Last Updated on November 23, 2025 by Ewen Finser
When I first placed an order for custom shirts for a community fundraiser (a marathon, actually), I went through Custom Ink. We had months to prepare, as this was an annual event, and lots of shirts to order. But then our budget got tighter and our delivery window shorter. Now I needed something with faster guaranteed rush options, more flexible order minimums, and direct quality control. So I started looking at top alternatives to Custom Ink, like:
However, there are a lot of specific reasons why each company might be better suited to your needs, so I’m breaking them down by feature and top priorities for your business model to make it easier for you to choose.
Price and Bulk Discounts
Let’s start with the most important thing for most people: price. When price became an issue for me, so did Custom Ink. Why? Custom Ink is a middleman. You give your order to them, and then they outsource that order to different printers. Each time this happens, it increases your cost.
That’s why I had to look elsewhere and was surprised by what I found:
- BlueCotton was the best Custom Ink alternative where cost was concerned; they have in-house facilities, so they don’t send jobs out to multiple printers. This means no middleman. It also equates to better prices. BlueCotton is a better option for small organizations, especially those placing orders between 50–300+ pieces with recurring needs.
- Underground Shirts also eliminates the middleman, giving you better margins as a customer if you are ordering more than 300 pieces.
- Printify has made a name for itself because of its competitive pricing, but the catch is that pricing is limited to blank products. This means you get highly competitive pricing for the blank piece of apparel, but not necessarily for your custom print job. It’s also important to know that they have a network of print providers, which can lead to wider margins as a customer. Still, they might be less expensive for a one-off job.
My top pick: BlueCotton for the bulk pricing discounts.
Sample Policy
After I figured out I needed a cheaper price, I needed to make sure the quality was there, and in my mind, that starts with a sample. I have accuracy issues according to WebMD (just kidding). Still, accuracy was important; one year, we bulk ordered shirts for a church event, and it wasn’t the printing that was bad, it was the material of the shirt (so scratchy!) The youth made jokes that we were punishing them with homespun shirts just like the figures in our stories.
That said, Custom Ink has a pretty standard approach to their samples, but several alternatives do it better:
- BlueCotton has the best policy by far. They have free printed samples for 250+ piece orders, with refundable samples ($100 credited back) for smaller orders, plus blank garment samples for fit + feel testing
- Printify lets you order an individual sample at cost so you can test one sample before you place a bigger order.
- Printful lets you place a sample at a discount on larger orders, giving you a low-risk test sample before you commit to the bigger order. Still, nowhere nearly as good as BlueCotton.
My top pick: BlueCotton for the best sample policy by far.
Minimum Order Amount
One of the issues I had with Custom Ink was their minimum order amount (6 items). Now, when I went to them for a work conference, no big deal, we obviously needed more than 6, but when I tried to order a smaller amount for a community group, it was a problem.
- Printify doesn’t have a minimum order amount. You can order a single shirt or sweatshirt, or hundreds. This is, however, the same as their “sample” policy, if one can call it that.
- Underground Shirts let you order samples or one-off, limited runs with no minimum order quantities required.
- BlueCotton is the same as Custom Ink here; 6-piece minimum.
My top pick: Printify for the ability to order a one-off with no minimum order
Order Processing & Turnaround Time
This is the biggest reason why I started looking elsewhere. When I had to order shirts for a (very) last-minute event, I was worried that they wouldn’t arrive on time. I didn’t have a single day to waste on delayed deliveries. Custom Ink typically has a 2-week turnaround time, and that simply didn’t work. So here’s what I found:
- BlueCotton has a streamlined turnaround time, with a single timeline that includes production and shipping. No surprises there and no risk of anything getting stuck halfway through the process.
- Printful and Printify both fulfill 50% of orders in 3 days, which is a lot faster than Custom Ink.
My top pick: Honestly, any of these
Reordering Ease
For some events, like our community marathon, we know it will happen annually, and we need to know we can reorder with ease, keeping a lot of the customization options the same, only tweaking the design. Custom Ink let us save our designs, but so did some competitors:
- BlueCotton and Underground Shirts make it simple to save previous designs and reorder with a single click. This is better suited to large organizations like schools, churches, businesses, and nonprofits that need bulk orders.
- Printify and Printful have it such that you can automate reordering fulfillment. So this is obviously a better fit if you sell merchandise online and need orders to be automatically fulfilled (printed) when someone places an online purchase, rather than manual reordering. This is better for influencers or online stores selling merch.
My top pick: Underground Shirts for their ability to save designs, but Printify for e-commerce stores
Standard Shipping Options
If your issue with Custom Ink had to do with limited shipping options, you have a few good alternatives:
- BlueCotton offers free standard shipping to all 50 states, with a 10-business-day window for free.
- Underground Shirts will give free shipping if you order above a set dollar amount, but they don’t have the same 10-business-day guarantee.
- Printify and Printful let you move away from Custom Ink’s structured shipping tiers by choosing from multiple carrier options (for a fee).
My top pick: BlueCotton; free shipping with a 10-day window. What’s not to love?
Rush Shipping Options
Custom Ink lacked a lot where rush shipping options were concerned. The company would have been my go-to when I needed something at the last minute with their “Super Rush” option.
Unfortunately, a “Super Rush” meant 3 days. Sometimes that’s not good enough.
- BlueCotton is the best alternative here, with their “Shirts in a Day” option. This includes a guaranteed delivery date calendar when you check out (comes with a fee, of course). And all of this is only possible because they handle all their operations in-house.
- Underground Shirts is a close second; they can offer a “2-Day Lightning Rush” option because of multiple physical business locations, 30 to be precise. They claim customers can pick up from one of their locations or take delivery, but there is nothing on their website about limited locations/customer options for this.
- Printify also offers an express option, between 2-3 business days, but that is limited to specific product lines, such as the Gildan 5000 clothing line.
My top pick: BlueCotton. Shirts in a day. No contest.
Guarantees
I love a guarantee. I think it speaks to the professionalism of a company. So I’ll admit, I liked that Custom Ink provides a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, but “satisfaction” is such a generic term. What else do the alternatives have?
- BlueCotton has in-house control. That means every step of the process is done in-house (goodbye CS excuses of “Well, that part was done by this other company, not here…”) and you get guarantees that products won’t have stains, holes, or other defects. They also have a 9-step quality check with real-time human oversight, in-house corrections when errors happen, and transparent communication.
- Printful has a 3-step QC process, but the fine print of their “guarantee” also differentiates between what they consider a defect and what you might call “buyer’s remorse.”
My top pick: BlueCotton with a 9-step QC check and complete in-house control
Summing Up
Custom Ink has a good range of product lines, but there are simply better alternatives today. BlueCotton is a winner when it comes to better cost control for bulk pricing and faster shipping models, whereas Printify can give you on-demand print with low risk.
So while Custom Ink has a singular approach, these alternatives might be a better fit for individual preferences or business needs.