Print-on-demand has been one of the most successful side hustle ideas in the past five years. It involves coming up with a design and uploading it to a company that will use that design to make and market products ranging from prints to pillow cases. The print-on-demand company usually takes care of everything but the design, paying the artist or designer a royalty on every sale.

But as print-on-demand has become more popular as a semi-passive-income side hustle, more companies have sprung up to address the demand. How do you choose between them? We took a close look at two popular sites — Redbubble vs. FineArtAmerica — to help young artists decide which is the better print-on-demand platform for their needs.

We also explain what print-on-demand is and whether you might want to use your creative talents to make money this way.

What is print-on-demand?

Print-on-demand companies make and mail a wide array of products, ranging from t-shirts and coffee-mugs to tote bags and puzzles. What they don’t do is come up with unique designs. That’s up to the freelance artists, graphic designers and wordsmiths, who use these sites to make their art and creative ideas pay.

How it works

The artist comes up with a design — or a stylized version of a clever phrase — and they upload a high-resolution image of it to a print-on-demand company. (Any time you see unique slogans or artistic drawings on a t-shirt, for instance, it was probably created by a print-on-demand company.)

Once the artwork is uploaded, the print-on-demand firm prompts the artist to choose the products that they want their design to decorate. If you were uploading an image of a painting, for example, you might want it to be made into art prints, puzzles or coffee mugs. If you were uploading a catchy phrase, you might want it to adorn baseball caps and t-shirts.

The site is likely to have dozens, if not hundreds, of products to choose from.

Redbubble vs. FineArtAmerica

Like most print-on-demand websites, RedBubble and FineArtAmerica share some core similarities. Both are nationwide platforms that allow you to sign up from any state in the U.S. Both platforms also offer dozens of product choices, and allow you to set your own profit margin.

Specifically, the sites provide the base price of each product and let the artist add a mark-up — the artist’s royalty — which is added to the base price to create the final selling price. If the site charges a base price of $18 per t-shirt and you want to earn a 25% royalty ($4.50) on each sale, your t-shirts would retail for $22.50, for instance.

Both of these sites are passive platforms that do the marketing, customer service, and delivery for you. (Active platforms, such as Printful, expect the artist to do the marketing and, sometimes, the delivery. They charge less for their products as a result.)

That makes both FineArtAmerica and Redbubble good places for beginners to get started.

Differences

However, the differences between RedBubble vs. FineArtAmerica are also compelling.

Fees

Fees are among the biggest differentiators.

FineArtAmerica’s profit margin is built into the base price of its products, thus you pay no additional fees to the site, unless you choose a premium account. A premium account costs $30 annually and gives you better visibility and additional sales tools.

RedBubble used to follow this model, but it recently introduced new “account” fees. Account fees are only imposed on earnings. So if you earn nothing, you pay nothing. But once you earn even a few bucks, the account fee is imposed and it can be devastating shock to your pocketbook.

If you earn $2, for example, you’ll pay $1.30 to the platform, walking away with just 70 cents. On a $75 royalty, RedBubble’s account fee would sweep away $43, leaving you with just $32. Once you earn more than $500, the account fee caps out at $97 per month.

Thus, you earn the full royalty rate at FineArtAmerica. At RedBubble you get your royalty, minus the account fee. That’s a big difference.

Monthly traffic

However, RedBubble is also a far larger platform with roughly 7 times more customers than FineArtAmerica. Specifically, RedBubble pulls in about 20 million visitors a month, compared with about 3 million visitors for FineArtAmerica.

Niches

These sites also specialize in different products.

For instance, while FineArtAmerica does sell t-shirts, it is better known for artwork, prints, puzzles, greeting cards, and similar “Fine Arts.” In other words, the site’s customers are more interested in seeing POD designs in a frame than on a hoodie.

RedBubble, meanwhile, mostly focuses on clothing and notions, like tote bags and mugs.

Why? The answer is in the designer features.

Designer features

The overall design process is different at RedBubble vs. FineArtAmerica. At RedBubble everything from the formatting and styling to the color palette and layout is more tailored to t-shirts and mugs. But, with FineArtAmerica, precision is the name of the game. The artwork and greeting card designs come out sleek and polished.

Overall: RedBubble vs. FineArtAmerica

RedBubble used to be the go-to POD platform for new and seasoned designers. Lately, however, the aggressive fee structure has alienated many designers, who also complain about quality issues. But, the site still has so many customers, that it’s hard to abandon when you’re hoping to sell clothing, tote bags or mugs.

FineArtAmerica is more designer-friendly and a great site to sell fine art, prints and puzzles. But, you will probably need to do more of your own marketing to draw customers to the site and your artwork.

Best strategy

Our take: Use them both, but use them differently.

A great feature of print-on-demand is that few companies demand exclusivity. While artists often choose just one company for simplicity’s sake, there’s nothing stopping you from using both. However, to maintain consistent quality, it’s smart to limit the products you offer on each site. That allows you to use each site’s strengths to your advantage.

For instance, FineArtAmerica is where you’d want to sell your most precious art — prints and puzzles that would be ruined by overlapping colors or imperfect registration. However, if you simply want to sell a t-shirt that sports a catchy phrase, RedBubble is where you’re likely to have the most sales.

But also account for the differences in fee structures when you set your royalty rates. Set your royalty rate at FineArtAmerica at the rate you hope to earn. But you may want to double that rate at RedBubble to account for those nasty account fees.

Kristof is the editor of SideHusl.com, an independent website that reviews moneymaking opportunities in the gig economy.