Every supplier says their favoured process is best. This is the comparison including where each one loses.
Sublimation. Ink bonded into polyester fibre. Cannot crack, peel or be felt. Unlimited colours at no extra cost and full all-over coverage. Loses on: needs 65%+ polyester, cannot print white on dark cloth, and wants a smooth face to hold detail.
Screen print. Pigment sits on top of the cloth. Excellent on cotton, cheap at volume, prints opaque white on any colour. Loses on: plastisol cracks along folds after a season of wear-and-wash, and each colour is a separate screen and setup, so a six-colour logo on 40 shirts is a bad idea.
Puff print. Screen print that foams raised. Reads premium on hoodies and letterman jackets for one extra pass. Loses on: detail under about 12 mm letter height turns to mush, and abrasion-heavy areas flatten it early.
Embroidery. Thread through the fabric; the only method that looks better after three years. Loses on: small text is illegible below ~7 mm, it needs stabiliser that can stiffen a light jersey, and heavy stitch counts pucker stretch cloth.
Our wash test. On 160 gsm interlock, 30 cycles at 40°C: sublimation held grey-scale grade 4–5; water-based screen print grade 4; plastisol was visibly crazed at the seams by cycle 22; embroidery kept its colour but showed board distortion where we under-used backing.
The rule of thumb we give every buyer. All-over colour → sublimation. Cotton retail tee → screen print. Crest on a heavyweight hoodie or jacket → embroidery. Chenille on a varsity jacket → chenille, and nothing else.
