On Print Shop or Inksoft

[Graphic Extremes]

I am looking On Print Shop vs Inksoft. PrintShop cost the same basically as InkSoft. InkSoft does have more features that you have to pay extra for with PrintShop..

PrintSoft doesn't have suppler integration built in where Inksoft does. you can place orders with suppliers directly through InkSoft without going to the suppliers website.

There are quite a few things that Inksoft offers that PrintShop doesn't. But PrintShop has items that are needed that InkSoft doesn't offer..

Is there anyone out there that has used either of these that can chime in on this.. Especially if you have used one of them and switched to the other..

Pulling my hair out here trying to decide.

Does anyone have a better solution to take a look at..

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We use OPS, and if you are like us, you will hot roadblocks once you get to a certain point forcing you to go enterprise with Custom Dev or find workarounds.

It might be an India thing but they always want you to use their way which doesn't always make logical sense.

I know that Firesprint is built on OPS and so is GiantMedia.... It works, it's just not as flexible as I'd like and I'm hesitant to pay for custom dev to fix their problems only to have them roll out as a standard release in the future, which has happened according to a few OPS users.

 

[Graphic Extremes]

seems like any custom development you have done from a company like PrintShop rolls out shortly after as part of their software. You paid them to add a feature to their software.

Does anyone have a better solution to take a look at..

 

[FireSprint.com]

Yeah, paying for custom dev just to have it roll out in the next version is kind of a pain. What really sucks is when ya do so much custom dev that you need to pay to upgrade because your solution is so far forked off the original. Ha.

We love working with On print shop, but we have a full time dev on retainer and are constantly making changes and upgrades.

Can’t speak to inksoft.

It’s hard to get away from custom dev. All the big players have teams of people handling their software.

 

[caribmike]

I looked at On Print Shop for quite a while. But, in the end, I went with PrintScience which as a very flexible Wordpress package that was way less complicated.

I buy from Giant Media frequently and I'm glad I didn't go with On Print Shop now that I've experienced it from the customer perspective.

The folks at PrintScience are in Maine I think and very helpful and responsive. But, its really up to me to manage my site and build on the template provided, which I have enjoyed doing.

From a cost perspective, OPS was just too expensive and complex for my needs.

 

[Pauly]

We use OPS, and if you are like us, you will hot roadblocks once you get to a certain point forcing you to go enterprise with Custom Dev or find workarounds.

It might be an India thing but they always want you to use their way which doesn't always make logical sense.

I know that Firesprint is built on OPS and so is GiantMedia.... It works, it's just not as flexible as I'd like and I'm hesitant to pay for custom dev to fix their problems only to have them roll out as a standard release in the future, which has happened according to a few OPS users.

It's definitely not an India thing.
It just happens most software developers are from there.

But the issue is, the software is like any other software you use. Their team needs to keep it updated, bring in new features. Roll out updated.
When it's time to rollout an update like adobe or Onyx etc, they'll push an update to their server and it'll update every other site.

For them to have every feature under sun for 1% of their customers is to expensive. That's where their enterprises plan where you get your own fork of the software.

But now you don't get updates they're extra as they have to be modified to work with you system.


I've used printscience before. I found I was fighting the software more than using it. They also have their own way of doing things and far more limiting.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

It's definitely not an India thing.
It just happens most software developers are from there.

But the issue is, the software is like any other software you use. Their team needs to keep it updated, bring in new features. Roll out updated.
When it's time to rollout an update like adobe or Onyx etc, they'll push an update to their server and it'll update every other site.

For them to have every feature under sun for 1% of their customers is to expensive. That's where their enterprises plan where you get your own fork of the software.

But now you don't get updates they're extra as they have to be modified to work with you system.


I've used printscience before. I found I was fighting the software more than using it. They also have their own way of doing things and far more limiting.

I totally understand the programming aspect and rolling out to users, but I also know first hand it's kind of crap to use paid development for broad rollout, that's just unfair and immoral. At least credit the development time back.

I'm sure the current Iteration of OPS is a direct result of user like us and Gene, who are constantly pushing limits to find more efficient ways. It's a tough pill to swallow when you are 100k invested and seeing ideas and features rolling to mass.

 

[hybriddesign]

I’ve used both and they are very different

Inksoft is 100% geared towards apparel and really shines if you do a lot of team stores. They have a sign/sticker module but it’s really really basic. We demo’d the sticker/banner interface again a few months ago to see if it had improved but it’s still so basic that I’m surprised they even advertise it as a real feature. If you sell 90% apparel and want to offer banners and stickers it’s not bad but it lacks too many features to really be of use to a real sign shop. Building an apparel store and invoicing apparel jobs is fast and easy though with the way that it pulls info from sanmar/etc. we never loved inksoft but it wasn’t bad.

We actually had to stop using them as they used to use stripe as their payments processor and stripe randomly audited our account and refused to recognize our inksoft stores as a business website and told us because of that they were freezing all of our deposits. It was a mess and inksoft couldn’t/wouldn’t help. We had about $20k frozen for 5 months and ended up switching over to printavo for apparel a year ago and love it. Printavo is mainly for order invoicing and shop planning though and then it does simple team stores too. We’ve been debating doing inksoft again too but are really hoping printavo and inksoft eventually combine as they are now under the same owner. Inksoft non longer uses stripe btw, they now use the same processor as printavo and it’s pretty solid.

On Print Shop is 100% geared towards sign/print shops. They have apparel modules but they are kinda meh and without supplier integration it’s hard to more than a few apparel choices and if you offer say a next level 3600 you have to manually enter every single color.., their sign module is really nice though although we’ve found the interface hard to work with. It’s not bad, it’s just different and we’re realizing that it’s really not the sort of thing you can just dabble in and build as you go. OPS is a pretty big project and we’re going to have to hire someone specifically to build it out. And like others said your have to pay for custom devs.

We’re a 40% sign / 60% apparel shop doing 1-1.2mill a year and I think we’re going to end up with two sites eventually with some overlap between them. We run a kornit dtg system and just installed a new mimaki dtf production line so short run, high margin, apparel is going to grow a lot and we’ll prob have to bring back inksoft for that meaning we’re spending over $1k a month in webstores… crazy

 

[abhishek.agarwal@designnb]

If you're looking for an alternative solution, Design'N'Buy is worth exploring. It provides web to print software, offering customization, convenience, and streamlined workflows. While considering your options, evaluate how Design'N'Buy aligns with your specific requirements and whether it provides a comprehensive solution for your business needs.