TeePublic vs Redbubble: I Tested 50 Designs

AI-assisted: parts of this article were drafted with AI. The 50-design test results and upload timings come from the author’s own accounts.

I uploaded the same 50 designs to both TeePublic and Redbubble. (The Redbubble side of that setup, tiers, fees and the 15-tag form, is in How to Sell on Redbubble.) After 90 days, Redbubble pulled in about 4,200 views and 8 sales ($16 net after fees). TeePublic got 860 views but 3 sales at full price ($12 net, nothing taken off the $4 royalty). And the part nobody tells you: both platforms are owned by the same company.

If you’re trying to figure out which platform deserves your time, I’ll save you the research. I’ve been selling designs across multiple print-on-demand (POD) platforms for over a year, and the answer isn’t as simple as picking one. But if you forced me to choose a single platform for a brand-new seller in 2026, I’d say TeePublic first, then add Redbubble within a month. The start-to-payout steps for the TeePublic side are in How to Sell on TeePublic.

The real numbers tell you why.

TeePublic vs Redbubble: The Quick Verdict

Bottom line: TeePublic pays more per sale with no listing or subscription fee. Redbubble has 2-3x the traffic and more products. Serious sellers use both. One caveat: both platforms have tier systems that punish new accounts. TeePublic’s Apprentice tier makes your designs invisible in search. Redbubble’s Standard tier takes 50% of your earnings. Details below.

Wait, They’re Owned by the Same Company?

Yes. Redbubble acquired TeePublic in October 2018 for roughly $41 million. The parent company rebranded as Articore in November 2023. Both platforms still operate independently with separate shops, separate payment systems, and separate policies. Your TeePublic shop and Redbubble shop are completely unlinked. Whether you search “redbubble vs teepublic” or the other way around, you’re comparing two brands under the same corporate umbrella.

Why does this matter? Because it means the two platforms aren’t truly competing. They’re two revenue streams for the same company. Articore has no incentive to make one clearly better than the other. They want you on both.

Keep that in mind when you see “vs” comparisons that declare one the obvious winner. The real competition is between Articore and Amazon Merch, Spreadshirt, and Society6.

How Much Do TeePublic Artists Make Per T-Shirt in 2026?

TeePublic Artisan-tier artists earn $4 per T-shirt at full price and $2 during sales, paid as flat royalties with no platform fee on top. Apprentice-tier accounts earn $3 at full price and $1 during sales. TeePublic pays the sale rate during site-wide sales, with coupons, in bundles and during a design’s first 72 hours live, so many sales pay the lower rate. Hoodies pay the same $4 and $2 on most styles, and art prints pay $6 to $9 at regular price, all from TeePublic’s earnings table, which I read on October 7, 2026.

Compare that to Redbubble’s Standard tier in 2026: a 20% markup on a $20 T-shirt yields $4 gross, but the 50% platform fee leaves you with about $2 net. So per identical sale at default settings, TeePublic Artisans take home roughly 2x what Redbubble Standard sellers do. The math only flips if Redbubble promotes you to Pro tier or you sell high enough volume to absorb the fee.

How Many Monthly Visitors Does TeePublic Get vs Redbubble in 2026?

TeePublic gets roughly 8-9 million monthly visitors. Redbubble gets 16-25 million based on Similarweb’s 2026 traffic estimates. Redbubble’s traffic advantage is consistent: the same design uploaded to both platforms typically gets 2-3x more impressions on Redbubble simply because more people visit the site.

But traffic doesn’t equal earnings. Redbubble’s higher visitor count is partially offset by lower per-sale payouts on Standard tier and discovery dilution from millions more competing designs. Most multi-platform sellers report Redbubble generates more total sales volume but TeePublic’s higher per-sale payout means revenue per platform is closer than the traffic numbers suggest. The gap narrows further if you’re stuck on Redbubble Standard’s 50% fee.

What Are TeePublic’s Seller Fees in 2026?

TeePublic charges no listing or subscription fee. Joining, uploading and selling is free. TeePublic does charge artists a fixed service fee on each sale and gives Artisan accounts a discount on it, which is why your royalty is a flat dollar amount. In my account nothing came off the $4 afterwards. The real cost is the lower Apprentice royalty, because upgrades are rare.

That’s the structural advantage TeePublic has over Redbubble in 2026. After Redbubble’s September 2025 fee overhaul introduced the 50% Standard-tier platform fee, TeePublic’s flat royalty became the simpler payout in mainstream POD. TeePublic pays by PayPal or Payoneer on the 15th for the previous calendar month’s sales.

How Do You Get Promoted to TeePublic Artisan Tier?

You mostly don’t get promoted: TeePublic sorts accounts near the start of enrollment, at its sole discretion, and says it does not fulfil upgrade requests. Its help center lists design quality, artistic skill, volume of designs and consumer appeal as criteria. It describes Apprentice accounts as ones spamming at high volume or using automated content such as vector packs and clip art, and says upgrades happen “on rare occasions” for accounts with exceptional promise. New shops show “Pending” (Apprentice pay, no search visibility) until a review, which TeePublic says arrives within 3 business days once you have a profile image, banner, bio, social links and at least 10 designs. TeePublic’s help does not name AI art, and I could not confirm the community claim that AI uploads are what keeps accounts on Apprentice.

The brutal catch: Apprentice accounts are invisible in TeePublic’s on-site search. You can only get sales through external traffic: your own social media, Pinterest, or Google search ranking. Many new sellers never get out of Apprentice, because upgrades are rare. Plan to drive your sales from outside TeePublic and treat an upgrade as a bonus. TeePublic’s own help says designers who promote their shop tend to earn about 13x more than those who don’t.

How You Get Paid: Fixed Royalties vs Flexible Markup

This is the biggest practical difference between the two platforms.

TeePublic: Fixed Flat Rates

TeePublic uses a dead-simple system: they set the retail price and your royalty, and you get a flat dollar amount per sale, period.

For their Artisan tier (the better tier):

• T-shirt: $4 regular price, $2 during sales
• Hoodie: $4 regular, $2 during sales on most styles
• Art print: $6 to $9 at regular price, depending on size

You have zero control over pricing. You can’t charge $30 for a premium design or $15 to undercut competitors. TeePublic decides what everything costs, and you get your flat cut.

The upside is no math, no strategy, no overthinking your margins. Upload a design, get paid a predictable amount.

Redbubble: Set Your Own Markup

Redbubble works differently. They have a base price (their production cost plus margin), and you add a markup percentage on top. In plain terms: Redbubble charges a base price to cover printing and their cut, and you add a percentage on top. That percentage is your profit. The default markup is 10%, but you can set it to anything you want.

At 20% markup on a $20 base-price t-shirt, you’d earn about $4. Sounds comparable to TeePublic, right?

Not anymore.

Redbubble’s 2025 Fee Overhaul Changed Everything

In September 2025, Redbubble started charging account fees by tier, and the fees took a sledgehammer to small sellers’ earnings. The tiers work like this:

Read that Standard tier line again. Fifty percent of your earnings goes back to Redbubble. If you set a 20% markup on a $20 t-shirt and earn $4, Redbubble takes $2. You keep $2. Redbubble’s help center adds a cap: your total account fees never exceed $150 in a monthly payment period, and anything above that is credited back. That cap only matters once you earn several hundred dollars a month.

It gets worse. If you set your markup higher than 20% to compensate, the excess markup fee kicks in and takes 50% of the earnings above that threshold. On Standard, Redbubble says those earnings “go entirely toward fees”, so raising your markup earns you nothing extra. A 30% markup on a $20 shirt is $6 in gross margin, and you still keep about $2, as Redbubble’s excess markup fee article describes.

The criteria for moving from Standard to Premium to Pro? Partly published now. Redbubble’s classification factors include the origin of the artwork (high volumes of low-effort or repetitive designs, unmodified vector packs, clip art), file quality, consumer appeal and tag spamming. It does not publish thresholds, and its help center says upgrades from Standard to Premium “only happen on rare occasions” and are not granted on request.

One seller on InspireMari.nl put it bluntly: “For most small or starting artists, Redbubble is no longer worth it in 2025, as the new account fee structure for Standard accounts takes a significant portion of earnings, sometimes 60% to 85%.”

Net effect: Standard-tier sellers keep about $2 per t-shirt sale on Redbubble vs TeePublic’s $4 flat royalty. That’s a 50% pay cut for the same design on the same type of product.

Real Earnings: Side by Side

Let’s compare what you’d actually take home from 10 t-shirt sales on each platform:

Both platforms pay on the 15th of the month. Redbubble lowered its payment threshold from $20 to $10 on July 1, 2026, and a balance below it rolls over to the next month. Redbubble also started charging a $3 monthly fee on July 31, 2026 to accounts with a balance of $10 or more but invalid payment details, so keep your payout method current.

TeePublic looks better per sale, but there’s a catch: Redbubble gets roughly 2-3x more traffic. If your design gets 100 views on TeePublic, it might get 300 on Redbubble. More eyeballs means more sales, even if each sale pays less.

One comparison from Merch Titans captures it well: “If you upload identical designs to both platforms and do nothing else, Redbubble will likely generate 5-10x more sales simply because more people see your work.”

So TeePublic pays more per item. Redbubble potentially pays more in total volume. The market is shrinking overall. Articore’s FY26 results show group marketplace revenue of A$354.5 million, down 6.5%, with TeePublic’s marketplace revenue up 2.8% at constant currency and Redbubble’s margin up partly through changes to artist account fees (Small Caps). Seller reports on r/teepublic and r/printondemand still describe weak organic traffic through 2025.

Products: Both Offer 70+

TeePublic and Redbubble both offer 75+ product types now. TeePublic covers t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, mugs, phone cases, wall art, pillows, tote bags, hats, notebooks, and more. Redbubble adds niche items like shower curtains, duvet covers, jigsaw puzzles, pet bandanas, backpacks, scarves, and leggings.

The product count is roughly comparable. The real difference is in how you interact with those products. On TeePublic, one upload populates everything automatically. On Redbubble, you can customize positioning per product but it takes significantly longer.

Does the product range matter? Honestly, for most sellers, t-shirts and stickers drive 60-80% of revenue on both platforms. The long tail of niche products (pet bowls, aprons, coasters) occasionally generates surprise sales, but the product catalog is no longer a major differentiator between these two platforms.

Upload Workflow: Speed vs Control

TeePublic (2-3 Minutes Per Design)

Upload a PNG, fill in a title, add some tags, write a description. Your design automatically populates across all product types. Done.

“TeePublic is the quickest, as they have fewer text boxes than Merch by Amazon and fewer products than Redbubble,” notes Adventures with Art. That tracks with my experience. TeePublic is the least friction between “I have a design” and “it’s live for sale.”

File requirements: PNG with transparent background, minimum 1500x1995px (5000x5500px recommended to enable all products), 150 DPI, 100MB max.

Redbubble (10-15 Minutes Per Design)

Upload the same PNG, but now you need to manually position and scale your design on each of the 70+ product types. A design that looks great centered on a t-shirt might need repositioning for a phone case, a tote bag, and a shower curtain. Each one takes clicks.

You also set markup percentages per product, write a longer description (it matters for Redbubble’s SEO), and carefully craft your 15 tags.

File requirements: PNG preferred, 7632x6480px recommended for full product coverage, 300 DPI, 300MB max.

“Redbubble rewards customization and effort, while TeePublic rewards simplicity and speed,” as Merch Titans put it. If you have 500 designs to upload, TeePublic will take you a weekend. Redbubble could take you weeks because of the per-product positioning.

Pro tip: TeePublic has offered a tool to import a Redbubble store. If it is still available in your dashboard, migrating takes minutes, not hours. Check before you plan around it.

Tags and Search: How Buyers Find Your Designs

Both platforms give you 15 tags per design. That’s the same limit, but how each platform uses those tags is different.

TeePublic Tags

Tags carry the most weight in TeePublic’s internal search. The platform uses a system of “blue” (nominated) tags that get algorithmic preference for strong relevance and search volume. Your title and description matter less than your tags for on-site discovery.

The catch: if your account is in Apprentice tier (more on this below), your designs don’t appear in on-site search results at all. They’re only findable through direct links or Google.

Redbubble Tags

On Redbubble, title, tags, and description all carry roughly equal SEO weight. Tag order matters because Google typically crawls only the first 10 tags. Your description is also crawled by Google, so leaving it blank is a missed opportunity for search traffic.

For both platforms, generic tags are a waste of your 15 slots. From my upload tests, designs tagged with 3-4 word buyer-intent phrases (“retro 80s hiking sunset”) got roughly 3x the impressions of broad single-word tags (“hiking,” “sunset”). On TeePublic specifically, tags combining color + style + subject consistently outperformed everything else.

If you’re managing tags across multiple platforms, this is exactly the kind of repetitive metadata work that eats hours. I use AutoKeyWorder to generate optimized tags in bulk. Full disclosure: that’s our tool. But whether you use it or handle tags manually, the principle is the same: specific, buyer-intent tags on both platforms.

The Apprentice Trap (Both Platforms Have One)

Both TeePublic and Redbubble have tier systems designed to fight spam and low-quality uploads. Both punish new sellers.

TeePublic’s Apprentice Tier

New accounts start as Apprentice. This means:

• Your royalties are lower ($3/$1 per t-shirt instead of $4/$2)
• Your designs are invisible in on-site search
• The criteria for upgrading to Artisan are not published

That second point is devastating. If buyers can’t find your designs through TeePublic’s search, your only traffic comes from Google or direct links. Some sellers report steep drops in sales after being categorized as Apprentice.

Redbubble’s Standard Tier

New accounts start as Standard. This means:

• 50% platform fee on all earnings
• 50% excess markup fee on anything above 20%
• No specific criteria for promotion to Premium or Pro

At least Standard-tier designs still appear in Redbubble’s search. You’re visible, just paying a heavy tax.

The pattern: Both platforms make you prove yourself before earning full rates. Mass-upload and low-effort accounts are the ones both systems say they target. My own account hit Artisan after about 60 designs and 4 months, but TeePublic’s help center now describes categorization as a decision made near the start and upgrades as rare, so I would not plan on that path. Neither platform publishes exact thresholds.

Print Quality: Who Does It Better?

When it comes to TeePublic vs Redbubble quality, TeePublic wins on consistency. TeePublic uses centralized production with fewer fulfillment partners, which means what you see in the mockup is closer to what buyers receive. I ordered the same design as a t-shirt from both platforms. TeePublic’s colors were closer to my original PNG file, and the print had a softer feel. According to VersusGuy’s hands-on comparison, TeePublic consistently scores higher for t-shirt print quality. The DTG (direct-to-garment) printing produces accurate colors with a soft feel.

Redbubble uses a global network of print partners, and quality varies depending on who fulfills your order. Some orders come out great. Others have color shifts or placement issues. Stickers, mugs, and art prints tend to be consistently good. T-shirts are the most variable product.

Neither platform gives you quality control. You design, they print. If a buyer gets a bad print, that’s on the platform’s fulfillment partner, but it’s your shop’s reputation.

Which Platform Should You Start With?

If you’re brand new to print-on-demand, follow this order:

1. Start with TeePublic. The upload process takes minutes, there are no fees to worry about, pricing is automatic, and you’ll learn what sells without the complexity of Redbubble’s markup system. Get 20-30 designs live, see what gets traction, and learn from the data.
2. Add Redbubble within 30 days. The traffic difference is too significant to ignore. Even with the Standard tier’s 50% fee, more eyeballs on your work means more sales. Premium and Pro cut the fees sharply, but Redbubble says upgrades are rare, so judge the platform on Standard-tier numbers.
3. Expand to Amazon Merch, Displate, and Society6. Each platform you add multiplies your reach without extra design work. More on this below.

If you’re already on Redbubble: Mirror your shop on TeePublic, using its import tool if your dashboard still offers one. It gives you a second revenue stream with zero additional design work.

If you’re brand new to selling designs at all, the broader playbook in how to sell digital art walks through pricing, listing, and platform mix beyond just POD. And if you’re using AI to generate your designs, sell AI generated art breaks down which platforms allow AI uploads and which ban them, which is where most rejections come from on both TeePublic and Redbubble.

The Real Answer: Upload to Both (and More)

Every experienced POD seller I’ve talked to says the same thing. Merch Titans put it best:

“The sellers making serious money aren’t debating which platform to choose. They uploaded to both six months ago, added three more platforms since then, and they’re currently designing tomorrow’s listings.”

TeePublic and Redbubble together give you 25-35 million monthly visitors seeing your designs. If Etsy is on your list too, I compared the fees and tag rules head to head in Redbubble vs Etsy. Add Amazon Merch, Spreadshirt, Society6, and Displate, and you’re building a distribution network that doesn’t depend on any single platform’s algorithm or fee structure. If you’re also creating AI-generated designs, the math gets even better. I broke down the full workflow and real earnings in my guide on how to make money with AI stock images. For the specific t-shirt design workflow using Ideogram V3 and VectorMagic, see how to make AI t-shirt designs and sell on Etsy.

When I added TeePublic as my third platform, it added about $35/month from designs that were already made. That’s roughly 45 minutes of upload work paying me $35/month indefinitely. The fifth platform I added (Displate) took longer to learn but now generates more per design than any other. The returns compound over months and years.

Managing tags across both platforms

Writing 15 optimized tags per design per platform adds up fast when you have hundreds of designs. I use AutoKeyWorder to generate tags in bulk, which saves me about 2 hours per batch of 50 designs. We built it, so I’m biased, but a spreadsheet works fine if you prefer manual control.

Whatever method you use, match what buyers search, not what you’d call your design. “Retro 80s synthwave sunset landscape poster” will outperform “my cool sunset art” on every platform. For platform-specific tag strategies, see my guides on Adobe Stock keywords, Shutterstock tags, and Displate metadata.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, TeePublic or Redbubble?

TeePublic is better for per-sale earnings and upload speed. Redbubble is better for total sales volume and product variety. If you’re a beginner, start with TeePublic for its simplicity. If you can only pick one long-term, Redbubble’s traffic advantage usually wins out despite the fees, but only if you get promoted past Standard tier. The best strategy is using both.

Are Redbubble and TeePublic owned by the same company?

Yes. Redbubble acquired TeePublic in 2018 for about $41 million. The parent company rebranded as Articore in November 2023. Both platforms operate independently with separate shops, payments, and policies.

Does TeePublic allow AI art?

In practice yes, but neither platform gives you a formal rule. TeePublic has no AI disclosure field and its terms of service don’t explicitly address AI-generated content, so AI designs are uploaded and sold there. Redbubble’s content guidelines, which I read on October 7, 2026, don’t mention AI either. Some articles describe a Redbubble AI checkbox and a cap of 5 AI-tagged uploads a day, and I could not confirm either on a Redbubble page. Community reports blame mass AI uploading for account deletions and Apprentice status. TeePublic’s own help names high-volume spam and automated content such as vector packs and clip art, not AI by name.

Is TeePublic free to sell on?

Yes. Joining, uploading and selling is free, with no subscription and no listing fee. TeePublic charges a fixed service fee on each sale, discounted for Artisans, and the flat royalty you see already reflects it. The only thing that costs you is the lower Apprentice royalty, because upgrades are rare. That flat royalty is TeePublic’s structural advantage over Redbubble, whose Standard tier takes 50% of your earnings.

Do artists actually make money on TeePublic, and is it worth it?

Artisan-tier artists earn a fixed $4 per t-shirt at regular price and $2 during sales, paid on the 15th of the following month with nothing deducted. The catch is that TeePublic runs sales frequently and buyers wait for them, so the $4 becomes $2 more often than you’d like. It’s worth it if you value per-sale earnings and 2-3 minute uploads; it’s the wrong choice if you need volume, which is where Redbubble’s larger traffic still wins.

Is Redbubble still profitable in 2026?

Only above Standard tier. Since the September 2025 account fees, Standard takes 50% of your earnings plus 50% of any markup above 20%, so a $4 earning on a $20 shirt nets about $2, while the same design pays $4 on TeePublic. Premium drops the platform fee to 20% and Pro to zero, but Redbubble says upgrades are rare and made by internal review, not on request. Redbubble remains profitable on volume once you’re promoted, and marginal on Standard.

What is Redbubble’s payment threshold in 2026?

Redbubble lowered its payment threshold from $20 to $10 on July 1, 2026. It pays by the 15th of the month for orders shipped the previous month, after account fees, and a balance below the threshold rolls over. Accounts with a balance of $10 or more but invalid payment details pay a $3 monthly fee, first applied on July 31, 2026.

Is there a cap on Redbubble’s account fees?

Yes. Redbubble caps total account fees at $150 per monthly payment period, and credits back anything above it. The cap covers both the platform fee and the excess markup fee. It only helps once your gross earnings are high enough to reach it, so Standard sellers with small earnings still lose half.

What is the TeePublic controversy?

Multiple issues. The biggest is the Apprentice/Artisan tier system introduced to fight spam. Apprentice accounts earn less ($3/$1 vs $4/$2 per t-shirt) and are completely invisible in TeePublic’s on-site search. TeePublic says upgrades are rare and not available on request. Some sellers also report suspensions over AI-generated uploads, which I could not confirm from TeePublic’s own pages, and frequent sales cut the t-shirt royalty by 50-67%.

Is there a better site than Redbubble?

It depends what “better” means. TeePublic is simpler for beginners, Society6 wins for premium art prints, and Amazon Merch (if you can get accepted) is the pick for apparel specifically. For metal posters, go with Displate, and for maximum reach, list on all of them. No single platform is best at everything.

How much can you realistically earn?

In my experience, most sellers with 100-200 designs earn $10-50/month per platform. Sellers with 500+ quality designs and good metadata can reach $200-500/month across platforms. The outliers making $1,000+/month typically have thousands of designs, years of data on what sells, and designs on 4-5 platforms simultaneously. Anyone promising $10K/month from POD is selling you a course, not sharing reality. For a broader look at realistic AI income streams, I tested 10 methods and shared the actual numbers.

How much do TeePublic royalties pay per T-shirt in 2026?

TeePublic uses flat rates, not percentage royalties. Artisan tier earns $4 per T-shirt at full price and $2 during sales. Apprentice tier earns $3 at full price and $1 during sales. The tier difference matters more than it sounds: TeePublic pays the sale rate during site-wide sales, with coupons, in bundles and in a design’s first 72 hours, so many sales pay the lower rate. Hoodies, tank tops and long sleeves pay the same $4 and $2 to Artisans on most styles (earnings table, October 7, 2026).

How do you get promoted to TeePublic Artisan tier?

TeePublic sorts accounts near the start of enrollment and says it does not fulfil upgrade requests. Re-reviews happen only for accounts with exceptional promise, “on rare occasions”, according to its help center. The challenge: Apprentice accounts are invisible in TeePublic’s on-site search, so early sales need to come from direct traffic (social media, your own portfolio site) rather than platform discovery.

What is TeePublic’s profit margin for artists?

TeePublic’s per-unit margin is higher than Redbubble Standard tier at full price. TeePublic Artisans earn a flat $4 per T-shirt at regular price. On Redbubble’s default 10% markup a $20 shirt earns $2 gross and the Standard fee takes half, so about $1. At a 20% markup it is $4 gross and about $2 after the fee. During TeePublic sales the $4 becomes $2, so the gap narrows. Raising your markup above 20% does not help on Standard, because the excess earnings go to fees.

Do TeePublic seller fees change in 2026?

As of October 7, 2026 I found no change to TeePublic’s artist earnings table: Artisans earn $4 and $2 per T-shirt, Apprentices $3 and $1. TeePublic has no listing or subscription fee. The main 2026 changes sit on the Redbubble side: its 2025 account fees (covered above) and a lower payment threshold from July 2026, which pushed a lot of artists to diversify onto TeePublic, Society6, and Displate.