In this article
- The short answer: typical costs at a glance
- Shopify plan prices in 2026
- What POD providers charge
- The other costs: apps, domain, theme, samples and ads
- Startup budget: lean vs comfortable
- Per-order cost breakdown: a worked example
- Ways to keep your POD costs down
- Frequently asked questions
- Keep exploring
You can start a print-on-demand store on Shopify for under $100 in your first month. A comfortable setup with a paid theme, a POD premium plan and a real ad test runs closer to $600 to $1,400 up front. After that, your monthly fixed costs sit somewhere between about $40 and $120, and every order carries its own costs: the product, shipping and payment fees.
That's the honest answer to "what's the print on demand Shopify price?" It isn't one number. It's a small fixed bill plus a per-order cost that depends on what you sell.
This guide breaks down both. We cover Shopify plan prices, what Printful, Printify and Gelato charge (including their premium tiers), base product and shipping costs for common products, apps, domain, samples and ads. Then we put it into a startup budget and walk through one order, dollar by dollar.
All prices are at the time of writing (October 2026) and in US dollars. Providers change prices often, so check each link in the sources before you plan your budget.
Key takeaways
- A lean POD store on Shopify can start for about $67 to $217 in month one, mostly samples and an optional ad test.
- Shopify Basic is $39 a month ($29 billed yearly) after the intro offer of $1 a month for three months.
- Printful, Printify and Gelato are free to use; their premium tiers ($20 to $39 a month) only pay off once you order enough volume.
- In our example, a $29.99 personalized tee with a $5 fee leaves $21.61 before ads, and the fee alone adds almost $5 of that.
The short answer: typical costs at a glance
| Cost | Lean start | Comfortable start |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify plan | $1/month for 3 months (intro offer), then $39 | Basic at $39/month, or $29 billed yearly |
| Domain | About $16/year | About $16/year |
| Theme | Free theme | Paid theme, often $100 to $500 one-time |
| POD provider plan | Free | $20 to $39/month premium tier |
| Personalizer app | Free plan | $7.99 to $24.99/month |
| Samples | About $50 | About $100 to $150 |
| Ads test | $0 to $150 | $300 to $600 |
| First month total | About $67 to $217 | About $594 to $1,389 |
The biggest swing item is ads, not software. Software for a lean store can cost almost nothing for the first three months.
Shopify plan prices in 2026
Shopify has no free plan. New stores get a short free trial and then an intro offer: at the time of writing, three days free and then $1 a month for your first three months on a paid plan.
After that, the US prices are:
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Online card rate (Shopify Payments) | Fee if you use another payment provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5 | $5 | Social and link selling only | Not a full store |
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% |
For a new POD store, Basic is the right plan. Grow and Advanced lower your card rate slightly, but the savings only cover the higher plan price once you're doing serious volume. Starter isn't a full online store, so skip it if you want your own storefront.
Two things to remember:
- Use Shopify Payments if it's available in your country. Using a third-party payment provider adds the extra 2% fee on Basic on top of that provider's own fee.
- Yearly billing saves 25%, but only commit once you know the store is worth running for a year. The monthly price is fine while you test.
Card rates differ outside the US, so check the pricing page for your country.
What POD providers charge
The big three POD platforms are free to join. You pay for each product when a customer orders it. Each one also sells a paid tier that lowers your product prices.
| Provider | Free plan | Premium tier | What premium gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printful | Yes | Growth: $24.99/month, free once you pass $12,000 in yearly sales | Up to 33% off product pricing, 25% off samples |
| Printify | Yes, up to 5 stores | Premium: $39/month, or $24.99/month billed yearly | Up to 20% off all products, more on new products, 10 stores |
| Gelato | Yes, 2 stores | Gelato+: $29.99/month, or $19.99/month billed yearly | Up to 33% off many products, premium mockups, Personalization Studio |
Printful and Printify figures are from their own pricing pages. Gelato blocked our direct check of its pricing page, so its numbers come from a recent independent review; confirm them in your Gelato dashboard.
When a premium tier pays for itself
Do the math before you upgrade. If a premium plan saves you about $2 per shirt and costs $25 a month, you need roughly 13 shirts a month just to break even. Under that, stay on the free plan.
A simple rule we give merchants: stay free until your monthly product spend with the provider is at least four or five times the plan price. Then upgrade and watch the margin difference for one full month.
Base product and shipping costs
Here's what common products cost at Printful in the US at the time of writing. Base price covers the blank, one print or embroidery placement, and fulfillment. Shipping is extra.
| Product | Base price | US shipping, first item | Each additional item |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bella+Canvas 3001 t-shirt | $11.92 | $4.95 | +$2.20 |
| Gildan 18500 hoodie | $22.63 | $8.79 | +$2.50 |
| White glossy mug (11 oz) | From $6.75 | $6.69 | +$3.50 |
| Poster (small) | Varies by size | $4.99 | +$0.40 |
Printify prices vary by which print provider you choose, and so do print quality and shipping speed. Gelato prices vary by country because it prints locally. Compare the exact product you plan to sell, not general reputations.
Larger sizes (2XL and up), extra print placements, sleeve prints and embroidery all cost more. Check the size-by-size price before you set your retail price.
The other costs: apps, domain, theme, samples and ads
Domain
A .com through Shopify costs about $16 a year. You can buy one elsewhere and connect it, but the price is similar and buying through Shopify saves setup time.
Theme
Shopify's free themes are good enough to launch. Paid themes often cost $100 to $500 as a one-time purchase. Buy one only if a specific feature (better product page layout, mega menu, quick view) will help you sell, not because the demo looks nice.
Apps
Your POD provider's app is free. Beyond that, keep apps to the few that earn their keep:
- Email marketing. Most email apps have a free tier that covers a new store's list size.
- Reviews. Free plans exist and are enough to start.
- Personalization. If you sell names, photos or custom text, you need a personalizer. PIMW Product Personalizer is free for your first product, then $7.99, $13.99 or $24.99 a month with no per-sale fee. Photo and logo upload start on the $13.99 Pro plan.
Watch for apps that take a percentage of each sale. A 2% fee looks small at $1,000 a month and adds up fast as you grow.
Samples
Order samples before you sell. You need to see print quality, color, fabric and packaging, and you need real photos for your product pages.
Printful gives 20% off sample orders on its free plan and 25% on Growth, limited to one sample order a month with up to three items. Three samples (a tee, a hoodie and a mug) cost about $33 after the 20% discount, plus shipping. Budget about $50 for a first round, more if you sell many product types.
Ads
Ads are optional at the start but most stores need some paid traffic to get first sales and data. There is no fixed price. Set a test budget you can afford to lose, run it for two to three weeks, and judge it on cost per sale, not clicks.
For a lean start, $0 to $150 is fine if you plan to grow through social posts, Pinterest or search. A comfortable start usually budgets $300 to $600 for a first test.
Startup budget: lean vs comfortable
Here's a first-month budget for both approaches, using the prices above.
| Item | Lean | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $1 (intro month) | $39 (or $1 on the intro offer) |
| Domain | $16 | $16 |
| Theme | $0 | $100 to $500 |
| POD provider plan | $0 | $24.99 |
| Personalizer | $0 (free plan) | $13.99 (Pro) |
| Email and review apps | $0 (free tiers) | $0 to $30 |
| Samples | $50 | $100 to $150 |
| Design tools | $0 (free tiers) | $0 to $15 |
| Ads test | $0 to $150 | $300 to $600 |
| Total | About $67 to $217 | About $594 to $1,389 |
After the first month, ongoing fixed costs look like this:
- Lean: Shopify $39 (after the intro months) plus free apps, so about $40 a month.
- Comfortable: Shopify $39, a POD premium plan around $25, a personalizer around $14 and a few paid apps, so about $80 to $120 a month, plus ads.
Neither budget includes your time, design purchases (fonts, artwork licenses) or business registration, which depends on where you live.
Per-order cost breakdown: a worked example
Fixed costs matter less than you think. What decides whether the store makes money is the cost of each order.
Say you sell a personalized t-shirt with the customer's name on the front. You use the Bella+Canvas 3001 through Printful on the free plan, price it at $29.99, add a $5 personalization fee, and charge the customer $4.95 for shipping.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Shirt price | $29.99 |
| Personalization fee | $5.00 |
| Shipping charged to customer | $4.95 |
| Customer pays | $39.94 |
| Printful base price | -$11.92 |
| Printful shipping | -$4.95 |
| Shopify Payments (2.9% + 30¢) | -$1.46 |
| Left before ads and fixed costs | $21.61 |
That $21.61 has to cover your marketing, your share of fixed costs and your profit.
Now add ads. If your ads cost $12 per sale (a made-up figure for this example; yours will differ), you keep $9.61 per order. Sell 60 shirts in a month and that's about $577, minus about $40 in fixed costs on a lean setup, so around $537.
A few things change this math fast:
- Free shipping. If you absorb the $4.95, your margin drops by the same amount. Many stores raise the shirt price instead.
- Second placement. A back print adds to the base price. Charge for it.
- Returns and reprints. Misprints are usually covered by the provider, but wrong sizes ordered by the customer usually aren't. Set aside a little for those.
- The personalization fee. Drop it and the order above leaves $16.76 instead of $21.61. For many products, personalization is the difference between a thin margin and a healthy one.
How to run this for your own products
- Look up the exact base price for your blank in your size range.
- Add first-item shipping to your main market.
- Pick a retail price and decide whether shipping is charged or free.
- Subtract payment fees (2.9% + 30¢ on Basic with Shopify Payments in the US).
- Subtract your expected ad cost per sale. If you don't know it yet, test with a small budget first.
- Check that what's left is at least $8 to $10 on apparel. If not, raise the price, add a personalization fee or pick a different product.
Ways to keep your POD costs down
Most new stores overspend on software and underspend on testing. A few habits help:
- Start on free plans for your POD provider, personalizer and apps. Upgrade only when the numbers say so.
- Use Shopify's intro offer and stay on monthly billing until the store proves itself.
- Sell fewer products. Five products you've sampled beat 50 you haven't. Fewer products also means fewer samples to buy.
- Charge for personalization. A name, a photo or a second print location takes work and has value. A small add-on fee often covers your payment fees and then some.
- Set a free shipping threshold above your average order instead of free shipping on everything. It nudges customers to add a second item, which ships cheaply.
- Compare providers per product. One provider might be cheaper for shirts and another for mugs. Printful, Printify and Gelato can all connect to the same Shopify store.
Once the store has steady sales, revisit the premium tiers, yearly billing and a paid theme. That's the point where they start saving money instead of costing it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to start a print on demand store on Shopify?
A lean start costs about $67 to $217 in the first month: Shopify's $1 intro month, a domain around $16, free POD and app plans, about $50 of samples and an optional small ad test. A comfortable start with a paid theme, premium POD plan and bigger ad test runs about $600 to $1,400.
Is print on demand free on Shopify?
The POD apps from Printful, Printify and Gelato are free to install and use, and you only pay for products when customers order. Shopify itself has no free plan, though new stores get a short trial and then $1 a month for three months at the time of writing.
Which Shopify plan is best for print on demand?
Basic, at $39 a month or $29 billed yearly, is enough for a new POD store. Higher plans lower card rates slightly but only pay for themselves at much higher sales volume.
Is Printify Premium or Printful Growth worth it?
Only once your monthly product spend is several times the plan price. Printify Premium is $39 a month ($24.99 billed yearly) for up to 20% off, and Printful Growth is $24.99 a month for up to 33% off and becomes free above $12,000 in yearly sales.
How much does a print on demand t-shirt cost?
At the time of writing, a Bella+Canvas 3001 tee costs $11.92 at Printful with one print placement, plus $4.95 US shipping for the first item. Larger sizes, extra placements and other providers change the price.
How much profit do you make per POD order?
In our worked example, a $29.99 personalized tee with a $5 personalization fee and $4.95 charged shipping leaves $21.61 after the product, shipping and Shopify Payments fees, before ads. Your profit depends mostly on your ad cost per sale.
What hidden costs should I plan for in a POD store?
Samples, paid apps, transaction-based app fees, a third-party payment fee of 2% on Basic if you don't use Shopify Payments, reprints for customer sizing mistakes and absorbed shipping if you offer free shipping.
Keep exploring
Sources & further reading
Primary sources referenced in this article. We link to official platform documentation and standards bodies rather than secondary summaries so you can verify claims directly.