I'm the person who built KilnWorks, so read this with that in mind. I've tried to be fair: the tools below are good at what they're built for, and plenty of sellers use more than one.
Two different jobs
Market research: what should I make?
Tools like EverBee, eRank and Marmalead are built for research before you list. They help you find products and keywords with demand, estimate how other listings are selling, and work out what buyers search for. They work from public Etsy data across the whole marketplace, which is exactly what you want when you're deciding what to make next.
Running what you've already listed: what am I actually earning?
Once your listings are live and selling, the questions change. Which listings make money after every fee? Which ones barely break even? Is a shipping profile undercharging? Is there a listing with no Printify product behind it? Those depend on your own numbers: your real Etsy fees and the actual amount Printify charged for each order. A tool can only answer them if it connects to your Printify account.
Research tools tell you what's selling across Etsy. A profit tool tells you what your own listings are earning. They answer different questions, and that's why many sellers end up using both.
What matters if you sell through Printify
- Real costs, not estimates. Printify's cost varies by product, size, color, print provider and destination. A margin worked out from a typical cost can be badly wrong for your actual mix of variants.
- Etsy fees on the whole order, including the shipping you charge, matched to each sale.
- Shipping profiles checked against Printify's rates, destination by destination, because that's where a lot of print-on-demand margin quietly disappears. (More on that in this guide.)
- Your Etsy catalog checked against your Printify catalog, so a listing whose product has gone can't keep taking orders. (See this guide.)
Where KilnWorks fits
KilnWorks is the second kind of tool, built specifically for Etsy sellers who fulfill through Printify. It connects to both accounts and shows:
- the real profit and margin on every listing, using what Printify actually charged;
- listings under a 25% margin, with the price that would fix each one;
- shipping profiles charging less than fulfillment costs you, with a one-click fix;
- active listings with no Printify product behind them;
- SEO scores and a plain-English call for every listing: promote it, fix it, or leave it alone.
It doesn't do product or keyword research across Etsy, and it isn't trying to. If you're deciding what to make next, a research tool is the right choice. If you're trying to find out why a busy shop isn't making the money it should, that's what KilnWorks is for.
Which do you need?
- Just starting, still choosing products: a research tool first.
- Selling steadily through Printify, unsure what you actually keep: a profit tool connected to your real costs.
- Both: plenty of established shops use one of each, since they answer different questions.
Not sure where you stand? Try the free profit calculator on your best seller. If the margin surprises you, it's worth checking the rest of the shop.