Published 2026-06-02 · 7 min read · By Satsuki Okazaki

Printful vs Printify vs Gelato vs Merch by Amazon: 2026 Profit Comparison

Printful and Printify dominate the POD conversation, but two other vendors quietly serve completely different niches: Gelato (the EU specialist, fastest fulfillment in Germany / France / Italy) and Merch by Amazon (no upfront cost, royalty-only model — completely different math). This piece puts all four against the same product to expose where each one wins.

The four-vendor matrix at a glance

Vendor	Cost model	Best for	Worst for
Printful	Pay vendor cost upfront	Apparel, premium materials, US/EU sellers	Tight margins on basic tees
Printify	Pay vendor cost upfront	Variety, lowest base costs, US sellers	Provider variance / longer fulfillment
Gelato	Pay vendor cost upfront	EU buyers, fast EU fulfillment, sustainability	Higher US shipping cost
Merch by Amazon	Royalty (no upfront cost)	Amazon-native sellers, zero capital risk	Amazon takes ~70% — thin per-unit yield

The math, on a $24 t-shirt

Same product (Bella+Canvas 3001 white M, or equivalent), same retail ($24 USD), same buyer location (US), no offsite ads:

Vendor / channel	Vendor cost + ship	Channel fees	Net profit	Margin
Printful + Etsy US	$17.94	$2.73	$3.33	13.9%
Printify + Etsy US	$15.44	$2.73	$5.83	24.3%
Gelato + Etsy US	$18.24	$2.73	$3.03	12.6%
Merch by Amazon (royalty)	—	~70% to Amazon	$5.40	22.5%

Two surprises in this matrix:

Merch by Amazon's royalty model gets you to ~$5 net on a $24 t-shirt with zero upfront cost and zero shipping handling on your part. The trade is total dependency on Amazon search and zero brand control.
Gelato is the only one where US fulfillment hurts. The exact same vendor flips to a clear winner when shipping to Berlin or Paris — Printful and Printify route from US warehouses and pay the international shipping penalty.

When each vendor wins

Printful wins when

You need premium materials (Bella+Canvas, AS Colour, Stanley/Stella)
Brand consistency matters (single facility per region)
You have Printful Pro subscription and ship 30+ orders/month

Printify wins when

Retail price is below $25 — base costs eat you alive otherwise
You're US-based and ship mostly US
Variety matters more than consistency (1000+ products)

Gelato wins when

50%+ of your buyers are in the EU
You're positioning on sustainability (Gelato is carbon-neutral)
You sell wall art / posters (Gelato's strongest category)

Merch by Amazon wins when

You don't want to handle ANY operations — design, upload, done
You can rank on Amazon's internal search
You're testing designs before committing capital elsewhere

Methodology

Printful, Printify, Gelato base costs from public catalogs as of 2026-04-28. Etsy fee schedule from Etsy Help Center, 2026 edition. Merch by Amazon royalty range from Amazon's public "Royalty Calculator" documentation; the ~$5.40 figure assumes a $24 list price and Tier 1 royalty on a Standard product. Subscription discounts (Printful Plus / Pro, Printify Premium, Gelato+) are not modeled. Currency: USD throughout.

Run your own combination

PODProfit covers Printful and Printify today; Gelato and Merch by Amazon are on the roadmap. Until then, you can use the same side-by-side comparison for the two we do support, and use this article as a sanity check for the other two.