If you are comparing print-on-demand suppliers, "pricing" doesn't mean one number. It means how the supplier charges you, what the real per-order cost is, and whether a paid plan pays for itself. This guide walks through all three for Prodigi, with worked math you can copy for your own products.
How Prodigi's pricing model works
Prodigi runs a pay-per-order model with no inventory and no upfront spend. There are no setup fees, no listing fees, and no monthly subscription on the standard account, per Prodigi's payments FAQ. You are only billed once a customer buys.
That means the "price" you care about isn't a plan price — it's the landed cost of each order. You set any retail price you like and keep the difference. This is the same core mechanic every major supplier uses, and we break down the full economics in our guide to print-on-demand cost economics.
What you actually pay Prodigi per order
The number in the product editor is the base cost — not your full bill. On a real order, Prodigi's invoice has three parts, as described in its payments FAQ:
- Base cost — a fixed wholesale rate to manufacture the item (the blank plus the print).
- Shipping — priced by the product, the destination, and the delivery speed you pick.
- Tax where applicable — for example VAT on EU-billed orders.
So your true math is:
Profit = (retail price + shipping you charge the customer) − (base cost + Prodigi shipping + tax) − payment-processor fees.
Notice two things beginners miss. Supplier shipping is a real cost on your side of the ledger, and the shipping you charge the buyer is revenue you control. The gap between them is a margin lever. If you offer free shipping, you are absorbing Prodigi's shipping charge, so it has to be baked into your retail price or your margin quietly disappears.
Prodigi Pro: is the subscription worth it?
Prodigi's only paid tier is Prodigi Pro. It costs £40/month billed monthly, or £35/month billed annually (£420/year), and gives 15% off most products plus 10% off apparel, according to the Prodigi Pro page. It also includes a 50% discount on your first sample order and branded packing slips, per the same page.
The key structural point: Pro doesn't unlock tools you otherwise lack. It lowers your per-unit cost. That makes it a pure volume decision — the subscription is worth it once your monthly discount savings exceed the monthly fee, and not before.
Prodigi Pro break-even math
Say your typical product is a wall-art print with an £8 base cost. Pro's 15% discount saves you £1.20 per print (£8 × 0.15 = £1.20). Against the £40 monthly fee:
£40 ÷ £1.20 ≈ 34 orders per month to break even.
Now say you mostly sell apparel with a £12 base cost. Apparel gets the smaller 10% discount, so you save £1.20 per shirt there too (£12 × 0.10 = £1.20), and the break-even is the same ~34 orders. On the annual plan (£35/month effective), £35 ÷ £1.20 ≈ 30 orders per month.
Below roughly 30–34 orders a month, the free account is the correct choice. The discount percentages and prices above are from Prodigi's Pro page, captured for this article; check the live page for your currency, since it can display USD or EUR.
A worked profit example
Let's price a single apparel order end to end. Prodigi's own FAQ uses a simple illustration — a tee that costs $10 to make and $5 to ship, sold for $20, earning $5 — in its payments FAQ. Real life adds payment fees and customer-paid shipping, so let's make it complete.
Say you sell that tee at a $29.99 retail price and charge the customer $5.99 for shipping:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Retail price | $29.99 |
| Shipping charged to customer | $5.99 |
| Customer pays | $35.98 |
| Base cost (make the tee) | −$10.00 |
| Prodigi shipping | −$5.00 |
| Payment processing (~2.9% + $0.30) | −$1.34 |
| Your profit | ≈ $19.64 |
The base cost and shipping figures here follow the illustration in Prodigi's payments FAQ; the retail and fee lines are an example, not a quote. The lesson is that the naive "retail minus base cost" ($29.99 − $10 = $19.99) hides two real costs. Model the full invoice plus processing fees every time, and you'll price with your eyes open — the same discipline we apply in our Printful socks cost breakdown vs Printify.
Prodigi vs Printify vs Printful on price
Where does Prodigi land against the two biggest names? On base cost, Prodigi generally sits above Printify's cheapest marketplace providers but often below Printful, according to a Prodigi review by Ecommerce-Platforms. The tradeoffs behind that ranking:
- Printify is a marketplace of independent providers, so the same blueprint can cost very different amounts depending on who fills it. That competition tends to produce the lowest base costs.
- Printful runs its own facilities. You pay more per unit for tighter consistency and support.
- Prodigi leans on a global network with strong fine-art and framed-print quality, priced in between for many items.
None of these is "cheapest" outright — the winner depends on your product mix and where your customers are. If you sell wall art and canvas, Prodigi's quality focus matters more than a dollar of base cost; our look at canvas-on-demand print quality and pricing covers that category in depth.
How to set your markup
Prodigi recommends a markup of at least 30%, or 40–60% if you offer free shipping, per its pricing and commission guide. The reason free shipping needs the bigger cushion is exactly the ledger point above: you are absorbing the supplier shipping charge, so it has to live inside your retail price.
Free shipping is still often worth it, because it converts. Prodigi's guide cites that 9 out of 10 consumers name free shipping as their top incentive to shop online, in the same pricing guide. Just make sure the "free" is priced in, not given away.
The number most sellers get wrong: true per-order profit
Here's the trap. Suppliers show you base cost. Your bank shows you revenue. Neither shows you profit per order after supplier shipping, payment fees, and — the biggest omission — the ad spend that won the sale. A tee that looks like $19 of margin can be a loser once you attribute the Meta or Google click that drove it.
That's the gap PodVector is built to close. It connects your Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Printify, and Printful data and computes your true per-order profit — landed supplier cost, fees, and attributed ad spend, netted out per order. Victor, its AI employee, analyzes that live data and proposes moves, taking Shopify-side actions with your approval. He reads your ad data to find what's actually profitable, but he does not touch your ad account. PodVector is not a dashboard you have to read — it's an employee that does the reading for you. If your store already runs on Printify or Printful, it's the fastest way to stop guessing which orders make money.
FAQs
Does Prodigi charge a monthly fee?
No. The standard Prodigi account has no monthly, setup, or listing fees — you pay only the per-order cost after a sale, according to Prodigi's payments FAQ. The only recurring charge is the optional Prodigi Pro subscription, which you can skip entirely.
How much does Prodigi Pro cost and what does it include?
Prodigi Pro is £40/month billed monthly or £35/month billed annually (£420/year), and it gives 15% off most products plus 10% off apparel, along with a 50% discount on your first sample order, per the Prodigi Pro page. Treat it as a volume decision — it pays off only once your monthly discount savings beat the fee.
How is Prodigi's shipping priced?
Shipping is set per order based on three factors — the product, the delivery destination, and the shipping speed you choose — as described in Prodigi's payments FAQ. There is no single flat rate; the true figure appears at order time, so always check it in your own product setup rather than assuming.
Is Prodigi cheaper than Printify or Printful?
It depends on the product. Prodigi's base costs generally run above Printify's cheapest providers but often below Printful's, according to a Prodigi review by Ecommerce-Platforms. For a hands-on cost comparison of two suppliers on a single product, see our Printful vs Printify socks cost breakdown.
What markup should I add on Prodigi products?
Prodigi suggests at least a 30% markup, or 40–60% if you offer free shipping, in its pricing and commission guide. The higher band covers the supplier shipping you absorb when shipping is "free," so bake that cost into your retail price rather than eating it.
Can I test Prodigi quality before I sell?
Yes — you can order samples of your own products, and Prodigi Pro members get 50% off their first sample order, per the Prodigi Pro page. Samples still carry real base cost and shipping, so budget for them as a normal cost of launching a store. If you're setting up a storefront to sell them, our walkthrough of how a Printify pop-up store works covers the storefront side.