, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and more.
When you first sign up, you’ll only be allowed to upload 25 designs. Once you’ve sold 25 items, however, you’ll gain access to tier 2, which allows you to sell and upload 100 designs.
It doesn’t cost you a penny to sign up, upload designs, sell your designs, ship your designs, etc. Instead, Merch by Amazon pays a commission on each item that’s purchased. Your cut will be low, though, with only about 15% of the sales price going into your pocket.
Displate was launched in 2013 and boasts over 600,000 pieces of artwork. Displate’s major focus is on metal posters and the company works with everything from independent artists to major brands.
One of the best perks of using Displate is that they provide a 50% commission on each item that sells because of a social media link.
It’s also fantastic that Displate handles almost everything for you. All you need to do is upload your design and they’ll take care of the rest – including marketing!
Threadless was originally founded in 2000 as a platform for artists to submit designs for t-shirts, which were then voted on by the community.
They're still going strong two decades later, but they’ve since turned into a more traditional print-on-demand platform.
Threadless allows designers to set their own price for their products and the company takes a base fee from each sale to cover the cost of production and shipping.
The base fee varies depending on the product and the design, but designers can see the exact fee for each product in their dashboard.
Sellers on Threadless receive a commission on each sale, which is calculated based on the price they set and the base fee charged by Threadless. The commission rate ranges from 10% to 30% depending on the product and the seller's sales volume.
Spring (previously known as Teespring) is a print-on-demand platform that allows creators to design and sell custom products, including apparel, home decor and accessories.
Like Redbubble, Spring offers a wide variety of customizable products, but with a focus on high-quality materials and sustainable production.
One unique aspect of Spring is that it offers a "storefront" feature, which allows creators to create a branded storefront with a custom URL where customers can browse and purchase all of their products in one place.
Spring also offers a variety of promotional tools, including social media sharing and email marketing, to help creators reach more customers and increase sales.
One potential drawback is that Spring requires creators to apply and be approved before they can start selling, which can limit accessibility for some creators.
Spring does not charge any upfront fees or subscription fees for sellers. Instead, the company takes a base fee from each sale to cover the cost of production and shipping. The base varies depending on the product, but sellers can see the exact fee for each product in their dashboard
Spreadshirt is another print-on-demand platform that allows creators to design and sell custom products, including apparel, accessories and home decor.
Spreadshirt offers a wide range of customizable products, similar to Redbubble, with a focus on high-quality materials and production.
One unique aspect of Spreadshirt is that it offers both a marketplace and a standalone shop option, which allows creators to sell their products on Spreadshirt's marketplace and/or on their own website.
Spreadshirt also offers a variety of promotional tools, including social media sharing and email marketing, to help creators reach more customers and increase sales.
Spreadshirt operates on a commission-based pricing model. Creators can set their own prices for their products and Spreadshirt takes a base fee from each sale to cover the cost of production and shipping.
Design by Humans is a print-on-demand platform that allows creators to design and sell custom products, including apparel, phone cases, wall art and more.
Similar to Redbubble, Design by Humans offers a wide variety of customizable products with a focus on unique and trendy designs.
One unique aspect of Design by Humans is their "hive mind" feature, which allows creators to submit designs for community voting and feedback before they are made available for sale.
Design by Humans also offers a variety of promotional tools, including social media sharing and email marketing, to help creators reach more customers and increase sales
If you want to sell t-shirts online, TeePublic is a good choice. This print-on-demand t-shirt company handles every aspect of a sale for you, aside from coming up with the designs.
In exchange, you’re going to receive a smaller commission than you could get from some other platforms.
On the other hand, once you’ve uploaded your products, they’ll stay on the platform forever (unless you remove them). You’ll be able to create anything from t-shirts to laptop sleeves and it won’t cost you anything to get started.
As yet another print-on-demand company, UltraPress tries to set itself apart by making it necessary to get at least twelve sales per item.
This is the place to go if you’re running a fundraiser and don’t want to carry any inventory.
They offer bulk orders and group orders and you can order an item from a diverse selection of clothing and accessories. They sell these products in the USA and have all-inclusive pricing, including shipping.
If you like to sell custom print products at a low cost, CustomCat is worth a look. With more than 300 different products, it definitely gives you one of the greatest selections available.
They also offer several printing styles, including direct-to-garment, sublimation, digital printing and embroidery.
The company selects which printing style will look best for each of your products. You can choose between a free plan – which makes shirts cost around $9 – or their $30 per month plan, which reduces the cost of a t-shirt to approximately $7.
Of all the print-on-demand sites on this list, there hasn’t been much buzz around ArtsAdd. This seems a bit odd since they offer a massive selection of print-on-demand products, including the ability to put your artwork or designs on shoes.
Part of the confusion and related brand visibility surrounding ArtsAdd might be because of their confusing royalty rates – despite the fact that you can make up to 99% of the sale price.
Of course, you can also bring in as little as 1% of the price. Be sure you know what you’ll be getting before you list your items for sale.
Unlike Redbubble, which specializes in artwork, JetPrint makes more than 400 different products, including custom jewelry, pet supplies and woodwork.
One unique aspect of JetPrint is its focus on dropshipping, which allows creators to sell their products without holding inventory or handling shipping themselves.
JetPrint also offers a wide range of customization options and a variety of products, similar to other print-on-demand platforms.
JetPrint operates on a commission-based pricing model. Creators can set their own prices for their products and JetPrint takes a base fee from each sale to cover the cost of production and shipping.
As you can see, there's no shortage of print-on-demand platforms. If you want to dive into even more potential solutions, here's our list of honorable mentions:
As you can see, there are a ton of alternatives to using Redbubble. As a creative entrepreneur or ecommerce business owner, it’s essential to diversify your income streams.
This means that putting your work for sale on as many of the listed websites as possible is the best way for you to make a decent profit.
Of course, you also don’t want to waste your time. We recommend that you focus on the sites that offer your particular needs and wants.
For example, if you’re a photographer, you definitely want to get on Fine Art America.
Using platforms that are well-known is another perk, which includes Zazzle, Cafe Press, Threadless, TeePublic and Merch by Amazon.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to sell products to run a fundraiser or support your favorite charity, it’s best to turn to UltraPress.
You may also want to choose some of the lesser-known companies to see if you can tap into a new group of consumers.
Finally, with so many of the platforms offering an absolutely free shop, it might not make much sense to go with one of the few that do, such as Printify. This can help you enter into a marketplace with less competition.
Ultimately, only you know what your specific needs and wants are. Therefore, we suggest that you spend some time researching and comparing your alternatives before you make a final decision.
And remember – if you don’t get good sales numbers from one platform, you can always try another!
The feeling of selling print-on-demand merchandise and products in your own online store with complete control is a good feeling, isn't it?
After you get things moving, it's time to think about the next step, which is managing your multi-channel inventory and listings.
Linnworks gives you smart order management and inventory management tools, including the ability to manage all your print-on-demand channels from one convenient dashboard.
That way, you can use multiple platforms on this list without having to worry about mixing up sales information or reconciling your accounting figures.
You’ll have the option of connecting quickly and painlessly to some of the biggest retailers in the world, such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart. Request your free demo today to learn how Linnworks will help you sell better!
Speak to us to find out how Linnworks can connect and automate your commerce operations so you can capture every revenue opportunity.
