commonsku is the serious system for promotional products distributors. If you source from suppliers, build presentations from ESP and SAGE catalogues, and route electronic POs through PromoStandards, it does things no general shop management tool does.
It is also priced for distributors, not for shops. That is the whole comparison.
What commonsku actually costs
commonsku publishes per-user pricing with seat minimums. As of September 2026:
- Essentials — $129 USD per user per month, minimum 2 users. A floor of $258 per month before you have done anything.
- Advanced — $159 USD per user per month, minimum 3 users. A floor of $477 per month.
- Shop transaction fees on top, tiered by lifetime sales per Shop: 2.5% on the first $25,000, 2% from $25,000–$50,000, 1.5% from $50,000–$100,000, then 1% above $100,000. Shopify-connected shops are charged a flat 1% on all orders.
Paying annually earns a 10% discount, though shop fees are excluded from it. Everyone in your company must be on the same package. You can add users mid-contract but you cannot reduce your seat count or downgrade tiers until renewal.
For a two-person engraving shop, the entry price is over $3,000 a year plus a cut of storefront sales. For a solo operator, the two-seat minimum means paying for a colleague who does not exist.
Quick comparison
| fulflo | commonsku | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Small shops that decorate in-house | Promotional products distributors |
| Entry price | $39/mo, one user or twenty | $258/mo floor (2 × $129) |
| Seat minimum | None | 2 users (Essentials), 3 (Advanced) |
| Per-seat charges | None | Priced entirely per user |
| Transaction fee | 1% on card sales, falling to 0.4% then 0% by tier | 2.5% tapering to 1%; flat 1% on Shopify shops |
| Contract flexibility | Monthly | No mid-contract downgrade or seat reduction |
| Supplier catalogue search (ESP, SAGE) | Not available | Built in |
| PromoStandards / electronic POs to suppliers | Not available | Connected suppliers, live inventory |
| Inbound PO import from email | Forward a PO, it becomes a job | Supplier-side ePO, not inbound parsing |
| Free trial | 7 days, no card | Not offered |
Where commonsku is genuinely stronger
If any of the following describe you, commonsku is probably the right tool and fulflo is not a substitute:
- You source rather than produce. commonsku searches ESP, SAGE and DistributorCentral catalogues inside the workflow and pulls products straight into presentations. fulflo has no supplier catalogue integration at all.
- You send electronic POs to suppliers. Through PromoStandards, connected suppliers give live inventory, order status and shipment notifications. This is a genuine moat and it is not something a small competitor replicates quickly.
- You want the distributor community. Roughly 950 distributor customers, plus events, education and a peer network. For a growing distributor that access has real value beyond the software.
- You are already over $1M and multi-seat. At that size the per-user maths stops being the deciding factor and the depth wins.
Where fulflo fits instead
The shop that makes the thing
fulflo is built for the business that owns the laser, the DTF printer, the embroidery machine or the press — not the distributor that brokers the order. If your margin comes from production rather than sourcing, the supplier catalogue features you are paying for in commonsku are features you will never open.
One price, whole team
$39, $79 or $149 a month with your team included at every tier. A second sales person, a production lead and a part-time bookkeeper cost the same as running solo. Customer portal users are unlimited and also free.
On fees, the direction of travel matters. commonsku’s shop fee starts at 2.5% and only tapers to 1% once a shop passes $100,000 in lifetime sales. fulflo’s card fee starts at 1% on Starter, drops to 0.4% on Pro and reaches 0% on Studio — and invoices paid by ACH or check carry no platform fee at all, which covers most distributor work.
Purchase orders in, jobs out
Forward a PO to your fulflo inbound address and it becomes a job with line items, quantities and dates already filled in. It handles PDF purchase orders and image-only scans. If you are the decorator receiving POs from distributors — including, quite possibly, from commonsku users — this is the workflow that matters to you.
Your own Stripe, your own money
Payments run through your own Stripe connected account via Stripe Connect. You keep the processing relationship and there is no per-shop sales tier working against you as your storefront grows.
The honest framing
commonsku and fulflo are not really fighting over the same customer. commonsku serves established distributors; a large share of their customers send purchase orders to shops like yours. fulflo exists because the shops on the receiving end of those POs were priced out of every system in this category and ended up running on spreadsheets and QuickBooks instead.
Which one should you pick?
Choose commonsku if you are a promotional products distributor, sourcing and supplier integration are core to how you make money, and you have the team size and revenue to absorb per-seat pricing.
Choose fulflo if you produce in-house, you are solo or a small team, you want your whole team and all your customers included in one flat price, and you would rather not commit to a contract you cannot downsize until renewal.
Common questions
Is fulflo a cheaper commonsku?
No — it is a different product for a different business. fulflo does not do supplier catalogue sourcing or PromoStandards ePOs, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. It covers quoting, jobs, proofs, invoicing, payments, a storefront and a customer portal for shops that make the goods themselves.
Does commonsku have a free trial?
Not according to their published plan data. fulflo has a seven-day free trial with full access and no card required.
Can I use fulflo alongside commonsku?
Some shops do exactly that during a transition, since fulflo imports customers, jobs, invoices, quotes and products from CSV. Running both permanently is usually a sign that one of them is not earning its keep.
What if I grow past a small shop?
fulflo's pricing does not penalise headcount, so growing the team does not change the bill. If you grow into a sourcing-led distributor, commonsku's supplier network becomes the reason to move, and that is a fair reason.