Printful Free Plan — What’s Included and How to Sign Up

A photo of a laptop with the Printful website open on the screen.

Do you want to start selling print-on-demand products with Printful? In this guide, I’ll show you how to get started for free — and explain the costs you’ll encounter when you make sales.

Please note: this article contains affiliate links. If you buy through these, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Using our links supports our work.

Printful is unusual among ecommerce tools in that you can get quite a long way with it without ever paying a subscription fee. You can create an account, choose from 545 customizable print-on-demand products, use its design and mockup tools, and connect as many ecommerce stores as you like — all for $0 per month.

And this isn’t a time-limited offer. You can stay on Printful’s free plan indefinitely; instead of charging you for access to the platform, Printful charges you when you use it to produce and fulfill products.

For sellers who start generating more orders, there’s also Printful Growth. This costs $24.99 per month and offers additional product and branding discounts — although, as I’ll explain later, you can try it free for 14 days and may eventually qualify to get it free for a year.


What do you get with the Printful free plan?

Despite costing nothing to access, Printful’s free plan isn’t particularly restrictive. You get the main tools and features needed to create and sell print-on-demand products, including:

  • 545 customizable products — including clothing, accessories, homeware and other product types
  • Multiple printing techniques — including DTG, DTF, all-over printing, embroidery, sublimation and UV printing
  • Unlimited store connections — Printful integrates with more than 20 ecommerce platforms and marketplaces, including Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace and Amazon
  • Up to 10 Printful Quick Stores — useful if you want to sell online without setting up a store on a separate ecommerce platform
  • Design and mockup tools — for creating designs and generating product imagery
  • 20% off sample orders — letting you test products and print quality at a reduced price
  • 30% off your first order
  • 24/7 customer support.

The key point here is that Printful doesn’t reserve its core product creation and selling tools for paying subscribers. For many new print-on-demand sellers, the free plan provides everything needed to get a store up and running.

Printful ecommerce integrations
With Printful Free plan, you can integrate with 20+ ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Etsy and Amazon.

How do you access the Printful free plan?

Getting started is quick. Head to the Printful website using our signup link and click ‘Get started.’

Signing up for a free Printful account
Signing up for a free Printful account

You can create your account using Google, Apple or your email address. There’s no need to enter credit card details when you sign up.

Once inside your Printful dashboard, you can start creating products straight away. From there, you can either connect Printful to an existing ecommerce store or marketplace, or set up a Printful Quick Store and sell through that instead.

And because the free plan doesn’t expire, there’s no deadline for setting everything up — you can take as much time as you need before you start selling.


Is Printful really free?

Yes — but it’s worth being clear about what “free” means here.

Printful doesn’t charge you a monthly fee to use its free plan. Instead, you pay when you actually use the service to fulfill an order. The main costs you’ll encounter are:

  • Product costs — the base price of each item you sell.
  • Printing costs — standard printing is generally included in the product price, but extra print areas and some techniques can cost more.
  • Shipping — charged according to the product and its destination.
  • Optional extras — such as custom branding, branded packaging and warehousing.

You may also have to pay for the sales channel you connect Printful to. Platforms like Shopify, Wix and Squarespace typically involve a separate subscription, while marketplaces such as Etsy can charge listing and transaction fees.

Alternatively, you can use one of Printful’s Quick Stores, which lets you sell without paying for a separate ecommerce platform.

So the free plan really is free to access — the costs kick in when you start selling products.


What is Printful Growth?

Printful Growth is an optional paid plan aimed at sellers who want to reduce their per-product costs as their order volumes increase.

It costs $24.99 per month and includes everything on the free plan, plus:

  • Up to 33% off custom premium products
  • 9% off product branding
  • 25% off sample orders
  • Free digitization on sample orders
  • Exclusive deals
  • Large front printing on selected products.

The important thing to note is that Growth doesn’t unlock essential selling features — you can create products, connect stores and fulfill orders perfectly well on the free plan. What you’re primarily paying for is access to better discounts.

Printful growth product discounts
Printful growth product discounts

If you’re curious about Growth, you can try it free for 14 days before paying the $24.99 monthly fee.

And there’s another way to use Growth without paying for it — which I’ll cover next.


How can you get Printful Growth for free?

There’s a second route to Printful Growth that’s particularly interesting if your store starts doing well: sell enough through Printful and the company will cover the membership fee for you.

If you generate $12,000 in Printful sales over a 12-month period, you’ll get Growth free for one year.

Printful Growth
Printful Growth

And importantly, those sales can be generated while you’re on the free plan. So you don’t need to subscribe to Growth first in order to qualify — you can start with a $0 account, build up your sales and become eligible for the paid plan for free.

Printful tracks your sales automatically, too, so there’s no separate application process involved.

In short, you can either pay $24.99 per month for Growth when its discounts start making financial sense — or stick with the free plan and potentially earn your way into Growth instead.


How do Printful Free and Printful Growth compare?

Here’s a quick side-by-side look at the two plans:

FeaturePrintful FreePrintful Growth
Monthly fee$0$24.99 per month
Customizable products545545
Ecommerce store integrationsUnlimitedUnlimited
Printful Quick StoresUp to 10Up to 10
Design and mockup tools
Product discountsUp to 33%
Sample order discount20%25%
Product branding discount9%
Free digitization on sample orders
Exclusive deals
Free Growth optionFree for one year after reaching $12K in sales over 12 months
Free accessNo time limit14-day free trial

For most people starting out with Printful, Free is the better place to begin. You’re not giving up any essential product creation or selling functionality, and there’s little reason to pay for Growth until the discounts it provides are likely to save you more than its monthly fee.


Can you cancel a Printful free account?

There’s no subscription to cancel on Printful’s free plan — if you stop using Printful, you won’t be charged a monthly fee.

If you want to remove your account entirely, you can do this by going to Settings > My account > Delete account in your Printful dashboard.

Just bear in mind that deleting an account is permanent, so you won’t be able to recover it or its data.


Is Printful’s free plan worth it?

For most new print-on-demand sellers, yes. Printful Free gives you access to the same product catalog and core selling tools as Growth, and there’s no monthly fee or time limit to worry about.

The trade-off is that you won’t get Growth’s higher product and branding discounts. But unless you’re processing enough orders for those savings to justify $24.99 per month, there’s little reason to upgrade.

So my suggestion is simple: start with Printful Free and see how it works for you. You can always move to Growth as your sales increase — and if you reach $12,000 in annual Printful sales, you may qualify to get Growth free for a year anyway.


Frequently asked questions about the Printful free plan

Can I use Printful for free?

Yes. Printful has a free plan that costs $0 per month, with no time limit on how long you can use it. You’ll pay Printful when it produces and fulfills products for you, but there’s no recurring fee for access to the platform itself.

How much does Printful cost?

A standard Printful account is free. You pay for the products you order or sell, along with shipping and any applicable extras. There’s also an optional Printful Growth plan, which costs $24.99 per month and gives you additional product and branding discounts.

Does Printful have a free trial?

Printful doesn’t offer a conventional free trial of its standard plan — because the plan itself is permanently free. Printful Growth, however, comes with a 14-day free trial.

Do I need a credit card to use Printful?

No. You can create a Printful account and start designing products without providing credit card details. You’ll need to add a payment method when you start ordering products or using paid Printful services.

What can I sell with Printful?

Printful gives you access to 545 customizable products, including clothing, accessories and homeware. Depending on the product, you can customize items using techniques including DTG and DTF printing, embroidery, sublimation and all-over printing.

Do I need Shopify to use Printful?

No. Printful integrates with more than 20 ecommerce platforms and marketplaces, including Etsy, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace and Amazon. You can also sell without a separate ecommerce platform by using a Printful Quick Store. Shopify is nonetheless an excellent option if you want to build a more sophisticated Printful store, thanks to its strong international selling, marketing and ecommerce features.

Is Printful any good?

Yes. Printful is a strong choice for print-on-demand selling, particularly if you value a large product catalog, a wide range of printing techniques and integrations with lots of the leading ecommerce platforms. Its free plan also makes it particularly easy to try: you can set up an account, create products and connect stores without committing to a monthly subscription.


Matt Walsh Avatar

Matt Walsh is the Head of Content at Ecommercetrix. He also creates video content for the site and its associated YouTube channel.

Having gained a degree in Literature and Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin and an MA in International Relations from Dublin City University, Matt worked in the marketing world for a decade before taking up an education role — teaching languages, literature and creative writing in London.

Matt is an Adobe Certified Associate in Photoshop and Illustrator, and also holds a certificate in digital marketing from DMI (Digital Marketing Institute), along with a postgraduate certificate in Design Thinking, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Creative Thinking from Trinity College Dublin.