For Shopify stores selling commercial print and paper goods

500 Flyers Cost $3 More Than 300. Your Options App Can’t Price That.

500 flyers cost $178.20. 300 cost $175.01.
Two thirds more product for $3.19, because both runs fill the same press sheets.

Multiply a unit price by quantity and you’re wrong at every tier, which is why your page shows a starting-from price and a contact form. Appify prices the job from the tables you already quote from. Per-piece cost comes out the other end, where it belongs.

14-day free trial. Free on Shopify Partner dev stores.

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Price summary

Why the search took this long

Why a Print Job Has No Unit Price

Print breaks a normal options app in four specific places, and the first one stops you before you’ve listed a single product.

1

Seven pricing axes, three option slots

Quantity, size, stock, sides, coating, finishing and turnaround. Seven things that change the price, and every one has to be live before you can quote a job. Shopify gives you three option slots. The variant ceiling moved to 2,048 in October 2025 and the option limit didn’t move at all, so the product still cannot be listed the normal way.

2

A job price, not a unit price

Setup is most of a short run and almost nothing on a long one. That’s why 300 flyers cost $175.01 and 500 cost $178.20, printed one side. Two thirds more product for $3.19, because both runs fill the same press sheets. Multiply a per-unit price by quantity and you’re wrong at every tier.

3

The ladder itself changes with the stock

Thicker card changes how many fit in a box, so 14pt sells at 250, 500 and 1,000 while 18pt sells at 190, 380 and 1,140. The quantity options depend on the stock option. A flat grid has no way to let one option change another option’s choices.

4

Turnaround is a multiplier on the whole job

Two to three day turnaround costs 55% more than the standard tier. That’s a multiplier on the whole job, and it grows as the job does. Sell it as a $15 add-on and you lose money every time somebody picks it.

What the reports don’t show

The Orders You Never Knew You Lost

None of these turn up in a report. The customer never complains, they just don’t come back.

The buyer who already had the spec written down

They knew the size, the stock, the coating and the run. Your page offered a starting-from price and a quote form. They pasted the same spec into a national printer’s configurator and had a number before they closed the tab.

→ All seven axes priced live, on the page

The quantity you didn’t show

They wanted 300. You listed 250 and 500. They picked 250 and you left money on the table, or they left entirely.

→ The full ladder, at the tiers your press actually steps on

The rush that was never charged

“Need it Thursday” arrived in the notes field. Production expedited the job. The two to three day tier is worth over fifty percent and none of it was invoiced.

→ Turnaround priced as a multiplier on the job

The file that had no bleed

Two thousand flyers printed with a white sliver down one edge. You reprinted at your own cost to keep the account.

→ Bleed, trim and safe zone shown while they upload

The proof they approved in an email thread

Three attachments deep, they said “looks good”. After delivery they said they’d approved a different version, and you had no timestamped record.

→ A proof approved on the order, before it goes to press

The reorder nobody could find

“The same menus as last March.” The artwork is somewhere in fourteen months of email, and the stock and coating are anybody’s guess.

→ Past orders come back whole, artwork and spec attached

You can’t fix what nothing reports.

What Lands on the Order

Not a spec in a notes field and a file in your inbox. Everything prepress needs to run it.

The full specSize, stock, sides, coating, finishing and run length
An approved proofThe proof PNG the customer signed off on
Print-ready artworkPrint file with bleed, plus a cut line where it applies
Turnaround on the clockThe tier they paid for, dated from proof approval

Reorder and cart recovery

Buying It Again Shouldn’t Mean Building It Again

Print is a repeat business. Menus, business cards, seasonal flyers, the same job with one line changed. Every one of those should be the easiest sale of the week, and right now it’s a search through fourteen months of email attachments.

Order #582018 March
8.5 x 11 Flyers, 100lb gloss text
Run500
Sides4/4 both sides
CoatingGloss AQ
Turnaround6 to 7 day
Artworkspring-menu-v3.pdf
$213.84Reorder

It All Comes Back With It

Reorder straight from the order.One tap puts it back in the cart with every option and any uploaded file attached, exactly as it was made the first time.
Or let the customer do it.Past orders sit in the customer portal with the artwork attached, so nobody digs through fourteen months of email looking for last March’s file.
Abandoned carts come back whole.The recovery email restores the configuration instead of dropping them on an empty form. On custom work, having to rebuild it is usually why the cart was abandoned.
Try before you install

Would you rather just go and use it?

Our Shopify demo store runs a live size by quantity table. Move the run length and watch the price per piece fall. It is set up on stickers rather than flyers, and it is the same kind of table your flyer prices sit in. Nothing to install and no signup.

Try the live price table

Built for print shops

Everything a Print Shop Has to Price

Each one of these exists because print pricing breaks in a specific way.

Price the Job, Not the Piece

Job price tables.Quantity across one axis, size down the other, so the price comes from the cell your press actually steps on.
Per-piece as an output.Show the unit cost if you want it, derived from the job price rather than used to build it.
Stock, sides and coating as multipliers.Each carrying its own factor, applied to the job rather than bolted on as a flat fee.
Turnaround as a percentage.Rush tiers lift the whole job, which is how the cost actually behaves.
Setup and plate fees.Named, conditional, and able to disappear when they work out to zero.
Minimum runs that hold.A quantity below your press minimum can be blocked before it reaches prepress.

Options That Depend on Each Other

Ladders that change with the stock.Thicker card can carry its own quantity tiers, because cards per box is a property of the stock.
Coatings limited by weight.Soft touch needs a cover stock, so it never appears on text weight.
Finishing that follows the product.Scoring on folded work, rounded corners on cards, perforation where it applies.
Blocked combinations refuse to price.With a line explaining which rule stopped it, rather than a silent failure at prepress.
Multi-step for long option sets.Size, stock, finishing, artwork, so nobody meets seven dropdowns at once.
Page counts that must divide by four.Saddle-stitched work can enforce it on the page instead of at imposition.

Artwork and Proof, on the Page

Upload with real requirements.File type, resolution and bleed asked for while they’re still in the flow.
Bleed, trim and safe zone shown.At true size, so a logo too close to the cut is visible before it prints.
A proof they approve.Approval recorded against the order, which is the moment the risk properly transfers.
Print-ready output.Proof PNG, print file with bleed and a cut-line SVG on the order.
A built-in photo editor.Crop, filter, enhance and swap backgrounds, so the file you get is the file they meant.
The artwork stays with the order.So a reorder next March doesn’t start with a search through your inbox.

14-day free trial with every feature turned on. From $39/month after.

Real People Who Have Built These Setups

Ask a question during the trial and you’ll get an answer while you’re still sitting in front of the problem.

Answers while it’s still in front of youNot a ticket number and a wait.
Help building your setupAsk us to build your hardest product with you during the trial.
We know print workflowsJob tables, bleed, imposition minimums and proof approval, not generic app support.

Four questions that rule out an app in two minutes

Ask these before you install the next one, Appify included. They’re the four things a listing almost never tells you.

  1. Can it price the job, or only a piece? Setup is most of a short run and almost none of a long one. Multiply a unit price by quantity and you are wrong at every tier.
  2. Can the quantity ladder change with the stock? 18pt sells at 190, 380 and 1,140 because cards per box changes. The options have to depend on each other.
  3. Can rush lift the whole job by a percentage? Two to three day is 55% more, not a flat fee, and it grows with the job.
  4. Does the order arrive with an approved proof? Or does approval live in an email thread, where liability never actually transfers?

Four yeses is rare. Run them on the calculator at the top of this page before you run them on us.

You Might Be Wondering

“This sounds technical. I don't write formulas.”

Most merchants here don’t. A quantity ladder is a table you paste in, not a formula you write. For the rest, describe how you quote a job in plain language and the AI-assisted setup builds it. Support will do the awkward part with you during the trial.

“My pricing comes from a trade printer's table.”

Then paste it in. Job tables are data, not variants, so a full trade price list never touches the option or variant limits.

“Every product has a different quantity ladder.”

Expected, and it’s why the ladder can depend on the stock. Business cards, flyers and booklets can each carry their own tiers inside one store.

“I already have an options app.”

Most do, and for options they work. The question is whether yours can price a job rather than a piece, change the tiers when the stock changes, and apply rush as a percentage. If any of that is happening in a spreadsheet, that’s the part this replaces.

“Will this slow my product pages down?”

No. Options load with the page and add to cart natively, without a separate cart flow or a third-party checkout.

“How do I know it fits my products before installing?”

Go and use it. Our Shopify demo store runs the same two-axis quantity table, set up on stickers rather than flyers. Move the run length and watch the price per piece as a customer would, before you install anything.

What You Get

Every feature is on every plan. Nothing is held back for a higher tier.

  • Job pricing tables by quantity and size, pasted in from your trade price list
  • Stock, sides, coating and finishing as multipliers on the job, not flat fees
  • Turnaround tiers applied as a percentage of the whole order
  • Conditional rules, so quantity ladders and coatings follow the stock chosen
  • Product Designer with upload, bleed, safe zones and a built-in photo editor
  • Proof approval recorded against the order before it goes to press
  • Reorder past orders and restore abandoned carts with the artwork intact
  • Calculators on any page, not only product pages
  • Native add to cart, no variant clutter, Shopify Markets and 10 languages

From $39 / month

The subscription scales with how much you use the calculators. Monthly AI credits are included, with an overage charge only if you go past them.

14-day free trial Every feature on every plan Free on Partner dev stores

Install Free on Shopify

Or try it live first if you’d rather see it working before you install.

Seven Options Priced Live, Proof Approved on the Order

Not the standard business card. The booklet with the page count.
The one where the stock changes the tiers.
The one still sitting in your inbox as an attachment.

If it can’t handle that one, you’ll know inside a week and you won’t have paid anything.

14-day free trial. Free on Partner dev stores. Ask us to build your hardest product with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can it price a job rather than a per-unit price?

Yes, and that’s the right way round for print. The job price comes from a table, and per-piece cost is derived from it rather than used to build it.

Can I use my trade printer's price list?

Yes. Job tables are pasted in as data, so a full price list with hundreds of cells never touches Shopify’s option or variant limits.

Shopify raised the variant limit. Doesn't that fix this?

No. The variant cap moved to 2,048 in October 2025, but the limit of three options per product did not change, and it’s the option limit that blocks a seven-axis product.

Can the quantity ladder change with the stock?

Yes. Thicker stock changes how many pieces fit in a box, so each stock can carry its own quantity tiers through a conditional rule.

Can I charge rush as a percentage of the job?

Yes. Turnaround can lift the whole order by a percentage rather than adding a flat fee, and each tier can carry its own rate.

Can customers upload artwork and approve a proof?

Yes. The Product Designer accepts uploads, shows bleed and safe zones at true size, and an approved proof can be recorded against the order before production.

What files does prepress receive?

Orders can carry the full spec, an approved proof PNG, a print-ready file with bleed and a cut-line SVG where it applies.

Can I stop combinations that can't be produced?

Yes. Soft touch laminate can be limited to cover stocks, page counts can be forced to multiples of four, and a blocked combination refuses to price with a line explaining why.

Does this create extra variants in my store?

No. Options and pricing live outside the variant system, so no combination of stock, size and run becomes another SKU.

Do I need to know how to write formulas?

No. A ladder is pasted in as a table. For everything else, describe your pricing in plain language and the AI-assisted setup writes it.

Can I edit without customers seeing a broken page?

Yes. Work in draft and publish when you’re ready. Every publish saves a version and you can restore an older one at any time.

What does it cost?

From $39 per month, with a 14-day free trial. The subscription scales with how much you use the calculators, and monthly AI credits are included, with an overage charge only if you go past them. Shopify Partner development stores are free.