Startup Cost Comparison: Traditional Private Label vs PLDS
How much cash does your first 90 days actually demand? Compare a traditional private label run against private label drop shipping — same products, very different bank balance.
What counts as first-90-days cash
We count money you must commit before and during your first three months: inventory you’re required to buy up front, one-time label and setup charges, and recurring platform or storage fees. We don’t count ad spend, your website, or product samples — you’d pay those on either path, so they cancel out. This is a cash-at-risk comparison, not a total-cost-of-everything number.
Compare your launch
This interactive comparison needs JavaScript. The methodology below shows every assumption and the real plan pricing it uses — or see plans and pricing directly.
Methodology — every assumption, in the open
Traditional private label side (industry-typical assumptions)
These are assumptions, clearly labeled as such — typical figures for a first contract-manufacturing run, not quotes from any specific manufacturer. Your quotes may be higher or lower.
- Inventory minimum: 500 units per SKU (a common contract-manufacturing MOQ), priced at the average real unit cost of your chosen niche’s category in our catalog on the Free plan — so the product cost basis is identical on both sides.
- Label print setup: $350 per SKU, one time.
- Fulfillment setup + 3 months storage: $500 flat.
- Total: inventory + label setup + fulfillment setup.
Rocktomic side (real published pricing)
No assumptions here — these numbers come straight from our pricing data:
- Membership: 3 months of the cheapest plan whose product limit fits your SKU count. For a lineup the Free plan covers, that means a $0 membership — you still pay per-unit costs, fulfillment, and processing when you sell.
- Inventory: $0 — products ship per order from in-stock inventory, no stock to buy.
- Label setup: $0 — label printing and application are included in the per-order fulfillment fee, which you pay only when a customer has already paid you.
| Plan | Price | Product limit | First 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | Up to 10 | 3 months = $0 |
| Scale | $297/mo | Up to 146 | 3 months = $891 |
Per-order costs (unit cost, fulfillment, payment processing) exist on the Rocktomic side too — but they happen after a sale, funded by the customer’s payment, so they aren’t cash you lock up ahead of revenue. Run the margin calculator to see those per-sale numbers.
Keep your cash. Launch anyway.
Start with zero inventory and your first product live in days — and put the difference into marketing instead.