So you've thought of it: Taking your design ideas and putting them out there for everyone to see.
But you have questions.
- Does it cost a lot of money to get started?
- Do I have to use my own designs?
- Can I set my own prices?
- Where will I sell my T-Shirts?
- How much money can I earn?
Well, you're in luck, we have answers!
Below you'll find 10 companies that can help you make money by designing T-Shirts online.
1. Teespring
Partnering with Teespring is like crowdfunding with T-Shirts! It's 100% free to design your shirt. Simply use the online designer to create your product by either uploading your design or using clip art from the site. You'll have to set a sales goal or tipping point, which is the minimum you need to sell in order to have your shirts printed. Then share your campaign via email, your website, or your favorite social media networks. Your customers won't be charged unless your campaign reaches the tipping point. Once your campaign ends, shirts are printed and sent out, and you'll be sent a check for the profit.
There are many factors when figuring exactly how much you can earn with Teespring, and it varies depending on everything, from the text and design you use to your choice of t-shirt. Just so you can get an idea of possible earnings with Tee Spring, you can start with a basic shirt that costs $5.75 then add a design and text for a total cost of $7.40 per shirt. You can choose your retail price but say you opt to sell your shirts for $12.00 each and have a goal of selling 50 shirts. That would give you a profit of $229. Of course, the more shirts you sell, the higher your profit.
Wondering if you can really make money using Tee Spring? See how Benny Hsu made $100,000 in five months using this t-shirt selling platform!
2. Spreadshirt
Spreadshirt allows you to upload a design to the Marketplace and sell to the Spreadshirt audience or open your own online shop for FREE and sell your designs directly to your target audience. You set your own commissions. At Spreadshirt, accounts are free forever, and you control your profit margin.
With over 150 products for you to choose from, there's sure to be something for everyone!
If you have mad design skills, you can create your own designs and earn anywhere from $1.50 and more on each design sold (which means another creator purchases and uses your design on their product).
You can also create tees, either with your designs or the designs of others. I created a simple t-shirt that cost $14.20, then added a design for $4.50, so the cost to make the shirt was $18.70. At that point, you tack on your commission — whatever amount you'd like based on your design and what you think you can earn. I would stick around the same pricing as the other sites to stay competitive, so I chose a commission of $4.00 per shirt, bringing the selling price up to $22.70. Selling 50 shirts would net me a profit of 200 dollars.
3. Zazzle
You can join Zazzle as a designer and upload and sell your artwork on t-shirts and many other products. Open a FREE designer store (you even get to choose your store name), select a product to add your design to, and post your designs for sale. Zazzle has a large selection of products: T-Shirts, coffee mugs, wall art, office supplies, electronics accessories, and much, much more! Even pillows and jewelry!
There are no upfront costs, and you set your royalty rates yourself that can be anywhere from 5% to 99%. Zazzle produces the products and ships everything directly to the customer.
Don't have killer design skills? Become a Zazzle Associate! Link and share your favorite shops and items made by others, and you can still earn a commission!
At Zazzle, t-shirts are priced a little higher right out of the gate, but you can still make a decent profit — plus there isn't a minimum amount you have to sell.
Again, there are many variables here. An example would be, you can create a simple design, and the t-shirt will run you $19.95, then you set the percentage of your royalty rate. So if you choose a 20% royalty rate, your shirt will sell for $23.95, earning you a profit of $4.55 per shirt after the 24 cent transaction fee (which only applies when your royalty rate is set at 20% or above). Sell 50 shirts, earn about $227.
4. Cafepress
See your artwork on t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, and bumper stickers. You can sell in the Cafepress Marketplace for free or set up your own branded online shop to sell on your website for around $5-$10 a month, depending on the options you choose.
Big brands are using Cafe Press; you'll find the likes of ABC, Paramount, Sprout, and National Geographic among the shop owners.
Cafepress also offers crowdfunded custom t-shirts and apparel through their platform, Tfund. There are no upfront costs; just design your product, create your campaign, set a goal, and sell t-shirts! Spread the word via email and social media, and once you reach your goal, collect your profits.
Selling through Tfund allows you to set your own pricing as well, and the more you sell, the more you make. Prices vary to create a shirt depending on your design and text, but I created a simple shirt with text and a graphic and listed it for $20. You can earn profit even with as few as 10 shirts ($63.10). Selling 50 shirts would net a whopping $410! (And remember, that's on a $20 shirt!) This is a great option if you're looking to crowdfund.
5. Blue Cotton
Blue Cotton has 20 years of experience and guarantees their quality, which is nice to hear nowadays. They are a custom print t-shirt shop that has an amazing design studio. For the most part, individuals order shirts for personal use or to have stock on hand, like in a physical storefront. While they don't offer an online store option for you to sell your shirts, they do offer campaigns as a way for you to make money.
With campaigns, there is no risk and no inventory. You design the t-shirts, set the price, add a description, and set your goal. Then get to work at sharing your campaign on your social media channels, on your blog or website, in emails, and with friends and family. When your campaign in over, your customers will receive their shirts, and you'll receive a nice check (or PayPal deposit) with the profits.
6. Printful
Printful gives you the benefits of running a store without all the hassle. There are no minimum purchases, monthly fees, or inventory. If you already have a store or are planning on opening one, this is an excellent choice as you can connect it with Printful. They integrate with Shopify, Amazon, Storenvy, Woo Commerce, and more. That being said, if you don't have a store or aren't planning on having one, then this won't be an option for you. T-Shirt prices start at $9.99. They also have a whole lineup of items you can put your designs on including leggings, pillows, posters, tote bags, cell phone cases, and more.
7. Threadless
At Threadless, you make art, and they'll do the rest! You can open your completely customizable artist shop for free and sell anywhere in the world. You set your prices and earn a profit on anything over the base cost of the merchandise. T-shirts and tanks have a base cost of $15, so if you sell them for $25, you're earning $10 bucks on every single shirt. That's not too bad! There are no minimums, no shipping fees, and they handle inventory and customer care.
8. Red Bubble
A Global Marketplace for Independent Artists, at Redbubble, you create and upload your designs to sell on t-shirts, vinyl stickers, posters, device cases, and more. They give you total control of what you sell your art for, just add your margin to their base price and list your products. Most artists earn an average of 17%, but it's totally up to you to decide. Redbubble does all the heavy lifting including handling the sale transactions, coordinating the printing, arranging for delivery, and providing customer service. With no monthly fees and free sign up, it's another great way to get started earning money online designing t-shirts.
9. TeePublic
TeePublic is a good option even if you're not an artist or designer per se. You can make money with this t-shirt company two ways. First, you can create your own designs and upload them to products for your store. This earns you a set price commission that varies depending on the product but ranges from $2.00-$8.00 on shirts, tanks, and hoodies.
Second, you can become a partner and have a merch store. This is a neat option because you can feature shirts with designs from other artists. You get to choose what you like and what to carry in your store. You earn a generous 31% commission on sales of your own merchandise and 11% on existing TeePublic designs. So even if you're not a designer, you can make money online selling t-shirts!
10. Society 6
Even though Society 6 is for primarily selling art prints, you can add t-shirts to the mix once you have uploaded your design for a print. We wanted to include it here because many people who design t-shirts are artists, so this could be a viable option as a way to sell your artwork on many different items, including t-shirts.
One thing that might be considered a downfall is that although you can set your own prices on your art prints, the rest of the products — such as t-shirts, travel mugs, and throw pillows — have a set price. So you will still earn a profit, but it will be a commission that is paid on their base price that varies depending on the product. For example, t-shirts earn a profit of $2.40, tank tops $2.20, and long sleeve shirts $2.80. Still, with no minimums and no cost to sign up, it might be worth a try if you're an artist. You simply share your unique creator link with friends, family, and followers through email or on your favorite social media platforms and get a cut of their purchase profits.
Hopefully, these companies can help you make money by designing t-shirts online. Do you know of any other good t-shirt designing resources? Let us know in the comments.
Originally published May 28, 2015. Content updated July 3, 2017.
Thank you for the information. I started using teespring from today.
Good luck and keep me posted on how it works out for you!
Other sites to consider rageon and sunfrog :)
Thanks for sharing!
I have used Redbubble several times and it worked for me, but I haven’t tested Teespring or Zazzle. Thank you for your amazing article.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Takla!
Almost all new tshirt flatforms are forwarding to POD. That means it’s hard for you to get a sale by free traffics. So before thinking of how to make money from selling t-shirt, you should have got a little knowledge about building store, SEO and ads.
Hi! Do this companies accept people who are in Qatar?
Hmmm, I’m not certain. You’ll have to look at each site’s terms of service. But I’m guessing the majority of these are US only.
Please check out FlexJobs for international listings:
http://flexjobsrocks.go2cloud.org/SHPF (affiliate link)
Upwork.com is another great site to search.
Good luck on your job hunt!
Thanks for the article. I’ve been looking for other sites besides Tee Spring.
Glad you enjoyed the list, Jen.
Have you tried any of these out?
Hello all,
Nymbl just rolled out our public beta for our print-on-demand e-commerce platform and we have a pretty awesome deal for all new users:
– You get a free domain (with setup)
– Up to 12 free designs (from a pro artist – 1/mo)
– Free site customization & marketing support
Check out our new site at https://nymbl.io for more details and to signup.
Some of our coolest & unique features:
– Open source CMS, cloud of self-hosted
– Single-seller store or multi-seller marketplace configuration available
– 50+ products and we are capable to generate unique, customized & automated mockups (photoshop based) in just minutes for all our available products
– Many other features — check out the site for additional info.
Feel free to ask me anything you like and either I or a member of the team can get your answers.
Thanks!
Hi great article, thank you. I have a question though. You choose a crowd fund situation – campaign and you have a set goal – What happens if orders continue to come in beyond your goal? Can you continue selling said design for quite awhile or is it closed out and the end of campaign?
And I really my point is with the above situation or in general is volume something any of these companies on your list can handle if your design – T-shirt and/or bumper sticker goes viral?
Thanks!
Yes, you can continuing selling beyond your goal. I would assume they would be able to handle the volume.
I have interest in designing the special occasion dresses and wondering if you have any idea about such websites where i can share my designs and earn some money in return
Hi Sarah,
Take a look at this post for starting your fashion line: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/clothing-line/
And also look at https://shopvida.com/pages/design
Good luck and keep us posted!
How do I become an artist/designer so I can do try these websites out?
What software do I need?
Thanks
You don’t need any special software. Just click on the links to the websites and everything you need will be supplied via their portals.
So helpful holly! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed the list!
so many t-shirt selling platform out there, i’m so excited to get in, i dont know if i should start design and upload to all those platform or i should focus on one? cause more mean more opportunity
i also found a platform like : https://sunfrognews.com
What about designbyhumans ? Is that a good site?
I’ve never heard of it.
Sayings are really big sellers now. not a copyright issue. But what do you suggest to protect your design. some shops have the right to keep your design and keep producing it. Any advice on protecting designs? For now I would send designs im not attached to. Save my line for my site while submitting clever shirts on multiple sites and not worrying about the design. Do most sites advertise for you and you get a percentage? Is anyone using and having success with shopify? Facebook advertising?
Thanks
Yes, sayings are popular right now, but you always need to do your due diligence and make sure you’re not using someone’s copyrighted phrase or materials.
To protect your designs, I would look into trademarking your material.
Each site had different terms so you’ll need to read through all of them.
Teespring has a good article on understanding intellectual property: https://teespring.com/policies/ip
And here is another article on protecting your designs: http://offthemarkipsolutions.com/intellectual-property/how-to-protect-your-t-shirt-brand-when-using-teespring-and-spreadshirt/
When in doubt, I always suggest talking with your lawyer. Good luck!
Is it a good idea to upload my design to all this pages? or it will be better to focus on one and advertise it properly?
I would focus on one platform and then spend your time promoting your products.
Nice list Holly! but still the most important thing isn’t what platform to choose but how good my shirt is and if there’s an audience for it?, most people focus on facebook ads and ignore the t-shirt design which is more important at the beginning, people won’t buy ugly t-shirts.
Those are important aspects too. But you want to confirm that the platform that you choose has good quality products, ink that doesn’t bleed, and prompt delivery of the products.
Thanks for the article. I tried my first T-shirt project using Teespring. I use their design tools to put quotes on a shirt and I think the final product on the screen looks cheap and amateurish because there’s not many options when using their design tools. I probably wouldn’t buy if I saw a Teespring ad for quotes on a shirt. But your article gave me other resources which I may pursue.
Hi Work at Home Lady.
My name is shannon, and I just put up my website http://www.hennashannon.com again for the millionth time, only this time i intend for it to stay, and forsee it doing so, because I am adding things as i go along. i have a section called business tips and networking, and I would love to include your link in that section. I have immensely enjoyed the chatter on the t-shirt making businesses, because as a henna artist, i am looking to make some tees.
I look forward to reading more of your articles, and only hope that it can help my audience.
Austin, Tx.
Hi, I have a shop on Etsy, currently designing t-shirts via CustomInk and the only problem is that it’s expensive itself, so it forces me to set prices high so that I can still make a profit. Obviously these high prices most likely make people turn away. Are any of these sites good for designing shirts and then selling them on a different site for a more reasonable price?
hi is this opportunity open to people outside of the U.S cos am based in Nigeria
THANKS
The Work at Home Woman is geared for U.S. residents.
Take a look at FlexJobs for international work-at-home jobs:
http://flexjobsrocks.go2cloud.org/SHPF (affiliate link)
Good luck!
Do any of these platforms allow you to upload a video? My t-shirt involves customizing and so without a video to demonstrate, it will not give it justice. Thank you for a very helpful article.
Hi David, I’ve only played around with Teespring and their storefront doesn’t have video capability (at least yet). You’ll have to test out the other platforms to see if they allow video. Good luck!
You forget one of biggest companies: Amazon (https://merch.amazon.com)
Also:
Lookhuman
TeeFury
Design by human
..
Thanks for sharing these, Andrea.
Hi Holly, thank you.
Although nearly a year and a half old, Benny Hsu’s Tee Spring article on his netting over $100k selling T’s inspires in its honesty. (Internet traffic would probably be halved if all links to “Make $10,000 in One Week” were removed.) Hsu’s work let’s us see some of what is really necessary to succeed.
I’ve been reading and following up on several of your blog / emails – your work is consistently thorough. I second MyfrogTee’s June 5th 2017 suggestion of updating this article. For instance, I’ve seen grumblings about CafePress too (mentioned here in replies); and the pinkytee.com site seems stale – nothing on the home page, and the last news post is dated December 26, 2016 … as Benny Hsu efforts clearly shows, it takes a good number of failures before making it. That’s certainly true for internet businesses as well.
Keep up the great work!
Howard – a WAH Guy
P.S. Does The WAH Woman have a T shirt line ? :))
Glad you enjoyed the article, Howard! I don’t have t-shirt line yet. It’s something I’ve thought about, but, I’m terrible at design, so I would need to hire a designer to create something for me.
Hey Holly, email me if you’d like some suggestions for T’s … you have material already! – H
Thanks, Howard!
I think you need to update this article. You should mention teechip.com and sunfrog.com. These are two of the biggest T-shirt sales websites
Thanks for sharing those! We’ll have to update the post =)
Teechip is an absolute rip off . I ordered shirts from them after without paying close enough attention and thinking it was teespring ( happy with everything I have gotten from them)
When I received shirts, the 2x was smaller than the large. Emailed multiple times, tried to call, sent them pics.. nothing .. thankfully I paid with PayPal .. the company didn’t respond to them either.. so PayPal did the refund. They have horrible reviews all over the place..
Thanks for sharing your experience, Jenn! Good information to know.
They rip off of artists and use their designs. DON’T DO IT!
Great list. If you are looking for creative and brilliant designs or you want to create your own design on your t-shirts, I also recommend you https://raftshirt.com/ . Being the oldest t-shirt company in the world we have learned many tips and tricks.
You can share your ideas in our live chat, We are available 24*7.
Thanks for sharing, Roberto.
FYI Skreened better work on their rating at BBB
https://www.bbb.org/centralohio/business-reviews/screen-printing/skreened-ltd-in-columbus-oh-70014995
I’ll have to check that out. There has been an explosion of t-shirt design companies in the past few years, so I may have to replace them with another company.
Very nice tips, I had no idea about this! A few months ago, I started learning to design t shirts by following this guide: http://www.coreldraw.com/en/pages/sell-t-shirts/ and it started mainly as a hobby, but thru time I got pretty good, and now I am thinking about making a business out of it but I didn’t know where to start, and now I do. Thank you for putting me in the right direction :) Wish me luck!
That’s awesome, Susan! Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!
Hello Kimi,
Thanks a lot for your article, very interesting!
I recently discovered a French on-demand printing service (www.the-shop.co) that could be interesting for creative people who want to have their designs printed and distributed in France/Europe :)
Happy to help!
Best,
Maxime
Do these sites work in india ??
I’m not sure — you’ll have to check their terms of service.
What do you guys think about Threadless? I’m currently using it but looking at other options.
That’s a new one to me, I’ll have to check it out.
Can you tell me the real best one weasite for me holly
I haven’t tried any of them personally, but they’re all free to try out. Good luck and keep us posted.
Zazzle has been so far the best money maker for me. I haven’t done much work lately with it either. other than adding new designs. I also make a little money, but not as much on Cafe Press. I had recently started with Spoonflower and been a bit impressed with sales. You make the less money with that one, 5% :( and plus you must ‘proof’ your design before selling. Meaning you much order it to see it personally. Yikes! Which really is a good idea, but who can order every single design first before selling! But I have less than 12 designs on there now and already have a nice #1 seller. Keeps me on the site and occasionally proofing the designs as I add more along the way
Thanks for sharing, Skylar!
PinkyTee.com is a new website that is launching in Nov 2016 and is accepting artist submissions. They are a daily t-shirt company that will print your shirt for 24 hours and pay you $1.00 for every t-shirt sold. The artist retains all rights to the design and they pay you via PayPal 2 weeks after the sale is over. Its a good way to make some extra money.
Be careful when you use a few of these. The quality sometimes isn’t the best. I used teespring once in the past to order shirts and was a bit disappointed. They may have improved since then however.
Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Tyler.
Thanks for info.
Can i upload one same design on more than 1 websites?
Yes, you upload the same design to multiple platforms. But, you need to own the rights to the design.
Thanks for this article. I’ve order from Teespring and the quality of the print was not good at all and doesn’t last. Just ordered from Customcat and the quality is very good and holds up nice!
Hi Brandy, Bummer. I know you can pick various qualities of t-shirts, I wonder if that makes a difference on how well the overlay stays on. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi holly. I interested make design in t shirts. I have some ideas, how to hosting my ideas please suggest right website.
I haven’t used any of these platforms personally. You’ll have to read their terms and see which one makes the most sense for you. Good luck and keep us posted!
Hi…Great article. I have stores in all of your mention sites and a few more. I love making designs using photoshop but many of these business you can use their artwork. I have been making money for about 5 years using these concepts. I started with Zazzle give up for a while then went back and started making some sales. This is a good way to make extra money but it is not easy. You have to really market your product and website and have some knowledge on SEO. If you are good at advertising and marketing this is a great way to make extra cash. So far zazzle and customizedgirl are the only ones making money without much effort.
Hi Carol, Thanks for sharing your experience!
Do you own the rights to your designs Carol?
This is a stupid question but if you already have a design and everything for tee spring who prints out the shirts.
They do the printing, Lola.
gReally a very nice post, Teespring is doing a great job its a great income opportunity to earn from tee income. Thanks for sharing your experiences here. Facebook advert. is a good way to get sales and good percentage of ROI
Thank you so much for sharing all the reserch! Here are a few factors that are important to me as well.
-Design placement range. I like to put my logo on the upper back, far enough up to clear a full back image. I think Cafe Press didn’t have the template for this, but Custom Ink did. Alas, Custom Ink has no plans for opening up personal stores.
-Black shirt print quality. Cafe Press and Zazzle fell far behind on this one when I experimented.
-Personal store name. I would love the ability to choose an easy to remember web domain, and even the ability to have category subdivisions.
So far, I’ve been the most impressed with TeeSpring as far as design capabilities are concerned. I just wish Custom Ink would join this personal market trend!
Holly, I would love to hear what you think of our site http://www.fundraisertee.com
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Tom
Hello!
Thanks for the great article! Just a few quick questions. So, is around $3.00-$4.00 a pretty reasonable royalty price? And, when I upload my designs, are they still my designs? …as in, I still have the rights to them?
Thanks so much!!
I’m not sure on that, Kerry. You’ll need to read each site’s terms of service. Good luck!
Excellent question..
7 is the average on amazon Merch. Depends on your own pricing.
You can also check out https://99designs.com/t-shirt-design for cool t-shirt designs :)
Please. No. This is spec work. This is anti-designer. Sites like 99Designs explout working creatives. No way to make a living there. Boycott.
Agreed! Say no to spec. This is why I’m sitting here starving, about to be homeless. Now I’m joining a stampede of former graphic designers who have to design yard sale junk for a couple dollars a week.
Absolutely avoid sites like 99 Designs. Like Erin said spec work (not paid unless your design wins contest against other “designers”), and anti-designer.
RafTshirt design the Tshirts with custom designs which you guys order. Ordering a design on T shirts takes less than 2 minutes and delivery of your favourite design on T shirt will take place within 48 hours.
https://raftshirt.com
Thanks for this article! It is very informative & useful. I enjoy designing & crafting things, & I have been really thinking about tshirt designing. I have heard of & seen some of the sites mentioned but I never knew they provided these start-up opportunities. Wonderful ideas! :)
Glad you enjoyed the list. Good luck and keep us posted!
Question can i spread out my designs amongst all these sites
Yes, you can use multiple sites at the same time.
Great list, but it has been rumored that Cafepress exploits its designers. In fact, a petition has been made in concern with their greediness.
I hadn’t heard that before. Do you have a link to the petition?
I trust FreshMonk for selling custom t-shirts. Making money by designing t-shirts has become the latest fad, and this sudden interest is truly justified too, considering the profit and creative satisfaction this field provides.
Thank you for this informative listicle!
Thanks for sharing, Gunshi. Sounds like you’ve had some success with this moneymaking opportunity — good for you!
For t-shirts, Represent and Society6 are websites I’ve patronized.
If one is doing other sorts of art, DeviantArt is a possibility for prints, mugs, mousepads and such.
Thanks for an excellent article. I appreciate your research.
Glad you enjoyed the article, Judy. Thanks for sharing the other sites.