Two different technologies
Flexographic printing uses a flexible photopolymer plate mounted on a rotating cylinder, rolled through ink and pressed onto the substrate. Digital printing, or direct-to-substrate digital, sprays ink precisely where the image data says to, with no plate at all.
That single mechanical difference explains almost every practical difference between them: plate cost and setup time on one side, colour fidelity and print speed on the other.
Flexo in practice
Flexo is the industrial default for non-woven packaging. A plate set for a four-colour job on a typical non-woven bag costs a meaningful fraction of the total order value, and setting it up takes time. But once the plates are on the cylinder, the press runs at high speed and the per-unit ink cost approaches zero as the run length grows.
Modern flexo on non-woven substrate delivers excellent Pantone matching, good coverage on 60–80 GSM fabric, and consistent print from the first bag to the last. For a supermarket chain ordering 500,000 bags a year, flexo is unambiguously the right answer.
Digital in practice
Digital printing removes the plate entirely, so setup cost collapses to near zero. That makes it extremely attractive for short runs, for test batches, and — importantly — for the prototype stage. When a buyer wants to approve a colour before committing to a large production run, a digitally printed strike-off is the fastest way to get there.
Digital also handles complex artwork — gradients, photographic imagery, variable data — that flexo reproduces less predictably.
The trade-offs are throughput and cost at volume. Digital is slower per metre, and the ink cost per unit does not fall away with run length the way flexo's does.
The break-even arithmetic
The practical rule we give buyers is this: below roughly 2,000 units per design, digital usually wins on total cost including setup. Between 2,000 and 5,000, it depends on colour count — more colours favour digital because each additional flexo colour needs its own plate.
Above about 5,000 units per design, flexo is normally cheaper per unit and the gap widens as the run grows.
This is why our sample programme is digital. When you order a ten-bag sample, paying for a set of flexo plates for a design you have not yet approved would be absurd. We flexo the production run and digitally print the proof.
Colour count changes the answer
One colour is a straightforward comparison. Four colours is not, because flexo plate cost scales with the number of colours while digital's marginal cost per colour is far lower.
If your artwork needs six or more colours, or if each bag in the run is different, digital deserves a fresh comparison against the quote you have. Ask for both and compare the delivered cost, not the setup cost.