Printavo is the name most shops hear first, and for good reason — it's been the default answer for print shop management for a decade. If you're reading this, you're probably either outgrowing a spreadsheet and comparing everything, or re-evaluating what you pay for against what your shop actually uses. Either way, the honest answer is that the right tool depends on your shop's size and shape, so this is a field guide rather than a sales pitch. (Yes, we make one of the tools below. We'll be upfront about which jobs it's the wrong answer for.)
What actually differs between these tools
Every product in this space quotes, invoices, and tracks orders. The real differences are in four places:
- Where garment prices come from. Some tools make you maintain price matrices by hand; others pull live blank costs from suppliers like S&S Activewear, SanMar, and AS Colour at quote time, so a price change at the supplier can't silently eat your margin.
- Setup work vs. ready-made workflow. Configurable board systems can model any shop — after you design the boards, statuses, and automations. Opinionated systems work on day one but bend less.
- Online stores. If team stores and fundraisers are a big slice of your revenue, that narrows the field fast — it's the hardest feature to bolt on later.
- Per-user pricing. Some tools price per seat, which matters the day you hire; others are flat.
The options, honestly
Printavo is the established generalist: quoting, approvals, payments, a production calendar, and a large user community. Published pricing is per-user and tiered (entry plans have monthly quote caps; see their site for current numbers). If you have a larger team and want the most widely-adopted tool, it's a safe pick.
DecoNetwork is the e-commerce heavyweight — business management plus full online-store builder in one. Published plans run roughly $199–$399/month. If branded web stores are the center of your business, it's arguably the category leader; if you never sell through stores, you'd be paying for its biggest feature to sit idle.
PriceIt and Printmatics both lean into estimating and production for established shops, with Printmatics emphasizing scheduling. Teesom is the budget pick — genuinely inexpensive to start, lighter on automation, and plenty of one-person shops run happily on it.
InkTracker — ours — is built specifically for small shops (roughly one to ten people) that want the workflow already decided: quotes pull live blank costs from S&S, SanMar, and AS Colour; customers approve art and pay from one link; jobs run through a fixed five-stage pipeline with a tablet shop-floor mode; QuickBooks syncs both ways; and there's a broker/wholesale pricing layer plus shop-to-shop subcontracting. One flat plan ($99/month, every feature, unlimited quotes) and a free trial with no card. It's the wrong answer if you need online team stores today, deep multi-department routing for a 30-person floor, or software you can reshape board-by-board — that's DecoNetwork or Printavo territory.
How to actually decide
- Count your people. Per-seat pricing is fine at 2 users and painful at 8. Flat pricing is the reverse of that curve.
- Count your stores. More than a couple of team stores a year? Weight DecoNetwork heavily.
- Price a real job in the trial. Not the demo data — your garment, your quantities, your margins. The tool that gets your Tuesday right is the right tool.
- Check the accounting seam. If your books live in QuickBooks, make sure invoices, payments, and sales tax flow both directions, not just export.
Whichever way you go: the shops that get value out of any of these tools are the ones that stop quoting from gut feel. The software matters less than the habit.
Common questions
- What is the best Printavo alternative for a small shop?
- For a one-to-ten-person shop that wants working workflows out of the box, InkTracker is built for exactly that ($99/month flat, live supplier pricing, QuickBooks sync). If online team stores drive your revenue, DecoNetwork is the stronger fit. If budget is the constraint, Teesom is the inexpensive starting point.
- Is there screen printing software with a free trial and no credit card?
- InkTracker's trial is free and doesn't ask for a card. Most tools in the category offer some form of trial or demo — check each vendor's current terms.
- Can I switch shop software without losing my history?
- Mostly yes, if your books live in QuickBooks: your invoices, customers, and payments stay in your accounting file no matter which shop tool you use. InkTracker imports your QuickBooks invoice history on connect, so past jobs are visible alongside new ones.
- Do these tools pull real garment prices?
- It varies, and it's worth checking specifically. InkTracker pulls live per-piece costs from S&S Activewear, SanMar, and AS Colour at quote time. Some other tools rely on catalogs you update manually — fine until a blank's price moves and your quote doesn't.