Sam McCraw
Are you looking to create some incredible-looking t-shirt designs to sell on your Print on Demand store but not sure where to start?
We tested all the major online t-shirt design tools and put together a list of the best ones so you can get on with creating designs that sell on your Merch By Amazon store, RedBubble store, or whatever platform you use!
We’ve ranked them from strongest to weakest in terms of the final design quality, template options, and the ease of use and functionality of the t-shirt design makers.
Jump to a specific product:
#1 Placeit
Placeit is an online graphic design tool that is not only ridiculously easy to use but is perfect for people who are running a t-shirt or Print on Demand business.
They have a whole host of different tools but when it comes to t-shirt sellers the best features are their t-shirt design templates, logo templates (which can be used as t-shirt designs), and their model mockups.
Everything you create on Placeit can be used for commercial purposes so there are no worries when it comes to copyright infringements, and they are continuously growing their library of templates so you’ll always be able to find new designs.
Placeit does offer a good range of free templates but if you’re going to be creating a lot of designs it is well worth investing in a paid subscription that gives you unlimited access to all the templates and features.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Choose a template you like (logos and t-shirt designs both work)
- Customize it to your liking
- Make sure your design looks good on the t-shirt colors you plan to use
- Set the image background to transparent
- Download your design
T-shirt designs we made with Placeit:
Pricing:
- Some free templates
- $2.95 for individual premium t-shirt designs
- Monthly subscription: $14.95 (Unlimited downloads)
- Annual subscription: $89.69 (Unlimited downloads)
What we like:
- Some quality free templates
- Huge number of t-shirt design templates (7,500+)
- Huge number of logo design templates (12,000+)
- Create quality designs in no time at all
- Unlimited downloads with a subscription
#2 Canva
Canva is probably the most popular online design tool around. You can create a huge array of designs with Canva and that includes t-shirt designs too.
Like Placeit, you can choose one of their pre-designed templates to use as the starting point of your t-shirt design (including logo templates too). However, it’s also incredibly easy to create designs from scratch using Canva too.
It’s possible to create designs for free using Canva, however, you won’t be able to download your t-shirt designs with a transparent background unless you have a Canva Pro account.
Note: Some free alternative options are Kapwing’s image background remover and Removal.ai.
Whether you’re looking to create text or image-based t-shirt designs for your Print on Demand store, Canva is a great option no matter what your skill level when it comes to design.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Option1:
- Choose one of their pre-designed templates
- Customize to your liking
- Download it
- Option 2:
- Click ‘Create a design’ on Canva’s homepage
- Put in large custom dimensions (e.g. 5000x5000px)
- Create your design
- Download it
T-shirt designs we made with Canva:
Pricing:
- Some free templates
- Canva Pro monthly: $12.95 per month
- Canva Pro annual: $119.40 per year
What we like:
- Lot’s of great pre-designed t-shirt templates
- Can create free designs
- Great font and text options
- Plenty of design elements to use
- Super quick to create great looking designs
- Incredibly user-friendly interface
#3 VistaCreate
VistaCreate is another multi-faceted online design tool that lets you create a huge amount of designs. They recently added some t-shirt design templates to their platform as well as logo design templates that can be used as t-shirt designs too.
The amount of t-shirt and logo design templates they have on offer is small in comparison with Placeit and Canva. However, it’s possible to create great-looking designs from scratch on VistaCreate.
They offer a huge amount of unique design elements including custom illustrations which can be used to create great-looking t-shirt designs too.
So for any Print on Demand t-shirt sellers out there, VistaCreate is well-worth checking out.
It’s worth noting, that, like Canva, you will need a Pro account if you want to download designs with a transparent background.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Option1:
- Choose one of their pre-designed templates
- Customize to your liking
- Download it
- Option 2:
- Click ‘Create a design’ on VistaCreate’s homepage
- Put in large custom dimensions (e.g. 5000x5000px)
- Create your design
- Download it
T-shirt designs we made with VistaCreate:
Pricing:
- 5 free downloads per month
- VistaCreate Pro monthly: $9.99 per month
- VistaCreate Pro annual: $95.88 per year
What we like:
- Some good looking pre-designed t-shirt and logo templates
- Can create free designs
- Good text and font options
- Amazing illustrated graphics
- Very quick to create great looking designs
- Easy to use design interface
#4 Vexels
There are many factors that go into a successful Print on Demand store, possibly the most important element is the product designs themselves.
Vexels is another online design tool that lets you easily create t-shirt designs. They also have a huge range of pre-made t-shirt designs that are ready to be added to your Print on Demand store straight away.
Like with Canva and VistaCreate, on Vexels you can choose one of their pre-designed t-shirt templates and customize it to your liking or you can create a design from scratch. Vexels also gives you the option to upload your own designs to utilize on their software.
At the moment, they don’t have a huge range of pre-designed templates. However, it is very easy and quick to create your own good-looking designs from a blank canvas with their t-shirt design software. With a Vexels subscription, you can download t-shirt designs, vectors, and many other graphics and combine them together in the t-shirt maker.
Unfortunately, you can download individual designs from their tool at the moment. You’ll need to subscribe to download anything you make their t-shirt design maker.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Option1:
- Choose one of their pre-designed templates
- Customize to your liking
- Download it
- Option 2:
- Go to their t-shirt design maker
- Use their graphics and text tools to create your design
- Download it
T-shirt designs we made with Vexels:
Pricing:
- ‘Merch’ subscription:
- $29 per month
- $264 per year
- ‘Business’ subscription:
- $89.99 per month
- $816 per year
What we like:
- Easy to use t-shirt design softare
- Takes no time to create a good looking design
- Instant design mockups
- High quality graphics
- Good text and font options
#5 Adobe Express
Adobe’s products are usually very high quality, and Adobe Express, the company’s first step into the online design tool space, is a good addition to their suite of tools.
With Express, you can create all kinds of designs, including t-shirt designs for your Print on Demand store. Like most of the other t-shirt design tools in this list, you can utilize pre-designed templates or create a t-shirt design from scratch.
It’s worth noting that the vast majority of pre-designed templates on Express are only for premium users, unfortunately.
When it comes to creating designs from scratch Adobe Express is very user-friendly and has a good range of graphics, icons, and text options you can utilize to create good-looking t-shirt designs with ease.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Option1:
- Choose one of their pre-designed templates
- Customize to your liking
- Download it
- Option 2:
- Click ‘Create a design’ on the homescreen
- Put in large custom dimensions (e.g. 5000x5000px)
- Create your design
- Download it
T-shirt designs we made with Adobe Express:
Pricing:
- Free templates and downloads
- Monthly subscription $9.99
- Annual subscription: $99.99
What we like:
- Can create free designs
- Good quality graphics to utlize
- Some good pre-designed templates
- User-friendly interface
#6 Media Modifier
Media Modifier is an online design tool that has a good amount of design templates that can either be used out of the box or be customized using their online design editor.
For Print on Demand sellers, Media Modifier has a few template categories and tools of interest. Namely, their t-shirt design software that lets you create designs very quickly, their logo templates that can be used as t-shirt designs too, and also their t-shirt mockup generator.
The design tool is simple to navigate making it easy to customize the templates to get the look you’re after for your Print on Demand store.
The main downside is the number of templates they currently have on offer, which isn’t anywhere near the amount that some of the other tools in this list have. However, it’s more than worth checking out what Media Modifier has to offer.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Go to the t-shirt design templates
- Select a template you like
- Customize it to your liking
- Download it
T-shirt designs we made with Media Modifier:
Pricing:
- Monthly subscription: $19 per month
- Annual subscription: $108 per year
What we like:
- Decent quality templates
- Easy to customize the designs
- Mockup generator
#7 Designious
Designious is a t-shirt design library for Print on Demand sellers. If you want to buy pre-designed t-shirt templates to sell in your store then Designious is a great place to check out.
They also have some t-shirt design templates which can be customized in your browser. Their online editor is easy to use but doesn’t quite have the same features as some of the other tools in this list.
The vast majority (and highest quality templates) are pre-designed templates that you can only download.
If you’re a seller on Printify, Printful, or any other Print on Demand platform you should definitely browse through Designious’s t-shirt template library. There’s plenty to choose from.
Steps to create your t-shirt design:
- Go to the online t-shirt design templates
- Choose one you like
- Customize it to your liking
- Download it
T-shirt designs we made with Designious:
Pricing:
- $24 per month
- $97 per year
What we like:
- New designs added regularly
- Easy to use interface
- Access to a huge library of t-shirt designs
Alternative tools & options
If you check out the tools on this list and you still can’t find what you’re looking for there are a few alternative tools and other options when it comes to getting or creating t-shirt designs for your Print on Demand store:
Wrapping things up
So, there you have it. 7 tried and tested t-shirt design tools for you to sink your teeth into.
With the tools in this list, you can create some great-looking and unique t-shirt designs for your Print on Demand store. However, if you’re after very specific and bespoke designs you should find a designer from Fiverr to create them for you.
Enjoy creating! Oh, and if you have any questions, comments, or have suggestions for other t-shirt design software or resources, leave a comment below!
