RedBubble vs Zazzle vs Society6 | Which Print on Demand Site is Best?
The print on demand industry is getting tons of attention lately. With more and more people being stuck at home, the possibility of making an income from home is more appealing than ever. The great thing about print on demand is that it puts everybody on an even playing field, meaning each person has the same opportunity as the next, so even if you have no experience you can learn to build a successful print on demand business from scratch.
But which print on demand platform is the best? What’s the difference between RedBubble, Zazzle, and Society6? Is RedBubble better than Zazzle or Society6 or is Zazzle better than RedBubble?
The real answer is, it depends on your design syles and what you are looking for in a print on demand marketplace. However, I have created a comparison chart to break down the differences and make it a little easier for you to decide which platform is right for you.
For more detail on Zazzle check this post here.
REDBUBBLE VS ZAZZLE VS SOCIETY6 |
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| Redbubble | Zazzle | Society6 | |
| Designs that Sell | Graphic Art & Animation Designs | Wedding, Girly, Monogram, Holiday, and Customizable Designs | Contemporary Art, Minimal Art, Trendy Designs |
| Products that Sell | T-shirts, Stickers, Phone Cases, & Masks | Stationary, Masks, Mugs, T-Shirts | Wall Art & Home Decor Products |
| Product Variation | Has the least amount of products | Has the most amount of products available | Has a ton of products, not as many as Zazzle. |
| Commission Rates | You set your own commission rate. 20% recommended | 5%-14.9% Anything 15% or more is subject to a transaction fee | 10% set commission rate on everything except art prints, you set your own commission for art prints. |
| Upload Process | Upload to all products at once. Fast and seamless upload process. | Upload to single products at a time. Design tool offers more customization options. | Upload to multiple products at once. However, the process can be slow and glitchy. |
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DESIGNS THAT SELL
Each platform performs better depending on your design style and niche. One way to get a better idea of what types of designs sell on each platform is to open the site in incognito mode and see what is on the first page, what is displayed on the trending page, and what designs show up on the first page of each individual product page.
RedBubble – At first glance, it’s clear that RedBubble does well selling funky graphic art and animations. Think bright bold colors, fun character designs and patterns, as well as fan art for those that get accepted into the fan art program.
Zazzle – Zazzle promotes their wedding content like there’s no tomorrow. Think elegant, rustic, floral designs. They also have huge holiday sales that sell well and customizable designs are popular as well. One thing that makes Zazzle stand out from the three options is that it offers customers the ability to customize the designs by adding text or their own images.
Society6 – Society6 offers more contemporary art designs. There are a lot of more traditional artists getting their designs up on products here. They are very trendy, minimalist designs with a lot of neutral and pastel colors.
PRODUCTS THAT SELL
Each of the print on demand platforms has products that sell better than others. For example, if I were looking for wall art, I would go to Society6, whereas if I was looking for a cool phone case I would likely go to RedBubble. Let’s take a closer look.
RedBubble – T-shirts, stickers, and phone cases are three of RedBubble’s big sellers. T-shirts with cool funky graphics and text sell like crazy along with stickers and phone cases. Masks have also been a big seller since the summer of 2020.
Zazzle – Stationary is a HUGE seller on Zazzle, think of invitations, greeting cards, return address labels, and notepads. Masks have also been a big seller since April of 2020. Mugs and t-shirts have always been consistent sellers as well.
Society6 – Society6 is known for their home decor products. Mostly art prints, as it is a site more geared towards traditional artists selling their art. However rugs, throw pillows, blankets and tapestries are also huge sellers on Society6.
PRODUCT VARIATION
RedBubble – Out of the three print on demand marketplaces, RedBubble has the least amount of variation when it comes to different products that you can put your designs on. RedBubble currently has around 50-75 different products that you can put your designs on. From shirts to bags, to socks, and coasters. While that’s still a good number of products to choose from, it’s not even close to the number of products you can choose from on other platforms.
Zazzle – Zazzle, by far, has the largest number of different products that you can put your designs on. They literally have hundreds of products and consistently add new products to their platform (there’s usually one or two additions each month.) Zazzle offers clothing options like shirts, leggings and socks, they offer baby products like bibs, there are home decor products such as pillows and bathroom products. Zazzle also has games like puzzles, cards, and cornhole. Not to mention all of the stationary options.
Society6 – Society6 has about 100 products listed on their website. They have a lot of home decor products such as wall art, furniture, curtains, and rugs as well as a variety of phone cases and some clothing options. Society6 also has some outdoor items to choose from, mugs, and office supplies, but their strong point is the home decor.
MY RECOMMENDED PRINT ON DEMAND TOOLS
- Creative Fabrica – Where I buy ALL of my graphics and fonts. They have an awesome POD license.
- Drawing Tablet – This is the one that I have. It’s an entry-level, affordable tablet that has allowed me to create graphics I never could have made with a mouse and keyboard.
- Adobe Creative Cloud – Photoshop and Illustrator have allowed me to level up my graphic design skills in a way that wouldn’t have been possible using the free alternatives.
- Canva– I use Canva to assemble the graphics I find on Creative Fabrica and create unique graphics.
COMMISSION RATES
RedBubble – RedBubble has a recommended 20% commission rate. However, you are free to set it to what you want. Take a look at how much each product is typically selling for on the platform already and choose a commission based on that.
Zazzle – Zazzle has a minimum and default commission of 5% and you can set it higher if you would like. Anything set at 15% or higher will be charged a transaction fee. Most sellers set their commission rate to 14.9% to make the most money possible without having to pay an additional fee and keeping their prices competitive.
Society6 – Society6 has a set commissioner rate at 10% for everything on their site except art prints. You can decide your own commission rate for art prints, so it’s best to consider how much time and effort went into your art as well as what the going rate for similar art on the platform is to price your products competitively.
UPLOAD PROCESS
RedBubble – RedBubble lets you upload your design to all of their products at once. Once you upload your designs and put your title, tags, and description in you can then scroll down to adjust each individual item and how the design fits on it. It’s quite an intuitive and simple process. There is limited customization within the RedBubble platform though, so make sure you have created your design with the right specs outside of RedBubble before uploading.
Zazzle – Though Zazzle does offer a quick create tool to upload a single design to multiple products at once, it is quite glitchy and honestly, it’s a pain to use. Therefore, realistically, you can only upload your designs to one product at a time on Zazzle. The great thing about uploading to Zazzle is that they have a simple graphics editor as a part of their upload process where you can add text, shapes, and illustrations to your already created design. This is what makes Zazzle so unique as a print on demand marketplaces and it’s how Zazzle offers customizations to its customers.
Society6 – The Society6 uploading process is similar to RedBubble’s with a few more kinks. It’s a slower process and you will often have to upload a design in multiple sizes to make it fit all of the products. The process feels glitchy and is not as intuitive as with RedBubble or Zazzle.
WHICH IS BEST? REDBUBBLE OR ZAZZLE OR SOCIETY6
Now that we’ve broken down the details of each platform it’s time to decide which print on demand marketplace is best. Clearly, the answer is different for every person, but it seems that RedBubble is the easiest and most intuitive for people to get started with. The second choice being Zazzle for their hundreds of products and customizable design features. Society6 is still a great platform, and if you are already an experienced artist it is probably the best choice for you, but the slow upload process and 10% set commission rate it enough to deter many sellers from spending too much time on the platform.
That being said, you are likely better off uploading your designs to each platform as you will only know which one is right for you by experiencing each one and seeing how you like it and how well your designs sell.
Do you need help making product designs more efficiently? Creative Fabrica has a MASSIVE collection of fully made, ready to go, graphics and fonts to add to your products! I’ve been a member of Creative Fabrica since 2020 and can’t say enough good things about their catalogue.
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ALTERNATIVES TO REDBUBBLE, ZAZZLE, & SOCIETY6
If you don’t like the sounds of any of these platforms, or you just want to get your designs out to an even bigger audience be sure to check out these other print on demand marketplaces as well:
- Merch by Amazon
- CafePress
- Designs by Humans
- TeeSpring
- ViralStyle
- CowCow
Click here for a full list of other print on demand marketplaces.
Recommended for you:
Redbubble Articles
- How Redbubble Works – Seller’s Tips
- Redbubble vs Etsy – Find Out Which is Better for Print on Demand
