Silkscreen wins for cotton apparel runs of 250+ units with 1-3 spot colors. Wash durability 50+ cycles, lowest cost-per-unit at scale, best Pantone match (Delta-E ≤ 2.0 on white substrate). Setup cost: $50-150 per screen.
DTG wins for runs of 1-50 units with photo-quality full-CMYK designs. No setup cost, MOQ 1+. Per-unit cost flat across volumes (no scaling benefit). Wash durability 30-50 cycles.
Break-even: ~150 units. Below 150 → DTG; above 150 → silkscreen.
Use cases. Silkscreen: large welcome kit (500+ T-shirts), trade show swag (1000+ promo). DTG: small custom team batch, photo-realistic prints, on-demand single-units.
Limitations. Silkscreen: max 4 colors cost-effectively, requires cotton. DTG: requires cotton or treated cotton (synthetics need pretreatment), expensive at scale.
Decision matrix: Quantity matters most. Silkscreen if >150 units AND ≤4 colors. DTG if <150 OR full-CMYK photo realism.