If you sell blankets on Shopify, "which supplier is cheaper" is the wrong question to stop at. The number in the product editor is the base cost, not the full invoice — and the full invoice is what decides your margin. This guide puts Printful and Printify blanket costs side by side, then walks the actual per-order math the comparison posts skip.
Printful blanket cost vs Printify: base costs side by side
Start with what each supplier charges to make the blank-and-print. Printify's own catalog lists custom blankets starting from $6.76, with the popular styles landing higher, according to Printify's custom blanket page:
| Blanket style | Printify "from" base |
|---|---|
| Arctic fleece blanket | $12.84 |
| Velveteen microfiber blanket | $13.29 |
| Sherpa blanket | $17.46 |
| Sherpa fleece blanket | $24.29 |
| Throw blanket | $27.29 |
| Fleece sherpa blanket | $31.88 |
Printful's custom blankets "range from $25.75 to $45.90, plus shipping," per Printful's custom photo blanket page, covering sherpa and plush fleece in a handful of sizes.
Put those together and Printify's marketplace generally wins on base cost, sometimes by a wide margin on lighter fleece styles. The exception is worth knowing: one POD roundup found Printful's throw blanket runs about $1.80 cheaper than Printify's throw blanket, according to Passive Marketeer. Style matters more than the platform's overall reputation.
This mirrors the pattern on apparel, where Printful's tee base runs several dollars above Printify's cheapest provider — a gap laid out in our full breakdown of POD cost economics.
Why the same blanket costs different amounts
Printful runs its own facilities, so its blanket price is one number set by one company. Printify is a marketplace of independent print providers, and each sets its own base cost for the same blueprint. That is why a "sherpa fleece blanket" shows more than one price inside Printify.
The trade-off is consistency versus cost. An owned network like Printful tends to give you steadier quality and one support desk, while a marketplace lets you shop for the lowest base cost — at the risk of more variability between providers. Neither is automatically "better"; they optimize for different things.
The same tension shows up across the catalog. You can see it play out on lighter goods in our Printful vs Printify tank top comparison and on heavier apparel in the long-sleeve shirt cost breakdown.
Shipping is the line that decides blanket margin
Blankets are bulky, so shipping is a bigger share of the invoice than it is on a tee. Both suppliers price shipping on a first-item / additional-item basis, per provider, per destination — the first blanket pays the full rate, and each additional item from the same provider ships cheaper.
Two practical consequences follow. First, the exact shipping number is destination-specific and only truthful in your own product editor at order time, so treat any published rate as a ballpark. Second, if a customer buys two blankets from the same provider, your per-blanket shipping cost drops sharply, which makes bundles structurally more profitable than single-item orders.
There is also a spread you control: what you charge the buyer for shipping versus what the supplier bills you. Offer "free shipping" on a blanket and you're absorbing that whole supplier cost — it has to be priced into the blanket, or your margin quietly disappears.
Worked example: per-order profit on a sherpa blanket
Say you sell a 50" × 60" sherpa fleece blanket for $59.99 and charge $7.99 shipping. The customer pays $67.98 either way. We'll use Printify's sherpa fleece base of $24.29 from its catalog, assume supplier shipping of $8.50 on a heavy item, and a payment fee of 2.9% + $0.30.
Printify path:
- Customer pays: $59.99 + $7.99 = $67.98
- Base cost: −$24.29
- Supplier shipping (assumed): −$8.50
- Payment processing (2.9% × $67.98 + $0.30): −$2.27
- Profit: 67.98 − 24.29 − 8.50 − 2.27 = $32.92
Now the Printful path, taking a mid-range base of about $32 from that $25.75–$45.90 Printful range, with the same shipping and fee assumptions:
- Customer pays: $67.98
- Base cost: −$32.00
- Supplier shipping (assumed): −$8.50
- Payment processing: −$2.27
- Profit: 67.98 − 32.00 − 8.50 − 2.27 = $25.21
On this blanket, Printify leaves roughly $7.71 more per order — almost entirely from the base-cost gap. Flip to a plain throw blanket, where Printful can be the cheaper of the two, and that gap narrows or reverses. This is exactly why "profit = retail − base cost" is the wrong formula: it drops supplier shipping and payment fees, the two lines that quietly shrink blanket margin.
Subscriptions: when Premium or Growth pays off
Both suppliers sell a discount plan, and both are pure volume math on a high-base item like a blanket.
Printify Premium runs from $39/month, or $24.99/month billed yearly, and its live pricing page headlines "up to 33%" off products while most sellers plan around a typical figure closer to 20%, per Printify's pricing page. On a $24.29 sherpa base, a 20% cut saves about $4.86 per blanket. At the annual rate: $24.99 ÷ $4.86 ≈ 5–6 blankets a month to break even. Because a blanket's base cost is much higher than a tee's, Premium pays for itself faster on blankets than on shirts.
Printful's Growth plan is $24.99/month, offers up to 33% off product pricing, and becomes free once your store passes $12,000/year in sales, per Printful's pricing page. On a $32 blanket base, a 33% cut is about $10.56 saved per order, so roughly three discounted blankets a month covers the fee — and above the sales threshold the plan costs nothing.
The point isn't the exact percentage; it's that a paid plan is only worth it above your break-even volume. Below it, the free tier is the correct choice. There's more on subscription break-even mechanics in the POD cost economics hub.
So which should you pick?
For most blanket styles — sherpa, plush fleece, velveteen — Printify's lower base cost gives you more room per order, and its Premium plan sharpens that further at modest volume. Choose Printful when you value one owned production line, steadier consistency, and a single support desk, or when the specific blanket (like a plain throw) happens to price close to or below Printify's.
The honest answer is that the "cheaper" supplier changes by style and destination, so the only way to know your real number is to model the full invoice — base cost, supplier shipping, and payment fees — against the price you actually charge.
That's the gap PodVector is built to close. It connects Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Printify, and Printful, then computes your true per-order profit on every blanket you sell — supplier cost, shipping, and fees included, not just retail minus base cost. Victor, its AI operator, reads that live data and proposes moves you approve, taking the Shopify-side actions himself while leaving your ad accounts untouched. It's not a dashboard you have to stare at; it's an operator that does the margin math for you.
FAQs
Is Printify or Printful cheaper for blankets?
Printify is usually cheaper on base cost across most blanket styles — sherpa, plush fleece, and velveteen all tend to start lower than Printful's range, per Printify's catalog and Printful's blanket page. The exception is the plain throw blanket, where one roundup found Printful about $1.80 cheaper, according to Passive Marketeer. Always check the two live prices for the exact blanket and size you plan to sell.
How much does a custom blanket cost to make?
On Printify, custom blankets start from $6.76, with popular sherpa styles around the mid-$20s, per Printify. On Printful, custom blankets run from $25.75 to $45.90 plus shipping, per Printful. Those are base costs only — add supplier shipping and payment fees to get your true landed cost.
Why is blanket shipping so expensive?
Blankets are heavy and bulky, so they sit in a higher shipping band than apparel. Shipping is priced first-item / additional-item, per provider, per destination, which means a second blanket in the same order ships much cheaper than the first — a reason to bundle. The only fully accurate figure is the one shown in your product editor for the destination at order time.
Does the Printify Premium or Printful Growth plan pay off for blankets?
It depends on your volume. Printify Premium (from $39/month, or $24.99/month yearly, up to 33% off headline) needs only a handful of blankets a month to break even because a blanket's base cost is high, per Printify. Printful Growth ($24.99/month, up to 33% off, free above $12,000/year in sales) pays off at similarly low volume, per Printful. Below your break-even count, stay on the free tier.
What's the real profit on a print-on-demand blanket?
It's your retail price plus what you charge for shipping, minus base cost, supplier shipping, supplier tax, and payment fees. In the worked example above, a $59.99 sherpa blanket left roughly $32.92 profit through Printify versus $25.21 through Printful on the same assumptions. Your real number depends on the style, destination, and plan — which is why modeling the full invoice per order beats any single headline price.