Print-on-Demand: Society6 vs Redbubble

Print-on-demand services area great way to offer merchandise with your designs. While usually not the most profitable way to make merch, these companies take care of storing, creating, shipping, and customer service so you don’t have to. Two big players right now are Society6 and Redbubble.

Which one is right for me?

This might be your big question. Busy creators can’t always dedicate themselves to two separate, similar sites, and be able to market both shops. It can also be awkward when both Society6 and Redbubble offer similar things – your customers could become paralyzed, wondering which similar product is better for its price.

I purchased some items these sites had in common, using the same designs to carefully compare quality. I also looked at artist margins and prices, and which exclusive items each site provides that the other does not.

Product comparison

I purchased from each site a regular art print, a tote bag, a travel mug, and a sticker. Society6 and Redbubble each have their strengths, but neither came out on top.

Art prints

Prints are a staple of each of these sites – in fact, it’s the base product on Society6. You must upload an image as a print before making it available for any other product. Altogether, the quality was good for both sites and the two products were pretty comparable with only minor differences.

Prints from Society6 (left) and Redbubble (right).

However, the Society6 print exhibited some strange horizontal lines upon close inspection. If your art has flat blocks of color like this Ludo print, be aware that this might crop up. The Redbubble print had no such issues.

A closeup of the Society6 print – horizontal lines can be seen in the flat gray area.

As you can see, the two prints aren’t exactly the same size and have slightly different margins – this comes down to preference. Their base prices are almost identical.

Totes

The tote designs were sized differently (the Redbubble tote is zoomed in), but ultimately the print quality was the same for these. The bags featured slightly different construction – Redbubble’s bag has a thin, almost silky black lining on the inside. Society6 has a sturdy black interior made of the same canvas material as the outside. This might make Society6’s totes sturdier in the long run, though I haven’t tested it. Redbubble’s tote has a lighter feel.

Tote bags from Society6 (left) and Redbubble (right).

Appropriately, I think, Society6’s sturdy tote is a few dollars more than Redbubble’s. However, both totes seem high quality and sturdy enough for most applications. Society6’s has a tiny Society6 tag on the side of the bag – if another company’s branding on your product bothers you, you might want to stick with Redbubble this time.

Stickers

This is where things get interesting. Society6 recently began offering stickers, which Redbubble has carried for a long time. These products showed the most variance.

Stickers from Society6 (left) and Redbubble (right).

Redbubble’s stickers are pretty basic – a papery texture, a thick white border, and many sizes. We at Azdion have ordered many stickers from Redbubble before, and the printing is usually good quality. When it’s not, Redbubble’s outstanding customer service will work with you to make it right.

Society6 is new to the sticker game, but at the moment their offerings are very tempting. Their stickers are glossy, with a plastic-y feel, and they offer both white and transparent stickers. We ordered the white background stickers for this comparison, but transparent sounds very cool. They also offer a lot of sizes (though they don’t go as large as Redbubble), and the print quality is a bit better.

Redbubble’s stickers come printed on a sheet – if you order several stickers, several designs will be printed onto the same big piece of sticker paper. The recipient must cut them apart or peel all their stickers off the same big chunk. It doesn’t look professional, but it is practical. Society6 puts each sticker on its own Society6-branded square.

If you buy stickers to sell at a convention, you can always cut them down if you like, to separate designs or remove branding depending on the site you order from. For the record, Redbubble’s sticker paper is easy to draw on with markers, so you can use the excess paper to create some hand-drawn stickers. We haven’t yet tried drawing on Society6 stickers.

Appropriately, the Society6 stickers are a bit more expensive by size. Their smallest size is 2 inches, and the largest is 6 inches. Redbubble starts at 4 inches wide and can go as large as 14 inches, if your design is big enough.

Travel Mugs

This is the same mug. It is the exact same mug, and each company slaps your design on it. I can personally confirm that the base mug is high quality. It doesn’t leak easily, it’s dishwasher safe, and it’s practically indestructible – though the design might scratch off if you bang it up too much. You can drop this mug on the road and still have your beverage intact when you pick it up.

Travel mugs from Society6 (left) and Redbubble (right).

I ordered the same design from each site, and the size and position of the print ended up mostly the same. There’s a seam where the edges of the design meet each other, and as the mug widens near the top the design can look stretched. This is the same for both Society6 and Redbubble – designing for mugs is just a difficult art.

Society6 provided vastly better color quality than Redbubble. The blue is bright and fresh and the fish are warm and orange. Redbubble’s colors looked muddy by comparison, with greenish water and dark shadows on the fish. Redbubble did well with another mug I own, Delicious Juicy Citrus, which looks as nice and orange as can be. It might be that Redbubble just struggles with a wider color range on these mugs.

Despite being the same base products, Society6’s mugs have a slightly higher base price. However, this may be worth it for the color quality.

Cost and margin comparison

Altogether, Society6’s products were more expensive. The base prices were consistently a few dollars more than Redbubble’s base prices on most items. When I say base price, this doesn’t include artist margins.

Artist margins will vary. Society6 has a set margin for most items – you can only set your own margin for prints. Otherwise, margins seem to be determined as 0.1(price – 0.99). That is to say, subtract 99 cents from the retail price of the item, then take ten percent of the result. That is your margin.

On Redbubble, you can pick your own margin for everything. If your designs are in high demand, you can raise the prices a little bit to make more, or you can set them lower to make them more affordable to your fans. However, Redbubble has potential for much better margins.

On both sites, you can buy your own designs at the base price. Redbubble has this feature built in, and will show you the base price on your own work when you’re logged in. Society6 just charges you the full price and pays your account, so it still basically comes out the same.

Product offerings

These sites have a lot of products in common, such as art prints, stickers, totes, travel mugs, leggings, clocks, wall tapestries, throw pillows, and the list goes on. However, each site has a few items that the other doesn’t have at this time.

Some of Society6’s notable exclusive items are transparent stickers, duffle bags and backpacks, “print all over” shirts, and many home items like rugs, curtains, and even wallpaper.

Redbubble’s focus is more on unique clothing, and it offers dresses, skirts, scarves, and a lot of different shirt styles. You can also get posters – an inexpensive alternative to regular prints – and photo prints, which come in smaller sizes and lower prices. If you want cheaper art options, these are great products.

Other considerations

Redbubble has consistent sales. Every Monday is a 20% off sale, and at other times during the week they’ll often have sales on specific item categories. Society6 sales come around less often and are less predictable, but usually last longer. To make up for this, Society6 includes small coupons in some orders to encourage customers to return and buy something else within a few weeks.

Depending on the type of work you do, one site may appeal to you more because of its brand or audience. Redbubble cultivates a fun and quirky brand, while Society6 seems to go for a more sophisticated and high-end look. You can upload whatever you want to either site as long as it doesn’t break any rules, but one might have a better audience than the other for your work.

Redbubble has groups where you can submit your designs. These groups usually follow a theme or focus on a specific product, like stickers. This can be a good way to get your work out there.

Redbubble also allows you to have private products, where only you can see and buy them. This can be useful if you want to test a design to make sure it prints well, or need a quick way to produce an exclusive product.

In the end, the service you use to sell merchandise depends on what you want. Branding, profit margins, product and printing quality, product variety, and sales are all factors to consider. In the end, I think it doesn’t hurt to set up shop on both sites, if you have the time for it. But if you don’t, hopefully this post gives you some information you need to make the decision that’s right for you.