Is a heat press worth it, or should you stay on print-on-demand?

Enter what POD charges you today. See what pressing purchased transfers yourself would save per order after postage, misprints and your time, and how long a press would take to pay for itself.

Free. No sign-up. Your numbers stay in your browser.

Start from an example:

Example numbers. Replace them with your own.

Selling a different garment? Type its prices over any example. Every field is yours to change.

Your orders for this design

Orders a month that include it

Shirts of this design per order, on average 1 if people buy one at a time. A 20-shirt group order is 20.

Orders that also hold items POD would still ship Those orders ship twice if you press your part.

What print-on-demand charges you now

POD price per printed shirt Your provider's price for this garment with the same print sides. Leave shipping out.

POD shipping, first item

POD shipping, each additional item

What pressing it yourself would cost

Blank garment

Transfer, per print side Price at the quantity you would really order.

Print sides

Front only Front and back

Misprints and spoiled blanks

Packaging per shipment Mailer, label, insert.

Your postage for a one-garment package The label price you would pay, not what you charge the buyer.

Extra postage per additional garment

Your time

Minutes to press one shirt Fetch the blank, line up, press, peel, press again, fold.

min

Extra minutes for a back print Counted only when you choose front and back.

min

Minutes to pack and label one order

min

Hours a month ordering, restocking, handling returns

What an hour of your time is worth Enter 0 to see cash only.

Hours a month you can give this

One-time and monthly costs

Heat press and tools, one time Press, cover sheets, scale, label printer.

Starting stock of blanks and transfers Cash you tie up across sizes and colors. Not counted in payback.

Other monthly costs Shipping software, storage.

Less common situations

Orders you hand over in person Local pickup, markets, group orders. No postage on these.

Share of orders to move in-house in the third option Your steady sizes and colors, say. POD keeps the rest.

The result updates as you type.

Result

Three ways to fill these orders

Per month	Keep POD	Press all	Press some
Cash cost of these orders
Your hours
Better or worse than POD, after your time
Press pays for itself in

One order, line by line

POD: shirts printed
POD shipping
POD charges you
Blanks and transfers, with misprints
Packaging
Your postage
You pay in cash
Cash saved per order
Your time, min
Saved per order after your time

Break-even volume

Payback at different sales levels

Orders a month	Vs POD a month	Payback	Hours

Pressing all of it, after your time.

Where the answer flips

What to do next

Three costs the usual comparison skips

Your postage. POD providers bill sellers about $4 to $5 to ship a first tee. A USPS Ground Advantage label for the same shirt was $6.93 to $8.40 at published commercial rates when we checked. Why postage decides more than the print does.
Your minutes. Pressing takes seconds. Fetching the blank, lining up, packing, labeling and reordering take the rest. At 40 orders a month the example above adds about 7.1 hours.
Split shipments. If a buyer's order also holds something POD still makes, the order ships twice and you only save POD's additional-item rate. How sellers run best sellers in-house beside POD.

Run it on a real case

The Comfort Colors 1717 worked example walks through every line of the math, and When pressing your own pays shows which kinds of orders change the answer.

Example prices are public list prices checked . They are illustrations, not anyone's actual costs. How the math works and where each number comes from.

Result