Comparison

Autoprinter vs Printout Designer

Printout Designer can auto-print through PrintNode, or send documents directly to a printer that supports Email to Print. Autoprinter prints through its own Desktop Utility and prints Shopify shipping labels with zero clicks.

Printout Designer, by Actual Reports OÜ, is a drag-and-drop designer for invoices, packing slips, receipts and labels that also runs on BigCommerce, Ecwid and WooCommerce. Its automation rules print a chosen template on a chosen printer when an order is created, paid, fulfilled or refunded, with conditions, a delay of up to 15 minutes and a number of copies. Without PrintNode, its Email to Print option sends the PDF to a printer's own email address.

If you want to lay out documents freely in a drag-and-drop editor and are happy printing through PrintNode or Email to Print, Printout Designer may be all you need. Autoprinter needs no print service, sends each document to the printer that matches its paper, and prints the shipping labels you buy in Shopify with zero clicks.

Facts as of October 25, 2026

Why choose Autoprinter over Printout Designer

  • No print service in between. Autoprinter's own Desktop Utility does the printing, so there is no PrintNode client to run alongside it.
  • Zero-click shipping labels. Buy a label in Shopify as usual and it comes out of your label printer, with no print dialog.
  • Every document an order needs, together. The Print Chain prints each order's packing slip, invoice, return slip or gift receipt in one go: automatically, or from the order's More actions menu with Auto Print Chain.
  • Know when printing stops. Autoprinter warns you when a Print Station stops picking up jobs, and a Shopify Flow trigger can run when a Print Station goes offline.
  • Your brand, already filled in. Autoprinter picks up your Shopify logo and colors when you install it, and Re-sync from Shopify pulls in later changes.

At a glance

Printout Designer and Autoprinter compared, topic by topic
Topic Printout Designer Autoprinter
Works without a separate print service Partly Through PrintNode, whose client runs on a computer connected to your printer, or through Email to Print on printers that support it. Its published pages disagree on PrintNode availability by plan. Yes Autoprinter's own Desktop Utility prints each document; no separate print-service account.
Shipping labels Not described Not carrier labels. Its shipping label templates print your store's own order and address data on label stock, and its product information page says it does not buy postage or create carrier labels with tracking numbers. Printing the labels you buy in Shopify is not described in its listing or documentation. Yes Zero-click. Buy a label in Shopify, click Print shipping label as usual, and it comes out of your label printer with no print dialog. Needs Google Chrome with the Autoprinter Chrome Extension; you keep buying labels in Shopify.
Print Chain Partly Each automation rule prints one template on one printer, with a number of copies, for the orders its conditions match. Yes Every document an order needs prints together, each on its own printer: automatically, or from the order's More actions menu with Auto Print Chain.
Print history and alerts Partly Each order's history shows whether a print job was sent to PrintNode, with the PrintNode job ID; whether it printed is checked in the PrintNode client. Its help center notes that PrintNode's Done status means the job reached your computer, not that it was physically printed. Alerts when printing fails or a computer goes offline are not described in its listing or documentation. Yes Know when printing stops. Print History lists the documents queued for your Print Stations, with each job's status. Autoprinter warns you when a Print Station stops picking up jobs, and a Shopify Flow trigger can run when a Print Station goes offline.
Automatic printing Yes Through PrintNode, or through Email to Print on printers that support it. A print rule runs when an order is created, paid, fulfilled or refunded, with conditions, an optional delay of up to 15 minutes, and once per order. Yes When an order is placed, paid or fulfilled; you pick the trigger and turn it on in Settings. Shopify Flow can print on other order events, such as a cancellation.
Printers and paper sizes Any printer PrintNode supports, chosen per rule, with a default printer in its settings, or a printer that accepts email. Page size is set in its editor, from A4 and Letter to a till roll or a label format, with ready-made Avery and DYMO label formats. 4 × 6 labels are not described. Every document comes out of the right printer. Each template has a paper size, and the paper size picks the printer, so sheets, 4 × 6 labels and receipts each go to their own. Paper sizes are Letter, A4, 4 × 6 in thermal labels, and 80 mm or 58 mm receipt rolls. Pair a Print Station on each computer, and Print Rules send each document to the right one.
Choosing a document per order Yes Each automation rule prints its own template, and conditions such as order value, shipping method or location decide which orders it matches. When you print by hand, you pick the template. Yes Print Rules choose which template prints, and on which Print Station, for each order. A rule can match more than 15 order details, such as sales channel, tags, SKU, product collection, fulfillment location, ship-to country and order total.
Templates A drag-and-drop editor with live preview and its own expression language for conditions and calculations, not HTML or Liquid. Unlimited templates, ready-made templates to start from, and barcodes, QR codes, images, tables and metafields. No code needed. Built-in templates you adjust with switches and drop-downs, plus 30+ sample templates. Custom templates in HTML and CSS with Handlebars-style variables. No limit on the number of templates, on any plan.
Documents Invoices, packing slips, pick lists, product barcode labels, shipping labels, sales, POS and customer receipts, refund notes and product showcase cards. Packing slips, invoices, pick slips, return slips and gift receipts. Sample templates add sales receipts, kitchen tickets and pickup slips.
Document languages Yes Built-in field labels in English, German, French and Turkish; text you write yourself stays exactly as written. Yes Six languages built in. Built-in templates print in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch or Italian and lay out addresses for each destination country. Dates and prices follow the region you choose on every template. The app's own screens are in English.
Bulk printing Yes Select several orders and print, download or email their documents together, and a combined template puts several orders in one document. Batch size is not described. Yes Select orders in the Shopify orders list and send their documents to your printers, or open one combined preview and print it from your browser. A pick slip covers up to 50 orders.
Shopify Flow and Sidekick Not described Not described in its listing or documentation. Yes Works with both. Six Flow actions print an order's Print Chain, packing slip, invoice, return slip or gift receipt, or one pick list for your open orders. Four Flow triggers run when a document prints, a print fails, a Print Station goes offline or you near your monthly order limit. Sidekick answers questions about your order allowance, your printers and what printed.
Orders split across locations Not described Rule conditions can test an order's location. Splitting one order's documents by fulfillment location is not described in its listing or documentation. Yes One packing slip per location. An order split across fulfillment locations gets a packing slip for each location, listing only that location's items, or one set for the whole order if you pack in one place.
Shopify POS A POS Receipt template sized for till rolls. Whether Shopify POS orders start its automation rules is not described in its listing or documentation. In-store POS sales print automatically on a Windows or macOS computer at the store (not on the POS device, phone or tablet), for example a kitchen ticket on a receipt printer, with each location's tickets sent to that location's printer. Automatic printing can skip them instead.
Printing documents yourself Yes Preview, print, email or download each document as a PDF. Yes Printing from your browser needs nothing installed: open an order, choose Print → Autoprinter, pick a document, and print the preview like any web page.

"Not described" means Printout Designer's App Store listing and documentation, cited below, don't mention it. It is not a statement that Printout Designer can't do it. Every other Printout Designer fact comes from those pages.

When Printout Designer is enough

  • You want to lay out documents freely in a drag-and-drop editor, on any page size, with unlimited templates.
  • You print product barcode labels on Avery sheets or DYMO rolls from the same app.
  • You already run PrintNode and want rules with a delay, a number of copies or a refunded-order trigger.
  • You also sell on BigCommerce, Ecwid or WooCommerce and want the same templates there.

When Autoprinter fits better

  • You want printing through Autoprinter's Desktop Utility without a separate print service.
  • You buy shipping labels in Shopify and want them to come out of your label printer with zero clicks.
  • You print on more than one kind of paper, or from more than one computer. Sheets, 4 × 6 labels and receipt rolls each go to their own printer.
  • You want to know when printing stops: Autoprinter warns you when a Print Station stops picking up jobs.
  • You'd rather start from ready-made documents. Built-in templates are set up with switches, print in six languages, and Print Rules can choose a different template for each order.

Autoprinter and Printout Designer: common questions

Autoprinter works with the printers your Windows or macOS computer already uses, and every feature is on every plan, including Free.

  1. Do I need PrintNode to auto-print Shopify orders?

    Not with Autoprinter: it prints through its own Desktop Utility on your Windows or macOS computer, so you don't need an account with a separate print service. Printout Designer prints through PrintNode, with the PrintNode client on a computer connected to your printer, or emails documents to a printer that supports Email to Print. Its published pages disagree on which plans include PrintNode.

  2. Can Printout Designer print the shipping labels I buy in Shopify?

    Not described in its listing or documentation. Its shipping label templates print your own order and address data on label stock, and its product information page says it doesn't create carrier labels with tracking numbers. Autoprinter prints the shipping labels you buy in Shopify with zero clicks: click Print shipping label as usual and the label comes out of your label printer. You keep buying labels in Shopify at Shopify Shipping rates; Autoprinter doesn't sell labels, and label capture works in Google Chrome on a computer.

  3. What do I need to install to use Autoprinter?

    Install the Autoprinter Desktop Utility on a Windows or macOS computer to print straight to your printers, automatically or in bulk. It prints to any printer that computer can already print to; keep it awake while you print. Shipping labels also use the Autoprinter Chrome Extension in Google Chrome. Printing from your browser needs nothing installed.

  4. Is Autoprinter free?

    Yes, for up to 50 orders a month sent to your printers, with every feature and no card needed. Printing from your browser never counts. Paid plans start at $10 a month for 500 orders.

  5. Can different documents go to different printers?

    Yes. Each template has a paper size: Letter, A4, 4 × 6 inch thermal labels, or 80 mm or 58 mm receipt rolls. The paper size decides which printer gets the document, so sheets, labels and receipts each come out of their own printer.

  6. How do I know if Autoprinter stops printing?

    Print History lists the documents queued for your Print Stations, with each job's status. Autoprinter warns you when a Print Station stops picking up jobs, and a Shopify Flow trigger can run when a Print Station goes offline.

See every Autoprinter comparison, or how to auto-print Shopify orders.

Sources

Facts as of October 25, 2026. Printout Designer details come from these pages, all checked October 25, 2026:

  • Printout Designer on the Shopify App Store: apps.shopify.com/printout-designer
  • Printout Designer's product information page: printoutdesigner.com/ai-info
  • Printout Designer help center: printoutdesigner.com/frequently-asked-questions
  • Printout Designer pricing, features and Shopify templates pages: printoutdesigner.com/pricing, printoutdesigner.com/features and printoutdesigner.com/templates-shopify

Autoprinter details come from the Autoprinter help center. Printout Designer is an app by Actual Reports OÜ. PrintNode is a separate print service. Shopify is a trademark of Shopify Inc.

Try it

Try Autoprinter free.

Free for 50 orders a month, with every feature. No card needed.

Install Autoprinter from the Shopify App Store Read the help center