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Have you ever tried to order cute matching tops for the squad, but opened the package to find blurry graphics or mis-sized shirts? Total vibe-killer. And if you run an Etsy shop, the stakes are even higher – a bad print batch can tank your shop rating or even derail your latest drop.
Whether you’re pampering your bridal party, building up your streetwear empire, or ordering uniforms for your start-up, quality and reliability are obviously essential. But my ideal shirt printing company will also carry flattering cuts, ship quickly, and make the design process quick and painless. (Bonus points if I can throw in a customized Stanley bottle).
I spent a week researching some of the most popular screen printing companies so you don’t have to. While they all had their pros and cons, three of them rose above the rest.
At a Glance
- Best Overall: BlueCotton
- Best for Personal Events: Vistaprint
- Best for Corporate Shirt Orders: BlueCotton
- Best for Resellers: BlueCotton
- Best for Branded Merch: RushOrderTees
What I Looked For
- Quality: Some companies offer high-quality shirts that’ll live through hundreds of washes, others sell shirts so cheap and sheer that you’ll need to coordinate your bra. Print quality can also vary wildly. Peeling graphics aren’t cute, so you want a printer that does it right.
- Value: Lower-quality shirts can be a great budget option for a sorority party, but they can trash your reputation if you’re running an online t-shirt shop. For each category, I tried to balance quality and budget to find the best choice.
- Selection: If I’m ordering custom anything, I want it to fit my style and the overall look I’m going for. Sometimes that means racerback tanks, sometimes that means v-necks. I checked each printer’s garment selection to see the styles and brands available, with both fashion and budget in mind.
- Design Process: We’re not all pro graphic designers, and that’s okay. The printing companies in this list provide easy-peasy design platforms that literally anyone can use to bring their vision to life in just a few clicks.
- Shipping: There’s nothing worse than waiting forever for your purchase to arrive. I checked out each company’s shipping options, whether they guarantee delivery dates, and if their customer reviews reflect their promises.
Customization Methods
- Screen Printing: Ink is pressed onto the shirt through stenciled mesh screens, one color at a time, resulting in smooth, slightly raised prints
- Direct-to-Garment Printing: Water-based inks are applied directly to the fabric for a softer print that may fade with frequent washing
- Heat Transfer: Heat is used to transfer art from a sheet of film onto the fabric. Great for elaborate designs, but may peel off over time
- Embroidery: Your design is embroidered onto the fabric using specialized machines.
Best for Personal Events: Vistaprint
If you’re looking to print a batch of shirts for a pub crawl or birthday party on a budget, Vistaprint has you covered. They’re one of the more affordable shirt customization brands, as they run frequent sales throughout the year. Unlike many screen printing companies, they don’t have a minimum order quantity, so you can also just grab a single shirt for yourself.
Here’s the thing: Vistaprint doesn’t provide the highest quality printing, and you can’t count on consistency between batches. If you’re just looking for fun matching tops to wear for a little while, they’ll definitely get the job done. But if you’re a reseller, I have a killer recommendation for you further down the list.
Their shirt selection includes crewnecks, v-necks, long-sleeves, hoodies, tanks, and even kids’ shirts from brand names like Jerzees, Gildan, and Bella+Canvas. They do screen printing, direct-to-garment printing, heat transfer, and embroidery, providing an option for every budget.
Their design studio is clean and simple, with pre-made icons, graphics, and even photographs that you can quickly pop into your design. While you can also generate images using their design assistant, this tech is extremely basic, and I couldn’t get it to create anything I truly vibed with.
Fair warning – make sure you order your shirts with a few weeks to spare, as their shipping speeds can be a little unreliable. If you need help with your order, you can connect with them through chat or by calling their support line.
Best for Corporate Shirt Orders: BlueCotton
If you’re ordering shirts for a company event or team uniform, you need to step things up a bit in the quality department. BlueCotton is the gold standard for reliability in this area. They have a whopping 9-step quality control system – you’ll have real humans checking in on your order at each step of the process, from design to shipping.
If something needs to be tweaked in your artwork, a professional designer will reach out for a little chat, so you don’t wind up with a nasty surprise the day before a trade show or fundraiser. And on the slim chance they still somehow make a mistake on your order, they’ll reprint it for free.
They print on high-quality shirts, sweats, athleisure wear, and jackets from brands like Hanes, Gildan, American Apparel, and Champion. You can even order customized Eddie Bauer parkas, which I love! They have a 6-piece order minimum for their screen printing, direct-to-film heat transfer, and embroidery, which isn’t too bad.
For me, what really solidified their place as the best corporate printer is their approach to samples. They offer free printed samples for all orders of 250+ pieces. If you have a smaller order, you can purchase a printed sample for $100, and that cost will be applied to your bulk order when you move forward. None of the other companies I looked at offered this, so this was an easy win.
Their guaranteed delivery dates mean you don’t have to sweat about meeting your deadline, which is a huge relief if you’re ordering for a big event or need uniforms for a new group of hires. They even offer one-day shipping, so you’re covered even in emergencies (like when Todd from Marketing drops the ball).
Best for Resellers: BlueCotton
If you’re designing tops for your Etsy or Shopify store, you want the shirts to be durable and your prints to look GOOD. BlueCotton’s design studio is incredibly easy to use, and lets even design newbies create scroll-stopping graphics. Not only do they have 40,000 clip art images available for use, you can create your own unique designs using their text-to-image AI generator. And with just one click, you can give your artwork a cool, distressed, vintage look. That feature alone won my loyalty.
Their product catalog includes short- and long-sleeved tees, pocket tees, muscle tanks, racerbacks, sweats, jerseys, and shorts, so you can create head-to-toe looks for any vibe. BlueCotton’s fans love the quality of their shirts and prints, which is fabulous news for your own reviews.
A lot of companies outsource their printing to third-party vendors who may not use the same machines, inks, or techniques, so your reorders can arrive looking slightly different. Since BlueCotton handles all of their production on-site, your restocks will be a perfect match. And reordering is super simple – just a few clicks, and your restock is ready for production. No fuss, no muss.
Best for Branded Merch: RushOrderTees
Sometimes, shirts just aren’t enough. If you’re looking for branded gear that fits a range of budgets, RushOrderTees should be on your radar. They have no order minimum, so you can grab 5 matching duffles for a yoga retreat or 500 pens for tradeshow season.
They carry a literal ton of customizable products. Need branded notebooks and lanyards? They’ve got you. Want cute matching tumblers for your girls’ trip? They have Stanley, Owala, and Yeti. They have a crazy number of bags available, from totes to coolers. You can even personalize headphones and Bluetooth speakers from brands like Sony, SkullCandy, and Beats by Dre.
Unlike the other companies on this list, RushOrderTees doesn’t provide any clip art in their design studio, but you can use their generative AI to create logos and graphics. They also have a handy feature that lets you compare different product options to see which looks best with your artwork.
Note: Since they outsource all of their printing, you do get hit with a middleman markup, but at least their standard shipping is free.
Best Overall: BlueCotton
As BlueCotton swept three of the five categories easily, this one was a no-brainer. They have an insane level of quality control, zero middleman markups, guaranteed delivery dates for their standard and rush shipping, and an intuitive, easy-to-use design platform.
Their fans rave about their super-friendly customer service team, cozy hoodies, and great-looking prints. Resellers, event planners, and HR pros will love their generous sample policy, which includes free printed samples for larger orders.
They have a ton of cute shirt options to fit every body type and vibe, from flowy tanks to fitted tees, with styles available in up to 27 different colors. If you’re a loungey girlie like me, you’re going to love their customizable sweat sets, with short and pant options. Perfect for bridal parties, group cabin trips, and solo Bravo binges.
When I’m spending over $100 on anything, I want peace of mind. BlueCotton not only offers free reprints on the rare occasion that they mess up an order, they’ll actually give you a reorder discount of up to 50% if YOU make a mistake – that’s wild. Best of all, you don’t even need to haul the faulty order back to the post office and return it.
Have you tried BlueCotton? Did I miss your go-to printing company? Let me know in the comments!