Should you sell on TeePublic or your own Shopify store?

What changes if you sell on your own Shopify store?

On TeePublic the marketplace runs the shop around your designs: joining, uploading and selling are free, and TeePublic handles printing, shipping and customer service. On your own Shopify store those jobs move to you and your print-on-demand app, and so does the margin; each buyer who orders joins your customer list.

TeePublic Help Center and shopify.com/pricing, read October 24, 2026.

The trade underneath is buyers: TeePublic's on-site search is open to Artisan designs, while on your own store bringing buyers in is your job, the rented-audience trade-off our TikTok Shop comparison works through in full.

Can you sell the same designs on Shopify?

Yes, for your original work. TeePublic's help center states its position on artists' rights plainly:

TeePublic even encourages artists to keep several print-on-demand stores open. Redbubble acquired TeePublic in 2018, but in help-center answers last edited in 2019 and 2020, TeePublic says it operates independently with its own staff and platform, and that artists on both sites are paid separately by each.

How does TeePublic decide what you earn?

TeePublic sorts artists into two account categories, Artisan and Apprentice, and a new account sits in a Pending status until one is assigned. Categories are not based on sales: TeePublic names design quality, artistic skill level, volume of designs and consumer appeal among its criteria, and it does not upgrade a category on request.

TeePublic Help Center, Account Categories articles, read October 24, 2026.

Whatever the category, your designs always have a home in your TeePublic store; the category decides whether they also appear in on-site search.

The service fee is a fixed fee charged for each sale through the marketplace, and Artisan accounts get a discount on it. In a help answer last edited in 2019, TeePublic says each product carries fixed artist earnings at its regular price and at its sale price, so an item pays according to your category and the price it sold at. A category change mid-period does not reach back: earnings follow your category at the time of the sale.

TeePublic lists four cases where a sale pays less than you might expect:

• a site-wide sale;
• the first 72 hours after a design goes live;
• a customer coupon for your store;
• a bundle.

When and how does TeePublic pay you?

TeePublic pays earnings on the 15th of every month for all sales made during the previous calendar month, by PayPal or Payoneer, the only two payout options it offers artists. Payments are in US dollars; converting them is a PayPal setting and isn't available in Payoneer.

TeePublic's Services Agreement, as archived in October 2026, sets a $20 threshold for Payoneer payments and holds your earnings for up to 12 months if your payout details are wrong or out of date. If you live in the US, EU or Canada and meet those countries' verification requirements, TeePublic requires you to verify through Stripe, where TeePublic uses your banking information for verification only, and an unverified account can be suspended.

Tax stays with you: TeePublic does not issue 1099s, and its agreement says it collects or pays taxes for you only where local law requires it.

What does adding your own store involve?

TeePublic has its own route: Dashery is its custom merch store for creators with an audience, on your own domain or subdomain, and Artisan accounts can activate it from their TeePublic settings.

Because you do the marketing there, TeePublic says you control the pricing and margin; on the marketplace, its paid marketing is why your earnings carry a greater service fee. You can run both.

A Shopify store is the route outside TeePublic. Shopify Basic costs $39 a month billed monthly, or $29 a month billed yearly, in the US as of October 2026, plus card processing, and print-on-demand apps such as Printful, Printify and Gelato install free and, on their free plans, bill you only when an order sells. Our Redbubble comparison works through what a Shopify print-on-demand store costs.

The plan is the catch: it bills every month whether you sell or not, where TeePublic charges nothing to join, and tax is your responsibility. Price that cost stack, one of Shopify's structural costs, before you open.