Printfection has been in the corporate gifting industry for more than two decades now. But is the platform’s age a testament to its capabilities? In this blog, we’ll cover Printfection’s key features, pricing, pros and cons, and who it’s best suited for. We hope that by the end of this article, you’ll know for yourself if Printfection is a worthy choice for your swag management platform partner. Let’s begin!

Printfection Overview

Printfection was founded in 2004 by Casey Schorr and Kevin Materi while they were students at the University of Denver. The company, based in Denver, Colorado, specializes in branded merchandise solutions tailored for marketing, HR, and sales teams.

In 2022, Custom Ink acquired Printfection, but the latter continues to operate as a largely independent unit providing swag management services to its users.

Main Features

Printfection has a lot to offer, but what are its key strengths? We’ve listed them here.

Swag support for internal and external teams

Printfection aims to empower your marketing, HR & people ops, sales, and customer success teams to elevate your brand engagement. By integrating into your existing workflows, the platform enables you to send personalized swag directly from your CRM, which helps accelerate deals and strengthen your customer and employee relationships. Printfection simplifies engagement with your internal and external audiences, all while tracking impact and ROI in real time.

Reporting

Speaking of ROI, another one of Printfection’s key features is its reporting capabilities for both swag inventory and swag campaigns. For your inventory, you can track your budgets and expenditures to ensure you don’t go overboard. You can also identify how much swag you have left in the warehouse and which items are most in demand. This will allow you to know your most popular swag and when to reorder these items to keep up with the demand. For swag campaigns, you can track your conversion rates and ROI, informing your current and future strategies.

Custom swag stores

With Printfection’s swag store, you can set up customized online stores where your recipients and teams can request or send swag. For this feature, you can set individuals’ budgets to control their spending, tailor branded landing pages for users to select their preferred gifts, and enable your teams to customize a message or kit for their prospects and customers. Such a feature can be used to leverage swag for internal and external campaigns.

Pricing

Printfection offers three pricing tiers with different benefits and features. They’re subscription-based with monthly or discounted annual billing. Since there are no annual contracts, you would need to pay every month. For the actual prices, we hear that it’s around $499 for one-time use, but the exact amount for the tiers can only be obtained by contacting the platform directly. As such, you would need to either talk to one of their sales representatives or book a demo to get a quote tailored to your specific swag needs.

In any case, we’ll break down each pricing tier Prinfection offers and the additional costs associated with warehousing, product and printing, and shipping. 

Starter

Starter is Printfection’s first—and presumably the cheapest—tier, although its offered features are limited. For instance, you can only store 1,000 inventory pieces in one of Printfection’s warehouses, which may not be suitable if you buy a lot of swag in bulk. Under this tier, you’re also only allowed up to 50 platform users and are provided basic account support if you ever encounter platform issues. The good news is that even though this is the most limiting tier, you can get free product samples of your approved swag, allowing you to ensure the quality of the items before sending them out.

Standard

Under the Standard tier, you will get access to more benefits. For one, the 1,000 pieces for inventory storage and 50 platform users go up to 5,000 and 100, respectively. You will also receive free product samples and will now have a dedicated customer success manager to support you in your swag campaigns. Additionally, you will gain access to custom swag kits and will be able to set individual user budgets for your custom swag store. If you have existing swag stored in your office or a third-party warehouse, there is an option for you to send it over to Printfection’s warehouse to begin your swag campaign.

Enterprise

Everything offered in Standard is available for Enterprise users. For this last tier, you can now store up to 15,000 pieces of inventory in Printfection’s warehouse, have an unlimited number of platform users, and have limitless free product samples. The support is also now VIP-level, ensuring all your issues are handled promptly. Custom services, reporting, and integrations are also available under this tier.

In addition to these tiers, Printfection will also charge you for other aspects like shipping. The costs for this start at $5.99 per order, regardless of tier. However, there can be variations and additional costs for this depending on your chosen common shipment type. So, we also included a sample breakdown for your reference.

Domestic shipping weights and costs

Sample rates if you’re shipping swag from Denver, US to San Francisco, US

International shipping weights and costs

Sample rates if you’re shipping swag from Denver, US to London, UK

Pros and Cons

Now that we’ve gone over the platform’s features and pricing, let’s proceed to Printfection’s advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

✅ Product samples: Regardless of tier, Printfection offers its users free product samples (may be limited if on the Starter or Standard tier). This is a great way to ensure the quality of your swag item before sending it out to your recipient.

✅ Covered customs fees: Printfection covers the customs fees required for international swag shipment, ensuring a more seamless experience for global swag sends.

✅ 200+ international gift card retailers: Printfection offers gift cards with over 200 international retailers. This makes it easy for you to pick a digital gift option for your recipients, whether they’re in the US or not.

Cons

❌ US-focused operations: With its headquarters in Colorado, Printfection is more geared towards the US market, meaning its overall pricing model and support are more optimized for domestic use. This may mean that it can be more costly if you’re a company with international recipients.

❌ High international fees and costs: With a more US-focused operation, Printfection also has higher international fees and costs. Shipping costs can be unpredictable depending on the region, which can then pose a challenge if you have international teams.

❌ Integrations are through Zapier: Native integrations are better than intermediary tools like Zapier because they’re faster and less likely to encounter issues. As such, Printfection’s reliance on Zapier for most of its integrations can limit your automation capabilities and create extra work.

❌ No innovation in the last few years: Even after years since Custom Ink’s acquisition of Printfection, there hasn’t been any noticeable improvement when it comes to the platform’s technology. If tech innovation is one of your criteria for choosing a swag platform, then Printfection falls short of this.

Printfection is best for…

… leaders who want to simplify swag giveaways 👍

Through Printfection’s Giveaway and custom swag store features, you can easily automate or send out branded swag to your recipients. For Giveaways, you can generate a branded link where recipients choose their gift and enter shipping details; no manual coordination is needed. With swag stores, you share a link with your team, customers, prospects, or investors, allowing them to browse and select their preferred items. These features can help streamline your swag distribution and save you time, especially during busy seasons.

… organizations with big or flexible budgets 👍

While Printfection offers great features, they come at a higher cost. You can maximize the platform’s benefits and use cases if you have the financial flexibility to spend on complex shipping costs and a higher monthly subscription.

… companies requiring in-depth reporting 👍

Prinfection’s reporting for its giveaways, swag stores, and overall swag campaign is especially beneficial if your business is looking for advanced analytics and reporting. For instance, you'll be able to track swag spend by department, monitor your inventory levels, and measure the ROI of your branded giveaways. This can help you make more informed and data-driven decisions for your swag.

Printfection may not be a good fit for…

… teams looking for swag platforms with transparent and simple pricing 👎

Printfection’s pricing structure is difficult to navigate. As mentioned above, one-time use of the platform starts at $499, and it still doesn’t account for shipping costs, which vary widely depending on delivery speed, tracking, destination, and weight. These unpredictable fees can quickly add up, especially if you’re a team with a tighter budget.

… businesses with recipients all over the world👎

Printfection supports international shipping, but the associated fees and complexities can make it challenging, particularly if you have global teams or recipients to whom you regularly send swag. For instance, shipping fees vary widely based on package weight, delivery speed, and destination, making it difficult to predict costs upfront. For example, sending a single t-shirt and sticker, weighing less than a pound, from the US to London can range from $7.99 (lowest cost, no tracking) to over $150.66 (guaranteed delivery). With this pricing, heavier or bulk shipments can be significantly more expensive.

… enterprises that highly value security and data protection 👎

If you’re looking for a swag platform with advanced security features and data protection, then Printfection isn’t for you. The platform doesn’t offer advanced enterprise-grade security features such as SSO & SAML, or SOC 2 certification. This means that it cannot guarantee complete security for data transmitted online. If your organization has strict data privacy measures, Printfection lacks strict compliance requirements.

Overall, Printfection can help you eliminate the logistical headaches of swag management through its swag, international gift cards, and support for both internal and external campaigns. However, its pricing can be complex and costly, especially for international shipping, and some advanced features are only available on higher subscription tiers.

Looking for better international swag solutions? Explore the best Printfection alternatives

Printfection is a strong contender in the corporate gifting space, but it’s not your only option. If you need a swag platform with better security or more affordable international shipping costs, there are several alternatives worth exploring. Don’t let high fees or limited features slow you down—see our curated list of the best Printfection alternatives and find a platform that fits your global needs better.

Printfection vs PerkUp, the #1 platform for affordable, global swag

Both Printfection and PerkUp offer great swag management solutions, but their approaches to international gifting and pricing are notably different. If you’re weighing your options, our in-depth comparison breaks down the key features, costs, and user experiences of each platform. Discover why industry leaders like Microsoft and Product Hunt trust PerkUp for affordable, hassle-free global swag distribution and see which solution is right for your team.